Winter Break!

Hello everyone, I apologize for not posting in so long! Finals week came and went (by the graces of God!) and I am now at home with my family.  I had a LOVELY Christmas and I hope everyone else did as well.  Here at Notre Dame we have a very long winter break because we have a Winterim term, which is a basically a "mini semester". 

Anyway, let me catch you guys up on the past few weeks! A lot of exciting things have happened:

The choir's Christmas concert in our lovely chapel (I'm the 5th one from the left on the 2nd row). We were beautiful, made many women (and a few men) cry lol.

 

Omega Phi Alpha's Formal (I am officially a member! :D)

 

 

Here is a pic with me and my family at Christmas (From left to right: my grandma, me, my cousin, my mommy, my aunt, and my little sis) 

Wishing everyone a happy holiday, see you next semester (or maybe even before)!! =D

Breast Cancer Ribbon

A breast cancer ribbon that i made for an OPA service event!

Happy Thanksgiving!

So sorry I've been MIA for the past 3 weeks...this month has been the definition of CRAZY! Anyway, I'm wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lab, Lab, and More Lab

Future Biology/Chemistry Majors:  This is the kind of stuff you have to look forward to!  4-hour labs.  This is my apparatus I had to set up for a fractional distillation during my organic chemistry lab. Such a good time it was! (pfft, lol) Not my favorite class, but I just have to tell myself it'll be worth it in the end, which it will be!

Halloween

Just some pics from Halloween with my soon-to-be Omega Phi Alpha sisters...I was a midnight fairy!!

TSA Plates

Tryptic Soy Agar (TSA) plates I made at work the other day for the microbiology lab this week.  They will be growing a certain strain of E.coli on them.  Over 70 plates poured! (My little wrist was soo sore afterwards lol). Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend, despite this nasty weather!

Fun at Work

This is a pic of me and my awesome boss Angela Baumler!  If you're a prospective nursing student then you have probably spoke with or recieved mail from her once or twice the past few months because she is your admissions counselor =)

Hard Work Pays Off!

So remember how hectic my life was about a week and a half ago? That hectic time which caused me to neglect my lovely blog?  Well, that was due to this paper for one of my honors classes and let's just say it was not exactly a walk in the park writing it! The class is called Honors Genethics, and it basically examines certain biomedical procedures and analyzes them from different religious viewpoints, such as cloning, in vitro fertilization, sex selection, and abortion. It was also stressful because the grading system for this class is based primarily on these papers. I lost a lot of sleep that week.  But it was so worth it! Got one of the highest grades in the class. Hard work pays off =D

Pledging OPA!

So sorry I haven't posted in about 5 days, I've been a very busy bee! This is a picture of Becky and I, one of my pledge sisters for Omega Phi Alpha.  Part of our pledging process is doing a scavenger hunt, and one of our many random tasks was to wear the same outfit as one of our pledge sisters! We decided to both wear our Morrissy Honors Shirt along with a dark blue pair of jeans!
Hope everyone is having a lovely week!

TGIF!!

So sorry I haven't been able to post in almost a week...I have literally been up late every night doing papers, studying, and sooo much HW while being hooked on caffeine.  But now the weekend is here and I can get some much deserved sleep =]...have a lovely weekend everyone!

Busy Saturday!

Fall Open House was today...we had a total of 110 prospective students on campus!  This is a sure sign that Notre Dame is growing, thriving, and getting the recognition that it deserves.  Every year, more and more girls are discovering what an amazing place NDMU is and all the opportunities it can give them.  If you were there, I hope you had an amazing experience and come again!
 

After Open House, about 12 fellow students and I took an off-campus trip to Baltimore Museum of Art to a free ballet event!  We saw many professional ballet performances and got to know some of the student ballet dancers.  I'm always amazed at how beautiful and graceful professional ballet dancers are-that's true dedication right there!  I used to do ballet as a little girl and took lessons for about 9 years.  I remembered a lot of the moves, and I've still got good flexibility from all that practice!  I hope to go to more professional ballet performances in the future.  Hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend!  

It's...Friiiiiidaaayyy!!

So this pretty much sums up what life was like this week.  Memorizing models for Organic Chemistry (in the first image, the molecule 1-t-butylcyclohexane is shown) and viewing various types of tissue for Unity and Diversity of Life.  (The second image shows a sample of human kidney tissue.)  Now it's time to relax with some music and ice cream from the dining hall.

Yum =D

Fall Open House is in the morning.  I am super excited and I hope to see you all there!  Have a wonderful weekend.

It's Official!

Today Omega Phi Alpha had their pinning ceremony for all the new pledges! OPA is a national service sorority which promotes friendship, leadership, and service. We also got our pledge books and information packets.  I am super excited to become a member of OPA and look forward to spending time with my sisters!

First Time For Everything!

So, today I tried sushi for the very first time...and I loved it!  My friend Effie begged me to try it, and it wasn't bad at all.  Just one of the many new things I have discovered about myself while attending Notre Dame.

My Comfort Cave

Thank God this week is coming to an end...it's been crazy! Finally getting some time to relax in my lovely room...I like to call it my comfort cave =)

Test Tubes Galore!

Just an example of some of the things I do at my lab assistant job...over 200 test tubes labeled!

Family Weekend!

This is me with my mommy =D She and my little sis came down and spent the weekend here with me for Family Weekend!  It was awesome.  I got to take a break from studying and spend some quality time with the people I love the most!  I also got to sing in the choir at Honors Convocation and got recognized for making the Dean's List both semesters last year.

Dinner Was Fabulous!!!

So the title pretty much says it all.  Pasta, fried chicken, corn, bread rolls, and watermelon! I was soo excited.  The food is often questionable, but there was nothing questionable about tonight!! Lovely end to a super busy week.

Little Things Make Me Happy

 The weather was beautiful today, not too hot and not to cool...and best of all, NO rain! =D So as I was walking from my dorm to work, I felt this intense, random appreciation of nature and decided to take some pics of my lovely campus!  The first pic is one of my favorite relaxing spots outside of Meletia Hall (the statues are of Mother Theresa and a student), and the other shows this adorable little squirrel hopping away from me (must be camera shy).

Happy Tuesday!

It's been an awesome day so far.  Beautiful weather, OPA Q & A session, and breakfast was delicious.  This is a pic of Danielle and I in Gator Alley Cafe.  She is a fellow bio major/student ambassador, and one of my future sisters of OPA! =) 

Rise and Shine

What a lovely Saturday morning it is.  A little brisk, and slightly dreary out, but a lovely morning.  Oh how I'd love to be all cozy in my bed...in fact I can hear it calling me.  But wait that's right, I'm a science major.  We don't get weekends off or sleep in (at least not the whole day off, if you want to keep up with the work. I'm blogging so I must have some down time, right?) But I just keep in mind that it will be worth it in the long run, and that's enough for me =D

Bingo!

First bingo of the new school year was tonight! Didn't win anything, but it was still an awesome time with friends after a long, hectic week.  This is my best friend Megan and I. We met last year as freshman and lived right across the hall from eachother in Doyle. Now our schedules hate eachother and we live in different dorms, but still close as ever.  Notre Dame has allowed me to meet some truly amazing people and friends I plan on having for life!

On The Job

A picture of me with some of my fellow Student Ambassadors from last year at the Harbor! One of my faves.

Hello Everyone!

I'm Kristen and this is my very first post on my very first blog for the very first time! I'm excited =D Here I will be regularly posting about my experiences at Notre Dame.  And of course, please feel free to ask me anything, whether it be about classes, living on campus, or something random.  Be sure to check out my "About Me" section to learn all about who I am as both a student and a person.  Happy reading!