Mappy Hanukmis!

Ahhhh.... break has been, as Tony the Tiger would say, guuuuurrrr-RATE! Yes, I just quoted Tony the Tiger, home has defiantly rubbed its self off on me (the Post and Kellogg factory are based in my home town). Anywho, an update on Trine University as all of us students have been away:

>Our All-American thunder football player, Eric Watt, was named the winner of the 2010 Gagliardi Trophy, which is awarded annually to the most outstanding football player in NCAA Division III. It was presented to Eric in Salem, Virginia, and the Gagliardi Trophy is sponsored by Jostens and the J-Club of Saint John’s University of Minnesota. Pretty CHAWSOME that our quaterback, Eric Watt, won! Out of all the other Div III contestants, the Trine University quaterback won!! WOOT WOOT! Congrats Eric, you totally deserved it. :D

What an awesome gift just before Christmas, a 2010 Gagliardi Trophy, wow. Well, for me, being around family is enough, yeah may sound cheesy, but hey it's soooo true. Goodness, I can be as crazy or, what I think is my "normal" around them and they'd still hang out with me the next day. haha :P

There's been just enough snow on the ground to sled on, enough hot cocoa to heat up WITH cool whip on top, enough fire wood to warm the air, enough wrapping paper to prepare the presents, and enough laughter to fill the Christmas spirit! god, I love this time of year! And, my birthday is only 3 weeks away so hello 20 here I come, no more teenage years haha

Ah, well I better bid you guys a Peace Out so that you can get back to family and I can get back to shopping for the last few presents I need to get for my secret santa. Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and soon, a Happy New Year (start getting your New Years resolution figured) :D

~Annie

Operation: "A" or Neigh

Yep, I've officially called finals week, Operation: "A" or Neigh. haha :P And so far, I've accomplished my goal for Microecon and Literature Class to finish with an A, don't know about my final Chinese grade yet, but my 10 minute interview yesterday went swell :) Yes, I had a few slip ups, but I'm just overall glad it's over and... surprisingly I can't wait to get back into Chinese after break :D The language is a challenge, though not as challenging as I thought it'd be, I mean, yeah you have to devote at least 2 hours everyday to study it, but it's a lot of fun so all the hard work defiantly pays off! And, Air Force ROTC is paying me to take the class, $150 bucks now, and next semester it'll be $250 since I'll be in Chinese II :) I love dah moolah haha

Then today I had my World Civ II exam, and my professor was so nice to let me borrow his World Civ book to study. I didn't buy a single book this semester for a number of reasons:
>My roommate and friends were in a lot of my classes already so I just borrowed them
>My Air Force book $ didn't kick in till a month after school started (that's the government for ya)
>And, I could find a lot of the Literature stories online and I just took really good notes in class that a book was just not necessary
But for my World Civ final, one of my friends has the book, but of course she was studying for the same final and I didn't want to bother her with asking for it, so I asked my World Civ professor if he has a text book I could borrow just to give me a reference in my notes if I don't understand something. He was shocked I asked him so late in the semester and told me if I ever needed a text book to not hesitate and ask, because he would have let me borrow the text book for the whole semester if need be! What a great guy :) That's one big thing I love about Trine, the professors are here to help you succeed and to make a connection, not to make you suffer and resent going to class. So I studied last night for about 5 or so hours. Took the exam today and it went perdy well. I hate it when you take a final and you don't know the answer to the first question! It's like really?!?!? COME ON! haha but I figured it out soon enough, all good ;)

Tomorrow is my last final! WOOT WOOT! And, it's Criminal Law. Love that class :D Prof. Milliken is one of the best professors I've had yet. He makes everything interesting! He lectures, but then he gives us numerous cases and asks us what we would do, what side would you take, what's the actus reus/mens rea? Just a bunch of fun stuff. It's a lot of fun and that exam is gonna be the easiest one I think. :) Let's hope.

OH! The moonlight breakfast on Monday was delicious. Ate with my friend, Damon, and boy did we chow down on some hash browns, scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage! What the best part was, the teachers were the ones serving us! haha it was great. they even would come around and take any plates that needed to be thrown out. It was fun :) Afterwards Damon and I got a picture with.... SANTA CLAUS! It was a well rounded night with laughter, full bellies, and relaxed minds from studying. ahhhhh....
Then, last night was the free wings and long necks (Jones Soda). I wasn't in the mood for the wings but they did look really good and I was able to nab myself the recommended flavor: blue jones soda :) I haven't had pop in the longest time, let alone a Jones Soda, so it tasted weird but hey it was free, why not?

AHHHH!!! I really cannot wait till tomorrow! After the Criminal Law final it's Home or Bust! My sister, who goes to school in Florida, just flew up this past weekend and will be picking me up. She has yet to see the tiny campus of Trine and I can't wait to show her it :) Then, after getting home it's off to the Relient K Christmas Concert!! Woot Woot!!

Whew, well, I better head off, I've given my brain a breather and now it's time to go back and study theft and kidnapping and all that jazz :)
Peace Out dudes

~Annie

AHHHHHH!!!!!

mustttttt-BREATHE!!! Okay, so yep, finals week is just around the corner and well, my mind is going to be suffocated by all the information I either need to dig up or shove in, so wish me luck to make it through this week in one piece :P haha I don't think it'll be that bad, I have a relatively light load this semester, only 16 credits and 5 exams to study for that are all somewhat easy, Chinese I is really the only one I'm totally freaking out about :P Ni hao ma? Wo hen hao, zie zie! Ni ne? Hen hao. and a bunch of other stuff. :P The Chinese I exam is a 10 minute interview, I have to dress up as if I'm being interviewed for a job and my teacher will be the interviewer. 8:15 on Tuesday morning. whew it's gonna be tough but once I get through my two exams on monday and that chinese exam on tues then it's only two more - one on wed and one on thurs - and then after that.... HOME SWEET HOME! My sister, who's flying home from florida today, will be picking me up and then all us girls (my twin, sis and i) and my bro will be heading out to the Relient K Christmas Concert which is gonna rock my socks!! :DDD i just hope I get home in time to make it to the concert on time.... :O but I think it'll all work out so no worries :)

Yesterday was an epic fail on studying for exams. Thank you Damon! grrrrrr.... haha naw, it's all good. My friend, Damon, came over to study in my room since his floor distracts him too much, so I let him in, and well, I planned on getting my Lit paper done and have my Lit and Criminal Law study guide finished and lets just say i dont think it's Damon's floor that distracts him, but himself :P haha. Because I totally did not do what I planned!! haha Got the paper done, but the others, not so much haha. Somewhere in between studying, we went to Angola Sports and ordered some shirts (cross you fingers they'll be done before i head home thursday!) rented and then later watch 88 Minutes (AWESOME!) and Inception (FREAKEN AWESOME) and then later that night went and saw The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader (SA-WEETNESS!) and well, all in all, I started working on my Lit study guide at midnight and got all the vocab done at 2am. hehe So today it's all Lit and Econ studying shabam!

Throughout this crazy finals week Trine offers some nice, calming activities to keep all their students sane haha Tomorrow there's going to be a Moonlight Breakfast from 10pm-Midnight, then on tuesday there will be free wings and long necks (Jones Sodas) offered to the hard working students ;) and just a bunch of other stuff throughout this crazy week so I'm looking forward to some of that.

Well, I think I procrastinated enough.... :P hehe I'll bid you all a peace out, and will keep you in the loop of things as this week unfolds :D

~Annie

PS @ track practice the other day we had a timed 800m, and dudes, I totally killed it!!! Shocked the heck outta coach and myself when I finished!! haha I ran by myself, i mean there were guys running too, but they're already freaken waaaaaayyy ahead of me so they didn't really do anything for me, so anyway, I'm running and BAM! finished with a 2min 33sec! I havent ran that fast since my senior year in high school! I was so happy and totally cannot wait for the meets to begin.

Snow Globe!!

Trine, i've figured out, is a snow globe. It's been snowing since December 1st and always when you think the snow has stopped and settled, Trine University is given a little shake and then BAM! a ton of snow falls from the sky! And, it's not like we're getting tremendous amounts of snow, even though it's been snowing for like 8 days straight, so it must be a snow globe, the snow just gets tossed right back up in the sky to only fall to the ground and complete the cycle again with the next shake of the Trine University snow globe!

So, I've officially successfully completed 3 semesters of Air Force ROTC, with this being my 1st semester as an AS200 (Sophomore/2nd year cadet). Only one more to go guys and soon to be 2 more female cadets! We can make it ;) I'm really looking forward to the new semester after break and have a lot of things I already want to start on, so be ready for some crazy action this next semester! We had our Dinning In Ceremony last night at AFROTC where, in LLAB, all of us cadets get together to eat, reflect on the semester, Grog fellow cadets (I'll explain that in a moment), and finally, listen to our guest speak who was Major Hart of the USMC.
Okay, so the Grog. What that is, well, picture this:
A Punch Bowl
- Now, pour 1/2 of a 2 liter Sprite
- Add in 2 Red Bulls
> Then the flight's get to come up and pour in their own ingedients such as:
> Pasta Sauce
> Mentos
> Caramel Topping Sauce
> Smarties
> A Protein Shake mix
> Coca Cola
> Monsters
> Pepper
.... and that's about all I can remember. So why the heck are we doing this?? Well, to Grog people! If you know any cadet that might have worn their uniform wrong, came to class late, forgot to salute, anything that they did wrong you can Grog them for that by making up a limerick which is a 5 line poem: AABBA. If they rebuttal, they must recite a limerick to rebuttal the grog and instead make the person who initiated the call to be the one to drink. Though, rebuttals are very rare since most cadets don't know if they are to be Groged or not, so everyone is antsy when someone calls out a limerick. I came out clean this semester, but that doesn't mean I'm out of the woods! Got 2 more years to cover my back! haha
So after the grog (no one puked, surprisingly) Major Hart gave a speech about the 10 things a leader must be. It was very inspirational, almost so much so, if he had a sign-up sheet to join the Marines right then and there, I might have picked up the pen, but.... my heart is with the Air Force and I can say, I'd rather be no where else :) I'm glad they got me when they did! But again, Major Hart was a great speaker, defiantly a Marine at heart. 26 years and counting he's been in the service, with 12 of them enlisted which made me look even more up to the guy. He was great and wow, I can't even begin to explain what he opened my eyes to, but one thing i can say that he did, was ignite this spark inside me, so next semester, I'm going all out. Yeyah!

Alrighty, so I think I'm starting to get carpal tunnel in my arm from typing so many essays and blogs this week, so adios! zai jian! auf wiedersehen! and finally, peace out :)

~Annie

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow :)

So, I went to the annual Trine Christmas Concert last night, and could it have been more perfect!?! Snow was falling by the buckets, fabulously decorated Christmas trees lined the UC halls and the choir and orchestra/band played timeless holiday carols that warmed my soul. :) ahhhhhh AND that's not all, afterward, my roommate graciously brewed me a cup of hot cocoa yummm!!! Yep yep. it's defiantly that time of season.
The concert was great, a friend of mine was in the concert and they sang like angels, the community orchestra and band brought back memories of my childhood playing the violin and how I've always wanted to learn the string bass. I was captivated by it all, and the concert just flew by! Before I knew it, an hour and 1/2 passed and it was all over. Though, the christmas spirit lived on!

The Air Force ROTC program put together a Christmas Tree for the Project Help Tree Extravaganza and with about 20 or more other programs that decorated their own tree, they will be voted on and donated to a Project Help family that is in need of their very own Christmas Tree. It was a fun thing to do with all the cadets and I hope to make it annual thing. Here's a final picture of our creation:
 

Awesome right? VOTE FOR AF ROTC!!! :D haha

Well, I better get going. Bundle up out there! It's fa-REEZING!!!! With the wind chill, it feels like -1F, crazy right? haha
-Peace Out-

~Annie

Gobble Gobble

gobble up my time from writing a post that's fo sho! It's been over a week since I last wrote, and to think of everything to gather and write down is just wayyyy too much, so I'll cut it short ;)
Thanksgiving was great! Only two relatives and my family ate so that meant more food to eat, less dishes to wash, and just an overal chill thanksgiving :) it was fun and I can say, i was just about sick of turkey from eating all the leftovers the days following haha but it was great and I can only hope for a fun, happy, and warm thanksgiving to all of you! what am I thankful for? A great family that is there for me whenever anything hits the fan and just goes to kaput, the men and women that wear the uniform of our country proudly, friends that keep my sanity in tack, and finally I am thankful for being able to breath in this world of adventure and love that continually proves to me that nothing is impossible. :)

Track has been kicking my gluteus maximus but I don't think it's my body that's holding me back, but myself and I wish I just had a better mental attitude. I mean, I ran better in High School and my workouts were not as hard as they are now, but I had a team I knew inside and out in high school, and I miss that kind of camaraderie. Though, since I've been warming up and cooling down with the sprinters, they are an awesome bunch of people that may be one of the reasons why I even go to practice. Me as a runner, you can make me run mile after mile and I can still do the worst in a race if I don't have a supportive team behind me. In my mind I've got nothing to gain then. A team to me is better than any plaque or medal. I'd rather have a team hug me after loss than to win a race without any cheers. In my mind, there is no point. I might as well run on my own then if I am just going to be to running by myself in races for pete's sake! But, after a few weeks, I'm slowly getting more involved with the team and trying to build up... something between them and me, even if it is just the sprinters, heck! i used to be one so why not? haha I don't want to blow another year away, I want to be the best runner I know I can be, and right now I'm just not seeing it.

Air Force has been stressing me out. We had our 2nd Drill Lab on this past Tuesday and it actually wasn't that bad. We just had to march them through an obstacle course, making all the right calls on the correct foot, timing was really critical, but I made it through and it worked out well. The atmosphere was really tense though since, well, that's really how all Drill Labs are, everyone is stressed and anxious to get it over with. I brought two recruits up with us too so that they could get a first had look at what they're about to get themselves into. I hope they learned a few things and aren't... I don't know, discouraged to join us next semester. But I know if I were in their place I'd like to sit in on a day and see how everything works. I wasn't given that luxury when I first joined last year, but I don't regret joining for a second. Sure, you have those days when you wonder is this the right path? And, it's those days I really sit down and think about it all. My life from beginning to now. I've always wanted to fight for my country and the AFROTC program couldn't have been a better match for me. It's a different world, ROTC, I mean when I put on that uniform yes my first and last name are the same, but I'm a Cadet and a soon to be officer in the Air Force. My outlook on the world and everything is changed. I have a serious purpose to accomplish when I'm in my uniform, and nothing will stop me from completing the job. It's like putting on a superhero suit. You fight the fight till the villain is done. There's no break, no time to fix the hair, it's all just the fight and the ultimate goal of completing the mission. If I was given another chance to go back in my life my senior year of high school, I wouldn't have changed a thing. I would have still put in my application for the AFROTC Scholarship, would have talked with the Army recruit, I would have still done all of that, because I want to be that hero, that soldier of our country till my very last breath.

Whew, well I said I'd cut it short, so I'll end it here :)
Again, I hope all had a splendid Thanksgiving and Christmas is only around the corner woot woot!
-Peace Out-

~Annie