Hollins University

Fall Festivities

Halloween!! My best friend, Michelle, and I in our costumes… My friends and I put off thinking about costumes until the day of the Halloween party in the Rat. When we realized that we had nothing better to do that night, we went to the mall and Target and spent the day ...

Senior Year Sweep

This time of the year tends to be the most exciting and the busiest. Two weeks ago, I visited Philadelphia with my friends Kara and Sam to meet the Art History Graduate Program faculty at Bryn Mawr College. I really loved the contrast of their stone campus to our brick ...

Venice!!!

We’re going to Venice this weekend! I know I’m REALLY behind as always, but I’m working on a theatre-themed one and the ancient famous picture one, a half term one and then a Beatles one will follow (hopefully this century!) Anyway…After that, Venice will follow. (Actually, probably half term and Venice ...

A Bipartisan Hollins Blog

It was only a week ago that our country elected a new president, and Hollins, just like any other school or community, was pumped full of excitement about the historical race. From the first day we arrived back on campus, there were conversations about everyone’s favorite candidates, opinions on ...

You’re thinking “FINALLY” right?

Actually, you’re probably not, but here’s my next blog. That one I’ve been promising you for an eternity is still in the works: not having the internet accessible to me at all times had made it slower in the making, mainly because all the pics are on a computer at Connaught ...

Tinker Day

President Nancy Gray officially declared October 22, 2008 Tinker Day! 6:15 am, seniors are running through the hallways banging pots and pans. One has a snare drum. I roll over and hide my face in my pillow. It is WAY too early to function, but then someone is yelling at our ...

Beginning of Dull Weather in Paris

Yes, that’s not a very exciting title for a blog entry. But unfortunately, the weather in Paris has now turned into gloomy, gray, and cold which means for this last part of my fall break, I have been staying mostly indoors with the few exceptions of café-sittings. The change in ...

Looking Forward

The weeks have been going fast here. The school is preparing for a big weekend. It is Family Weekend, we also have the Board of Trustees coming, and it is the kick off a campaign to raise money for new dorms. It will be very busy and I will be in ...

Writing Fun with NaNoWriMo!!

Tomorrow begins the month of November, which means it also marks the beginning of the National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo (as it’s known for short) is a challenge to write a 50,000-word (175-page) novel in 30 days. One of my closest friends, Gwen, has been writing for NaNoWriMo since 2006. ...

The Moving Trees of Tinker

The Moving Trees of Tinker 10/29/08 A few weeks ago a few girls and I began to notice that the fake trees the usually sat in the entrance of the Tinker dorm had been moving in varying places in Tinker. As these places became more and more outrageous the more girls ...

Tinker Day!

Tinker Day 10/29/08 TINKER DAY! At 6:28 am the shouts outside my door and the lovely percussion instrument could mean nothing else: It was Tinker Day, one of the several flourishing traditions at Hollins. I woke up, slowly, and put on my outfit- a large green shirt with a mosaic ...

Apologies

Apologies 10/29/08 Hello everybody! I would just like to give some insight to my lack of blogging lately; you see my computer has been having some issues lately. By issues I mean shutting off in the middle of work, something eating away at my c-drive, my internet not working, etc. ...

Fall Break In Paris

Currently, I’m on fall break- for over a week! Almost all of the other girls on the program are traveling but I have decided to stay in Paris and explore the city a bit more. But hey, I’ll be here next semester too…..so plenty of time to travel across Europe. ...

It’s Turkiye Time!!

I finally made it back to Turkiye. I’m sure a lot of people probably wonder why I spell it that way. Well, it’s because it is the proper way to spell it! When you say Turkey, inevitably you get a joke about the Thanksgiving bird, so to avoid that I ...

Pre-Fall Break

Wow. So much has happened. :] October 4th, most of the freshman seminar classes went on a field trip to Washington, D.C. We drove up and had a couple hours to wander around the mall, so a friend of mine and I decided to check out the aquarium. It was underwhelming ...

Tinker Day

Wow. The end of October is closing in, and I have no idea how it got here so fast. October started off very stressful. I had my GRE and my submission for the Southeastern Psychological Association Convention due on the same day. My SEPA submission included turning my 30-page ...

Half Term!

Hi, everyone! Sorry I didn’t get anything up sooner! I actually was going mad trying to get pictures resized for here and then have had so much midterm work and insanity booking tickets that I haven’t been able to write anything. (Actually, i wrote all the picture captions, but ...

Eagerly awaiting Tinker Day…

Tuesday, October 21, 2008 7:56 PM Hey ya’ll! The fall semester is now about halfway through. Last weekend was Fall Break, so I went home and spent the long weekend with my parents. It was wonderful to have a few days off to catch up on sleep, spend quality ...

Where does time go?

I guess when you are in Greece you squander time away taking bus trips to the Temple of Poseidon, traipsing around the Peloponnese, eating gyros and souvlaki, wandering around the ancient agora and Acropolis, shopping in Monastiraki, wondering when the next transportation strike will be, eating tons of sweets on ...

Washington D.C.

When I came to college, I didn’t think that I’d be going on any “field trips.” That just sounded so…high school. But on Saturday, October the 4th, the freshman and their SSL leaders loaded up the tour buses and headed up to Washington D.C. for our seminar classes. My ...

Olympiad

On October 3, SHARE hosted the Olympiad to raise money for the soup kitchen. There were several teams competing, including the one I was a part of: Team Shake and Bake. The activities of the day included dizzy bat, the 3 legged race, water balloon toss, musical chairs, lip-syncing, ...

Living In Paris

First of all, my apologies for the lateness of the pictures and the second entry. There have been some technical problems, mostly due to my lack of experience in handling blogs. But yes, I have been in Paris for over about a month now and so far it has been a ...

Getting Settled In Paris

September 22, 2008 To start off with my first post ever on the blog, I would like to say I am finally getting settled in Paris! The past two weeks have been absolutely amazing. I arrived in Paris on September 4th and hopped onto a bus to Normandy for orientation. For ...

Fall Break

Fall Break couldn’t have come at a better time! I think everyone needed that bit of break to catch up on work or sleep! I know that I did. I decided to remain on campus and study for the GRE (yes, I’m taking it again!) while researching for my senior ...

To be or not to be… in theatre.

Despite the fact that she’s not a theatre major or minor, my friend Idara has been very involved in the theatre department since she arrived here at Hollins. In the three years I’ve been at Hollins, HU Theatre has produced the musicals Cabaret, Into the Woods and Caroline or ...

Being in London (on the Hollins Programme–yes, it’s spelled like that)

I’m sorry that I still have no pictures for you! Particularly because I’ve taken SO many and I want you to see some of them!!! (Particularly of Maggie and me crossing Abbey Road–anyone who knows me will understand why! :0).) Unfortunately, the technology gods still have not deemed me ...

Settling In

I feel like I have been at Hollins forever. The calendar says it has only been a month, but I’m not sure if I believe it. My roommate and I have spent the past couple of weeks making our room as homey as possible. Last Monday, we decided to take ...

Fall Classes Rock!

What an awesome semester! Hard to believe we’ve only been in school for about a month. It seems like longer than that; I’ve already had so many great experiences! Classes this fall are going really well. I’m taking six classes, three of which apply to my major/minor and ...

Staying Busy!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been at Hollins for almost a month. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. There has been so much to do here, between classes, clubs, friends, and homework, that I feel like the day is over before I can even blink. My classes ...

Settling In

Settling In 09/28/08 It has been one whole month since I have moved to Roanoke, Virginia to attend Hollins University. In that month I have been through orientation, made friends, wrote papers, been sick, and gone on adventures. It seems crazy that it has only been a month yet at ...

Only at Hollins…

Only at Hollins can a student’s Friday contain such a diverse schedule of events: From 11:30-1:00PM: I had lunch in Moody with my friends Grace, Janna and Margaret, where we talked about everything from what we were going to do when we graduate, what we were going to do that weekend, ...

September Fun!

This month has been crazy busy. I have had non-stop days filled with meetings, classes, and work. Then the weekends have been filled with travel and more meetings and homework My senior year is off at a sprint and I hope I can keep up. I am the Honor ...

Transition

The great thing about being a senior is that you realize your whole life is ahead of you. The worst thing about being a senior is that you have to worry about stepping (or leaping) into the real world either by getting a job or continuing your education through graduate ...

Doing the tourist thing while being a local

It is different to be in a foreign country and not be a tourist. During my daily tasks I rarely hear anyone speaking English outside of my fellow students and the staff at Arcadia Center. Most of the stores I shop or cafes I eat in have no English speaking ...

First Week Mishaps

Hello everyone! Greetings from London!!!!!!!!!! We (Kat, Ally, Maggie, Tahrin, Rachel, Cameron, and I) have all been here for a little over a week now, and so much has happened it’s hard to believe we’ve only been here for such a short time. In this blog I’m going to list ...

After a weekend on a Greek island it’s down to business

Yasus!! A weekend on a Greek island! Who wouldn’t want to spend a weekend on a Greek island? Friday we took the ferry to the island of Kea, which is about an hour away from the mainland. What a difference from Athens! Much quieter and we had AC in our hotel ...

The Beginning…

I live 1100.59 miles away from Hollins. 16 hours and 56 minutes by car. I knew that in choosing Hollins, I was giving up the choice to go home whenever I felt homesick… The official move-in day was Thursday, August 28, and the weekend that followed was full of orientation activities. ...

Getting There

We have been in London for almost a week now! Coming soon: mishaps, confusion, and near deportation and Typical London “field trips” <3 <3 <3

Daily life in Athens

I thought I’d share a bit about my living accommodations here since it is a daily part of my life. By American standards our apartments would be considered rather shabby I would guess. It is in an older building and what some would call “sketchy.” I don’t feel unsafe though. ...

A rather oddly typical dinner…

As I approached the dinner table last night, my friend Kate turned to me and asked “Do you know Ty?” For a moment, I was taken completely aback as the only people I know named Ty are a relative of mine (who Kate certainly doesn’t know) and the ruggedly attractive carpenter/host ...

Finally! Athens!

Before I get started blogging about my adventures in Athens, let me say a bit about why I’m here at all. Here, as in Athens, not here on the planet. About 3 years ago my husband and I relocated to Virginia from Florida. My children were grown and were either ...

How?

As you can tell from the title of this blog, this past summer was a reflective one. I had many questions and very few answers. I helped dispel the silence of questions going unanswered, by surrounding myself with people. I spent most of the summer with family and friends. ...

Senior Year Begins!!

Being a senior at Hollins is a big deal. I mean, REALLY BIG. And it’s not just because we’ve made it through three years of classes or because we are the oldest and most experienced class on campus. It’s because the Hollins senior class is the keeper of traditions- ...

Back to School!

Hello Everyone!!! It’s that time of the year again; time to begin new classes and new journeys as we make our way towards the real world. After my Junior year abroad, studying in Florence, Italy, it’s nice to be back home. Hollins has once again made me feel like I ...

On My Way

On My Way 08/27/08 Two time zone changes, three long car rides, and four days later, I find myself on the last leg of my journey- in Lexington, Kentucky only 5 hours away from Roanoke where my real journey will begin. As we drove out of Missouri- the farthest east I ...

Pre-college

When I entered high school in 8th grade, college seemed like a distant obstacle. I didn’t think that I would need to start preparing for it that early, but I did anyway. The years flew by and suddenly I was applying for colleges and ...

Getting Ready

Getting Ready 07/21/08 A month ago, this seemed ages away- like some far away dream that was a someday, one day, off in the distance, type of deal. But as the days have passed, each day bringing more news such as school e-mail, and this wonderful bloggers application, or even the ...

15 days until I leave for Athens!

Wow, summer really slipped by so quickly! As I said in my last post I am both excited and nervous about the whole adventure. At least my hubby and I were able to take some time out and get away last week. Since we won’t see each other while I’m ...

Here it is, summer is almost gone!

I just can’t quite believe it is already August and that summer is slipping away. I haven’t even taken my vacation yet! Thank goodness plans are secure for a week at a beautiful bed and breakfast on the upper peninsula of Michigan next week. Yet I keep thinking, once ...

The semester is over…

My semester abroad with the Hollins-Paris program is officially over. It has been an amazing experience, and one of the most memorable semesters of my academic career. As a bit of a farewell, I wanted to post a few more pictures that highlight moments throughout the semester. Chateau Chambord ...

End of the school year blues…

It has been incredibly busy these last few weeks. Before I knew it finals were here and gone. At the end of April, the softball club went to a tournament. It went well for our first tournament. I was elected as president and am now looking for a league for ...

Back from Spring Break

Over a week has passed since I have returned from spring break. I was able to relax and do some traveling during the time off and appreciated the temporary break from academics. During my travels to other European countries I was still able to utilize my French, and was surprised ...

Here I am, at the end of another semester!

I have been wanting to post my first entry for a while, but this semester just seemed to swallow every bit of time I had. I don’t think I will take 22 credits again (famous last words)! I have to say my journey at Hollins has been a fabulous one ...

The Twenty-First Century meets The Roarin’ Twenties

Cotillion was Friday, and it was absolutely gorgeous! The theme was “The Roaring Twenties,” and it was held on campus, on the lawn of the university chapel. Jillian Walker, the HAB Formal Events Chair, did an amazing job coordinating Cotillion! A big white canopy, a hard wood ...

The Best Hollins Event of All Time

The events that get the best attendance at Hollins are our two formal dances: Fall Formal and Spring Cotillion. I think people are more inclined to go to these events because 1) you have an excuse to buy a cute dress/ pants outfit and get gussied up, 2) ...

Hollins Music on Front Quad

Front Quad Concert is an annual event that celebrates the Hollins University Concert Choir’s repertoire for the year. In past years, the concert consisted of about forty minutes of the choir singing; while the Hollins community sat outside on blankets and chairs and was served free ice cream. ...

Spring Cotillion

This past Friday was Hollins’ Spring Cotillion and it was wonderful! I think it was the best dance I have been to. There was great music, great food, and a ton of dancing! There was a fantastic DJ who played all sorts of music, not just one genre. It was ...

End of April and on to May and final exams!

So now April has ended and were on to May. We have two more days of classes and then finals! I cannot believe this year is already over. This semester has just flown by so fast! I only have one final this semester so I’m very excited about that. All ...

Finals

Hello again!! Finals is about two weeks away, and time seems like it won’t slow down. I wish I could just freeze time for a little while just to try and get some things done. Assignments just seem to pile on top of each other this time of year. The last ...

April Craziness

The year is drawing to a close, and activity on campus is picking up. In addition to exams and final papers, there have been lots of social and sister-bonding activities. Last weekend was Spring Ring Night, where Juniors earn their class rings by doing funny and silly stuff for their ...

April is here already…

April is already here and I can’t believe it! It has been so busy around here. There is something going on every night. Then there is always homework . I have been conducting a major research project with Dr. Bowers in the psych department. My research is going very ...

Spring Ring Night 2008

This past weekend was Spring Ring Night. Spring ring night is for juniors that were abroad in the fall. This way they can still get their baskets and have a great time running around campus looking silly. Some of my personal favorites from this semester’s ring ...

1,2,Ready… Play!

Friday morning at breakfast while I was eating my biscuits and gravy and studying my Latin flashcards, I was approached by my lovely first year-friend, Lianne. Lovely Lianne informed me that later that day she and some other piano students would be performing for a guest professor in a ...

Spring Time

Hi everyone! I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by! We have finals in a couple of weeks and then it will be summer! It does not seem real! Well, so far everything has been going well. I have been busy with homework, as is everyone else on campus. ...

Ready for Spring Break!

Spring break begins tomorrow. This week has been very busy with assignments and getting ready for the break. Students with the Hollins Paris program get two weeks for spring break to allow for traveling within Europe that students may not have the time to do otherwise. I am excited for ...

The break is over

Hello again! Well, it’s been about two weeks since our spring break. My friend and I basically traveled around Virginia. We stayed in Richmond, which is where she is from, for 3 days and then went to Newport News for a day. Then, we went to Manassas for a night and ...

Choir Tour!

This past weekend I was in Asheville, North Carolina for the Hollins University Concert Choir tour. We were there from Thursday night until Sunday morning, and even though I slept all day Sunday and have had two days to recuperate, I still haven’t caught up on my sleep. ...

The Olympic Torch and Provence

I cannot believe April is here already! Another exciting week has passed here in Paris. The relay of the Olympic torch for the 2008 summer Olympic Games reached Paris yesterday. The procession of the relay passed just two blocks from Reid Hall, the home of the Hollins Abroad program. The ...

End of March!

Alright, it’s been a week since spring break now. Everything is back up and running and class wise we jumped right back into things since we only have another 5 or 6 weeks left before finals! It’s really scary how fast this semester has flown by! It feels like ...

Paris!

Bonjour! I am well settled in now, and enjoying every minute here! I just got back from a weekend in Normandy that was organized by the Hollins Paris program. We visited Mont Saint Michel and the American cemetery. We made a visit to L’Abbaye aux Hommes in Caen, which is the final ...

Spring Break and April Fool’s

My spring break was a lot better than last year. Before I went on spring break, I went to my friend’s lacrosse game. Kyra is number 5. We didn’t win, but she did a great job. I started off spring break with a trip to Atlantic City, with my family, to celebrate my ...

Second half of the semester

Hey all! We’ve now been back at school one full week since spring break and classes are in full swing again. Less than six weeks till summer! My spring break was really awesome! I usually take breaks as a time to sleep and spend time ...

First Week of Spring

I really love spring at Hollins. I think years and years from now when I think fondly of my alma mater, I will always imagine it in spring: the flowers sprinkled all around campus are beginning to sprout, the trees are budding, the grass is deep green and thick, ...

Spring Break

Ok, so now we are half way through the spring semester and all is going well! I just finished one of my midterms last Wednesday and now it is Spring break. It’s really nice to be home again. It feels like it has been forever! I am really glad that ...

SEPA

March has been a very busy month. I went home at the end of February to work for the weekend, because my car has been acting up. Then the first weekend of March Ian came down because I wouldn’t be able to come home for my birthday. Then this past ...

Spring Term!!

Hey ya’ll, it has been a crazy semester already! For the first time, I’m taking seven courses in one semester. And absolutely loving them all. * Elementary Spanish (with Prof. Elda Stanco) – This is the second half of a class I took last semester. I really ...

The Beginning Of A New Year

Hello again, Well I’m about a month into the spring semester. Everything is going well, classes, work, and riding. I found out that I will be getting surgery on my shoulder in the summer. I tore a muscle and some ligaments. It’s all very exciting. So, classes have been interesting. The ...

The start of Spring Semester

Now we are well into the spring semester and classes are going pretty good for me. I was nervous at the beginning because they seemed very overwhelming and like there would be a lot to do. But now as the weeks are going by I am becoming much more comfortable ...

February Fun

Last week was very busy. I had the usual classes and meetings, but then I had a great weekend. I don’t have classes on Fridays so I have decided to volunteer at the Roanoke Valley Horse Rescue with my friend Steph. It is a lot of fun. They have horses, ...

JTerm

J-Term was very busy for me. After Christmas Ian and I moved my grandparents down to my Dad’s. We had just found out that my grandfather had cancer right before Christmas, so the move was made for better weather and making it easier for him to go to appointments. We ...

End of J-Term

Hi everyone! So, now our J-term has officially ended and we have a week in-between terms. My class went very well and I had a lot of fun with it! We just finished reading a survival guidebook about preparing yourself and living after the end of the world. It was ...

J-Term and the SNOW DAY!!!

Roanoke has had a very mild winter … that is until Mother Nature dumped six inches of snow last Thursday and we got an all-day Snow Day! All classes and most work-study offices were shut down. My friends and I decided to spend the day enjoying the ...

Turkey II

The academic term at the University of Plovdiv ended well, at least as far as I was concerned. The students in the modern American poetry class and in the modern American novel class completed their final papers. The students in the creative writing class submitted final portfolios. The poetry and ...

J-Term is coming to a close

Hello again, Well, J-Term is almost over, only about a week left. The class I’m taking is about snakes. It has been really awesome thus far. We just started our final projects. Two other girls and I are trying to find out if snakes recognize their handlers. Two of us are ...

J term!

Every holiday break from Hollins, I have found myself repeatedly explaining the mysterious and foreign concept of January Term to both my and my parents’ friends. Whenever I was asked what classes I was taking next or when I would be returning to school, my answers received quizzical stares ...

J-Term

Hello everyone! Now we are two weeks into J-Term. So far it has been great! I absolutely love only taking one class this whole month. I have so much more free time to hang out with people and do things that I normally don’t have any time for! The class I ...

Vienna and Greece

We have fallen a bit behind on our blog entries, so we will double up on this one and cover our trips to Vienna and to Thessaloniki, Greece. It’s not really doubling up since these two trips were both done during the Christmas break. We spent Christmas in Vienna and ...

Pogonip

Pogonip (PAH-guh-nip) For the past six days, Plovdiv has experienced unusually cold temperatures and snowy weather. Last winter, we have been told, there was no snow at all. This winter, however, the temperatures haven’t been above 18 degrees during the day. We refuse to think about how cold it is at ...

Travels with Frank and Pat

The Bulgaria American Studies Association (BASA) organizes an annual conference, this year at Sofia University. A number of the American Fulbright scholars and lecturers participated in the conference, which was held over the weekend on December 1st and 2nd. Diane and I arrived in Sofia via bus that Friday evening ...

Welcome to 2008!

Oh my gosh, the first half of my sophomore year is over! Wow. Only two and half more years. Some days, that seems like a really short amount of time. It’s gonna be an awesome 2.5 years, though! Shame on me for not writing in the past ...

The End of a Semester

Hey there!!! So ya’ll haven’t heard from me in quite some time, so sorry about that. My first semester of college has ended, and I am now in my first J-term!! How exciting! Well, my roommate is in New York City for the month, and therefore my room is very lonely! ...

Finals

December has gone fast!!! I had seven classes this semester. I had three finals, one critique, and one paper. My other two classes didn’t have finals. On top of that I had RA stuff, gift exchanges, and intern stuff. I am working on Sam Rasoul’s campaign for 2008. He is ...

Finals week…

This last week, I have had finals pretty much every day. I had one on Saturday, then two on Monday, and one Wednesday morning. Now it is Wednesday afternoon and I am completely done with my first semester here at Hollins. It feels wonderful to think…. I made it through ...

December…almost Christmas Break!!

This last Saturday night we went to Dickens of a Christmas in Downtown Roanoke. It was a great Christmas event that takes place in the market area. We heard carolers and went Christmas shopping for a bit. I was a lot of holiday fun! There were people everywhere dressed ...

Prague

The best way to start a Prague blog, enjoying the rhyme, is to show you a picture. Prague brings to mind wonderful architecture, art, music, food, and, of course, wonderful beer. The Czech Republic invented Pilsner. But here’s the picture, looking from the old town square side of the city ...

Hollins Visitor and Thanksgiving

Our first Hollins visitor actually came to visit from Paris. Joy Sparrowhawk, class of 2004, had been following our blog and e-mailed us about it. We suggested she come and see Bulgaria for herself if she could get some time off. She is working in Paris as a nanny. She ...

The Most Wonderful Time…. Of the Year!

I awoke to lofty, fat snow flakes tumbling quickly to the ground. I delighted in the fact they were sticking! A soft, quiet snow is the best way to end a semester. I still have a few more things to blog about before returning home for the holidays, but I just ...

Hoping this will post…

For some reason my last two posts haven’t showed up, but I thought I might try again. Lots has happened since Italy (a post that hasn’t worked yet, hopefully it’ll show up), and I’m in my last two weeks in London, yikes! It’s definitely a bitter-sweet feeling to be nearing ...

As November comes to an end….

Hey everyone! Today was the first day back from Thanksgiving break. I was really sad that the week off from school is over, but now I am excited to wrap up this last semester and finals. Flying back to California was long, but worth it. I got to see my ...