Monday, September 29, 2008

I sure hope this doesn't turn into my whole life story

Hello again everyone!

So I was thinking of topics for the next thrilling look into my life at Saint Mike’s, and it suddenly struck me. What better than a mini “day in the life” of Christine Amoresano, SMC sophomore. I mean as far as I’m concerned I’m a quasi-normal 19 year old college student, why not let my readers (who are presumably college hopefuls, and hopefully Saint Michael’s College hopefuls) in on the actual play by play of a typical day. So let’s do this, shall we?

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday always start off with breakfast at 10 with my bff neighbor Megan and my teammate, friend, and fellow blogger Mairead. Then we head to our 10:30 classes. Meg and I have research methods which, for psychology majors like us is a requirement and a pre-requisite to most of the awesome psych classes to follow (sport’s psych here I come!). Side note: I’ve taken general psych, psych stats, and abnormal psych pre-this semester (and tons of other classes so if you’re interested in anything at all, email me and I can help you out or ask someone who can.)

Moving on, Meg ditches me to go eat whatever delicious wrap there is for lunch, and I go to my next class: Italian. I’m super excited to be taking it since I want to study abroad in Italy next fall (that's me studying in the gorgeous Vermont outdoors). We have an amazing study abroad program here by the way. You can go ANYWHERE you want to. Sarah, my roommate, is thinking about a semester at sea, where you stay on a boat and go all over. So cool.

After that I head on over to Genres: Fiction. It’s a really enjoyable class where we read and discuss, and it fulfills my English requirement. If anyone has any questions about our requirements here (it could be confusing) let me know and I can help you out. I won’t mention it here for the sake of those that already know, since it’s one of those boring admissions questions.

After that I head over to Alliot for lunch with my boyfriend (I used to eat alone so he pushed back his lunch time…so nice) and some friends. Post-lunch I usually try to rest my brain for a while before hauling myself to swim practice from 3:30-5:30. Mairead recently wrote about swimming and athletics, and I linked you above so you should check that out if you’re interested. After swimming I eat with the team and return to my room for homework (and TV is gossip girl, one tree hill, or house is on).

Now considering Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are different than Tuesday and Thursday, I guess I should better let you in on those days too. I have an early class at 8:05 those days: Physiological Psychology. It’s really interesting even though it’s early and long. I’m actually dissecting a sheep brain tomorrow! Which I think is cool as opposed to really gross. Anyway then that’s it for me. I usually go back to bed until lunch at 11:15 and do my work after that.

Now my schedule may seem like a piece of cake, but that’s just because I learned to organize it well. I can do a huge amount of my work on Tuesday and Thursday when I don’t have a lot of classes, and relax after a long day the other three days of the week. Making a schedule that’s perfect for you is relatively easy here, and it gets easier the longer you’re here because you get preference if you’re a higher class year.

Classes are scheduled differently on the M/W/F schedule than the T/Th, but fitting things in and taking what you want when you want to isn’t hard. If you’re a morning person (or a biology major) you can take classes starting at 8, 8:30, or 9:30. If not, 10 and 10:30 might be better. Typical classes are also scheduled for 11:45, 1, and 2:30 and the length of everything varies by class. A lot of times it depends on how many credits the class is or whether it has a lab or not. My 4 credit physio psych lab is 1 hour and 40 minutes, but my 3 credit fiction class is 50 minutes.

So I think I’ve covered enough for one day. As always, keep me updated on what you like, don’t like, want to hear more of, or want to hear about. Send me emails, facebook me (let me know you’re a reader so I don’t think you’re creepy), or even IM me at cea000@aol.com. I’d love to hear your questions about this crazy place I call my home.

Keep it real
-Christine

Sunday, September 21, 2008

A Weekend in Vermont

Hey everyone! So it’s another lazy Sunday here at Saint Mike’s, and I figured also the perfect time to catch up with everyone. This week went MUCH faster than the last, and we’re all just about settled into the schedule we’ve laid out for ourselves. That said, the weekend still came as a blessing. I think maybe a post about weekend activities here at SMC would be perfect to help you get the real-life feel of a student.

Almost every good weekend (or specifically
Saturday and Sunday) starts off with BRUNCH in Alliot. Ask any SMC student…brunch is the best meal. We’ve got French toast, pancakes, bacon, sausage, omelet bar, waffle makers, and all the usual breakfast specialties. AND you can also help yourself to lunch items like pizza or a hot sandwich and curly fries. Whatever you choose, you won’t be let down.

Now after brunch, depending on whether you forced yourself to get up and eat before Alliot closed, you might just go back to sleep. But, if you’re slightly more adventurous, you can shower and start your day. The perfect way to do this (if you’re not bound to the gym by your sports team...but more about that at another time) is to hit up downtown Burlington. I went down yesterday (for the first time this year, I couldn’t believe it) and did a little shopping around. In addition to fabulous shopping, Church Street has some of the greatest food (especially if you’re starving haha). We chose a place that recently opened up called Boloco Burrito and were not disappointed. A large burrito and a soda for $8? That’s a college student’s dream right there.

After we ate we piled back into the car to come back to campus and work on some homework before Saturday night came around. (And for good measure went to eat some wing bar in Alliot at dinner time.)

On a side note, if you have a car up here (second semester only for the first years), parking is free for 2 hours in the church street lots. But no car isn’t a problem either, because the bus is free and is about a 15 minute ride.

I also took time yesterday to enjoy the gorgeous Vermont scenery while the weather is still warm. I did some homework across the street on the lawn that overlooks the mountains, and there’s probably no need to say I didn’t do as much as I would have if I was in my room. But then again, I probably would have chosen a nap instead if I stayed inside. Anyway, that’s always a relaxing experience. It really is gorgeous here all year round, and yesterday was no exception.

So the bottom line is that no matter where you’re from or what you like, there’s always something for a student to do at SMC on the weekends. Sleeping in, shopping, sampling the local eateries, apple picking, hiking, going on a trip with the wilderness program, going to the waterfront, relaxing outside, doing homework, or watching football with friends, and endless more. Saint Mike’s is a place where you can feel at home no matter what you choose to do on the weekends.

I think that’s all for today. I encourage anyone and everyone to leave comments or send me an email at camoresano@smcvt.edu if you have questions you would like answered of if there’s a blog topic you wish I would cover. Parents and potential students alike, I would really love to hear from you (at least then I would know that someone other than my parents reads this…hi mom and dad.)

Keep smiling,
Christine :]

Friday, September 12, 2008

Hello!

Hey there!


Christine here, welcoming you to the first of many stories about my sophomore year here at Saint Mikes. First things first, I want to share a little about myself.

I hail from the one-square-mile town of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, located 5 minutes from Giant Stadium and 20 from midtown Manhattan. I enjoy swimming, skiing, singing, and being ridiculous. I’m a psychology major with no idea what I want to do with my life, but that’s ok with me. My daily activities include lots of swimming and eating, saying hello to everyone I know, and spending quality best-years-of-our-lives time with my friends.

I’m an avid watcher of Grey’s Anatomy, House, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Jeopardy, and almost anything on the Game Show Network. My music selection is broader than a Border’s CD section, and ranges from Lil’ Wayne to Hanson and Bruce Springsteen to Girl Talk. I read as much as I can and my current favorites are the Twilight book series (yes, I’m one of those), and The Little Prince. My favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast and macaroni and cheese is the key to my heart.


My most recent accomplishments include scoring sweet housing in Founder's Hall with my fabulous roommate Sarah, joining the SMC swim team for another promising year, and hunting down a Sonic while on vacation with my family in South Carolina (check the photo!)




I can’t wait to share all of my experiences with you this year and hope you enjoy reading my page as much as I enjoy writing for you. Stay tuned for future installments and check out the pages of the other SMC bloggers.

Until next time,
Christine :]