Oh God, snow...

Thanksgiving break, Exams

Hey guys! Just got back from Thanksgiving Break a couple of days ago and it was sooo nice to get a break from everything. Fortunately for me, I didn't have any real homework to do over break, just I just kicked back and relaxed. Got to read a lot for pleasure (I'm currently attempting to re-read the Inheritance Cycle series by Christopher Paolini...sooo good!) and I ate A LOT. It was great.

But now I'm back to the real world of preparing for my exams beginning next week. College exam schedule is different then I'm used to, so I thought I would break it down for you. The two major break down of college is classes is MWF (monday, wednesday, friday) classes and TR (tuesday and thursday) classes. So, depending on exactly when you class meets, the college has broken down 2.5 hour segments over the two week exam period. I have exams on the 9th, the 11th, and the 14th. None of my exams are accumulative though, they're just the last tests of the year.

If you have exams this semester, I hope they go well!! I'll be sure to update during/after exams to let you know how they went.

Finally...An Update

Update: Black Saturday, Fall Break, and Political Activenessity

(activenessity isn't a word, but it should be.)

Hey guys! It most certainly has been a while, so I thought I'd do an update on the past 2 weeks or so (they have been ka-ra-zee!).

First: Fall Break.

It was awesome. Went to Charlotte to stay with my girlfriend and her family for a couple of days and go to chill with friends that I had made here at App that were from the Charlotte area. We visited their old high school to give a presentation on ASU Teaching Fellows, ate Bojangles several times (the one in Boone isn't that good), and sold a kid's Xbox 360. We came back for the band competition that had was occurring on Saturday (most of my friends are in marching band and ASU was putting on a exhibition for the high schools at the end of the competition). We then proceeded to watch the first DVD of Season 1 of House (aka the best show ever!).

Secondly: Black Saturday.

Rocked at The Rock (the nickname of Kidd Brewer Stadium, the football stadium here at ASU). We played Georgia Southern and promptly kicked the butts. Unfortunately, I decided to wear a t-shirt and shorts to the game. Also unfortunate, the weather decided to have a cloud descend on the stadium for the entire game and I promptly froze. Luckily, I got to hang out with a bunch of friends from the camp I worked at this past summer and got to catch up with all of them, so it was a good time.

Thirdly (but not leastly [not a word either]): Political Activenessity.

I might have mentioned my work with To Write Love on Her Arms before (if not, I'll definitely post something about it soon), but there's another non-prof I do some volunteer work and donate to and its called Invisible Children. IC works to stop the longest running war in Africa's war-torn history: the war in N. Uganda between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army led by a man by the name of Joseph Kony. Kony has kidnapped thousands of African children to fight in his army to attempt to overthrow the current government in Uganda. IC has done amazing work already, but we can always do more until the war ends. For more info, please feel free to get in touch with me via email or you can always visit www.invisiblechildren.com


Hope you guys are doing awesome! Catch you later, peace.

YAYYAYYAY

chillin in the library

Hey, what is up blog readers? I hope everything is going well with all of you.

Today, I went to the library to work on a study guide for my history class that I have a test in on Tuesday, and I did about the first page of it then got distracted and decided to post a blog dealing with the library.

A good library is a great thing when looking into a college and ASU has a very new/amazingly cool library. At the moment, I'm sitting at a table (complete with power outlet for my laptop) in the back of the 3rd floor, which is the "Quiet Study" floor. This means that you really shouldn't be talking much when on the third floor cause there's people studying and writing papers and doing research. All of the library floors are what one of the librarians called "self-policed", meaning there's no elderly lady with a hair-bun, too much lipstick and glasses with those beaded "glasses-holder" (I don't actually know what that is called...but you get the mental image) going around the floors telling people to "Shhhh!!!" when they get too loud. You're a college student now, that means you should be mature enough to know when you should speak and how loud to do said speaking (and lets be honest, the people that aren't mature enough don't really go to the library to do quiet studying do they?).

I really enjoy going the library to do work because A) while I lovest my dorm as much as I possibly could, I still get too easily distracted, B) due to everyone else working, I feel empowered to do the work I don't want to do also! C) there's a really nice coffee shop on the ground level to get coffee/tea/soda for those late-nighters/people who love caffeine. You'll see a lot of people going to the library in between classes or in the afternoon after classes to do their homework. Also, they have some fantastic "comfy" chairs on the quiet study that people enjoy taking naps in. I haven't partaken in the napping, but I hear its a good time.

Make sure you take a library tour when/if you come visit App!! Hope you guys have an awesome week, and I'll see ya when I see ya.

Quick Update: Show Info

Fall Has Arrived

Quick break from working

Hey all! (which at this point is I think an overwhelming 0) Just thought I'd drop by again to give you an update on life here at Appalachian State, especially my life here on-campus.

It is going AWESOME.

Quite opposite horror stories of first months at college, I have had a fantastic time here at App. No real issues to speak of I guess! Today, I got out of class at 10:45, went by Central Dining Hall (one afternoon I shall take you there) to grab some Chik-fil-a to-go and walked up to my dorm to start some homework I've let pile up. I sat down to my chicken nuggets with Polynesian sauce and fries with the CFA sause (ohhhh....so good!), and my suitemate came in and hung out for a bit, then my good friend Amanda came by and chatted with me and I ended up going with her to marching band practice. ASU's Marching Mountaineers are freaking good (NCs Band of Distinction!!) and their rehearsals are open, so I went to Kidd Brewer Stadium (or The Rock) and read my English book (Angels & Demons by Dan Brown) while listening to them rehearse. It got me all stoked about game day this Saturday! After listening to them rehearse in the strangely blazing hot sun (for those of you have kept up with other ASU blogs, it has been raining here non-stop for about a week and a half until yesterday; today's high was 80), I made the hike back up to my dorm to attempt to complete my homework. I discovered I didn't write one of the informal papers I thought I had, so I have four due tomorrow by 1 o'clock. Oh well.

One of the awesome things about Boone is the complete randomness of the weather. A good motto is "If you don't like the weather, wait 15 minutes". Bring a t-shirt, shorts, jacket, and umbrella.

Well, I hope to maybe post something after the football game this Saturday, so I'll see you guys soon. Peace!

19th Birthday Post (aka Best Friends Ever)

First Home Football Game

This Saturday was the first home football game! Our defense didn't show up to play (an expression for you non-football fans, they were at the game!) and we lost to Mcneese State, 35-40. But the game was fun and I decided to upload some pics from the game!

My First True College Experience (Real Short)

First Vlog!!

I realized after watching this how incredibly nerdy I am talking about Harry Potter...but I love it so I don't really care :P

First Weekend Recap

*Written September 1st, 2009 9:15AM*
Belk Hall


I’m sitting in my Intro to Ancient Mediterranean World (the class I switched for Greek; it’s basically the history of the Greek instead of the language...perfect for me!), and I have about 15 minutes to kill before class starts so I thought I would give an overview of my first meeting-free weekend at App State.

Non-eventful. As a non-party goer, my Friday night was full of just chilling out at the dorm with friends. My Saturday plans to go hike the Boone Fork Trail was cancelled (for me at least; everyone else who did go had a blast) because I had a 4.5 hour band practice starting at noon. Now, I love playing with my church band (I play bass guitar), but to be honest, I would’ve rather gone hiking with everyone.

Saturday afternoon was very uneventful; everyone was tired from the 5-mile hike and was doing homework and their laundry. Then, all of a sudden, 18 people showed up in my room. It was sweet. We hung out, listened to really bad music (including some elementary school throwbacks to Fountains of Wayne and Bowling for Soup, plus some really bad, albeit more recent, throwbacks to...Metro Station), watched Youtube videos for a solid 2.5 or 3 hours, and just chatted. Me, my roommate, and two of our friends stayed up until 4:30AM just talking about nothing really. Then, I looked at my clock, saw how late it was, and realized i had to be at church in 5 hours (ick) so I went to bed.

I woke up too soon for my bodies taste, and headed to my home church (rep the Mount V!). I jammed out on the bass, played good, had a good time, but I felt physically sick because of the lack of sleep/sustaining food, so I went back to the L early. I spent the rest of the day just chillaxin’ and stuff like that.

To Drop Or Not To Drop

*Written Aug 27th, 10:19am*
Central Dining Hall


So I’m meeting a good friend here at Central for some “brunch”, but I got here a little early so I decided to blog a bit about some thoughts I had on my walk here.

My first class of the day is Elementary Greek, a class that is “just getting off the ground here at Appalachian” (according to the professor). I took it because I’m a history major and I thought that taking Greek would be a cool way to learn more about the Greek culture and their history. Now, while that might still be true, I got to class yesterday and the professor made it quite plain that the class was about learning the Greek language. I’m not a foreign language person, at all. My mind just doesn’t work the way it needs to to learn a new language (ask my high school French teacher, Natalie Turner, who now works with App’s International Program), especially one with a different lettering system then English like Greek. So, I’m contemplating dropping that class and picking up another one, I just don’t know what to take. I would prefer to take a history course, but I don’t know what I need to take so I’ve got to do some perusing this afternoon I guess.

*** - By the way, I’m not putting down the Greek class or the professor down at all. If you’re at all interested in learning the Greek language, I highly recommend the course. The professor seemed to know what he was talking about and he very clearly went through the Greek alphabet with us, its just that I’m not good at that stuff...at all.

-----------------------
Aug 27th 2:30om
The LLC


Went to see my advisor (she rocks!) about switching Greek and I got it all worked out. Instead of taking Greek at 9am MWF I’m now taking Intro to Ancient Mediterranean or something like that on TR at 9:30. Pretty cool switch I think, so I’m stoked it all worked out.

On The Eve Of (Real) College Beginning

*Written August 24th, 2009 11:54 PM*


Up until this point, I don’t really feel like I’ve been at college.

I moved in on Wednesday, so it’s been almost a week since I’ve left home (which is all of ten minutes away), but it doesn’t seem like “college” yet. But tomorrow that all changes when classes begin. People went to bed at decent hours tonight, acting like responsible adults instead of kids at camp. I honestly don’t know how things are going to change really. All weekend, everybody pretty much did their own thing for the most part, so I guess the only change is that their “own thing” is going to become their classes. I’m personally looking forward to my classes, but thats only because I’m not taking a math course this semester...instead, I’m taking Greek!

If I had to pick one thing that’s been my favorite thing so far, it would have to be all the awesome people I’ve had the chance to become friends with. As part of a learning community (yay residents of the LLC!!), it’s been really easy to meet people I think. With tons of places in the dorm to hang out and people around you that have similar interests, the environment itself seems to foster friendship out of its walls.

I’ve loved every second of hanging out with these new friends; whether it be watching Family Guy, cheering on Liverpool (dang you Aston Villa), jamming out in the music room, or just sitting around talking, it has been so much fun just to make new friends. I had a conversation with a couple of people that basically centered around the fact that we felt our one group of “high school” friends had become stale and that would be exciting to make new friends with new stories, new experiences, and new personalities. Our old friends can never be replaced and will always be fun to hang out and share our new ideas and experiences, of course, but the prospect of new friends is (to me) always exciting.

First Post!

Yay!

Hey guys, my name is Zach and I'm a freshman here at Appalachian State U. The point of this blog is to simply tell about my life experiences here at App. Maybe you'll learn about some awesome stuff you didn't know about ASU, or maybe you'll just gain a new perspective on ASU that you couldn't get anywhere else. So, that being said, I hope you enjoy reading this! I hope my life can being interesting enough to write about, but this is college right?

I'll be posting via lots of different mediums on this blog. Most of my posts will be simply text, but I'll also be including some pictures of my life here on campus along with some Vlogs every once in a while (that's video logs for those of you who don't know the lingo ;-) ).

Go Mountaineers!