Christmas Break

     Christmas is now less than a month away and I'm beyond excited! This is probably my favorite holiday out of them all and I can't believe it's here again! Spending time with family, drinking hot chocolate, watching movies, seeing all the Christmas lights, and of course the gifts. I can't wait. Normally, after my family opens the gifts at our house, we drive up to my grandparents house in Clarkston and have another Christmas there with the rest of the family, but this year it's going to be a little different. Since we are required to be back at Western around 3 P.M. on Christmas day, my family will have to rearrange the plans. Our basketball team does get 5 days off for Christmas, but we have to be back at school on Christmas day, which I'm not a fan of. In my opinion, Christmas day should be the one day that we get off, especially because some people live far away and they will have to leave super early on that day in order to be back on time. You shouldn't have to leave your family on Christmas day! So, instead of doing Christmas at my grandmas on Chirstmas day, we will have to either do it on Christmas Eve or some other time. I wish we could just have Christmas day off so that we wouldn't have to make any changes. Regardless of what we have to do though, I am super excited to be with my family again and have a couple of days to relax and enjoy the holiday!

Seeing Family

     This weekend I got to see my family, and it was so great! They came to watch our game on Sunday, and afterwards they took me out to eat and spent some time with me in my dorm. My sister even brought one of her friends with her, so it was really nice seeing everyone! I love when my family comes to up to Western. I like showing them what my life is like now, and what Kalamazoo has to offer. It's also cool that I know my way around here and they don't, I feel like I'm in control and showing off what I know! Showing them my dorm was fun too, my sister and her friend haven't seen it before, so it was interesting to get their persceptive and share with them what my living situation is like now. Definitely a lot different than back home! My mom also brought back some little gifts for me, which were so cute! She brought me more candy, a cable splitter so I can have cable in my room now, another little pillow, and some more money! It was very nice.
     Before coming to college, I didn't know how much I was going to miss my family back home. It's awesome having my own space and my own life here at Western, but I really do miss them back home! I love when they come up here to visit me or when I get the chance to go home. My family is who I'm most comfortable with, which is why I appreciate seeing them every once in a while. I honeslty don't know what I would do if I went to a school that was farther away. It would not only be harder for me to see them, but it would also be hard on me personally. Now that I think about it, I could have never gone to a school that was more than 3 hours away from home, it would've been way too hard. I'm so happy that I made the decision to come to Western. It's far enough for me to have my own space, but not far enough to keep me from my home and my family.

Project 3

     For project 3, I am officially doing it on Romantic Stories. I have to find 5-6 examples of romantic stories, and analyze them in order to understand what characteristics make up these kind of stories. Along with finding these examples, I also have to make a romantic story up myself, that has to be at least 3 pages long. This might not sound difficult, but I don't know how creative I can be, especially with a romantic love story! I guess we'll just have to see how it goes! Hopefully all of my research will help me along the way so I can make a great story. 

     In class on Thursday we got the news that this project isn't due until we come back from Thanksgiving break, and I couldn't be happier! I have a busy schedule, so more time is exactly what I need. This time extension will hopefully give me the opportunity to make my project better that what it was going to be. 

Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving is coming up and I can't believe I'm going to miss out on the family dinner. Every year, my family goes up to my grandparents house to have the traditional Thanksgiving dinner together. My grandma cooks all the amazing food, all the family is there to enjoy it, we watch football after, and eventually fall asleep on the couches. Not this year though! This year, I will be in Arizona playing basketball. I can't complain too much because I will be in nice weather, with my team, but it's going to be different not having that family dinner. I hope that when we are in Arizona, our Coach plans a dinner for us on Thanksgiving so we aren't missing out on the food! I'm really excited to travel, especially with my team, I think it will be fun and a great bonding experience. We will be in Arizona for a total of 5 days, so I'm hoping to get a little tan while I'm there as well. I love being in the sun, and the nice weather, so hopefully we're not indoors the whole trip! Maybe we'll get the chance to site see as well! That would be great. I know our team is going to have a great time, it's just not going to be the same as being with my family and having that delicious home cooked meal! Everyone knows that grandma's cooking is the best! I'll have to ask for someone to save me a piece of her homemade apple pie! 

Recap

     In class on Thursday, we got the chance to learn about Meme's and actually create one ourself. I didn't know that I actually read meme's all the time, on Twitter and Facebook, which was interesting for me to find out. All of the Bad Luck Brian's and what not, on Twitter, make me laugh a lot, and it was cool to get a chance to try and make one up ourselves. Mine wasn't very good, but I liked looking at the website filled with them.
     Another thing we did in class was talk about our next project. For project 3, we have to pick a genre to analyze. After watching clips from Twilight and The Vampire Diaries, we got the chance to see what makes those two significant to romantic vampire stories, and what characteristics it takes in order to be considered that type of genre. With this project, we basically have to research what makes our specific genre different from all the others. We have to teach the class what elements and characteristics it takes in order to be considered that genre. I decided to do my project on romance. I'm really into the romantic movies and books, so I think I will enjoy doing this genre. I also think it will be fun to look up and teach. 
     All of these projects are a little overwhelming, especially with all of the other things that are going on in my life, but if I keep working on them little by little, I will eventually finish them. I just can't wait until Thanksgiving when we get a break from all the schoolwork and studying! My mind can take a break for a little while! 

Meme

http://qkme.me/3ro2ru :)

Pinterest

     Pinterest is the best thing ever! For those who don't know what Pinterest is, it's an app, or a website, that has recipes, fashion ideas, home decor ideas, quotes, and much more. It's kind of like a mini-google, but you don't really type in what you're looking for. When you have a Pinterest account, you just look at everyone else's "pins," and see what's out there. You can pin things yourself, or you can re-pin other people's pictures. After getting a Pinterest account, I cannot stop looking through it. Whenever I'm bored, I look at Pinterest, no matter what time of the day it is. I haven't pinned anything yet, I just like looking at what other people have to put out there. I get a lot of great quotes from Pinterest, I also get a lot of great home decor ideas. I actually have a picture album on my computer now that's labeled 'Future Home,' and it contains all the pictures I found from Pinterest that I want in my future house. For example, someone pinned what they're new kitchen looked liked, and it was beautiful, so I added it to that album because I want a kitchen similar to that when I'm older! Another example of what I get off Pinterest is beauty tips. I learned on Pinterest that if you use coconut oil on your hair, it's supposed to help it grow! Little things like that pop up every now and then, and they're really interesting. Bottom line, I love Pinterest, and can totally blame it for burning my phone's battery life away!! 

Project 2

     For Project 2, I decided to stick with analyzing the song "She Ain't You" by Chris Brown. I really like this project because we got to pick something of our own choice. By choosing on our own, it gives us the chance to enjoy the project. No one likes writing papers, but when it's on something that we're interested in, it makes everything a little better! It actually makes the research and the work not bad. It also makes the paper get down a lot faster. When your writing a paper that you're not interested in or have no idea about, you have no motivation to write it, and it takes a long time to finish. Picking your own topic is much better! 
     In class on Thursday, we got to peer edit each other's papers, and as much as everyone doesn't like to, I actually appreciate it. Having someone else read your paper makes it easy to see the grammar mistakes. Since they didn't write it, they don't know what you're trying to say, so they can pick out the mistakes easily, which helps you in the long run. I also like peer editing because when I can help someone make their work better, it makes me feel good. It makes me happy to help them, and I'm glad we get the chance to do it as a class.