Pardon my slacking on the blogging y'all.  It has been by no means because my life has been uneventful or that I've been a couch potato.  It's just really been quite hectic around here in Carolina.  With the semester winding down (trust me, that I can't even fathom how quickly this school year has gone!), I've just been swamped with my daily to-do lists.

So, in thinking of what's relevant to all of you prospective students and what I can possibly write about, I got to thinking...Besides "You're not going to graduate" there is perhaps only one other five-word sentence combination that most students would not like to hear from their guidance counsilor, and that is: "You have to take Chemistry."

What is it with Chemistry that threatens most of us and just scares us all to death?  I know that I was freaked out about taking Chemistry because both of my two older sisters used to tell me horrifying stories about their experiences with the class--concepts to boggle your mind, equations that don't make sense, and a mean-spirited teacher who enjoyed failing students.  Going into my first Chemistry class, I was just praying that I would have a really nice teacher.  The subject may be difficult, but I knew that if I had a supporting teacher that I would make it out fine of the course.  Fortunately, good ol' Mr. Vanzura from sophomore year of '03-'04 was my most favorite teacher of my high school years.  He was a great teacher, and I had a blast in my Chemistry class.  For example, we celebrated Mole Day on October 23 of that year to enjoy National Mole Day in honor of the Avogadro's number, 6.022 x 10^23.  He brought in some chips and guacaMOLE and his wife baked the class some MOLE-asses cookies!

Well, looking back on it and where I am right now, I can tell you that definitely is hope for all of you students who are probably just like I was before: a freaked-out-student-because-of-Chemistry!  I proudly now have 2 semesters of General Chemistry and a semester of Organic Chemistry with flying colors of a big great A.  I am currently in the second semester of Orgo, and I remain hopeful to have that final A, so long as I don't bomb the final.  Lastly, as y'all may remember from previous entries, I have been working as a Supplemental Instructor in the Success Center for the General Chemistry courses of CHEM 111 and 112.  There truly is hope for y'all if I can do all of this!

For all of you Pharmacy, Nursing, Scientists, and Pre-Med hopefuls, I suggest  you get right on that Chemistry class.  Best to get exposed now before getting into it in college.  If it weren't for good ol' Mr. Vanzura giving me such a great experience with Chemistry, I probably would have still been freakin' when I started Chem here at Carolina....so long 4.0!  Hehehe!

And well, speaking of Chemistry, I have an Organic Chemistry Lab exam tomorrow.  I will once again have to bid  y'all adieu!  Here's to hoping for another blog entry soon!

Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 10:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Drum roll please...

Here are the much-awaited answers to yesterday's quiz.  I hope that y'all got to try it out and that now y'all can see how you measure up to other Carolina students.  Make me proud guys!!!  The score to beat is 9 out of 15, so here it goes!

1. The score at last season's first home football game was a win against the LA-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns.  We beat them 28-14.  I remember being at the game, being actually quite worried that we weren't going to come out victorious.  It was an expected easy game that turned out to be a bit more challenging, but nevertheless, the Gamecocks had a win on their first game on home turf!

2.  So how many TV screens are there in the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in the Russell House?  If you've ever visited campus for a tour or just because you were in the neighborhood, chances are you've been inside the Student Union.  Surprisingly, a lot of students missed this question.  I don't know if it was because the choices were so close or those TVs by the magazine racks just look so big and we're generally too distracted by the latest Cosmo for the ladies or Maxim for the gents...but in total, there are 4 TV screens!

3.  Williams-Brice Stadium is probably one of my favorite places on campus!  So, what exactly is its official capacity?  A whopping 80,250.  Although, for the record, the WBS was able to hold about 85,000 during the rivalry game with Clemson back in 2001.  In the same year, we had about a hundred shy of that record for the Florida game at 84,900 spectators.  WBS can get pretty packed for those big games!

4.  Charlie Strong's 3-3-5 was the defensive formation when he became the Defensive Coordinator for USC's team.  Strong is quite a big name in the NCAA.

5. Tricky, tricky, tricky.  After reading the question, those who would know what the name of the Health Center would immediately go blank after they read the answers.  Is it with the "p" or without the "p"?  So, what do you guys think?!?  Dun, dun, DUN!!!  And the answer is:  WITHOUT THE P!!!  It is the Thomson Student Health Center!

6. The ever-unforgettable Carolina-Clemson Brawl.  Tsk, tsk!  See this link to the entry to a Wiki page about the Brawl.  Oh, and the answer is 2004!

7.  And so the question about meal plans!  You guys will get awfully familiar with this system and will probably do your best to work your ways around the times and the values and the Bonus Bucks to get the maximum value of your plan...You guys will figure it all out.  Don't you worry!  So, what's the breakfast retail amount?  A whopping three dollars and eighty-five cents!  Hooray!

8. So, back to that Brawl.  If you still didn't click on the link to find out about the Brawl, all you need to know was that it was bad, and it basically resulted in both the teams declining invitations to the bowl.  Naturally, team players were upset and more things happened...but yeah!  SIGH!

9.  Yet another tricky question.  Most people who have tried to communicate with the Housing Department through AIM would know that it's quite a pretty efficient way to get your questions asked about housing matters, but is it USCHOUSING or is it the one with an extra C?  Naturally, y'all probably wanted to pick the one with no extra C because it would only make sense, but that will leave you waiting for forever because the right answer is USCCHousing.  Why the extra C?  Personally, I don't know.  Maybe I should send a quick IM and find out why!  Hehe!

10.  Steve Spurrier had his days in the NFL, and boy were those some good days.  But 0-14 was probably not the good days I'm talking about.  Spurrier once played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and that 0-14 record...OOO-weee!

11.  You know, the result for this question was very intriguing to me.  Only about half of the students who took this trivia challenge knew the correct answer.  I'm not quite sure what it means because personally campaign and elections week was so huge around campus, and quite frankly there was no getting away from the politics of student government.  But for the winner of next school year's Student Body Treasurer....JONATHAN ANTONIO!

12.  Iron wall sounds kind of hard to break down.  Lock n' Load sounds pretty serious business.  Cock n' Fire sounds appropriate as we are Gamecocks and the whole gun-fire picture.  But nope.  None of those three are correct.  FIRE ANTS.  Darn, those fire ants and that's exactly what was the the nickname of our Gamecock defense back in 1984.

13.  So, what about that 2001 that plays to cheer on the entire team by the entire stadium going crazy and Cocky going nuts in his cage?  Thanks to Coach Joe Morrison, 2001 has become a Carolina tradition not just in football games but in other sports and Carolina events where Cocky makes his appearances!

14.  And the Gamecock's All-Time Leading Receiver Award goes to........STERLING SHARPE!

15.  So, this has screwed me up before.  I went to the mail room cutting it close to 5PM and found that I had a yellow slip in my mailbox.  Yellow slips bring joy to my day because this means that I've got a package!  But 5PM-shmishm, the mail room center is closed!  I decided that before I run late to my morning class the next day that I would rush to the basement first and pick up my package and start my day off great but of course I didn't check the time that they would be open.  My class was quite early that day, and so, I was at the basement by 8AM.  Oh, and I was the only one there!  I learned that day that the mail room center...they don't open until 9 in the morning!

So, how did y'all measure up to the test?  I hope you guys did well and enjoyed the lil trivia!

Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So, I'm not sure if y'all are familiar about how the night at Relay for Life goes.  For those who don't, it's not your typical night of debauchery--although it is a lot of fun!  Basically, all the teams come together for one final push for fundraising, and each team puts up a site where they have all things from a bake sale, to hosting a cake-eating contest, to raffling off a bike, to setting up a TV and letting people play Guitar Hero...anything and everything to get people to donate more money for the American Cancer Society.  Since my team this year decided to go for a Tailgating Theme, we decided that for our fundraising activity on-site that we would host a Carolina Trivia Quiz.  A quiz to test your Everything-About-Being-A-Carolinian Trivia from football, to meal plans, to facts about the Russell House and more!  We had as a first prize a DVD player plus a DVD movie of "Radio" just to add to the whole football theme and for South Carolina pride!  As a second prize, we had a $10 gift card to Wal-Mart (who couldn't use another $10 for good ol' Wal-Mart!)

For an itty-bitty donation of 50 cents, students tested their Carolina Trivia Knowledge and competed to win for the two prizes...Overall, it didn't seem like our students really knew much about football.  Tsk tsk!  There were two guys who tied for first place with a score of 9 out of the 15 questions!!!

I wonder how YOU GUYS will fair my team's trivia quiz.  Check it out and see how much you know about good ol' Carolina.  We gave everyone who took the quiz about 5 minutes, but you know...I can't tell if you take any longer!  If you're brave, you can leave your answers as a comment...but either way.  I'll have the answers up by tomorrow.  I'll give y'all at least 24 hours to try out the Carolina Trivia Quiz! 

Good luck, and catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This year's Relay for Life was a success!!! 

We "Relayers" always say that we stay up all night during this event to show everyone that, Hey!  Cancer doesn't sleep!  But this year's event, we also wanted to show everyone how much we really cared about the battle of cancer.  Not only did we stay up all night, but we also held out for the event and didn't let Mother Nature rain on our parade (no pun intended!) 

Even with the predicted weather to be 60% chance of precipitation with thunderstorms on the way and even a tornado watch, we held out as long as we could outside in the Blatt Field.  We had Cocky and the Cheerleaders to start off the event.  Of course, Cocky did his classic 2001 entrance, and the cheerleaders and him did the GAME-COOOCK side cheers!  The Survivors at the event had their Survivor lap, and that was quite inspiring...and then we all enjoyed the night!  Thank God for the weather holding up a bit because we were also able to celebrate the luminary service outside.  After that lighting ceremony, we had to all move into the Blatt Gym, which wasn't the greatest place to hold hundreds of students and local bands--it was loud, hot, and sweaty!!!  But we weren't going to let anything get us beat!  We stuck it out through the entire night! 

Here are some pictures of my friends and I at the event!!!

This is our team site: Cocky for  a Cure!!! 

Here's Cocky taking a pose for me and my camera!!!

Of course, the ladies and I wanted a picture with the best mascot ever!!! 

The luminary service was inspiring as always!!!  So many lights...so many names.  We have to fight for all of them.  We have to help them fight their battle with cancer! 

Well, I hope that you guys had a great weekend.   I had a fun time, and my body is just as sore and tired and exhausted!  I feel like having stayed up that long that I'm still trying to get readjusted again.  I think I stayed up Thursday night trying to prepare things for Friday's Relay.  I didn't sleep until about 3AM.  I got up at 10AM for my morning class and went to my classes and did more errands.  By 3PM, we were at Blatt setting up.  Then I spent the entire night at Relay until 7AM.  That was such a looooong day!  But it was all worth it!!!  I hope you guys join your own local Relay for Life events, too!

Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The dogwoods and azaleas are blooming, the squirrels are back out doing their thing, and the birds are chirping (and attacking...but that's another story for later when I'm no longer traumatized!).  It sure does look great outside but...

Rain, rain come this way.  Spring has sprung, and pollen's....AAAAAAAAAH!!!!  Really, guys.  I'm not kidding!  The pollen is taking over everywhere, and with everything looking pretty green these days, I can't help buh-buhh-buhhh-ACHOOO!

Okay, cheesy, I know.  But it's really just crazy.  I've never been really one to be allergic to pollen before, but it must just be the types of trees and plants here on campus to which I might just be allergic.  My roommate and boyfriend are worse off than I am as their reaction to these allergens are just awful.  They practically have to have have eye medicine in tow everywhere they go!

The past couple of days haven't been quite too bad though, as we have had some overnight showers.  By the time I rolled out of bed in the morning and as I made my way through campus, some of the tortorous pollen have been washed away down the drains and it's just like the clouds have parted and the angels above are singing!

Oh, spring time.  How lovely and pretty and sweet...uh, until the pollen of course!

Well, catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks...Keep the sneezing down!

Posted by Kriska at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)