One More Week...

So right now I have no motivation at all to do work. This is the final week of classes and I have all of my work turned in and should be focusing on my three finals but for some reason I have not been able too. Not to mention, I do have over 400 pages of reading combined to do for all of my classes. I know I should probably get on it but I just do not have the motivation. I think the only reason why I am feeling like this is because we have never gone this far into the school year. In the three years here I always remembered being home around the 13th. Instead I am going to be home on the 21st which is three days before my birthday and four days before Christmas. Well enough about my lack of motivation. This past weekend we indulged in the oldest tradition at Elmira College. No not singing. We had our annual Holiday Weekend celebration. On Friday night we had the Holiday Banquet and students were encouraged to sign up with their favorite, administrator, faculty member or coach. Of course, I signed up with my favorite administrators and friends Shawn and Katie Karney. At the banquet the administrators are responsible for carving the turkey and of course Mr. Karney took the lead on carving the turkey. The meal was amazing and the caroling lead by the members of the TALENTED CLASS OF 2010 was quite interesting. Especially, because no one knew that we were supposed to lead singing. On Saturday we had the Holiday Ball that started at like 9 and ended at 12. However, earlier in the day all those 21 year old members of the college community participated in Survivor Saturday which is pretty much bar hopping for the majority of the day. After the dance I ended up at the bar and back to twin towers dormitory for more laughs and endless stories. I can’t believe it is my last one. Well so long for now world. See ya. Maybe I will write to you guys once I am at home and let you know how much I am not missing 30 degree weather and snow all over the ground.

Toast to Simeon Benjamin

Toast to Simeon Benjamin

How do you know when you have been to Elmira College for four years? You find yourself toasting to Simeon Benjamin at a bar for leaving us all of his money and not his grandchildren. So over Thanksgiving break I made my usual visit to Southborough Massachusetts to visit my MA family. Well it was actually my freshman year roommate that decided to transfer but they are pretty much like family. Nonetheless, we still keep in touch and we visit each other often. He along with a few of his friends even decided to visit me in the Bahamas over a break. The night before Thanksgiving Day which is apparently the biggest party day of the year, we decided to visit this bar. So I was thinking that he would just be meeting up with a few of his friends and that I would find someone to end up talking too. By coincidence, I saw three other Elmira College students that were also in my senior class. Before the nights events began we all gathered around and made a toast to Simeon Benjamin for leaving us all of his money and not his grandchildren. Everyone around us looked at us as though we were crazy. None of us cared at all though because we all knew that EC would be proud and we were just letting Simeon Benjamin know that we were thankful. Isn’t what Thanksgiving Day is all about anyway?

Halloween 2009

So this past weekend for Halloween I decided that I was going to visit a friend at Fredonia to check out their party atmosphere. Well let’s just say things did not work out the way I planned and I ended up staying here for Halloween. A decision I did not regret. So for the past month or so I had planned with my bro Brian that our Halloween costume would be Chippendale Dancers. So obviously we had to look the role and act the role. Earlier that day I had a play date at Hartwick College so we left for Hartwick at about 8 a.m. and returned about 5 p.m.. As soon as I got back the preparation for the night events began by hitting the gym, stuffing my face with food and paying a little visit to the liquor store. So my partner and crime and I were ready by like 10 and met up with Beth and Steph for the night. The first stop was at Goldhouse which is essentially a house on campus for students to live in. Of course, because it was a big event and none of the houses or cottages were given party permits the residence life staff were forced to break it up because there were literally over 150 people inside the house and another 100 outside. Talk about crazy night. Even though, the party was shut down we did not let this rain on our parade. I continued making my rounds visiting my fellow RA’s on duty and saying hi to people all around campus before heading to the bar. At first, when I got to the bar the security guy said that they were no longer letting people in. I looked behind me and realized that he was only saying that because cops were watching the place. After like a minute or so he checked our identification and let us in. After the bar we all headed over to halfway house to celebrate the Men’s Hockey team 6-2 win over Morrisville. We got to halfway at like 2 a.m. and I got a text from a really good friend of mine that graduated from Elmira in 2008 saying that she was coming to meet me at halfway house. We hung out for a bit, danced until we could not dance anymore then we got her a ride home. I on the other hand made my way back to my dorm safe and sound not regretting my decision at all to stay in Elmira for Halloween. Definitely a night to remember!!!!!!!

4:00 a.m. Denny’s

So the other night I got a call from my fellow Bahamians inviting me to their suite. I told them to give me a few minutes because I was on the phone talking to my ex-girlfriend from home that now goes to College in Canada. To them this was a big deal because they all knew that we never really talked anymore. So about an hour later I went over to the room to find that everyone was extremely giggly and acting extremely ludicrous. At first I felt extremely out of place but I had a blast laughing at everyone attempting to sing karaoke to their favorite songs and most of all pretending to be on the runway doing the catwalk. So after about 2 hours we realized that we were extremely hungry and that Denny’s would be the only thing that would fulfill our craving. Driving was out of the question, so the next best option was to take the local taxi service; Totem Taxi. It took us about 20 minutes just to leave the campus, not because we had to wait on the taxi but because we had to pretty much visit every dorm on campus so that everyone could get their money and stop to the ATM. Once we got to Denny’s it took us like 20 minutes to order because we had some of the most indecisive people ever. Not to mention three of them forgot their glasses so we had to pretty much read the entire menu to them. I told them they might as well learn Braille if they are going to be this blind in life. By the time we got our food I was sure that the waitress was about to kill someone. We could hear her in the back shouting at her cook because apparently he was messing up all the orders and she was sick of working with him. It sounded to me like it was a lover’s quarrel and that there was something else behind their frustration with each other. We all just laughed it off because they were going at it for at least 30 minutes. At this point I finally remembered that I was scheduled to give a tour that morning at 9:30. I thought to myself I should just stay up the whole night because other wise I would not wake up at all. So I set like three alarms and texted all of my friends that I knew would be up at that time to call me to wake me up. We eventually left Denny’s and paid for all our meals, tipping the waitress more than usual because she pretty much ran the restaurant herself. That night at Denny’s was great and will definitely go down as one of my favorite moments at college.

Parents’ Weekend- Love, Laughter,

Parents’ Weekend the third and final part of the Orientation Trilogy ended in a bang. In my senior year and rapping up my time on the Orientation Committee I was able to share my final Parents’ Weekend with my mom and friends. There was no need to worry about how she would occupy herself while I was running around doing stuff. She always enjoys visiting campus and hanging out with my friends and traveling around the Finger Lakes region. The hypnotist performance was amazing this year. Prior to the show my mom and I were sitting back talking about how this is all staged and that most people that go on the stage are just seeking attention. Lol. Well it turns out that hypnosis is real. Ten minutes into the show we noticed that Claudette, my good friend and my mom’s adopted daughter for the weekend was in a trance. Suddenly she was responding to the voice of the performer and began physically acting out everything that he was saying. We were dying with laughter in our seats because she kept falling in and out of the trance so we just suspected that she was faking. Well believe it or not she was not faking. When the hypnotist said that right now you will feel like you have insects crawling all over your body. Claudette leaped out of her seat and ran out of the theatre screaming and scratching herself. I was dying with laughter and so was everyone else around us. My best friend Brian and my mom ran after her to take her up on stage and from there she became the star of the show. Her imitation of Michael Jackson was ridiculously funny and at the end of the night she was known as the king of pop reincarnated. Parents’ Weekend was amazing and having my mom here with me to meet all the people that have impacted my life over these last few years made it even more special. Before she left Brian and I had arranged for both of our families to visit The Corning Museum of Glass. That was an experience that none of us will forget. We were able to see the glass making process, the bending of glass and also purchase some amazing souvenirs. In my opinion this was the best Parents’ Weekend ever.

Claudette’s Michael impersonation
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/video/video.php?v=1125494102146&subj=1375800437

Mice and Open Mic Night

Hey World.

Life at EC is continuing to be as entertaining as usual. Classes are going well, the people are still as outgoing as usual and everything is still purple. The other day I decided to take a nap before my animal behavior class. If I knew that the intended 20 minute nap would end up being an hour and half. I would have not taken a nap. This made me 15 minutes late for class of course. Once I got to class I realized that we were going to be playing with mice. Or to be more scientifically correct. Looking at the behavior of the mice and assessing their social interactions. I just want to say that I was not a fan of this lab and I am going to leave it there. If you want to know what happened write a comment and I will be sure to tell you. Let’s just say it is not appropriate for this page.

This week we had open mic night and this event took the college idea of treating everyone like an individual too the extreme. Some people should just realize that they don’t have what it takes to be the next Beyoncé or Taylor Swift. I don’t think they get it. Even though singing is one of our oldest traditions, no one is ever asked to sing alone. So please don’t ever do it unless you are sure of what you can do. At open mic night I was able to see some good talent and some not so good talent. I was really impressed by Beth Sharry ’13 who originally accused me of not knowing anything about country. Lol. I must admit I am not an avid country listener but I do seldom listen to Carrie Underwood; that is only because she is ridiculously hot though. So maybe Beth was right after all. The point is the girl can sing.

One week down 11 more weeks to go.

This past first week of classes has pretty much been getting back into the swing of things. As usual, the typical college student over summer forgets what it feels like to do homework, write a 10 page paper in a night and not to mention balance the whole social life on top of all the academic requirements. My first week of senior year was extremely interesting. This term I am taking Microbiology, Animal Behavior, Research in Biology sequencing DNA and my first Nursing class ever; Human Physiology and Pharmacology. I am pretty excited about my classes this term; however I am not excited about Human Physiology and Pharmacology being offered as a night class. As a freshman I promised myself that I would never take a night class and it came down to my senior year for me to take a night class. Nonetheless, it is an amazing class and my professor makes it extremely interesting by sharing her personal experiences with us from working in the hospital.

Well enough about the academic world. This first weekend was also a big weekend for Volleyball on campus. The women’s team hosted a Dig Pink Tournament that included University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and two teams from our Empire 8 conference; Hartwick College and Alfred University. I have been a student assistant coach for the team since freshman year and this is the first time that we have finished 3-0 after this tournament. We definitely sent a message to the Empire 8 Conference. This past weekend was also a big weekend for both women and men volleyball recruits. I hosted two of the male recruits from Pittsburgh, Michael and Alex. These guys were a load of fun and not to mention great athletes. During their overnight, we went bowling for bucks in the college’s bowling alley, hung around in the campus center, played volleyball for a bit and played Wii tennis for the majority of the night. All in all it was a good time.

Of course no school year could begin a weekend without the famous foam dance party. This year Student Activities Board went above and beyond with the foam dance party by providing to foam pits. I thought this year went really well considering that we had over 500 students attend. I am looking forward to this school year especially considering that it is my senior year. It is now time to savor the traditions, the memories and the friendships.

Peace and Love world. Stay tuned to the next edition of what’s up in EC.

Geocaching

Who would have thought that by taking a class geared towards the struggles and success of women would require such a physical involvement. During the first week of classes, I experienced my first Geocaching experience. Now can I just say before this class I had no idea what Geocaching was and why people around the world were so interested in it. The field trip took us about 4 miles away from campus to Tanglewood Nature Center and we were given a GPS and a sheet of paper with clues and coordinates of the objects we were supposed to fine. The first clue was to find the red trail. We found the red trail but this part of the red trail was in the complete opposite direction of the needle on the GPS system that was leading us off the trail. We followed the red trail instead of the GPS and decided that we were getting further away from the object so we decided to turn around and tumble down a hill. For the record, no one was hurt as we tumbled down the hill and no bones were broken in this attempt to find the caches. We eventually found the cache box, but it took us like two and a half hours. After finding the first box, I was told that rattlesnakes and garden snakes were in the woods. When I heard this, I made a conscious decision not to stray of the path at all anymore, because I did not come all the way from the Bahamas to be bitten by a rattlesnake. Furthermore, I was taking this as a class which means that I would have paid to be bitten. The next half of the trip took us about two more hours to complete because we got to the location of the next clue but it was impossible to find. Neither of the groups were able to find it so I did not feel to bad. However, on the way back to the start of the trails, we came upon a garden snake. For the record, I was told that there would not be any snakes because it was not warm enough. I did not see the snake I only heard the cries of Claudette. When she said it was a snake my mind immediately thought of a rattlesnake so without thinking I ran into the woods. That was a stupid idea because that is where the snakes would be instead of on the paths. After we passed the stupid garden snake, we all met up again on the trail and walked back to the campsite. This was an experience to last a lifetime and who would have thought I would have done something like this in a Women’s Studies class. Only with Dr. Maluso can a class that you expect to just be class work turn into life experiences. I would definitely recommend taking this class or any other class with her.

Oh my where has the time gone

Sometimes as college students we fail to realize that time has not sympathy for our souls. In fact, it often attempts to run away without giving us a chance to catch up. Thats how my week has been, in fact thats how this month is going to be. This week i had two quizzes and a test in physics, not to mention three lab reports on top of that. Who would of thought that the body could function on four hours of sleep a night. I must say my concept of time has went out the door and i know after this time change its going to get worst.

This week we had the Semi Annual Theme Dinner on Thursday. Where there is free food i'll be there. The theme was 'Come be a Rock Star.' Which allowed students to compete to be the best at Guitar Hero, Karaoke, and Rock Rand. The food was great and there was a huge cake in the shape of a guitar. Also there was a fashion show put on by the club VUE( VOICES UNTIED OF ELMIRA).

Now I am not the only student anxiously awaiting that beautiful spring term weather and most of all Term III. Living the life, taking a 6 credit class, no classes on Wednesdays and beautiful weather.

A most deserved vacation

Hey All,

This week was the first week back after an awesome break. Of course, that meant me having to readjust my body to waking up at 7:30 a.m. for my 8:00 a.m. classes as apposed to waking up whenever I wanted to over the break. One thing I love about Elmira College is that they know just when to give you a break and having a break every six weeks is the best thing ever. Last week I spent my break in NYC with two of my friends that are alumni of the college. I had promised them since the beginning of the school year that I would go and visit them but never had the chance.

On that Friday I left school at l2p.m.because I am done with classes at 11:25 a.m. Yea I know I have the best schedule ever!!! So I left with my bro Chris and we went to his house for a bit just to chill out a couple days before going to the city because we both had a long week. I went to the city on Tuesday and getting there was an experience in itself. I took the train from TerryTown into Grand Central Station. The funny thing is that I have been to NYC like 5 times but I have never had to take the train around by myself. I always had someone who knew what they were doing or we would just take a taxi everywhere. Once I got into Grand Central Station, I followed the directions that my friend had given me to get to her work pick up the keys and go to her apartment. That was the easy part of the journey because all I had to do was walk about 10 blocks, which was nothing for me. My motto is if it is over 13 then heck yea a train.

When I got to her work, we were both happy to see each other and talked about the journey to her work. I was so happy to see her working at one of the top 5 accounting firms fresh out of Elmira College. I knew she had to get back to work so I left and went to the apartment to wait on the arrival of our other friend who was also visiting. He was also a recent graduate from Elmira and by coincidence; he worked at a rival accounting firm.

Later on that day my mom was coming into the city with like 8 of her friends and I knew I had to meet her at the hotel. So I quickly dropped my stuff off and made my way to the hotel. However, because I did not pay attention to the specifics of the address, I ended up in Queens instead of Manhattan for almost an hour. Eventually, I made it and over the next day or two, I took them on a tour of NYC. I spent the rest of my break going out to great restaurants, partying with my friends and meeting some other Elmira Alumni.

Two former graduates and I out on the town.

I know one thing that, I did no homework over break. So as you can expect like the typical college student. When I got back to Elmira on Sunday night, I had to cram in all my homework that I needed to do for Monday. Since Sunday, I have gotten no sleep at all because it has been assignment after assignment. I had a good time so that is all that matters, so I intend to get completely caught up this weekend. Because the next couple of weeks will be March Madness for me.

Renaldo Neeley '10