I hope everyone has been enjoying summer! I am blogging from Brussels, Belgium right now and life is pretty good. As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I got accepted to a London study abroad program and I arrived in London at the beginning of July. I am in Brussels with some other students in my program for 3 days, checking out the European Commission, the Parlamentarium, and of course consuming as much chocolate and Belgium waffles as I can

But just to backtrack: I left New Paltz excited for summer but sad to say bye to some friends who graduated. I spent my month at home catching up with friends, helping out around the house, and working here and there. Upon leaving for London I was excited yet very nervous for the program. Thankfully I have been loving it and I wish I had more than 5 weeks to be here! I was able to visit Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Oxford, Bath, Stonehenge, Abbey Road, and countless other places. I even spent a weekend in Paris!! I have enjoyed both classes I took abroad, although the essay-writing was not fun. But when is writing 3 essays fun? Nevertheless, I am grateful to be abroad and now more than ever I encourage all you college students out there to do the same! Granted I am spending more money than I had originally planned, but I will work harder to make up for it this year. If you are seriously considering studying abroad start saving as early as possible! Also, be open to new experiences and immerse yourself in the culture- the lessons you learn abroad are valuable and you gain a much more global perspective just from the people you meet.

The Olympics are also taking place right now in London and the city has transformed. Just weeks ago I was a new and nervous tourists, but now I walk through the streets more confident and I see people from all over the world walking around in the same state I was when I first arrived. I have not seen any Olympic events, but I can still enjoy watching the games with new friends and just enjoy the atmosphere. I even saw the Torch before the Olympics as it made its way throughout the country!

I will keep this blog relatively short and say that it has been a pleasure to be an NPBlogger for the 2011-2012 school year. The ’12-’13 NPBloggers are ready to take over when classes start at the end of August and I know they will continue to share their stories and their love for the New Paltz community. As I enter my Senior year I will be sad to see the end of my time at New Paltz, but I am certain I have made friends for a lifetime here and have gained a quality education I can be proud of as I enter the real world. I hope I have helped some perspective students out there and I wish everyone who as read my blog nothing but happiness and success!

Go Hawks!

Peace

The weather has been getting really nice as the warm weather of summer fast approaches. The temperatures have been fluctuating a bit, but overall it has been really warm and beautiful. There have been tons of events going on all around campus outside in celebration of this wonderful weather. This includes barbecues and a bunch of other types of festivities. It also presented the perfect opportunity for my parents to come up and visit! Yesterday, I got the pleasure of having my parents spend the day with me. They came up from Long Island, and simply spent the day hanging out with me. In the afternoon, I also had to work a short shift at the end of the year celebration for the first-year students on campus. We had ice cream for all of them, and some fun raffles as well, which included raffling off the Orientation Leaders to do different activities with. It was actually a lot of fun and we gave out some free gifts to everyone to. A bunch of students showed up and it was a big success which is always great to see.

My parents and I spent some time in the morning before the event walking around town, and exploring. It was so beautiful out, so we thought we would take advantage of it. Then, we hung out around the Student Union Building, and did some other things around the campus as well. After that, we took a trip to the nearby town of Gardiner, and drove around some. Then, we headed to a restaurant right outside of New Paltz called The Mountain Brauhaus. If you couldn’t tell by the name, this was a German restaurant. The place was pretty crowded, and the whole place was buzzing with activity. The waitresses all wore these long dresses and white dress shirts. I suppose it was supposed to look like some kind of traditional German garb. The food came out, and we all enjoyed it a great deal! It was really delicious and I would seriously recommend the place to anyone who was interested.

After we left, we saw a hawk flying around outside which was pretty cool. Then, we headed back into town and went to Stop and Shop, where I picked up a couple of things that I needed. Following that, my parents had to drop me back off at campus because it was getting late in the day and they had to head home. It was really great to see them! I spent the rest of the day relaxing, and getting some homework done. Later on that night, I went with Rose to get some ice cream at Stewart’s. It was excellent! Then, we went back to Gage and hung out for the rest of the night.

Oh! I forgot to mention something highly essential. When my parents came to visit, they gave me a card and gave me a gift card to Starbucks! I was super excited and appreciated it a lot because, as I hope all of you know, this week is FRAPPY HOUR! This means that between 3 and 5 everyday, all frappuccinos are half off. This is one of the golden weeks of the year where all the planets align and everything is right in the world.

Anyway, I think that’s just about it for this lesson. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to see my parents, and I was so thankful that they could take the time to spend with me this weekend. I look forward to the summer and being able to spend some time at home, relaxing and enjoying the time away from school. My family is great! So, now I leave you more informed than you were before, with Diva Lesson #25: Family Visitation.

We are approaching our last week for full classes and the beginning of a lot of studying and projects for finals. I have been busy all day writing a research paper on Richard Hunt who is an artist who works with iron and makes large-scale sculptures. On Monday the Metal program is having a Mother’s Day Jewelry Sale and I’m looking forward to buying some jewelry to wear this summer at Michael Kors. I also made this ring!

In the next week I am going to be experimenting with some enameling by dying white pigments with tea. I am hoping to change the colors a little bit.

Until next week!

As the year gets closer to the end, my schedule gets crazier and crazier. Tomorrow is going to be one of the busiest days I have had in a long time. First, I have class from 9:25am-12:05pm. Luckily I enjoy the two classes I have tomorrow, so I wont mind it as much. After that, I have a tour at 12:45pm and ,after 2.5 years as a Student Ambassador, this will be my LAST tour; I think I might cry a little bit.

After my tour, I have office hours at the admissions house until 4:30pm. Hopefully people call the office I am going to be bored. Then, I have to go to my business school graduation from 5pm-7pm. The business school has their own graduation, outside of the regular commencement ceremony, to honor the graduating business students.

Finally, after the graduation ceremony ends I will be getting on a bus to New Jersey for the cheerleading competition. The competition is on Saturday in Six Flags Great Adventure, so we will be heading to our hotel Friday night. The competition and the hotel is  about a 2.5 hour drive. I am so excited for competition I can barely contain myself.

Hopefully I can survive tomorrow

I hope all is well as you are preparing for finals and other tests! Crunch time is always hard for everybody, but unfortunately this semester I only took twelve credits. One class, Observations, is over since I handed in all my final work for it, as is my Clinical Participation class. All that’s left for me is Phonetics and Stats, and I’m not gonna start studying until finals week approaches, so I have a lot of free time while all of my friends are beginning to study. With this, I plan on going to the gym as much as I can (without pushing myself or being counterproductive) and enjoying my “free” (tuition!) membership to an amazing Athletic and Wellness Center while I can!

On Friday, EOP had their XAE induction. I keep checking EOP at SUNY New Paltz’ facebook to see if there are any pictures they have put up, but unfortunately, they are not up yet. The ceremony started with some opening words, and then a musical performance by a student. She sang “This is My Now” by Jordin Sparks. It sounded great! My best friend got hooked on the song now so I hear it all the time from my room. After that, the keynote speaker, Mrs. Rendesia Scott, the Director of Business Advising and one of the original Beta Omicron chapter starters, had her speech. IT WAS GREAT! It was so empowering. I almost cried. After that, was the pinning of the Inductees. WHICH I WISH I HAD PICTURES OF! But my grandmother pinned me. It was so cute. After that, some Honorable Members got upgraded to higher membership statuses, and then there were closing remarks followed by a small reception of appetizers and such. It was really nice! I went home after that, and went to the mall on Saturday (of course, I’m such a mall rat) and then I was on a 9:45 bus Saturday morning in Massapequa on my way back to New Paltz.

This Sunday is NRHH’s induction ceremony, so I will be sure to give you guys details, and hopefully pictures, of that!

And tonight… I am going to the movies after the gym and dinner. This is what I’m going to see:

So next blog I will be sure to do a movie review!

Anyway, I will see you all next week and I hope you have a nice first week of May.

Warmly, Ashley

Recently, it was my friend Jen’s birthday. She had a week long celebration which took her all across New Paltz. On two of the days, I went on a journey with her and our other friend Rose to a Dude Ranch in the area. It’s called the Pine Grove Dude Ranch. Before I went there, I had never heard of the place. It’s located in Kerhonksen, New York. It sounds really bizarre, I know. But trust, it was a lot of fun. Our first visit there was short, and we didn’t get to look around much. However, we went back the second day and got to experience more what they had to offer. Jen’s mother and her brother were there and so we got to spend some time getting to know them. We got to explore all around. We got some free food from a little snack shack, and then after that, we explored the grounds of the place. We were able to play some games like shuffle board, and we went into some open fields and went into a teepee too, which was a lot of fun.

We spent most of the afternoon there, and ate dinner with Jen’s family. There was so much food! It was great. Rose, Jen, and I all shared desserts too. After that, we went outside where they had a campfire with marshmallows and everyone gathered around singing. There was this weird giant bouncy pillow thing outside too. Jen and Rose went on it and started bouncing around with all of the little kids that we there. It was so funny. Rose really enjoyed it! She didn’t want to get off. After a while, it was sadly time to leave. Rose wanted to stay, so we told her that we would try to come back as soon as possible! The day was super long, but it was a really great time.

After our time at the Dude Ranch, later in the week we had picnic back in New Paltz to continue the celebration of her birthday, and did other fun things too. I think the lesson for this week is that you’re never really too old to have a wonderful week long birthday celebration. Even though we’re in college, it’s still nice to have those amazing special times to celebrate yourself and your day! It belongs to you, so enjoy it as much as possible. And let’s face it…a true diva knows how to draw out the celebration for at least a week, if not longer! That’s all I have for you this week. So until next week, enjoy this edition of Diva Lessons, Diva Lesson #24: Dude Ranch Realness!

This week I was very busy with a project that was due on Thursday for my Process and Experiment 1 class. The objective was to use electroforming which is a process in which copper grows over wax, plastics, papers and other non-organic materials. For my piece I used tracing paper and wax. I created a wax dome as my base and then crinkled little papers and glued them all over the dome and left an opening on the flat side. Next I painted the shape with electrodag, which is copper paint and let dry over night. After it was completely dried, I placed it in a blue acid bath that has an electric current running through when turned on. I left the piece in the bath for 12 hours and when it came out, it was covered in copper metal where I had painted the electrodag. From their I burned out the wax and paper bits and was left with a copper shell.

For my project I used the copper shell as the outside and enameled a dome set on the inside. The shell had a black finish and the enameled dome was jewel toned. I wanted the sharp outside to be the opposite of the smooth inside. I turned the piece into a broach as if a play on a boutonnière. I wanted it to look like the outside shell was closing in on the jeweled enamel piece.

Here is the finished piece:

In other news there are 31 days until I start my internship at Michael Kors!

I also just returned from tabling with Invisible Children club at Rock Against Racism!

Until Next Time!

Only ONE week left until New Paltz Cheerleading goes to Six Flags in New Jersey to compete.  Words can not express how excited I am for this competition!!! Our team was supposed to go to at least two other competitions this year; however, we were hit with a few set backs, which stopped us from competing in those other competitions.

We have been working really hard because we know that we only have a few more practices until the competition.  These last four practices are our crunch time because we need to make sure the routine looks perfect.

I am also really excited about how we are getting to the competition.  We are going to be taking a couch bus to New Jersey.  That means it will be the whole team on one bus for two and a half hours.  This will be some great bonding time for the team the day before the competition.  We have already decided that we are going to be watching Harry Potter, which are some of my favorite movies.

I can’t wait. ONE MORE WEEK!!!!!

So Jam Asia officially kicked off the beginning of our week with a “Night at the Museum” event on Monday night! And no, we did not watch the movie haha Featured were different activities and performances highlighting a majority of the Asian countries. For Korea we had the game Gongi (pronounced Kon-gi) which is like American jacks, but with colorful and sparkly little plastic balls. We also had Chinese yo-yos for people to try out. For the Philippines  one of our members brought her mom and some Traditional Filipino Dancers to perform- it was awesome! Amnesty International was also present to talk to people about their organization and to help write a letter to the Minister of Myanmar (more widely known as Burma) to call for the release of prisoners and to grant their people the freedoms of speech, peaceful assembly, and other human rights. There was also henna (from India), face painting, and so much more!

Tuesday was our food festival titled “Taste of Asia” which was a huge success- we had almost 300 people in attendance!! We had 8 different cuisines and fun was had by all. I was in charge of the sushi station, which was probably not the best idea because I don’t really like sushi haha. But I did my best to explain the different kinds to people and I definitely  know more about sushi now! My favorite dish was the ‘Popcorn Chicken’ for Taiwan.

Today was our Spring Festival, and despite a very low attendance, we had a bunch of Jam Asia members there having fun and decorating glass candle holders We also took part in Holi, which is a tradition in the Hindu religion signifying the coming of Spring. Basically we threw colorful powder at each other- the powder is dyed tapioca powder that is washable. Look at some pics!

Look at the powder- so vibrant!

Tosing powder in the air signals the beginning of the throwing- get ready!

Every woman/man from themselves!

As you can see no one held back haha

So it has been a crazy week so far, and it is going to get crazier. Friday is the main event!! Have you guessed what the theme is yet from my last post? I’ll give you another hint- there is a Nickelodeon show based on the theme of this years’s Cultural, Talent, and Fashion Show.

Until next time!

I hope all is doing well. This week has been busy for me, but I am happy to say that there are only a few more weeks of class left! It is winding down so fast.. I didn’t even realize that this Friday is the 27th! Where does time go Heheee!!

Anyway, some exciting news is that last night I got an email from NRHH saying that I am in fact going to be inducted. I put a link on my last blog, but just incase here is a link again so you guys can check out this organization and see what they’re all about: SUNY New Paltz NRHH. Clicking that link will open their page up in a new tab, so you don’t have to worry about losing this page either! It is something that I am excited about because as I did more “research” (so to speak) I have realized that their four pillars are assets that are a great influence in my life. So I’m really excited to be working with a group of people who believe in the same things that I do.

Other than that, I am just getting ready for my XAE induction Friday and studying for tests and quizzes! I registered for classes yesterday, and it went pretty well! I am taking Aural Rehabilitation, Clinicial Methods of Audiology, Hearing Science, Disorders of Child Language, and Introduction to Human Services. Ahh, the life of a CommDis major. <3 A really nice thing though is that I end at noon every day!

Also, an exciting thing is that today marks three weeks that I have been working out, and surprisingly I have been sticking to it really well! I wake up on my days off to go, and I’m there when they first open on the weekends. After this, I am going to walk into town, and then go to a yoga class for the first time ever so I will let you all know how that goes next week!

MAY 8TH IS NSSLHA’S BANQUET. Keep an eye out for when tickets go on sale. This year our cause was Autism Awareness.

Talk to you all soon! Stay warm, it’s gonna be a cold week ahead of us.

– Always, Ashley. xoxo