Spring Quarter

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS is a new favorite book of mine. I became totally engrossed in it as soon as I started reading and finished it in just a couple of sittings. It was beautifully written and intriguing the whole way through. The movie was a pretty big disappointment in comparison to the book. Characters were missing, had altered histories, and different roles or personalities. Maybe if I had seen the movie independent of the book I would have been able to enjoy it, but since I knew what the story could be, I could not fully appreciate the movie.

I really enjoyed seeing MEMPHIS at the end of the quarter. It was nice to relax a little and go out before getting caught up in finals. I might even say that seeing the musical helped me on one of my finals as the story fit in perfectly with my class on the history of African American music. It was exciting to see everything my professor had said in class come to life on the stage.

This quarter I had to say goodbye to my MENTOR after two years of friendship. We grabbed lunch together to celebrate her graduation from Ohio State and her admission to grad school at the University of Tennessee. It has been great to have her around the last couple of years but I am so excited for her to be moving on to bigger things and I know we will keep in touch for years to come.

Spring Quarter 2012 :)

1. Toronto

The trip to Toronto was so much fun. I had never been to Canada so this was a very fun and exciting trip for me. It was a great chance also for me to meet some new people that I hadn't met and explore a new city with my friends. My favorite thing that we did was either the Hockey Hall of Fame or the CN Tower. The CN Tower was a great opportunity to see the city. The Hockey Hall of Fame was really exciting also because it is Canada's national sport and I am a big hockey fan. It was unreal to get to see the memorabilia up close, especially the Golden Goal exhibit from the 2010 Olympics. I had a great time and am looking forward to seeing what is going to be next year's Spring Trip.

2. West Side Story

I really enjoyed West Side Story when I went with Humanities Scholars. I love the Ohio Theatre and loved this production of it. I love the movie version so I was excited to see the story on stage. I thought all the actors did great and really like the costumes. Although I know some people did not enjoy the play, I really liked it. The actress who played Maria also had an amazing voice and I enjoyed the songs.

3. Water for Elephants

This book to me was a fantastic read and I really really enjoyed it. Sadly I saw the movie before I read the book, which I never like to do, but I thought the movie was at least close to the book. I loved the development of the characters and the way she portrayed them. It was clear that the author had done her research and tried to keep her story line as realistic as possible. I really liked this book and would definitely recommend it. As for our group discussion, it was very interesting to me to hear everyone else's opinion on the novel. They brought new perspectives that I had not considered to the discussion and it brought new elements to the novel. I am interested to see what novels are chosen for next year.

Mystery of Edwin Drood

A few of my non-humanities friends were going to see this and they had an extra canned food item so they invited me along. Unfortunately I was so tired I ended up falling asleep during it. :( Not quite sure if that counts but I went all the same.

Spring Quarter 2012!

1.Toronto
By far the most exciting thing we did this quarter was the trip to Toronto. I had never been across the northern border before, so I was super excited.  Canada is obviously a different country, but you never really think about it having a different culture, so it was fun to see that.  We experienced most of what Toronto had to offer us as tourists, including the CN Tower, and the Hockey Hall of Fame, of Course.

2. Mentor/Mentee Minute to Win It
Unfortunately, our mentees were not able to attend Spring Quarter's signature event.  But we still had fun.  I was a little skeptical going in as to how it would be, but I was pleasantly surprised.  My group, which consisted of all mentors and no mentees, didn't get very many points, but we tried, and that's what counts, right?

3. West Side Story
This quarter I saw West Side Story for the very first time.  I've never even seen the movie.  The show was good, although not what I expected at all.  It seemed like there was too much happening to successfully fit into a two act show, but somehow it ended up working out.  I was expecting it to end up with all happy endings, but it never happens like that, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

Spring Quarter

This spring quarter had so many fun events to attend! I seemed to take a theater theme this quarter.
1. I went to see West Side Story at the Ohio Theater. It was such a great show. I loved all of the dancing, especially between the jets and sharks. I thought they did a fantastic job of keeping the integrity of the original production while adding new flair.
2. I also saw The Mystery of Edwin Drood. This show was so much fun! Everyone was entertaining and I absolutely loved the audience participation. I thought that OTL Productions was better than most all of the OSU Theater productions I've seen.
3. Finally, I saw Memphis at the Ohio Theater. This was my favorite of all the performances I saw this quarter. The music was outstanding, the storyline was old as time but with a new flair, and the costumes were fantastic. Although the lead actor sometimes got on my nerves, the vocals of the leading lady were incredible and the stories of all the characters were touching. Also, the musical did NOT end the way I expected to, which was actually really refreshing.

Spring Quarter 2012

This quarter I went to the quarterly Mentor-Mentee meeting.  We actually won third place in the challenges! I had a lot of fun with my friends even though my mentees weren't able to show up.  I can't wait to go to more events like this in the future, since I will be a mentor next year as well.

One event that was super big for me this quarter was Relay for Life.  I am a director for the ceremonies and survivorship committee.  I had a blast running the event, but I had the most fun getting to know the survivors and hearing their inspiring stories.

Lastly, I went to an Ohio State jazz band concert and heard one of my friends perform.  It was such a fun experience! I have never been to a concert on campus and was so glad I could finally go.  It was such a different crowd than I normally see.  It gave me a different experience from my usual on campus.

Mid Ohio Food Bank

I went to volunteer at the Mid Ohio Food Bank. It was my first time there and it was really fun. I got to meet some different Art Scholars and we talked the whole time. Marcus in the video explained the rules very clearly and it made the day run smooth. I really hope to get into more volunteering in the future.

Mentor Group Minute to Win It

I attended the 3rd and final signature mentor-mentee event for this year.  Unfortunately, a much of my mentees were no-shows (although I will not reveal names...), although part of me suspected that to happen both due to the attendance for the previous mentor-mentee event (only one mentee showed up) and when I emailed everyone in my group (both mentors and mentees alike), I got two replies that alerted me that they were not going to be able to make it to the event (I am not going to say names, but if I were to say who, I might mention that those who replied to my email were the same people at the 2nd mentor-mentee event ;) See what I did there).  Therefore, after I cried "Isis Hear My Plea" and Arkantos and friends appeared out of NOWHERE...wait ONE SECOND, that's Age of Mythology (a RTS game based on Greek, Norse, and Egyptian mythology, for those who did not know.  Oh, and an RTS is a Real Time Strategy, for those who did not know that either), not this event.  My bad. ;)  Well, Arkantos and friends didn't show up (because I did not say Isis Hear My Plea) but the other mentor in my group showed up.  Due to the lack of participate, we had to combine with another "menteeless" group.  It was fun seeing our group win at (and also fail at) the different games for this event.  Would I do this event again?  Sure (as long as my mentor group can motivate our mentees to go to the events).  Would I choose this as one of the signature mentor-mentee events again for next year?  I personally would recommend something different to change things up (so things don't get boring or dull).  And I apologize that Age of Mythology captured a lot of space on this blog post.

End of the Year

I once again attended the end of the year festivities. The subs were really good and it was great to see everybody one last time before summer. Congrats to all the graduating seniors, it's hard to believe I am already halfway done with college!

Spring Quarter 2012

So this quarter has by far been one of the busiest quarters at Ohio State, so I'll give a brief view of all the cool places I've been and things I've done humanities related:

(1) I had the opportunity to go on the spring trip to Toronto (which was super exciting, because I had the chance to bring my nice, new, and very expensive camera to take pictures.) Of the multitudes of things we did, and sights seen, I'd have to say my favorite is a toss up of the Hockey Hall of Fame and seeing War Horse. Of course, I am always a huge fan of theatre, so that's no surprise; but still, it was a really great trip!

(2) I went to several of the theatre shows in town this quarter, including Memphis (which was superb), Shrek the Musical, OSU's Marat/Sade, OTL's The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Falstaff. They were all really well produced, and though I will not go into length about each of them, I will say that Memphis was probably my favorite of all, closely followed by Drood.

(3) I went on another service trip with Access88: Access to Education initiative through ServeCorps, and had the opportunity to talk to elementary students about the importance of preparing early for college as well as thinking about what will college look like in the future.

So many things, and this isn't even 1/3 of it all. But, by and by, it's been an eventful quarter!