To tailgate or not to tailgate

On the Saturday of
the 15th, it was an exciting day for most ISU redbirds. Its homecoming and the
mood is tense. Thousands of students have gathered in the parking lots of the
football field. The smell of grilling and beer flows through the crowd.
Shouting and laughing also fills the air. The ISU homecoming tailgate is one of
the most anticipated events for most of the Redbirds. It’s a way for many
students to unwind and just have lot fun, while at the same time showing
support for the football team, and school spirit. On the flipside you must be
careful because many students use this day for an excuse to get wasted and do
stupid things, and officer of normal know this and look for underage drinkers
to bust. Also to prevent any confrontations from other drunken students one
must be careful while skipping through the crowds of route and misbehaving
drunks.

Dorm life 4 life

Most students at Illinois state university complain about
dorm life. They say it smells or its too crowded. They also say that the food
is so bad, and there’s not enough room. They all say they can’t wait to leave
on their own, and do everything for themselves. I do not agree with these
statements, because I believe the dorms to be a blessing. With the proper
dinning plan, you can eat as much as you want almost throughout the entire day.
Sure the food isn’t always the best, but you don’t have to cook it, and your
menu is virtually limitless or at least only held back by your imagination. The
washing and laundry machine is literally across the hall from me so I can relax
in my dorm room and do laundry all without running to a laundry mat. I’ll admit
that sometimes things seem a little crowded, but it’s just you and your dorm
mate so you only clean your half and that’s it. Also they say that they hate
sharing a bathroom, but at least when I shave my head I can ask someone to make
sure I got my entire head. Also I don’t have to clean the toilets, sink or
refill the toilet paper. I don’t have to vacuum, clean windows or do dishes.
The only thing I have to really worry about is myself. So I enjoy the blessings
of the dorms and all its magnificence because it only gets harder from here.

Alcohol in the Dorm

A Couple weeks ago I was too tired to go out, but I still wanted to drink with my buddies. We decided just to have some drinks in the privacy of our own dorm room. Now we knew this “wasn’t allowed” but many people in the dorms have alcohol. We started drinking, and about 30 minutes into the night we heard a knocking at the door. My buddy saw it was two women, so he opened the door for them asking if we could help them. We found out they were the RA’s on call. They said they could come in our room because we already opened our door for them. Then they saw two shot glasses on our fridge, they inspected them, confiscated them, and insisted that we open our fridge. Let’s just say they hit the jackpot that night. They had us take all of our alcohol to the sink and dump it down the drain. After that they wrote us a slip of paper saying that we broke the residence hall’s alcohol policy and we would have to have a meeting with their boss. We were being very cooperative and they thanked us for doing so and said being cooperative could only help us. We were very mad. A few days later we met with their boss and he issued us many sanctions that included fines and classes we had to take as well as papers we had to write. It was a pain to have to take the online classes, but I got through it okay. I found out later that our being cooperative was a good decision because these two RA's that busted us normally call the Normal police and have them issue tickets. That would have been a big problem that would be on my record. I am telling you this story to help you not get caught, and let you know that getting caught in the dorms with alcohol sucks, but it isn’t the end of the world.

Black Friday Chaos

This year, I participated in my first ever Black Friday. This is the day after Thanksgiving where all but a few stores have door-buster sales that people create hype about. I enjoyed Thanksgiving Day as any non-shopper would because the festivities did not commence until 11 pm. My friend picked me up and we got to Target an hour before the store opened and I was standing on the side of the store. Only 15 people were admitted into the store at a time and once I finally got inside, I realized why Black Friday carries the stereotypes it does. Items were all over the floor, people were running throughout the store, carts were crashing into one another, and the checkout lines were backed up to the isles themselves; all of this just for a camera my friend wanted which he did get 70 dollars off. After Target, we proceeded to Khols, which was my main destination. I needed new dress clothes so I bought 5 new shirts and 2 pairs of pants. The purchase ended up being 133 dollars with a 30 dollar gift card included (so roughly 100). However what makes this a deal is the fact that had it not been the day it was, my Khols charge card would have been hit with a 250 dollar dent. After a brief stop for coffee at 2 am, we headed to Woodfield mall to check out the deals they had there. Aside from how awkward it felt being in a mall such as Woodfield at 2 in the morning, our browse for hot bargains quickly turned into an impulse fiasco. A few of the roughly 200 dollars I spent at the mall ended up being for Christmas presents for my family, so I was put as ease a bit. All in all, Black Friday is such a wild night. Despite the pandemonium, clutter of people, and loss of patience experienced during the night, it was a fun time to experience with my friends and definitely something I will plan on partaking in annually from now on.

I Love Food, But Hate Lines

I love food, but I hate waiting. That’s the trouble with the dining centers around campus. They have almost anything you could want if you get creative enough. Now I don’t know if this is true at all dining centers but at the Linkins Center in Tri once it gets past 6 pm it becomes an all-out free-for-all for food. It seems like everyone is in a race to eat as much as they can before all the good food comes out. Yesterday I was standing in a line the wrapped all the way around the dining center so I could wait to get 2 pieces of turkey and some stuffing. Don’t even get me started on trying to get something from the Mongolian grill when it’s the dinner rush, the wait takes at least 20 minutes so when you get your food, all of your friends are done eating already. In my opinion there’s three parts of the dining center in tri. There’s the relaxed side when you first walk in and where most people sit, and there’s also the exciting side that has all the TV’s and all the big booths. The last part is what I call the reject side because it’s got absolutely nothing by it. There’s barely any place to sit and it’s all just 4 or 2 person tables and when you sit there you really can’t see anything it’s like your cut off from the rest of the dining center. My new plan is to eat right after 5 which is when dinner starts. That way all of the food is fresh and new and I don’t have to wait in such a long line like I would if I showed up an hour later.

More Turkey Please!

On Wednesday, November 16^th Watterson Dining Commons held a grand Thanksgiving feast for all students. It was quite delicious to say the least. They served of course turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, corn, green beans, stuffing and many other seasonal dishes. I'd say it was a nice break from the normal pizza, pasta and sandwiches that I think most are more than tired of eating everyday. It was pretty nice too to be able to have a whole Thanksgiving meal even before the one most would have at home during break. I know my friend and I were looking forward to it for a while and were definitely pleasantly surprised!

Homecoming

Going to college includes many fun and new experiences. Along with those fantastic experiences come havoc and a lot of aggravating experiences. One of the things we miss the most when we go to college is our family and old friends. This weekend everyone at ISU living in the dorms is going home because campus is shutting down and along with the dorm residents people from off campus housing join their fellow redbirds in their homecoming. There are many ways to get back home: car, bus, and train being some of them. The medium of transportation I chose was the train because it is convenient to purchase train tickets and they almost always run on time. Well, that is not always true. I took the train on Friday of thanksgiving break and had a terrible experience. There is a long list of problems the main issue being that the train is running 3 hours behind schedule. This turns out to be a huge inconvenience for people because many people either have obligations to tend to at home or they are trying to catch another train to get back home. I have taken the train home on 4 different occasions and they were running late 2 out of the three times that I took the train. I recommend that students try to catch a bus instead of the train because the bus is cheaper and so far the bus is much more reliable.

I’m looking forward to seeing many things when I get back home. The list of things I can’t wait to see when I get back is fairly generic but I can’t wait to see my family and my friends and of course my pet dog. Last time my dad picked me up from union station I received a warm greeting from my dog Winston as he licked the side of my ear. The funny part is that I remember saying on the train that I hope my dad brings my dog with him on the car ride and sure enough I saw him as soon as I got within a ten foot proximity of the car as I saw my dog rise in excitement because he sees me through the window. One thing that college has taught me is to appreciate what I have back at home and I feel many other people are getting the same discovery as me. I know this because whenever I log into Facebook I see the statuses that say “going back home today can’t wait to shower without flip flops!!”. Although that person is excited to go back home and see their family they also noticed the little things like having to shower with flip flops on and they realize how nice it really is being home. I also can’t wait to get a break from the unhealthy cafeteria food that the school offers. The freshmen 15 exist largely because the school provides them resources to eat unhealthily and not so much the healthy diet. This week we have Thanksgiving and I can’t wait to have some turkey with the side of some succulent honey baked ham. Each bite I take I’m going to savor the flavor and appreciate the time with my family rather than feeling annoyed because I have to eat dinner with my annoying family.

At the BBC

The Bowling and Billards hall is located right on campus next to the Bone Center. It is a great place to go to hang out with friends and escape from the books. It is uually open pretty late, closing at around 11:00 p.m. The price for bowling is pretty affordable, averaging about five dollars for two games of bowling and a pair of rented shoes. Compared to home these prices are very low. Near my hometown the price of bowling would be about twice this amount. Some nights you can even catch cosmic bowling that pops up randomly during the week, at least since I have been there. There is plenty of space with 10-14 bowling lanes.

Next to the bowling area there is a pool hall. There are about 12 pool tables. All of the tables are in good condition so you dont have to worry about getting your money's worth. The price to rent a table for an hour is about $1.50.

The BBC has its own concession stand and arcade room so if you get the urge to have a snack its available. I would reccomend the BBC to anybody who wants to have a good time and relax.

Elevator Catastrophe

One of Wright Hall's elevators are under reconstruction. Each day students have to cram up in one elevator. Students have to wait 10 minutes just to take the elevator or they could take the challenge of walking up the stairs. I guess its not bad if someone lives on the 1st to the 4th floor. But I live on the 5th floor and by the time I get to the fourth floor I'm tired. I feel sorry for the students that live on the 12th floor. If you want take the elevator down you have to wait until it goes up to pick up the students from the top floor. The elevator has been under reconstruction for weeks now and everyday we have to go through the same dreadful situation. The elevator is suppose to be finished on December 2nd, but they started reconstructing it two weeks after the original date that was set. Until then the elevators will continue to take forever and be crowded.

My first ISU game

I went to my first ISU basketball game yesterday, It was a great experience. We played against Southern Illinois University Edwardsville we won by a 30 point margin. I won a free Buffalo Wild Wings ticket because the young lady in our section was able to make a 3 pointer during the half time show. I was sitting in the student section and they asked for us to help sing the song "Jump around" while we were on the dance camera in the center of the arena. I had a great time at the game and showed great school spirit!

Get Your Work Out On!

Staying in shape in college is very important to me. Since Thanksgiving break is just around the corner I wanted to get a good work out in before I leave. My friends and I are always looking for something new and interesting to do so at Illinois State’s Recreation center we thought we would see what they had to offer us. We looked up what the possibilities were and we found out we could go rock climbing, take boxing, a zumba dance class, cycling class, the normal lifting and cardio workout, and even play basketball. The ideas were endless and we could not have been more excited! I went rock climbing once and thought how fun it was the first time we should try it out. My friends insisted we take a zumba dance class because they thought it would be hilarious to watch us practically make fools out ourselves since we have no rhythm. Of course I tagged along for the good laugh and found out all the classes were free! Once we got into the room everyone in there was so friendly and shockingly many were first timers. Glad to know we were not in this alone. Our instructor Becky was so kind and made us feel very comfortable. She started out with a quick warm up and then began the music. The music that was playing was the type of music on the radio from country, to hip-hop, to rap. Taking from the side that the music being awesome, my dance skills were not so much. Good thing my friends were on the same page as me because that would have just been awkward. Even though people in the class were taking it seriously at least it was not too serious. Also the best part no boys! Which was the best thing I forgot to mention. The dance moves were easy to follow but considering I have no rhythm I suppose it was not as embarrassing as I thought it would have been. I ended up having the best time and definitely would consider coming back!

Its Concert Time!

On November 17 at 8 pm, I went to a Wind Symphony concert that was hosted by the Fine Arts department. When I first got there, I had to wait in a line to get my ticket which cost 6 dollars. After this, I was able to go find my seat. This event was packed so it was difficult to find a seat. Following this, I had to wait for a couple minutes for the concert to start. There was excitement on the room for the concert to start. Everyone was really excited for this event because this is one of the tops bands at Illinois State University. When the concert finally started, the first song that they played was Sea Dreams. When they started this song, it started with a lot of energy. Everyone was happy that this song started out well. As they played the song, there were a lot of musical rhythms and a lot of dynamic changes. There was two French Horn soloist for this song and as they were played they did an outstanding job presenting the song. After the song was over, everyone starting clapping because they enjoyed the first song. This song was about 30 minutes long. After the clapping died down, the next song called Symphony No. 9 started up. They performed this song extraordinarily well. There were a lot of movements that they performed in this song. They had fast, slow, exciting, and sad sounding movements in this song. This song lasted about an hour and ten minutes. After this song ended, everyone stood up and applauded for about ten minutes. Everyone enjoyed this song because the band did such an outstanding job. I was pleased with this concert because i enjoyed all of this music and they did an outstanding job with this. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys music or who likes listening to bands.

Where are You Liting Up?

Now I know the smoking age is 18, and I am almost positive everyone attending ISU is the age of 18, but does that mean you have to blow your smoke my way? I understand on campus students and faculty are allowed to smoke freely on campus, however when you’re smoking your cigarette think about which way the wind is blowing, because chances are your smoke is blowing into me! I know I made it obvious that I don’t like smoking but I don’t hate people who do.I think whoever is the head honcho is around here should do something about smoking on campus. I’m not saying to completely ban it as a whole, but instead of smoking and blowing smoke in non-smoker pathways why don’t you step to the side and smoke like under a tree or leave for class a little earlier so you can smoke outside of your living area or even outside the building.

I mean that’s fine if you’re okay with killing yourself, but are you okay with killing others?
Think about where you are and who you could affect before you lite up.

Thanksgiving Feast at Watterson

I always liked Thanksgiving because of the great food that comes along with it. I was fortunate enough for Watterson Dining Commons to have their own great feast last night on November, 16. Let me elaborate on the food I got from the feast and tell you how I thought the food tasted. Starting off with the wonderful turkey they had. It looked pretty tasty from the window and overall it had a good flavor to it. The one issue I had with the turkey is that it was a little dry. Nothing a little gravy couldn’t solve. Any person that has ever sat in front of the dinner table knows stuffing is always apart of Thanksgiving dinner. The stuffing the dining hall provided was the best item they offered. Moving on the mash potatoes portion of the meal. Well they where dry also which disappointed me because I always liked great mash potatoes. I solved the issue by adding some butter. The final portion of my feast at the dining hall was the green beans. Not a lot to say about the green beans, they were not too bad. I did not participate in any dessert. I was never a fan of pumpkin pie. My overall grade for ISU Thanksgiving dinner is a C+. I expected better out the dining hall. They have yet to surprised me even though I still think they have potential. I look forward to Thanksgiving break and having a excellent feast. I hope everyone looks forward to a good meal and being with family.

The Weird Man Next to Me

For one of my classes, I had to go see a play for an assignment. It was open to the whole university, so I am going to talk about it for my university event. The play was called Women of Lockerbie and my experience was pretty good, but I wouldn’t say it was necessarily because of the play itself.

My experience at Women of Lockerbie was interesting to say the least. I walked in, and to my surprise I was very excited because I was sitting front and center. Being excited at a play is a whole new thing to me because I’m not a big play guy in the first place, but I figured since I had a great seat I might as well make the most of it. However, about ten minutes later, the man who was sitting next to me came strolling in. He was different to say the least. He must’ve been in the play at some point because he was a huge fan. He knew every word, and was very into the whole play from start to finish. Let’s just say it made it difficult to concentrate because I have a hard time concentrating at plays in the first place.

Overall, the play itself was pretty good. I thought that it has a lot of good messages and I think that the play overall was very touching. It made me think a lot about what would happen if my parents were to lose me or if anything like this were to happen in my community, how we would respond. I also felt that the actors did very well. It is weird to think that they are only a few years older than me and they are already that involved in their major and are able to put on big productions like this. Like I said, I’m not a huge play guy so I don’t know when the next time I go see a play will be, but if I do see one that catches my eye, I will have to go see it because I had a decent experience this first time around.

Its not break yet!

Everyone is looking forward to the Longley anticipated thanks
giving break. Students get childishly happy at the thought of seeing relatives,
friends, and even their long lost pets. The idea of a week break of doing
nothing but sleeping in, hanging with friends and family, and not studying
seems very appealing to most, and doesn’t make you feel like doing a lot of
work. Students know this, but teachers know this especially, that last few days
before all these students go home, can almost seem like the students are
getting a little anxious. So what better to calm a bunch of students down??
Load them up with a bunch of homework, papers, and test to take the edge
off. It’s been widely discussed the controversy
between students and teachers whether to give students off a week before, or
load them up with tons of homework. It seems really inefficient to load a bunch of students up with work, so
they turn in a bunch of crapy work and fail their test.

Thanksgiving Break

The longest week of my life at ISU has been the week before Thanksgiving break. When I first arrived at school, I thought that there was no way I would ever want to go home again. The people I was meeting and the things I was doing were so much fun and I thought that life couldn’t get any better. Once school got rolling and classes started picking up, I longed more and more to go home. I would have never thought that the day would come that I wanted to be back home, but right now it's all I can think about. Sleeping in my own bed, showering without wearing flip-flops, and eating home cooked meals will feel like such a relief when I’m home. I look forward to seeing my friends and family and taking a week off to relax since I've put so much hard work into school this semester.

Thanksgiving break will be one of the greatest times of the year for me. Sitting around the table at Thanksgiving with all of my family will be absolutely amazing. Seeing all of their smiling faces and telling them all the things I have been doing in college and comparing it to what they did in college will be really interesting. I have some pretty good stories to tell and I can't wait to hear what they think of them. This much-needed break has come at a perfect time and I look forward to making the most of it. I couldn't ask for anything more than to spend time with my family, see all of my friends, and of course enjoy some well deserved free time.

Getting Involved

Sunday was my first dance showcase at ISU. I woke up at 8am to get ready for practice at 9:45. When I got to the Braden Ballroom I was so excited. It was the first time I was dancing on a stage since May of last year! We practiced until 12:30, got food, and next thing you know it was time for the show! It was an incredible feeling! I met these girls in August but I feel like I've known them my whole life! The show went great and all my friends, my mom, and even my old dance friends came to see me! It's incredible to see the bonds you can form here. That's what I was most nervous about when coming here. I was so scared that I wouldn't be able to find my place at a huge university. I was scared I wouldn't be able to find friends who like what I like. But ISU has so many great things to offer. Not only am I part of a dance team, I'm floor president, and part of Ivisible Children. You've just got to build up the courage, go out and try new things. It's a great way to build new friendships and make ISU feel more like home. It's also a great way to get away from all the schoolwork!

Fear the Bird Fridays

Every Friday at ISU the university hosts an event called Fear the Bird Fridays. It is an event that allows students to show school pride on Fridays. Usually when walking on the quad on Fridays you see many kids wearing the t-shirts because it is a big event at the school. It is a lot of fun and other students always like to wear the t-shirt to show school spirit. All you need to do is wear the shirt that says “Fear the Bird” and you become eligible for free prizes and discounts at the Bone Student Center! One of the more recent prizes was at Pizza Hut at the Bone last Friday when with any order of any pasta you would get three free bread sticks and a twenty four ounce drink. This Friday at the Bone Burger King will be holding a special for people wearing their Fear the Bird Shirts. They will only need to pay 1 dollar for a Whopper. Now after hearing about all these great prizes you might wonder where can you buy a Fear the Bird t-shirt well all you need to do is go to the Barnes and Noble or the Lobby Shop in the Bone Student center to buy one. You can also purchase the t-shirt online as well at the school website. Fear the Bird Fridays is a fun event for all and I strongly recommend that you join in the fun with everyone else.