Students’ Views

So last year I spent about 2 weeks in the season of winter. As soon as winter reached Texas, it was time for me to fly to the sunny D.R. therefore I have been extremely excited about winter’s arrival this year.

Winter tried to trick us into thinking it wasn’t going to arrive this year. It would come for a day, sheepishly sneak away for a week or so, and come back again for only the night sky. Over the past few weeks though I think it has found its peace here in Texas.

To start off my wintry wonderland this year I took my residents camping for one of our CEG Hall programs. We went to a local park called Pace Bend where we camped out on the lake and enjoyed making a yummy mezcla of dinner entrees and smores for dessert. The week before school started I had so many plans for our hall programs, but as fate had it, life got busy and there never seemed to be time to relax and bond with the hall. Our camping weekend was really wonderful and just what many of us had been hoping for (I think)! There are two sides of our building which often times don’t have much communication with each other due to proximity, so it was great to hang out with everyone. I’d love for our hall to really feel united and hall programs are something each RA plans for their residents each semester to achieve this. My real challenge will come in the spring though when we receive 5 new residents – they are returning from study abroad and 5 current residents will beginning their trek into another country. Exciting!

As soon as we returned from camping, Kat and her family were setting up our apartment with holiday decorations. It literally looks like Michael’s Holiday Décor aisle threw up in our apartment, but man do I love it!!! It is so homey for me to come back from class and have lights sparkling in the living room and candy canes hanging from the ceilings. Her mom found these awesome new candy canes that are Sweet Tart flavored…all I can say to that is AwEsOmE! I have a suspicion that other residents find us to be the crazies of the complex because we literally have so many lights and bows hanging up, but what can I say? We are festive folks!

To continue the winter spirit, Thanksgiving came quickly around the corner. I was able to go home Tuesday morning after turning in 2 papers that morning at 12am. Whew, it was a relief to finish those on time! The holiday was spent primarily at my dad’s where we had a big family meal and enjoyed the most delicious pumpkin bread around. My dad’s wife’s mom (that can be confusing!) makes this pumpkin bread that is so sweet you only need a bit to quench your cravings. She let me have an extra loaf to take home for Kat and myself – yummy! Well other than the food, we also had the wonderful surprise of snow on Thanksgiving. I am not sure that folks from the north would actually call it snow, but hey, slush is often considered snow in these parts so I will label it accordingly. We had snow on Thanksgiving!

Other wintry wonderland events to take place over the next 2 weeks before finals: a 4 day trip to visit my ‘ol friend Jackie and a snow ball fight and hot chocolate party with the rezies. What else could help usher in this winter better than a first snow and a fake snow ball fight? Stay warm and study hard for any finals that may come your way!

Cuídate.