Busy Bee

Hello Everyone!

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to update since last time we spoke! As you have probably guessed school is in full bloom and classes are busy as ever. Many teachers have jumped right in with assignments and quizzes. Not only that but I also have been really busy with golf! our first tournament is taking place this weekend in the beautiful SAN DIEGO!! 

Carol Kirstie and I playing before the big storm hit last week!

As you can see we had to hurry before the rain hit! The rain was the problem due to the fact that there was lightning in the area. I guess its a good thing we managed to finish before it all came down! Our team has been working really hard and I am really looking forward to this season!

On another note I had the opportunity to join my friend Jessica at her lake house this weekend! It was such a great time and a nice chance to take a break after two very busy weeks!

Daryl Jessica Megan and I

 We made it out there on Saturday and enjoyed the scenery and got a tour around the property. 

Looking out at the lake

 It was a bit chilly by the lake but it was a beautiful view! Quite the contrast from the dry drought weather when I arrived in Texas! The Lake was beautiful and it was very peaceful!

Daryl and I dancing

 We built a huge bonfire! Roasted marshmallows and hot dogs! However it took us quite a while to cook because it was so hot, We couldn't get close. Nothing like cooking on the fire! Daryl and I felt the call of the wild and decided to do a little tribal dance.. Kind of like Sandra bullock in the proposal! :)

View from dock

 I guess there was no water in the cove before due to the drought, however due to the rain the water was rising. I woke up before everyone else so I decided to get some photos. I enjoyed my coffee on the dock and it was beautiful and with the sun it was nice and warm. Then the rest of the gang joined me after breakfast! It was really a great weekend.
 
I am off to San Diego on Saturday and will be back on Tuesday ! I will be sure to check in with all that is going on.

Talk to you soon!

-NiK

Are you Pinterested?

My latest obsession is Pinterest! I know this is definitely a new favorite trend among girls (and some guys) to put things on virtual bulletin boards. For those of you who have not heard of this before, it is really cool. You set up bulletin boards and you have pictures to links or things you like on these pins on your boards. For example: I have a board called "Things to cook/bake." On this board I have several different pictures of yummy looking food items. If you click on the pictures they all contain links to the recipes. It is a really nifty way to organize some of your favorite things or favorite websites.

There are also a bunch of pins that link you to people's favorite blogs. I have some favorite blogs to share in an upcoming post. Pinterest also contains things that could be beneficial to companies by having people repin their products. I personally find myself killing hours on pinterest. I am addicted to say the least.



If you haven't heard of pinterest GO CHECK IT OUT! Here's a link to mine Christen's Pinterest! Happy Pinning!

-Christen



Friendship Thrives

Friendship thrives here at Northwood University. One of the many things I love about Northwood, especially here at the Texas campus, is that we are such a close knit community. Since this fall we have all formed friendships and we have all become like second families to each other. I for one, am absolutely positive that I could not have made it through this past weekend without the help of all my wonderful friends on campus. I definitely learned the meaning of TRUE friendship last weekend and I am so grateful to know that my friends here love me and would take care of me as well as any of my family and friends back home. It kind of brings a sense of security (sounds cheesy to say) but at the beginning of the year I felt so homesick and kind of scared to be on my own for the first time. There were so many adult things that I was going to have to handle by myself for the first time, but last weekend when I thought I was going to have to go through a TREMENDOUS struggle all by myself my friends really showed me that nobody is ever really alone. a HUGE THANK YOU to all my Northwood buds. only in a place like this does a person meet  friends as great as you guys and I am completely confident that any prospective students would definitely find long lasting and dependable friendships.

So a few things about this weekend, we had a great time at this AWESOME little sushi place in Arlington called, Sushi Yaa. That's Christen and I, she is a fellow Student Blogger and my boss at the Admissions office-How many of your bosses would go out for sushi with you. Anyway the food there was amazing and after I had a little refresher course from another fellow Blogger, Nicola Jeffries, on how to use my chopsticks I was ready to go! Can you believe the entire buffet was only $10.00!!

So here is a picture of Nicola and I getting ready to go to a little house warming soiree for some friends that recently moved off campus. Don't let this discourage you they were perfectly happy with the dorms and campus life they just wanted to try to spread their wings a little and take on some extra responsibility (sounds crazy right)!

Well as you can see our weekend was pretty crazy and fun filled, but now it's time to get back to the books and focus on academics for this week. I got one Algebra assignment and two Economic assignments due tomorrow and a Marketing presentation on Thursday. Ugh the life of a college student is never boring haha!

-DARYL VARA

MLK Day

As many of you may know, today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This is in remembrance of the life and legacy of Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. At Northwood, we like to honor any special day, such as today with a small ceremony. Today I had the honor of announcing our speaker for our small MLK day ceremony. The speaker was Tenetia Carpenter, a Northwood alumna.

Tenetia spoke on three main points that really impacted me as to how I need to go about things. She of course related this back to the life of MLK. The one point that really stuck out to me was that we just need to get out in the world and "do." This is simply taking action on things that you want to see happen. If you just sit around and follow the crowd, things that you want to see changed aren't going to change. This was what happened with Dr. King. He wanted a change in the world so he did just that and spoke out for justice and equality.

So many times in life we get wrapped up in just going along with the crowd and being a follower and we do not realize that we can do so much more than that. We need to really take example from Dr. King not only how he fought for justice but that he actually tried for something he believed in!

Provost Dr. Fegan and our speaker Tenetia Carpenter

-Christen

Guess who's back?!

Sister-less Traveling Pants,

Flight  - UA 1120

6:58 am

YYC-IAH

Well 3000 feet in the air and coming to you live from the first class Cabin! ( it pays to know people ;) ) Sitting here enjoying my free coffee and delicious breakfast I cannot wait to get out of the cold weather! It was – 18 and snowing when I left Calgary! So you can imagine that I was glad to get out of there. The captain told us it will be +18 in Houston.. That is quite the opposite.  Well I shall check in from the next Flight! I have 2 hours to kill when I arrive in Houston. 

Calgary this morning -18!

  Flight CO 4978

ETD: 2:58

Actual: 3: 20

IAH – DFW

Well we finally took off on possibly on the smallest commercial plane ever. After stumbling to my seat dropping a dirty Kleenex on some poor women, not having my carry on fit in the overhead and had to have it checked under the plane, I finally got in my seat. We were informed we were waiting for a maintenance man and his tools to be transported to Dallas after an order was sent from headquarters. After about 30 minutes the pilot got up went outside and told us we were leaving because headquarters decided it was taking to long! What a waste! At least the flight was short!  Christen will be waiting for me at the gate! I hope she doesn’t leave due to the delay! :s

Houston! A wee bit warmer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh Dallas Home sweet Home.. Kind of.

Dorm 21 G

8:00 pm

Cedar Hill

Well I am finally in my room!  A long day! Classes and Golf tomorrow, It is so nice to see everyone. The gang is all here, I have gotten all my stuff organized for tomorrow and hopefully it all goes smoothly. I will let you know how classes go!

See you all later!

-NiK

Greetings from up North!

Hello I never thought this day would come but I am heading back to campus on Sunday! I am mostly excited to start up the golf season again and see my friends. The Best part of the break is seeing all of your friends back home and your family. The worst part is not being able to see all the friends from school. You gain so much from those friends here at school, you are with them all the time and not seeing them for a month is really hard. The weather here has dropped :( It is in the negative degrees now. I am doing some temporary office jobs for the last three business days I am home. I should have known now that I take the bus downtown the weather would drop!! I feel like this break has gone by so slow, except this last week is going by too fast! I still need to pack and get some last minute shopping in!



Winter Finally here! First snow I have seen since last Christmas!



Of Course!! First day taking the bus Downtown!!

I will say I am  Excited to get back and start up the semester! I hope everone had a great Christmas, well relaxed and well Deserved! I hope to see you all on Campus soon!

-NiK!

Bonjour from Canada....

Hello Everyone! I am sorry it has taken me so long to write back, it has been a busy time here in Canada! Surprisingly warm weather too! Normally it is below 0 degrees Celsius (32 F) however it is + 15 Degrees!! (60 F) that is really warm. So much for ice skating and tobogganing. It has not been a total waste though, I have made it too the outdoor range for some practice time. However it has been incredibly windy! There are grass fires due to the warm dry weather and windy conditions. I hope everyone enjoyed there Christmas, I have had a chance to see most of my family its a nice break. However I will be happy to get back to campus seeing as there is not a whole lot to do up here.
Since I have been home I have been able to Catch up with some of my friends.

My Friend Shannon and I made a trip to IKEA... One small Car and Big Purchase later...

I caught up with my old roommate Sarah. We lived in China together.

 

 

 

Some of my oldest and dearest Friends Jessica and Tera.

 

Canada takes home the Bronze.

 OH! I almost forgot, this year the World Juniors championship which is a Boxing day - New year Tradition was held in my home town. After a loss to the Russians in the semi finals Canada redeemed themselves to take home the Bronze. Nothing like a little hockey on your holiday.

Its nice to be home to spend some time away from school, I will be glad to see everyone and start up the semester! Hope you all had a wonderful break, A Merry Christmas and a Happy New year! Talk to you soon!!

-NiK