Second semester vs. first semester

I feel that there is a noticible difference between the first and second semester. Time is going so much quicker this time around. I think that the first semester seemed like a big deal. I was living in an environment that I had never lived in before. My mom wasn't here telling me when to go to bed or when to hang out with friends. I was definitely not getting enough sleep, which made my classes seem even harder. I was trying to make a life for myself; meet new people, decided who seemed like a potential friend, make a daily schedule. Everything was just a big deal. The semester seemed to take so long because each day was something new. Now, I have established my daily routine. Also, it helps that I am taking chem II and physics II. I already figured the classes out, and I did not have to go through the stress of figuring out how the teacher tests, when to do homework, etc. This semester seems much easier for me. Some of my friends have said just the opposite. Some people say that this semester is much more time consuming for them, and that their first semester felt like it was just the social part of college. With my extra time, I have decided to get involved a little more. I started going to our Medicus meetings. This is like a pre-med club. We have a lot of academic clubs here on campus. We have a chem club and a veticus (pre-vet) club. Also, I finally started going to the women's bible study. This is something I said I was going to do all last semester, but never made it. I love going. It is on tuesday nights in a lounge in my dorm. There are a handful of girls, and most of us go in our p.j.'s (we meet from 9-10). It reminds me of the sleepovers we had at my church all through grade school. The girls are amazing. All of the girls seem genuinely sweet and like people you want to be around. You know when you meet someone who is just genuinely nice, well that is how all of the girls seem, and I'm not even exaggerating! Also, I joined a sorority (much to my boyfriend's dismay haha). Go Delta Chi Lambda's!!! Zak was a bit bothered that I wanted to join a sorority because of the stigma surrounding them. Hiram doesn't seem to have typical fraternities and sororities. We are too small to be able to get away with things. Besides, most students live on campus, so there is no place to hold wild, out of control parties. Also, each member must attend a session each year that tells us how wrong hazing is. Hiram has a zero tolerance policy for hazing. They said if we couldn't tell our parents and/or publish the story on the front page of the paper, it shouldn't be happening. I found that these rules seem to be obeyed. I joined the Lambda's because they seem so down to earth. At every meeting, they stressed that all the active members have lives, and they know we do too. The Co-Presidents are Nora and Kelly. They are both seniors, busy planning their life after hiram. Kelly is a theatre major and spends a huge amount of time doing theatre stuff. Nora is a swimmer. We had two weeks of activities, and we never had more than like 10 students (including active members and pledges) and that was perfectly OK. I wanted to get involved to get to know the girls, and because I would not feel pressured to let them consume all of my time. During the two weeks, we did various activites such as a board game night, decorating our big sister's door, and going for half price appitizers at the little bar and grille on the corner of campus. I guess we try to do at least one community service activity per semester, and we hosted a dance the week after inductions. That's all for now... I'll catch up more later!

Hiram Happenings

The KCPB
Hiram has this cool office/organization/thing that plans great events for us. Some people may think that there is nothing to do in Hiram because we are in the middle of no where. To some extent, this is true. There are not many fast food places, or even entertainment in Garrettsville, the closest little town. But, we have this KCPB thing. They do so much for the students, and i don't think I even know about half of it. Last week, the brought in the Comedian Pete Holmes, who has been on both VH1's best week ever and comedy central. I went to that with some of my girls and it was pretty fun. He had a great sense of humor (obviously) and did a lot of interacting with the audience. A few days later, they hosed a coffee house thing with a country singer. Then, they put on a superbowl party. You can also get a lot of cheap (i.e. FREE) tickets through them. Although I have not taken advantage of it yet, they have a movie night about once a month. Either on a friday or saturday night they provide the transportation to the movie theaters in Aurora. Students sign up for the movie they want to see earlier and the week and pay $5. The money is refunded when you show up tho, so you can basically go to one free movie each month. The KCPB has brough lots of outside entertainment in through out the year so far. We have had countless comedians, hypnotists, musicians, ect. They really do give us stuff to do, and it's not dumb stuff either.


Bread and Soup
Every thursday we have this thing called Bread & Soup. It is held in the KC and students can just use a meal swipe to get in. Community members can come, but they have to pay. Money from each person is donated to help combat hungar both locally and on a bigger scale. I went last night for the first time. They had three different soups, and they were all delicious. The bread was also great, like bread that you actually go up to get seconds. Last night was special tho, because they also had a habitat for humanity auction. During spring break, 2 professors and 16 students will work on a habitat for humanity house. Each person needs to take a $50 donation. To raise they money, they hold an auction. This auction is something to see. They advertised it as a big thing, and let me tell you, it was! Many of the professors, their wives, and sometimes even their mothers, make "famous" food year after year. Here is a list of some of the more famous and coveted things:

*Brad Gubser's famous cheesecakes (plain and caramel swirl)
*Matt Hils & Prudy Hall's homecooked pancake breakfast (for 6-8) & nature walk
*Anita Stocz lasagna dinner (for 12)
*Anne Riedel's famous raspberry chocolate brownies
*Dottie Summerlin's dinner (for 6) featuring her famous cheesy potatoes
*Mario Renzi's flyfishing lessons
*Carol & Al Donley pancake breakfast (for 4)
*Jon Moody's donut party

The cheesecakes easily went for about $50, the lasagna dinner for $150 (after a long struggle between groups of students), the nature walk and pancakes for just less than $100 (also a struggle between eager students. I don't remember what the other went for, but they were all such a hit. That's the thing here. I keep saying how great the professors are, and last night proved it. These students are willingly paying big bucks to have delicious food with their professors. Professors and students get along so well here. I found one of the more interesting deals to be the juggling lessons and bon fire (sorry I don't remember the professor offering it). It is just so cool that there was such a variety. I was not one of the big spenders. I got a little basket with food from our own fair-trade shop. From what I hear, it was opened by students in one of the fall's colloquiums. I will have to go check it out and report back, but they are really advocating the products so far. They are bought from companies that support things like fair treatment and pay of their workers. At any rate, it was a good laugh to listen in during the auction last night. I'll add more later, I'm off for a physics test...... oh joy!

One last thing... they raised $1,400 at the auction!!!!