April Showers!

I hope everyone had a nice Spring Holiday. This is the first year in a while that Passover, Easter, and even Greek Easter have been during the same week!

The I.S. Club at Columbia last summer

I received an email last week from the International Studies Club asking for our votes for next year’s executive board and in the e-mail, a list of the nominees were included. It turns out that I had been nominated for President, Vice President, and Secretary without even knowing it! In the end I ended up winning the spot for Secretary which I’m really happy about because I’m not sure if I’m ready to handle some sort of Presidency yet. It should be a good way to get my foot in the door and maybe run for a higher spot next year!

And I have officially decided where I will be studying abroad. Next spring, I will be studying on campus in…..

... figure it out???

GREECE!

I found out that Marymount just recently accredited the American College of Thessaloniki (link to study abroad page website) as a sister school, which means that students are able to keep their financial aid and scholarship packages awarded to them at Marymount! Basically, you’re still going to pay Marymount to go to school, but instead of living in New York City, you take a flight to Greece and live in Thessaloniki, which is the 2^nd largest city in Greece and has a big student population. I’m really excited to be able to take advantage of this really great relationship that our college has with ACT. So maybe next year, I’ll be sending posts from Europe!

Every time I realize that there are only X amount of days left of school, I remember that I’m taking a class during the Summer I Session, which starts the week after the last week of spring semester. Ugh. Oh well. At least I will have Friday-Tuesday off before I have to come back to the city for my Wednesday/Friday “Tragedy & Religion” class. It’s going to count as one of the upper level courses of my general education requirements, and it goes well with my newly declared major: Philosophy and Religious Studies (w/ a Religion concentration). Is anyone else taking a class during the summer and staying in the city?

On another note, along with the new spring weather, I decided to have a new hair color. My mom and I picked out some boxes from the store and I planned to get a dark, mocha colored brown (first time being a brunette again after dying my hair red for 3 years!). However, after I got out of the shower, there was no doubting that my hair was BLACK. Haha, oh well. I’m sure it will wash out a little bit and hopefully lighten up from all the sun I’m planning on soaking up. What do you guys think? Can I pull it off or does it just look like a wig on my head???



Black Hair                        Red Hair                      Natural Hair 

Well, good luck everyone with these crazy days ahead of us in school! Any plans for end-of-semester celebrations?

So much for it being Spring... Or a break!

Well, I guess for Spring Break my body decided to take a break from being healthy as well. I’ve spent the entire time back at home in New Jersey on the couch. At least I had my mom to cook some real food for me and drive to the store to get medicine. It was also nice to see my puppy! She sat by me a lot of the time kissing me and taking care of me.

In other news, I got a job last week! I’m only working a couple of days a week right now because I’ve never had a job during school before, but so far, it’s really great! All of those days and weeks of sifting through Craigslist ads finally paid off in an interview. It’s pretty simple if you’re looking for a job somewhere in the city. You just go to Craigslist NY, choose the Part Time option and filter the results based on what neighborhoods/boroughs you’re willing to travel to or what kind of experience you have or are looking for (i.e. hospitality, retail, advertisement). Most of the time you just send over your resume, along with a brief explanation of why you want the job. Don't freak out about a resume if you don't have one yet - The Office of Career Services will sit down with you and go over all the things you should put down on your resume.

Anyway,  the place that I’m working at is called Café Charbonnel and Walker. It’s a small little dessert/coffee café on the 8^th floor of Saks 5^th Avenue that also sells chocolates. Everyone that I work with is super nice and the job isn't that difficult. We even get to try the chocolates so we know how to describe them to customers!


My boyfriend’s birthday is coming up next Friday on the 8^th and I’m planning a surprise birthday party for him with his friends at Medieval Times in NJ. I’m still not sure how we’re all going to get there/meet up but if you haven’t been before, I think it’s a really fun thing to do. There’s even a bus that leaves from Port Authority and drops you off two streets away from the castle, so it’s very possible to do from the city.

Has anyone else noticed that we have about 46 more days of school left???

When is Spring Break again?

Well, the Spring Semester has definitely been underway for some time now and I still can’t accept the fact that I have tons of homework to do :/ Maybe because I’m not entirely thrilled with my choice of classes. I’ve been thinking for some time about switching my major from International Studies to Religious Studies. I think that it’s really so important to be knowledgeable about different cultures and traditions. I could still possibly keep International Studies as a minor too. Luckily, the advisement center at Marymount is really helpful. I found out that they have a type of meeting that you can schedule to map out a 4 year plan of everything that you’ve done/should do for the rest of undergrad. It seems like a great way to map everything out and feel comfortable about the future.  So hopefully everything goes well with that meeting this week!

In other news, my boyfriend has been coming in from Rutgers University in New Jersey to come visit for the past couple of weekends and we came up with a new plan for having fun in the city!  We decided we wanted dumplings one afternoon and just took a train down to Chinatown to wander around for a couple of hours.  We got all different kinds of dumplings, had some green tea, and bought a weird scary fruit for the fun of it! 

We also went to the Upper West Side for coffee and people-watching and the Financial District to go to the Ace Hotel to escape the cold and my apartment (it’s a really chill hangout where people study, eat, and get the best coffee in the city). Venturing off into unknown parts of the city is pretty unpredictable and fun. I found this perfect map to really get an idea of where I’m going and what’s nearby:

Does anyone else have some city adventure experiences that were really amazing? Share it with me!

Stressed out?

Hey everyone. I’m not sure how many of you noticed how many of us were late with posting this week, but it generally means the same thing… WE ARE ALL DONE. Thanksgiving break always ends up being that much-needed rest that you are never ready to return from, because when you do start class again, it only means end-of-term papers, research, speeches (in my case) and exams.

Has anyone ever heard of a ‘reading period’ from his or her friends at other schools? It’s basically a period of time where all classes end and a few ‘reading days’ are given to students to study and write final papers. After that period, final exams are scheduled, and once you finish your last test, you leave for the semester. Sound nice? MMC offers a lot of support services during finals – free tutoring and extended library hours, to name a few – but no reading days…yet. In the true MMC spirit of independence and initiative, I’m starting a petition for a reading period here. Marymount really seems to care about what the students think --the administration has amended policies in the past because of student protest. (Did anyone notice that new freshman don’t have the Public Speaking requirement anymore? ) Keep your fingers crossed!

Other than school, I haven’t been doing much else. I’ve been pretty broke as of late and have been trying to stick to cheap/free activities. Last night, Amy and I went to the tree lighting at Stuyvesant Oval. There was free hot chocolate and apple cider and professional carolers. It was really nice and I can’t wait to head to Rockefeller this year. I usually wait to go when friends or family come to visit me.

I’ve also been basking in the Harry Potter marathon on ABC family and reading the books and still being excited after the 7^th movie just came out. I thought it was really good in comparison to some of the other movie versions that have been directed. What did everyone else think?

I’ve also recently become interested in the history of Christmas since I heard a theory about it being related to the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. I’ll let you know what I find out! Good luck with work, and help me wish for snow!

November.

Well, registration was not exactly optimal.  I would definitely advise all of you to spend time with your advisors and figure out schedule possibilities for your four years at Marymount. They’re so helpful and will give you the time and attention that most schools can’t give you.

Even having done this, the night before my priority registration, I panicked, planned, and drank a lot of coffee. Then I realized that I was ultimately fine. My four-year plan would work out, but my spring semester would be horrible.  Only 8 or 9 of my required classes are being offered this spring, and most of them fall on Tuesdays/Thursdays, so I had few options when creating a schedule. In the end, I came up with this:

Oh well. At least I’ll have plenty of room open for a job. Last year, I tried to get a hostess job at Alice’s Tea Cup and ever since then, that’s the only place I dream of working. So maybe I can try again for the spring since I’ll have so much time open (including my weekends).

Anyway, since there isn’t anything I can possibly do about the circumstance surrounding the spring, I’m trying to focus my time on Thanksgiving break. I love baking, and I usually take over the desserts for family gatherings. This year I’m spending the holiday with my dad— my parents are divorced and I alternate between the two of them every year.  

 Anyway, I’ve been searching for recipes and I can’t decide between these>>>

Peanut Butter Blondies

Mini Pecan Tarts

Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars

Pecan Pie Cookies

I’m thinking about the Apple Streusel Cheesecake Bars and maybe the Peanut Butter Cup Blondies for the kids. It doesn’t seem like Thanksgiving without Pecan pie though… Hmm. Well what do you think?

Toffee Cracker Candy

I’ll also have Thanksgiving with my boyfriend (his family celebrates Thanksgiving week, rather than Thanksgiving Day), and he specifically requested my toffee cracker candy (right). I also might have a small dinner with my mom. So there’s always room to try more than one thing.

Other than that, I can’t wait for the city to start looking like Christmas. It’s my favorite time of the year. I’ll have to go to FAO Schwartz, Rockefeller, Bloomingdales, Dylan’s Candy Bar, and LUSH for some winter bath accessories. Does anyone else know of anything cool going on in the city?

Ashley



The Stuyvesant Oval

Hey, everyone! I'm Ash and I am a sophomore at MMC. I just declared myself an International Relations major with a minor in French and Religious Studies. Whew! Last year, I lived at 55th, but now I live downtown in the East Village in an apartment complex called Stuy(vesant) Town. I absolutely love it there.

 

Southern Regional High School Class of '09

 I'm originally from Ocean County, NJ (and for those of you who aren't familiar with Joisey, that’s about 20 minutes away from where they shot "The Jersey Shore "). I grew up in the same town my whole life and went to a massive public school that actually has about 700 more kids than Marymount.
  
 My dream was always to go to college with my best friend, 

Best Friends since the 7th grade.

Amy, but we didn’t end up getting into the same schools. She goes to NYU now, and only lives a couple of blocks away from me this year in Union Square. We both like watching movies, doing homework (or in my case, procrastinating) in our favorite cafes, talking in parks, and taking 'subway-trips' around the city (our favorite areas are the Upper West Side and Chelsea). We've made a pact this year to experience as much of New York as we possibly can (and on a collegiate budget).

My freshman year was kind of a hard transition for me. I didn’t immediately love Marymount as much as my friends loved their schools. But since I’ve gotten more involved, I’ve already made up for the entire first year of school in two months; joining clubs (I’m in the International Studies Club, and was accepted into the Hunter Symphony), getting to know other students and teachers, and of course making the effort to engage in what the city has to offer and take advantage of it.

  

Fashion's Night Out at Sephora



 (I’ve already been to the San Gennaro Festival, Fashion’s Night Out, a Met exhibition opening and participated in an MP3 Experiment). I’m planning to document every exciting event this year to preserve the experience. So, let’s bring on YEAR TWO."
-Ash