Hi guys!
Sorry I have not posted in a few weeks! I have been so busy with school and all the stuff that is going on in my dorm. Let me start from the beginning. Although I can not tell you much about what has happened in the dorm for confidentiality purposes, I'll tell an overview of what has happened. My first weekend on duty I had to report that one of the girls had alcohol in her room on Friday night. Then Saturday we had a whole other alcohol related problem, with a girl who does not even live in my dorm and we now have a lovely puke stain on our first floor carpet. There have been a few other crazy things that happened but it (hopefully) has all been resolved.
In other news I've been doing well in school. Four week grades came out the other day and I am "satisfactory" in all of my classes (in other words I'm passing all my classes with at least a 70% or higher). I'd have to say my two favorite classes would have to be Design with Photoshop and Fundamentals of the Internet. In Photoshop we are learning how to do all these different ways to edit a picture, which I never thought I would be able to do. In one picture, I completely removed a girl off of a dock so it looked like there was just the dock, water, and the mountains. In my Fundamental of the Internet class I have started to make my first websites and soon I'll have it actually on the web so that will be on the web soon enough. My other classes are okay and I'm making it through them.
This past weekend I went into St. Louis to go see a comedian with one of my friends. It was the first time I've been to a comedy club and I pretty sure the first time I've seen a stand up comedy act. It was good. The opener was not that funny but the second and main guy were both very funny. The main guy was on Saturday Night Live last year, but apparently he was fired for not being funny enough. I thought he was very and we did get to take a picture with him at the end of the night, so that was really great.
I think that is all I have for you guys right now! I'll try and write more often, its just been a crazy past few weeks!
~Heather
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
And So Begins The Semester....
Hey guys!
Monday, August 25, I started my first semester of my sophomore year. That day I started off eating breakfast around 8:15 and my first class for Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, Fundamentals of the Internet, started at 9. From there I went to Oral Communication (speech class) at 10, then Basic Reporting at 11. After Basic Reporting I had a break until 2, when I went to my once a week class, Intro to Digital Cinema Arts until 4:30. When I finish that class I head back to the dorm and meet up with a few of the other RAs around 6/6:30 to head over to Evans. On Tuesdays and Thursday I don't have Design with Photoshop until 11 so I am able to sleep in and take my time in the mornings. then I have about 30 minutes after class to get lunch and then I have my World Lit class. The rest of the Tuesdays and Thursday are mine to do what ever I please. Wednesday was my first shift as an RA. I worked from 2 to 6 and then 10 to midnight. It was interesting being "on duty" for the first time. Luckily nothing serious happened, 5 girls locked themselves out of their rooms (freshmen...), but that's the only thing that happened
Last Thursday my polo team decided to have a meeting so we could meet our new coach and one of our new players. So far we have two new girls. They are sisters from Ohio, one is a freshmen and lives in my dorm, the other is a junior who just transferred here. Meeting our new coach was interesting. He is definitely going to be different from our last season, but I think it will be a good change and I think we might be more prepare when Nationals come along. I also thinking the team is going to have to do some changing because our coach is probably going to have more rules than previously. And it definitely seems like there will be punishment for rule breaking. We won't really know how the season is going to look like till we get to January, but by going to the boys' practices we will be able to predict what it will look like.
This past weekend was Labor Day weekend so more people than usual went home. Alyssa even went to Illinois to visit a family friend. So I was on my own for the weekend. I ended up meeting up with a few of the water polo girls and another friend and went to a men's rugby game, which was a lot of fun.
Saturday I was not suppose to work, but one of the other RAs didn't realize when she scheduled her weekend shift that she would be out of town this weekend. So I took her 4 hour shift. Saturday night my new RA friend Mikayla invited me to an MMA fight with her wrestling team. Although that is not something I'm really into I decided to go with her since I wasn't doing anything. It was actually very interesting and exciting. I had more fun than I thought I was going to and it was fun to get to know some of Mikayla's friends.
Sunday I thought was going to be a boring uneventful day, and boy I was wrong. Carrie and I went to brunch at Evans like a normal Sunday. When we sat down to eat someone called out her name. We realized it was a few of the guy RDs. We ended up sitting with them for brunch. One of the people we sat with was the RD from Cobbs (our brother dorm) and his ARD. So we ended up walking back to our dorm with them after a very interesting breakfast. Later that day Carrie informed me that we had been invited to Cobbs to watch movies. Emily, Carrie, and I made our way over. We ended up watching Peter Pan and the first part of The Sword in the Stone before going to dinner. At dinner we ended up meeting up with the RDs that we had breakfast with. After dinner we decided to go dorm hopping. We went to every dorm but 4. So I have now been in every dorm except 3 of them. Monday I got to visit with some of my guy friends that I hadn't really seen or talked to since last semester. It was great to catch up with them and see how their summers had gone.
It is only Wednesday and we have had a semi-exciting week. Tuesday night one of the desk sitters burnt her popcorn (and when I say burnt her popcorn I mean it was smoking in the microwave and she didn't even realize it). Luckily our brand new microwave is still okay to use! Sadly the whole dorm smelled like something was on fire and I had multiple girls worried that the girls in room 1 had left for the night with their flat irons still on and they had caught something on fire (ironically the girl was in her room and hadn't left since dinner). Today we had room checks, just because we have been here for two weeks so they should be settled in. We were really just checking for routers (they mess with the whole dorms wifi), cleanliness, and that there was not drugs or alcohol in the rooms. All the girls on my floor passed besides one room since it was a little to messy. I helped Katy on the third floor since I was on duty when she did her checks and needed a second person to go with her. On her floor we had an issue with girls not taking out their trash as well as leaving food out (it attracts bugs and that's not fun for everyone else). But we hit the jack pot for room checks. Because our dorm is not air conditioned we have allowed the girls to have free standing ACs (upwards of $300-400) but not window units. We have mentioned this to the girls multiple times because the window units are very dangerous if they fall out of the windows. They had a window unit and were not present when we did the room check so we confiscated it. While we finished up the girl came back to her room and was very upset. We had to explain what was wrong and that you could have the free standing unit but not a window unit (again) to her. She was very upset and quickly called mommy and daddy to complain to them. There is much more to her story but in the end she just complained (while desk sitting and other RAs were around) about how unfair us taking her (illegal) AC unit away. It was a new feeling today, so far I've been seen as a person to go to for help when they had questions and didn't know what they were suppose to be doing. But today I was seen as the enemy, taking their precious AC away. Honestly they can live without it. It is finally cooling off. Plus I and many others have obviously survived without one, so they can as well. Or they can go out and by a more expensive free standing AC.
So those are the only stories I have for now, but hopefully more to come soon!
~Heather
Monday, August 25, I started my first semester of my sophomore year. That day I started off eating breakfast around 8:15 and my first class for Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, Fundamentals of the Internet, started at 9. From there I went to Oral Communication (speech class) at 10, then Basic Reporting at 11. After Basic Reporting I had a break until 2, when I went to my once a week class, Intro to Digital Cinema Arts until 4:30. When I finish that class I head back to the dorm and meet up with a few of the other RAs around 6/6:30 to head over to Evans. On Tuesdays and Thursday I don't have Design with Photoshop until 11 so I am able to sleep in and take my time in the mornings. then I have about 30 minutes after class to get lunch and then I have my World Lit class. The rest of the Tuesdays and Thursday are mine to do what ever I please. Wednesday was my first shift as an RA. I worked from 2 to 6 and then 10 to midnight. It was interesting being "on duty" for the first time. Luckily nothing serious happened, 5 girls locked themselves out of their rooms (freshmen...), but that's the only thing that happened
Last Thursday my polo team decided to have a meeting so we could meet our new coach and one of our new players. So far we have two new girls. They are sisters from Ohio, one is a freshmen and lives in my dorm, the other is a junior who just transferred here. Meeting our new coach was interesting. He is definitely going to be different from our last season, but I think it will be a good change and I think we might be more prepare when Nationals come along. I also thinking the team is going to have to do some changing because our coach is probably going to have more rules than previously. And it definitely seems like there will be punishment for rule breaking. We won't really know how the season is going to look like till we get to January, but by going to the boys' practices we will be able to predict what it will look like.
This past weekend was Labor Day weekend so more people than usual went home. Alyssa even went to Illinois to visit a family friend. So I was on my own for the weekend. I ended up meeting up with a few of the water polo girls and another friend and went to a men's rugby game, which was a lot of fun.
Saturday I was not suppose to work, but one of the other RAs didn't realize when she scheduled her weekend shift that she would be out of town this weekend. So I took her 4 hour shift. Saturday night my new RA friend Mikayla invited me to an MMA fight with her wrestling team. Although that is not something I'm really into I decided to go with her since I wasn't doing anything. It was actually very interesting and exciting. I had more fun than I thought I was going to and it was fun to get to know some of Mikayla's friends.
Sunday I thought was going to be a boring uneventful day, and boy I was wrong. Carrie and I went to brunch at Evans like a normal Sunday. When we sat down to eat someone called out her name. We realized it was a few of the guy RDs. We ended up sitting with them for brunch. One of the people we sat with was the RD from Cobbs (our brother dorm) and his ARD. So we ended up walking back to our dorm with them after a very interesting breakfast. Later that day Carrie informed me that we had been invited to Cobbs to watch movies. Emily, Carrie, and I made our way over. We ended up watching Peter Pan and the first part of The Sword in the Stone before going to dinner. At dinner we ended up meeting up with the RDs that we had breakfast with. After dinner we decided to go dorm hopping. We went to every dorm but 4. So I have now been in every dorm except 3 of them. Monday I got to visit with some of my guy friends that I hadn't really seen or talked to since last semester. It was great to catch up with them and see how their summers had gone.
It is only Wednesday and we have had a semi-exciting week. Tuesday night one of the desk sitters burnt her popcorn (and when I say burnt her popcorn I mean it was smoking in the microwave and she didn't even realize it). Luckily our brand new microwave is still okay to use! Sadly the whole dorm smelled like something was on fire and I had multiple girls worried that the girls in room 1 had left for the night with their flat irons still on and they had caught something on fire (ironically the girl was in her room and hadn't left since dinner). Today we had room checks, just because we have been here for two weeks so they should be settled in. We were really just checking for routers (they mess with the whole dorms wifi), cleanliness, and that there was not drugs or alcohol in the rooms. All the girls on my floor passed besides one room since it was a little to messy. I helped Katy on the third floor since I was on duty when she did her checks and needed a second person to go with her. On her floor we had an issue with girls not taking out their trash as well as leaving food out (it attracts bugs and that's not fun for everyone else). But we hit the jack pot for room checks. Because our dorm is not air conditioned we have allowed the girls to have free standing ACs (upwards of $300-400) but not window units. We have mentioned this to the girls multiple times because the window units are very dangerous if they fall out of the windows. They had a window unit and were not present when we did the room check so we confiscated it. While we finished up the girl came back to her room and was very upset. We had to explain what was wrong and that you could have the free standing unit but not a window unit (again) to her. She was very upset and quickly called mommy and daddy to complain to them. There is much more to her story but in the end she just complained (while desk sitting and other RAs were around) about how unfair us taking her (illegal) AC unit away. It was a new feeling today, so far I've been seen as a person to go to for help when they had questions and didn't know what they were suppose to be doing. But today I was seen as the enemy, taking their precious AC away. Honestly they can live without it. It is finally cooling off. Plus I and many others have obviously survived without one, so they can as well. Or they can go out and by a more expensive free standing AC.
So those are the only stories I have for now, but hopefully more to come soon!
~Heather
Friday, August 22, 2014
Freshmen Move-In
Hi all,
This week was very busy. On Friday we had Sports Move-In day and a few of our freshmen girls moved, mostly girls on the cheer and dance teams. Monday was International Move-In day. We had a few girls move in that day but not as many as normal. Then Wednesday we had Freshmen Move-In day. It was a crazy busy day because that was when most of the Freshmen moved in. It was also a very unsettling day for me because we had mass groups of people coming in and out of the dorm and we had no idea who these people were. So far most of the girls seem like they are not going to cause any trouble but you can't really tell after only 3 days of them moving in. Once school starts I think it'll be a lot easier to tell who we are going to have problems with. We have already pegged one girl as trouble maker.
Other than the Freshmen moving, I've been mostly hanging out around the dorm and at a friend's house since they have AC and we don't. Along with the other RAs I've had to solve the many problems that have been going on in the dorm. One problem we had was someone had flushed a tampon and it clogged the pipes in the basement. So at 8 pm Monday night we started hearing running water, turns out the pipe just burst and we had to have maintenance come. Our whole floor then smelled like poop for 3 days. Another big problem we have had to deal with is the heat and humidity. Since I've been here it has not been that hot or humid. But right when Freshmen week started it got extremely hot and humid and our decorations started falling down. Also the wooden doors are swelling so they will stick to the door frames and not open, making freshmen think they have been locked out of their rooms. Another thing we've had to deal with as a dorm is that parents were not happy that their girls were living in a dorm with no elevator and no AC. I know how much it sucks because I did it last year but honestly I just want to say "They can suck it up. If I can do it, coming from California, your daughter, who has lived here her whole life can sure as hell do it." But I just smile and say "Yes, you can buy her a $300+ AC unit as long as it doesn't hang out the window, but it will only be a few more weeks of this." I'm so thankful that move in day is over and we don't have to deal with as many parents at one time, but I know that it is not the last time we will be hearing from girls' parents. I know that this is only the start of the never ending string of complaints we will be getting about the dorm this year.
I'm still excited to see what this year will hold for me though.
Missing everyone back home so much, xoxo
Heather
This week was very busy. On Friday we had Sports Move-In day and a few of our freshmen girls moved, mostly girls on the cheer and dance teams. Monday was International Move-In day. We had a few girls move in that day but not as many as normal. Then Wednesday we had Freshmen Move-In day. It was a crazy busy day because that was when most of the Freshmen moved in. It was also a very unsettling day for me because we had mass groups of people coming in and out of the dorm and we had no idea who these people were. So far most of the girls seem like they are not going to cause any trouble but you can't really tell after only 3 days of them moving in. Once school starts I think it'll be a lot easier to tell who we are going to have problems with. We have already pegged one girl as trouble maker.
Other than the Freshmen moving, I've been mostly hanging out around the dorm and at a friend's house since they have AC and we don't. Along with the other RAs I've had to solve the many problems that have been going on in the dorm. One problem we had was someone had flushed a tampon and it clogged the pipes in the basement. So at 8 pm Monday night we started hearing running water, turns out the pipe just burst and we had to have maintenance come. Our whole floor then smelled like poop for 3 days. Another big problem we have had to deal with is the heat and humidity. Since I've been here it has not been that hot or humid. But right when Freshmen week started it got extremely hot and humid and our decorations started falling down. Also the wooden doors are swelling so they will stick to the door frames and not open, making freshmen think they have been locked out of their rooms. Another thing we've had to deal with as a dorm is that parents were not happy that their girls were living in a dorm with no elevator and no AC. I know how much it sucks because I did it last year but honestly I just want to say "They can suck it up. If I can do it, coming from California, your daughter, who has lived here her whole life can sure as hell do it." But I just smile and say "Yes, you can buy her a $300+ AC unit as long as it doesn't hang out the window, but it will only be a few more weeks of this." I'm so thankful that move in day is over and we don't have to deal with as many parents at one time, but I know that it is not the last time we will be hearing from girls' parents. I know that this is only the start of the never ending string of complaints we will be getting about the dorm this year.
I'm still excited to see what this year will hold for me though.
Missing everyone back home so much, xoxo
Heather
Monday, August 11, 2014
First Week Back, Already?
Hello everybody,
So I know this did not work out well the last two times I tried to blog about my college life, but I feel that since this year I will have more time because my job is to sit in the dorm and be available to my residents and I also now how an internet connection in my room (yay!) I will actually (probably [maybe]) be able to keep up with it. If you didn't know about the few posts I did last year, I basically give an update about what I've been doing recently, my friends, how my team is doing, and this year I'll be able to share any crazy stories I have about my residents.
This year I am a Resident Adviser (RA) in Irwin Hall, which is the dorm I was in last year and it is also a freshmen dorm. All (or most) of my girls will be new to Lindenwood, so it will be new, scary, and exciting for all of us. This year I will be in the basement with community bathrooms, but I have my own room, which has been amazing besides the first night when I was scared out of my mind that someone was going to come through my window to get me. I've now been living in the dorm for 8 nights and no one has tried to come through window though. My friend Alyssa is also an RA in the basement. We decided that the theme for our floor is going to be Dr. Seuss. Today (Monday), we spent all day making door decs, which our name tags for the girls' rooms. Each room is going to be a different book.
Last week besides putting my room together we had "training." What we did for training was sit through many lectures about (mostly) common sense things like calling security when there is an issue we can't handle. The only other thing we did was for training that was actually like training was "Behind Close Doors." They set up different scenarios that could possibly happen during the year like finding alcohol in somebodies room. Other than those few things I've been hanging out with the other RAs and getting to know them since I came in only knowing 3 of them. It has been fun being back early and seeing a few of my friends that live around here but it has also been boring since most of the girls from my dorm left after we finished training on Thursday.
All in all I'm extremely excited to start this year. With the friends I've made and the plans we have for this coming year I know it is going to be a great year.
~Heather
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