Tenth week of college! 10/26/12

This was probably the best week of being up here so far. It went by just as fast as usual, and it was filled with good times and doing all of my school work! 

For the last couple of weeks, I have been starting to slack in some of my classes. Coming into this week, however, I knew that I needed to start focusing again and completing all of my work. And that is exactly what I did. I finished all my math homework on time, and even went to the tutor this week to get help with some lessons I have been struggling with. I had my second math exam today which I feel very good about as well. I have never felt so satisfied with completing all of my homework and actually turning down going to the movies and hanging out with people to study and get all my work done for my classes. I think I finally realize that sacrificing time with friends now only allows me more time to have a blast later when I have everything done! 

Next weekend I go out of town to Kansas City with Pike! I am very excited about that and being able to get to know a lot more guys from, hopefully, my soon-to-be fraternity. I haven't been initiated yet but so far I am loving it and can't wait for that time to come!

Weather was very chilly this week. It rained on Tuesday and Wednesday and then the last two days have had high temps of about 35 degrees. The wind chill brings those temperatures down to about 22 degrees as you can see for yourself :)  But I'm NOT complaining! Maybe there are some few, occasional, no-big-deal moments that I want to be in warmer weather, but then I put another jacket on and it's all good! And I realize I'm much happier than being in 81 degree weather as we approach November!

As I said above, it was a very stressful week trying to catch up with my homework and getting everything done for my classes. But thanks to so many friends back home, they made my week so much more enjoyable. I had posted on Facebook how I missed my friends and can't wait for winter break, and long story short, it lead to an amazing conversation with a lot of people I really miss. And it put me in such a great mood I was laughing and getting such a kick out of what people were saying. I was actually sitting in class and read a message from my wonderful friend/brother/dad Paul Carnegie and I starting laughing and smiling and people were turning around looking at me wondering what I was watching. But there was nothing I could show people because it was simply one message that only I would understand.  Times like those really make me miss all my friends more but gets me excited for winter break! Which is in 47 days by the way...

 

Now because of all of my focusing on classes and getting my work done, I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures this week. :P However, next week will be much more relaxed and I will have time to enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather around me and take a lot more pictures. Since I know all of you are jealous that you can't experience the FLAT land and 40 degree weather. :)

Overall a fantastic week, and I can't wait for many more like this! Very happy with how my blog turned out this week as well. :) 7 weeks till I come home!

Love and miss you all!

Cameron

Ninth week of college! 10/21/12

Little delayed for this week....it has just been a very busy/lazy? weekend. I'm sorry to upset the THOUSANDS of people that read my blog every week :P  I will try not to let it happen again. I have been really busy with Pike and doing a lot of activities with them this weekend. 

Well....like I said above.....I was pretty lazy this last week which I need to get under control. (As you can tell by my late blog :(   I made sure to sit down and just power through all the homework I had for next week and I started figuring out the classes I want to take next semester. It's only about 3 weeks until I register for spring semester classes and as of right now....it looks like it is going to be a busy semester. 19 credits is the plan right now and after having Friday classes this semester...I want to try to not have classes on Friday ever again. But most likely because of my possibly busy schedule, I will probably end up having a class or two. 

Just another fast week as usual. Devin, my roommate, joined an intramural ice hockey team and that makes me want to look into the Lacrosse team here too. I miss playing lacrosse so much and I think by Devin joining a team, it will motivate me to find something to do as well. I have also started looking for a job. As more time goes on, the savings I have in the bank continue to diminish and there are some expensive items I have been looking at getting but I just don't have money to pay for them. So I have been applying to some places (pet stores in specific) hoping to start getting some income again. For those who don't know, I worked at a pet supply store for a year and a half and loved it. I want to try to work at a place that is similar to where I worked before just because of how enjoyable it was. I will make sure to let everyone know where I end up once I am offered a job.

It rained three days this past week and it looks like there are a few more days this next week of possible rain too! The high temperature on Friday is supposed to be 35 degrees! Definitely excited for that.

That's pretty much all I have for this past week. I go out of town to Kansas City with my fraternity in two weekends which I am very excited about but I will make sure to still write a blog of that week!

I also haven't taken any pictures since last week but I will upload several next week!

Sorry for the very basic, simple, boring blog....I will make up for it next week!

Cameron

 

Eighth week of college! 10/12/12

For this week I will just get straight to the questions I have been asked because I've talked about the weather and how fast the week goes by too many times. 

I have never really mentioned the typical class sizes or the environment type in my past blogs. To answer that  question, with exception to my lecture hall classes, all the other ones are only about 20-30 students. And my lecture hall classes are at most 100 students, so even then it isn't that bad. I am able to talk and get to know my professors a lot better in my smaller classes which is definitely a benefit. It feels similar to high school in a sense that because of the smaller classes, they are able to remember my name and I actually have conversations without having to remind them of my name every time. 

The learning environment in both type of classes is pretty much the same. In my lecture halls, I sit more towards the front because it is hard to hear what my professors are saying if I am in the back. By sitting closer it allows me to focus more and understand what he/she may be talking about. And since I am such an overachieving student I love sitting in the front anyways :p

I have mentioned it before but just to say it again now that I am halfway through my first semester, (crazy right?!) all my professors are wonderful! Most of them keep there office hours pretty open (although I haven't taken advantage of them yet) and are always there to help. 

Another question that was brought up is how the campus life is, and for the most part it is pretty laid back.  Walking to classes, eating food, hanging out in my room, whatever it may be it seems like everyone is just doing there own thing, especially walking to classes. I also haven't seen many people very angry up here. But maybe that is because they don't have time to and everyone just wants to hurry and get to class and get out of the 30 degree weather. But not me! :)

There are many group organizations that I have seen around campus but I haven't joined any yet. It seems like there are a lot of just general clubs; recycling, republican, christian, etc. and not so much the random wild clubs that I have heard about in various colleges. But who knows I'm sure some of them are out there I just need to look harder. 

Lastly, one last question I was asked was if there are many student events/activities such as concerts, dances, movies, etc. I know that the school has "late night" activities almost every weekend however I have only been to one of those events and it was one of my first weekends up here. Usually they have bingo, movie night, or other types of activities that can involve a lot of people. All of this takes place in our "Union" which is like our main building that has almost anything you can ask for.

All the above questions were from my wonderful Aunt Debby and Uncle Paul. Thanks for giving me topics to talk about because coming into this week I didn't think I had much to talk about :)

As weeks go on...this may become shorter and shorter....I just don't have much to talk about anymore! Help me out with that!

Cameron

Thought this was a cool picture. 

First hockey game of the season!

Seventh week of college! 10/5/12

Only the first weekend in October and we have had our first snow! I loved waking up to about 4 inches on the ground! Since it is still October the snow doesn't stay long but I hear that this is a promising sign to a very cold winter. I promised I would never complain about this wonderful weather and as of right now it's going great! People look at me crazy when I stand outside taking pictures and talking about how I LOVE the snow! All they say is that I am in for a big surprise when winter actually shows up.
I know my Aunt Erin and Uncle Loren got hit with some themselves over in Montana so it should be exciting for them too!

It is amazing how the weather can drastically change as well. When I got back on Monday it was 80 degrees, and on Tuesday it was in the mid to high 70's. But as Wednesday and Thursday came around, the temperature had dropped 40 degrees. The high for Thursday was 36 and today it hasn't gotten above 35 degrees. Not to mention there have been 30+ mph winds that beat on your face while walking to class. The weekend is supposed to bring clear skies though and all the snow should be melted away by the end of the weekend. However, the high temps for the weekend are only about 55 degrees so it will still be cool.


Thanks to my wonderful Aunt Debby and Uncle Paul, they gave me another interesting topic to talk about.....the prices of everything up here.  I haven't really ever talked about the pricing of stuff but it definitely is a big change from California. I heard today about the dramatic increase in gas prices in Cali....I guess it doesn't really affect me because I haven't been driving around but the prices here are still significantly lower than the prices back home. I think the local gas station is about $3.75 a gallon? Definitely a lot cheaper and prices seem to be pretty stable.

As for food, most restaurants and grocery stores seem to have the same price for meals, drinks, etc. So for the food side of it I think it is pretty standard compared to back home.  The BIG change that I see and hear about are the prices of parking/speeding tickets. Nothing close to how ridiculous the fines are at home. I overheard a girl talking on the phone in front of me while walking to class one day and she was talking to her mom and upset about how she received a $20 parking ticket for parking in the red zone. When I heard that I just about busted up laughing. The one parking ticket I have ever got was for that reason, and the cop that wrote me up slapped me with a wonderful $110 ticket.  So like I said before, that is the one BIG price difference I see between the two states.

Just another fast week as usual. My first math exam I got an 85% on so I was very happy about that! As far as I know, all my grades should be A's with maybe 1 or 2 B's but I am definitely doing much better (so far) than when I was in high school and for the past 6 years of my life. It feels good to actually get homework done early and not procrastinate. This week I got a little lazy but I blame the snow for that :)

Hope everyone is enjoying the 90 degree weather still back home, I know I'm NOT! And all my wonderful family that is everywhere else in the country, hopefully it isn't too bad wherever it may be.

Stay in touch :)


Cameron

Just another picture of the snow!

North Dakota.....told you it was flat ;)