Happy Veterans day (yesterday!) Yesterday was Discovery Day!! It was ton of fun and there was a lot of students visiting the university . For those who didn’t come to Discover Day or didn’t know what Discovery Day is/was, Discovery day is like a mini open house. The academic departments had tables set up around the Center for the Arts and there were tours of North and South Campus. If you missed Discovery Day and would like a tour of campus you can come any day of the week (including Saturday!) to see North campus. Make sure to sign up online though!!

Aside from that tour plug, things on campus have been extremely busy. Yesterday and today is the vice presidential elections for the Student Association (our student government). The elections are extremely heated and you can barely walk through the student union without being bombarded by fliers. Its kind of exciting to see how excited and involved students are in the student government.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but with the holidays comes all of the rest of the work and exams that I need to get done before going home for break. Its terrifying to think that once Thanksgiving comes, there are only two more weeks left in the Fall Semester.

As I’ve said in almost all of my previous blogs, time is flying by. The last thing I knew it was October and I was getting excited about my birthday. I blinked and now its November! Where is this semester going?!My time has been consumed with studying for tests and writing papers.  I have also been doing some investigative work looking at potentional grad schools or internships for next year.

With the exception of the awesome football games I haven’t been doing too much stuff around campus- thats not to say that there hasn’t been a million things going on! This time of the year seems to be very busy on campus with events and speakers for students to go to. The student association Comedy series will be coming up very soon. ComedianDaniel Tosh will be coming to the UB Center for the Arts. He is really funny – I am really excited to see him live.

The next month will be pretty relaxing, I don’t have any crazy weekend trips planned like I did in the month of Octobe

At the beginning of every semester my mom warns me how quickly the year will go by. Usually she is right but during the actual school year it doesn’t seem to be moving that quickly until the year ends and I realize that it is over.  This year, however, seems to be on turbo speed. Not only is my birthday right around the corner (October 25^th) but I am done with all of mid-term exams. That means that my finals are creeping up in a few weeks- which means the years is very soon going to be over. I absolutely cannot believe it and am extremely sad about how quickly time is passing.

There are a lot of parallels between my senior year in high school and my senior year in college that I am slowly seeing as times passes on. When I was a senior in high school my time was spent worrying about being accepted into a college. Luckily I got into UB which was very exciting. Now as a senior in college I am trying to decide if I should apply for schools and go through that process again or if I should spend a year working at a professional internship to gain work experience. There are so many options, I almost wish someone could decide for me, the same feeling I had when I was apply for colleges during my senior year of high school.

This past weekend, after open house, was spent studying for my Foreign Policy exam, which was on Tuesday. I think I did pretty well because its one of the topics I have the most interest in- not to mention it is taught by one of my favorite professors at UB.  After this week I am on my way back to Cleveland for my birthday weekend. I will get to spend it with my parents who I haven’t seen in a really loooong time. It will be a nice relaxing weekend.

Yesterday was Fall open house!! I hope some of the people who read this were in attendance because it was a lot of fun and extremely informative. Although it was a pretty long day (started at 7:30) it was a really great experience. My day was spent talking and giving directions to perspective students.  I know I’ve mentioned it before but I actually remember my open house experience as a prospective student and think it was one of the main reasons I ended up at UB. The students volunteering at Open House when I was a prospective student were friendly and welcoming and made me really excited about UB. Don’t worry if you missed open house this weekend because there is a Discover Day coming up in November which is like a mini open house for those who don’t know about it.

Other than the excitement of Open House, I spent the weekend studying for a big exam I have coming up on Tuesday. Unfortunately it looks like the next few weeks are going to be filled with studying for exams and applying for graduate schools, something I have been dreading since the school year began. When I was applying for undergraduate back in high school I not only had my mom to constantly remind me to get them done but I also had the rest of my graduating class working on applications. Now it seems like all of my friends are doing a million different things after graduation so I have to keep reminding myself to get stuff done.

I am really excited for this upcoming weekend because its my birthday- except for the fact that I will be verrrrry old.

I just have to shout out to the UB Football team who totally rocked it at their game this past weekend.  Not too mention it was the homecoming game! The boys played against Gardner-Webb and totally crushed them 40-3! YAY BULLS!!!!!!!! You guys did awesome.

Aside from some awesome football playing- this weekend was great. I spent a lot of time with my roommates and friends enjoying the last few days of the warmer weather. It was really sunny and beautiful this past weekend which was great because it was family weekend/ homecoming weekend. On Friday evening the student association had their yearly homecoming carnival which was really fun. There were rides and food and of course it was all free for students to attend which was the best part. Unfortunately my parents could not come in for family weekend, but I still had a great time hanging out with my friends.

This week has been flying by. Tomorrow is my fellow blogger Lynlee’s 21st birthday!!! Happy Birthday!!! It is also open house this weekend so I’m sure there will be a ton to blog about.  I remember when I went to open house at UB when I was a senior in high school. I remember really liking everything I saw. I also remember going for a tour of one of the dorm complex’s Ellicot. It is fun to look back and think about how different the university seemed to me then. I feel like each year I have been at school I have discovered a different part of UB.

Like the title says, October is going to be an awesome month. Busy but awesome. This upcoming week is when the second distinguished speaker is coming to UB. Tony Blair will be speaking  next Wednesday-another free event for UB undergraduate students.  This past weekend was very exciting as well. Friday night was another UB STARS training- this time we focused on preparing for Open House (which is October 17 – check out the admissions website for more info). During open house, the UB STARS are the student volunteers  who help prospective students. I will also be at open house giving tours of campus. It is always a busy day but its a lot of fun.

This weekend was a lot of fun after training. Saturday night was really fun because it was the opening game for the Buffalo Sabres, the hockey team for Buffalo. I watched the game with a bunch of my friends at the Pearl Street Brewery- a local Buffalo restaurant (with excellent hot wings). Even though the Sabres didn’t win, the game was a lot of fun to watch.

The rest of my weekend was spent doing homework and studying for a test. The next few weeks are going to fly by because I have a lot going on.

I cannot believe that tomrrow is the first day of October. I know I say it every year but I truly feel like this semester is absolutely flying by. It is hard to believe that only a few weeks ago I was dreading the end of the summer break and now it seems like that was months and months and months ago.

The semester has been flying by so quickly because I have been extremely busy. Most of my time has been spent either working in the office of admissions or going to class. My classes have not been too difficult thus far so I am pretty happy with the outcome of my schedule. It is always difficult to know which classes to take which is why it is very important to meet with an academic advisor at least once a semester. I always find that after I plan out my year of classes with my advisor, I feel more comfortable about the upcoming academic path I am on.

Otherwise things have been very quiet. The month of October always has some interesting things.  In two weeks it is my fellow blogger Lynlee’s 21 birthday!! I am really excited to celebrate with her- not to mention that my birthday is not too far off from hers. (You can begin planning what you will be getting me). I just bought tickets to Ave Q which is a broadway show that is traveling across the country and making a stop here in Buffalo at the UB Center for the Arts. Tickets were really cheap for students with a UB card so I could not pass up the opportunity to see it.  It is also family weekend in two weeks which includes the homecoming football game which should be pretty exciting.

It is exciting to see the trees start to change colors but it is also a reminder that the semester is nearing its halfway point….

It has started to get much cooler outside. I guess I have to officially accept that it is mid-September and the summer is basically over. Sigh, it was nice while it lasted. I cannot believe that we are three weeks into the semester. It feels like yesterday that everything just started. Though three weeks doesn’t sound that long in the scheme of things, it means we are almost half way through September.

Last night kicked off the guest speakers series with Kofi Annan. He spoke about human rights and global equality among the citizens of the world.  The focus of his speech was on international relations- something which I am extremely interested in.  He was a great public speaker and really kept me engaged in what he was saying.  I really love that UB has such interesting and important speakers. It also makes me feel like UB has more focus on the global world rather then focusing only on the small University community.

Like I said earlier, I am going home this weekend for the Rosh Hashanna. I am really excited to see my family and have some great home cooked food.

Which three little letters am I talking about? The GRE’s! Also known as the Graduate Record Examination. It has been hanging over my head since the beginning of August when I took my prep course for the GRE’s. Now the date of my test is right around the corner and causing me to wake up in cold sweats and have dreams about forgetting how to do simple math. This little stupid test is haunting me!! For the past few days I have been dedicating myself to getting some final practice tests done but I don’t seem to be improving my scores…at all….scary stuff to think about!I am still not completely positive if I am even going straight to grad school after I graduate from UB but I want to keep all of my possibilities open.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. Kofi Annan will be here to speak about for the distinguished speakers series. I cannot express how excited I am to hear him speak. I have also had an interest in the United Nations (international politics major, hello?) and it will be a really cool opportunity to hear someone who was so influential in improving the United Nations to become the powerful body it is today. He also focused greatly on improving international human rights which is the field I want to concentrate once I am working in the international relations field. Let me just say that it is amazing to go to a university where we get speakers like Mr. Annan to come and speak to our students. (Just my own little plug for why UB is awesome!!)

All subliminal plugs aside, I finally feel like I am back into the swing of school. I have been working hard to stay on track with all of my homework and balance studying for the GRE’s. (just typing that word is making me sweat)

After the other days’ post about my senioritis I got myself into gear. I think writing everything out that  I had to do really got a fire under my behind.

The next two weeks are going to be pretty busy. This upcoming weekend I am going home for Rosh Hashanah.  My family is coming in from all over to celebrate the holiday together at my parents house in Cleveland. Then the week after that is my when I will be taking my GRE which I am totally nervous for. I took a prep class and everything but I am still having trouble getting into the mode of the test. I am not a great standardized test taker so it takes a lot of work for me to do well as tests like the GRE.  Studying for my GRE’s has taken up a lot of my  time  so I have been trying to catch up with all of my homework for my classes. My classes are still going really well and there has not been that much homework yet so I am not worried that I am going to fall behind. The next two weeks are going to be spent doing as much GRE prep as possible so I feel ready for my test.

Like I said in my last blog, I am really excited for the guest speaker Kofi Annan to kick of the distinguised speakers series this week. I know a lot of my friends will be attending so it should be an interesting experience.