Ok, I have not written in a long time and have a lot to catch up on. I'm going to go with the excuse that my computer at home was way to slow to use! That sounds good. I guess I will start with the things that happened before Christmas break. As you knew, my class was a new experience for me. It ended up being a really good one. I would definitely take the class over if I had the option and would recommend it to anyone. It was a growing experience for me. The class ended up having only one other white girl and the rest were African American. The class was really accepting of both the other girl and I. I felt very comfortable by the end and have no regret. The class was somewhat trying at times. The teacher was awesome, but she did give us a pretty heavy course load. We had 2-3 reading each night, and had to outline each one. During the last week, we had a make up class on Monday. This mean we had class from 1-4 and 6-9. Our final was only 2 days later and our study guide was like 6 pages. I felt the stress for sure. Professor Pittman would like to teach the class in the twelve week, and I don't think she would have to add any more material and would still keep a twelve week class busy. By the time I was done with the final, I didn't want to even talk about the material for another moment.
Christmas Dinner
Did you know that Hiram puts on a Christmas dinner for the students? Probably not since I didn't even know until the day before. The upperclassmen started talking about it and saying it would be the best food we would get for a long time. The dinner was the week before break. It was in the Kennedy center. My roommate, a few other people, and I went over to eat. We walked into the main level and it was gorgeous!! There were huge tables, some had lots of fruit cut up, and the others were filled with cheese and crackers. The main table had some sort of meatballs (I'm a vegetarian), artichoke dip, Brie cheese stuff and maybe something else I can't remember. The desert room was something else. It was like 9 tables of the best deserts ever. They had things like rich chocolate deserts and peanut butter pies. As completely impressed as I was, I was somewhat disappointed. I felt like the meal was huge, but didn't have any real food, just hor' dourves. We sat around enjoying ourselves and talked for a while. Just about when we were full, we heard someone mention the food upstairs. Turns out, we had enjoyed only the appetizers and deserts, and confused it for the whole meal. We venture upstairs to find a Christmas *feast*. They had roast and turkey, both at one of those tables they slice for you. They had chicken, salad, pasta salad, and honestly, the buffet with the most options I have ever seen at a buffet. I really wished that we had know that was more food upstairs. Needless to say, we left very full!!
Kwanza
During the last week of school, there was a Kwanza dinner for the students. We needed to get a 
ticket ahead of time, although the tickets were free. I had no idea what Kwanza was, which was somewhat ignorant of me. One of my friends Simone asked me to go with her. She had an extra ticket since her roommate couldn't attend due to scheduling conflicts. We got dressed up and wandered down to the Coleman center, which was also decorated to a "T". What I didn't know was that Kwanza was an African American holiday celebrated at the end of the year to be thankful for everything they have been blessed with. I walked in and found that my whole three-week class was there, that two of the students had planned the whole thing, and my teacher was the mistress of the ceremony! I had such a great time. Various students took turns reading and doing performances pertaining to each of the seven days of Kwanza. I found out another girl in my class, Isabella, had a phenomenal voice. The food was once again, out of this world. It was all catered, and even with smaller than normal portions, I couldn't fit everything on my plate! They had a great feast also, although I can't recall the menu for you item by item because it was well over a month ago. But I'll try so here goes: corn bread, mac and cheese, green beans, turkey, greens, corn, etc. It was a great cultural experience for me and I was very thankful for all the experiences that the last three weeks of the semester had given to me.
ticket ahead of time, although the tickets were free. I had no idea what Kwanza was, which was somewhat ignorant of me. One of my friends Simone asked me to go with her. She had an extra ticket since her roommate couldn't attend due to scheduling conflicts. We got dressed up and wandered down to the Coleman center, which was also decorated to a "T". What I didn't know was that Kwanza was an African American holiday celebrated at the end of the year to be thankful for everything they have been blessed with. I walked in and found that my whole three-week class was there, that two of the students had planned the whole thing, and my teacher was the mistress of the ceremony! I had such a great time. Various students took turns reading and doing performances pertaining to each of the seven days of Kwanza. I found out another girl in my class, Isabella, had a phenomenal voice. The food was once again, out of this world. It was all catered, and even with smaller than normal portions, I couldn't fit everything on my plate! They had a great feast also, although I can't recall the menu for you item by item because it was well over a month ago. But I'll try so here goes: corn bread, mac and cheese, green beans, turkey, greens, corn, etc. It was a great cultural experience for me and I was very thankful for all the experiences that the last three weeks of the semester had given to me.My Break
On more of a personal note, I had a great break, although I feel it was way too short. I enjoyed the time with my mom and by boyfriend Zak. I spent time working with my mom doing medical billing and coding. I went skiing at Peak'n Peek in NY with my family and had a great time watching my boyfriend and step brother learn to snow-board. Unfortunately, the second half of the day was rather rainy, and we were all soaked. I would have much rather had snow! One of my favorite things over the break was my time spend working on my family tree. It all started in my three week class. For four extra credit points, we could begin our family tree and go back about three generations on one side of our family. I went to my grandma and we spent a whole Saturday going through a box of obituaries and funeral announcement card thingies. She also pulled out some old pictures, like a family picture from 1911 of my grandma's great grandparents and their 8 children. From there I signed up for ancestry.com's free 14 day trial. I have had so much fun! I am addicted! I love ancestry because I can get the old census records. My grandma loves that I am interested and has found so many various papers such as marriage license, birth certificates, death certificates, baptismal certificates, christening records, war enlistment papers, etc. My mom and I found out that our local library has a whole genealogy section. They have every issue of our local newspaper back to the early 1900s. I am not doing this project justice. I would suggest this to anyone. It is fun and very satisfying. If nothing else, I encourage anyone to at least talk to your grandparents, great grandparents, parents, or other older relatives. Ask them about their parents, grandparents and their spouses and brother and sisters. Write it down. Write down any other names they remember. Also ask where these people lived, at least the state. Next I think is the part that is more fun. Ask them to tell you stories of their childhood and of these people. I found some stories that are funny, sad, and everything in between. My Spring Classes
Wow this sounds weird, but writing the word "spring" right now just send a wave of refreshment over me. I was kind of dreading coming back, but my mom really helped me cheer up and see the positive things. I love the college, I was just hard to come back after a break at home. It wasn't so bad after I got here. It was nice and I was soon back into the swing of things. I woke up ten minutes before my 7 am alarm, which made me happy because I was scared I wouldn't be able to wake up. I have Chem II, Physics II, my freshman seminar the Philosophy of Love and Friendship, and I will have some kind of ethics class during the three week, but I'll talk about that when it comes. I am debating about another class, an independent study with the teacher from my fall three week class, Professor Pittman. I really want to work with her on her dissertation work, but I'm not sure if I want to put even one more thing on my plate right now.
As always, If you have any questions, feel free to ask me by posting them.
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