Right now I am sitting in the computer lab of the CSB (Coykendall Science Building) and I am on a short break in my Public Relations 1 class. I just did a presentation with my group about Cape May, New Jersey. We had to create a Public Relations campaign as if we were the reps from a PR company. It was a lot of work to do but it made class more interesting. It was a much more hands-on way of learning. I’m glad to be done with that though, one less thing to stress me out! I have three papers due this week! It is definitely getting down to the wire because the work is building up!
Thanksgiving was nice. I worked on Black Friday and the day after at 6 in the morning it was very tiring but at least I made some money. We got our Christmas tree and the house is all decorated. It’s nice in the residence halls because people have started to decorate their doors and stuff for the holidays. It makes the halls looks so much more festive! I have an E-board meeting tonight with RHSA. It seems like we haven’t had one of those in while. This weekend is my induction into NRHH!! I got into the National Residence Hall Honorary. I’m so excited because I feel like this is going to be another environment to really make a difference on campus. I’m happy too because Annabel got in. Woooo… Now I get to work with her and Nicole and some other cool people too. This weekend will be filled with all sorts of work. I don’t even want to think about it, all I really want to do is sleep. What can I say, I’m lazy at heart! Well back to class!

Until later.
-jen a.-

~song of the day~ Nelly Furtado- Try.

It’s back to work and school and the residence halls, but I still feel very much in the vacation mode.

Every five minutes I want to lay down and take a nap. Just a little one..five minutes.. please….

I actually spent a bunch of the vacation in New Paltz at the radio station- we were still on-air over the Thanksgiving Break, so I had to sign-on Wednesday and Friday and read news!

Thanksgiving Day was really awesome. My Dad and Step-Mom had most of my family over..it was a very good time….

FAMILY!

I hung out in Hyde Park over the weekend-with a few old friends. I miss that town. Newburgh isn’t the same. Hyde Park is just a tiny little historic town…and I miss it. My Mom is moving out of our house and into her boyfriend’s- the switchover is strange, because she’s no longer in Hyde Park, and part of me really wants to hold on to that place…

I went to Vanderbilt Mansion- i used to spend hours upon hours there with friends from school.. just walking around or reading…

imagine this view from your front porch…

and I saw my cat Madison!

I spent some serious quality time with family- it was really great. I’m not gonna lie- having no classes for three days was grand-and being back here is good, but all I want to do is sleep. Just forget about classes- and just sleep…

I’m so spoiled.

I have a bunch of work to do for tomorrow… radio is almost over..and I’m super excited about having more free time- but soon enough finals will eat it all up-

sarah and mike are here… PEACE OUT!

Well, our break for thanksgiving weekend was nice, but it wasn’t nearly enough time for me to get all the work done that I have. Right now, I’m working on a paper due in my violence against women class. I want to get it done today, because tomorrow’s my birthday! I also have work to do on two group projects for different classes, and another paper due next tuesday, one due next thursday, and I think a third due sometime next week. I definetly wasn’t productive enough this weekend, although I did get a bunch of my christmas shopping done.

Ok, now I’m just procrastinating, so I’d better get back to work!

When I arrived to my mother’s apartment on Tuesday night, I could already smell Thanksgiving in the air. I had been dreaming of all the good foods and my family. I was so happy to see my mother, my bothers and sister.
It was a great vacation, I had lots of fun. I had a lots to eat and I finally got some rest.
Here are a couple of pictures of my and my family for you guys to see.

I’m stuffed!! I had dinner at home with my family today. It was really nice because last year my dad wasn’t with us for dinner. I had fun, I haven’t spent much time with my family lately. We had turkey and all the trimmings, of course, with cranberry relish made by me

I got out my holiday decorations, and after dinner, my sister decided to decorate herself like a tree.

So it’s been a good Thanksgiving for me, and now i’m off to have some pie!!!

Happy Thanksgiving all!

The Thanksgiving break started today!!!
But actually I am stuck in New Paltz…
Oh well, my family is in Japan and Japanese people don’t even celebrate the Thanksgiving because this Thanksgiving thing is all about Americans! hehe.
Yeah anyways, I am on campus, being on duty, and thinking of how I’m gonna spend my days in the almost empty building (plus all the buildings on campus are closed, except for residence halls).

However, the first day was not that bad actually
Today, which was the first day of the break, the Center for International Programs and the ESL program hosted this “Thanksgiving Meal” program at the VLC Annex building for international students who are around during the break.
I got there around 11:30am to help them out set up the place and everything.
and other students came in around 2pm.
We had tons of food, which included most of traditional Thanksgiving food, such as TURKEY (of course), gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, stuffing, and some kind of yellowish stuff (forgot how it’s called).
I think the whole event was successful with a great turnout of students.
People seemed to be enjoying the American traditional meal.
Here are some pictures from the event.

SUNY New Paltz Forever!
Hey, this blog software is just like building a website. Boy, am I going to have fun with it. Well, here is what has been happening with me lately. Last Tuesday, the RHSA E-Board went bowling. See pictures below:

Last Wednesday, RHSA had its first ever Spelling Bee. It was a great educational program. We gave a prize for the top three contestants. Each hall was responsible for sending two members to represent them. I couple halls did not send representative (not cool). We had a good time either way, and I hope it becomes an annual thing.

This weekend was quite exciting. On Saturday night, we had Buzz Karaoke in Bevier Hall. Half an hour before we were scheduled to start, the fire alarm went off. Some students were cooking in the kitchen and burned their rice. The New Paltz Fire Department responded and it took about 45 minutes to clear the smoke out of the kitchen. After realizing that the pot was burnt, the students grabbed it and brought it outside (good idea) but placed it on top of a plastic garbage bin (bad idea). Luckily it was strong plastic and did not melt all the way through. After all that excitement, we had a good time singing and eating pizza. We closed the night with one of my favorites, “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley. You should download it, legally of course (wink wink).

Sunday brought about more fun. I was invited to play in a soccer game. By the way, soccer is my favorite sport ever, and I like to think that it is one of the two greatest sports that exist (the other is cricket). If you disagree, write me a comment and say so (hehehe). Anyway, I was playing on a team of International Students (I guess I am kind of international, technically) and we were up against the New Paltz Men’s Team, which had a pretty good season. I played sweeper. It was a great game and after the Men’s Team fought their little hearts out, they triumphed 5-3. You could tell which side had been training together and playing together for months and which one were strangers to each other. Quite interesting the difference it makes.

This week, we only had two days of classes, but I had a quiz in my last class today, The Bible. You should definitely take that course sometime. Oh, and I got back my Investment Analysis paper this morning and I got 100!

Last night, we had a social with members from Hall Government and I think it went pretty well for a first time thing. We might do some more next semester.
The best part of this week is (you ready?) Road Trip to Atlanta, Georgia with my family. How cool. 16 hours of driving! It’s gonna be awesome! No classes, no organizations, no jobs, just fun fun fun, until Sunday, then it’s back to it all again. But anyway, until then, I’ll try to have a ball.
So, who’s coming to Jamaica with me next month? Comment and let me know if you would like to.
Anyway, Happy Turkey Day! Oh, and by the way, we don’t have Thanksgiving Day in Jamaica. Just a useless fact for you. Likkle Mo’

Finally the day is over for me and I am going home !
This past weekend was jam packed with things to do. I wrote a paper, went to Buzz Karaoke (it was finally at Le Bev) and of course our hall government Thanksgiving Program was this weekend. The food was great, my pernil (like I said in my previous blog it’s a traditional Caribbean cuisine) came out lovely and I can’t thank enough of all the hall government staff and R.A. staff of Bevier hall for helping us put this together. So many residents come down to eat, we were all so happy. Well… mainly because we got to eat something other then Hasbrouck
This is a picture of my suite mates from left to right is Vanesa the treasurer of hall government, Yari vice-president of hall government and my roommate Jennifer the president of hall government
But oh man! I can’t wait to see my mommy and have a home cooked meal
I’ll be seeing you all soon! Happy Turkey!

This past weekend I went to the Voices of Unity (VOU) gospel choir 25th Anniversary concert. This was my first time in my four years here attending the concert, and now I realize how much I was missing out! I was clapping and singing along, and the beauty of it all is I’m not the greatest singer—I know it, I own it, I accept it But the energy the choir resonates gets you you going, and suddenly your standing and singing and you don’t even knkw what just happend

It’s nice to know there is a choir that is supportive for ones enjoyment of music, whether they can sing or not. Alumni, founders, and current members of VOU joined together and performed in the choir. Their music was inspiring and uplifting. I left the concert feeling empowered; it’s amazing the affects good music can have on you! The organization was founded 25 years ago by students, and instantly began to grow. It is now an award winning collegiate gospel choir. That is what I love about New Paltz, a student can have a passion, and create an organization based on it. If New Paltz doesn’t offer a club you’re interested then you create it yourself! All you need is some support! And finally, I must recognize Melissa who is a member of VOU and works closely with me on the Bevier Hall R.A staff! She sang in the gospel choir and performed a solo piece for praise dance.

Well that time hsa finally come, it’s off to Staten Island for some good ol’ turkey for me …

So it is almost time to go home for a short little break filled with Turkey and my family. I’m excited to go home because that means after Friday my house will be decorated for Christmas and that makes me very happy! Oh my, I have to work at Target at 5:45 in the am on Black Friday! Can you believe that, it’s going to be ridiculous! Anyway this week went really well. On Thursday I went to Scudder’s production of Mary Poppins. It was really cute, they did a great job with it. But before I went over there RHSA (Residence Hall Student Association) and NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary) met up and got ready to present the ResLifer of the Month Award. Rob Moysey was the RA (Resident Assistant) that was selected as our first ever.

He was nominated by a couple of Residents in Scudder Hall and then was selected. We made him a certificate, printed out his write up, and got him a gift certificate. So a bunch of us met up and then walked over to Scudder to present it. He was actually in the play so it worked out well. We did it in front of everyone. He deserves it he does a great job. Then on Saturday we had Karaoke in Bevier Hall. Buttttt, before we also had to present the Resident of the Month with her recognition.
About 40 Minutes into Karaoke we got in front of everyone and presented Cara Riolo with it. She does so much for Bevier Hall and their Hall Government. She was not expecting that one I don’t think!
Karaoke itself went really well, there were a lot of people there and we all had a good time. I night hosted until 5am right after Karaoke was over. Caryn and LeAnn stopped by and chatted for a bit, so that was nice. A bunch of the rambunctious FYI (First Year Initiative) girls from the first floor stopped by to chat too, they are sweet girls and even kept me up after I was off duty at 4:45! Then Sunday I went to the pickle festival with my friends Caryn, LeAnn and Annabel. Yes, a pickle festival! It was fun, not enough pickles though
Sunday Night I went over to Bevier Hall to partake in their Multicultural Thanksgiving Dinner. They had all sorts of food some of the traditional stuff I am use to like Turkey and Potatoes, but they also had a lot of other stuff like this pork that Natalie made , rice and beans, platinos, and a rice dish. It was great! So nice to see everyone create a dish that is special to them to share with their entire hall!
Just now I worked on the display case to put up the pictures of the ResLifer and Resident of the Month in Hasbrouck Dinning Hall. We are also spotlighting two R.Ds (Resident Directors) on the board so people can get to know these wonderful people. Emily from the Bev and Jesse from Scudder were the first two selected.


Here are a bunch of pictures from my weekend- karaoke, hanging out in Scudder, and walking to Oscar’s (a place to get food) in the FREEZING COLD with Annabel.

This is Nellie and I during open house! I love open house it is great to get to talk to interested students and family members about New Paltz to try to begin to tell them why I love this school. If you are an interested student let me know! I would love to hear from you and feel free to ask me any questions you would like to! I love answer questions about this school.

That’s all for today. I hope everyone enjoys a few days off!
-jen a.-