A Gamecock by Nature

I had an amazing co-ed intramural basketball team this semester.  “True Crew” went undefeated throughout the regular season (4-0-1) and made it to the Championship Game!  The Championship games for all divisions takes place in the South Center of the Strom and a 100% cotton t-shirt is on the line for each member of the winning team. 

This semester I decided to shoot for the stars when I enrolled in Astronomy 211 which gave me 18 credit hours.  This is considered an overload in college since most students take between 12 and 15 hours to stay full time.  Astronomy 211 is a self-paced course that requires 15 completed units over the course of the semester.  This means that I have to study and take tests on my own and sign up and attend labs in my free time. 

At the beginning of the semester I felt extremely motivated and my plan was to have the course completely out of the way by Spring Break.  Unfortunately, school quickly picked up pace and I had tests and projects in my other classes to worry about.  I put Astronomy 211 on the back burner until recently.  I have spent my Sunday nights, my Monday and Wednesday mornings, and my Friday afternoons in the Astronomy Center for the past 2 weeks and I managed to complete the course Tuesday!! I was jumping up and down and I am so glad that I am guaranteed 3 credits of “A’s” on my transcript for the semester.

I took this course because science is not my favorite subject and it is usually something that requires a lot of attention from me in order to be successful.  Astronomy was a great science course since it was meant for a self-motivated person like me.  If you’re not a “science-friendly” person and you can motivate yourself, then I highly recommend Astronomy.  Be weary of the fact that a good chunk of students don’t succeed in this class because they continue to put it off and dig themselves a big hole. 

Now, I have time to focus on studying for my finals exams for the next week or so!

Posted by Lydia at 05:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday night I saw a part of campus that was only familiar in name.  I have a lot of friends who tell me that they're going to the School of Music to practice their instrument or that they're going to the School of Music for a class, but I honestly had no idea where this building was located or what I'd find behind its doors. 

My friend Walt (Psychology '06) invited me to come see him play alto sax Wednesday.  I told him that I would definitely be there, but on my way I had to call him to get directions to a building on campus!  I'm almost embarrassed I didn't know that the music school was across the street from the Shell station on Assembly St.  After I walked in the building, I could hear a concert being played and I literally followed the music to the Recital Room.  I was pleasantly surprised when I entered to find the "Bank Combo" composed of 6 members enjoying themselves while playing "Confirmation" by Charlie Parker. 

The jazz music was incredible!  I found myself nodding along to the songs and clapping sporadically with the rest of the audience.  My friend Walt even wrote his own song that the entire group played.  He wrote a part for the trumpet, drumset, piano, bass, and the sax players.  The funniest part was when he randomly hit the gong.  He literally dragged the gong on stage before the concert for one moment in the entire performance!  He wrote his song on behalf of one of our mutual friends' crazy life and entitled it "Walt's Cranial Meltdown".  I think I was highly entertained because I knew who the song was about. 

It was a wonderful concert that lasted about an hour and it has definitely made me more intrigued about other cultural events that are taking place on campus.  Who knows, maybe I'll attend a play next? 

Posted by Lydia at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past weekend 400 Delta Sigma Pis gathered on Jekyll Island, GA to network, enjoy the beach, and relax.  Spring Fling is one of my chapter's main fundraisers.  We ensure the location by working with the hotel and plan the activities that brothers and their chapters can participate in while on the  island.  As one of the Spring Fling Chairs, I was in charge of planning and executing the games. 

On Friday night, we hosted a Chapter Tug-of-War tournament.  This was an extremely competitive 5-on-5 tourney.  The guys were impressively strong and in the final match my chapter, Beta Gamma lost to Alpha Kappa from the University of Buffalo.  As a reward I gave Delta Sigma Pi luggage tags and key chains for each of the winners.  There was also a women's tournament and again the kids from Alpha Kappa won.  I know the girls that served as the anchors for their team were exhausted by the end!  

On Saturday morning, chapters signed up and competed in a 6-on-6 volleyball competition.  There were some brothers that came with the same team they played intramurals with and had matching t-shirts.  The 8 teams that signed up played in a single elimination tournament in order to win a free ride for a brother in their chapter to next year's Spring Fling.  

Saturday afternoon was my absolute favorite part of the day.  Every year, couples from each chapter compete in the Mr. and Mrs. Spring Fling competition for a crown, bragging rights, and this  year the winning chapter also received a free trip for a brother to Spring Fling 2008.  The couples competed in a variety of relays such as a wheelbarrow race, 3-legged race, and an egg and spoon race.  There was also a toothpick and lifesaver race which was hilarious.  Two pairs played together in order to make this a relay event.  Every person had a toothpick in their mouth and had to traverse a certain distance while passing lifesavers on the toothpick down the line.  There was also  an orange in the neck passing game that was equally funny.  The final game was the best because it was two pairs dualing it out for first place.  The pairs were each given 2 cups and told that they had to fill a bucket by racing to the ocean and back while the girl was on the guy's back.  The piggyback aspect of this game made it strenuous and entertaining for everyone gathered on the beach to watch.  

The last game we hosted was a "Search for the Booty" which was basically a scavenger hunt for a variety of random items such as 2 perfect shells, 5 can tabs, and signatures from current chapter presidents to name a few things.  The funniest part about Saturday was that the same chapter won all 3 events and collected 3 free trips to Spring Fling 2008!  Aren't they lucky?

I picked up a lot of trash over the weekend in order to keep the hotel looking tidy with the other people who came to work from my chapter.  It was definitely worth it because the hotel has invited us to return for next year and treated us to breakfast Sunday morning for being the first group ever to come and pick up after ourselves.  

Our chapter made about $6,000 this year and I am proud at how smoothly everything ran and the compliments my chapter received.  I'm already excited about next year! 

Posted by Lydia at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hey everyone! So starting today at 2 pm is my big fraternity weekend.  This weekend is Spring Fling, which is a national gathering of brothers of Delta Sigma Pi on Jekyll Island, Georgia.  I have planned this event with two other people for the past year and it is finally time to host it! 

I will not have access to a computer all weekend, but feel free to comment on my entries and I will definitely respond early next week! 

Enjoy the weekend!  I hope you all have wonderful weather!

Posted by Lydia at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every semester, every single person on campus (who is not about to graduate) is assigned a time on VIP (vip.sc.edu) to log in and choose their classes for the upcoming semester.  Class registration requires a lot of planning in my humble opinion if you want to get the classes, the times, and the professors you want. 

The first step is to be advised in your respective college on campus.  I was advised during the month of March in the Business School for my major classes, International Business class, and my minor classes.  Advisement is the perfect time to ask questions and look at the big picture to stay on track and graduate on time. 

After I had my list of classes, I logged onto VIP and looked at the different sections on the master schedule in order to configure my "ideal" schedule.  I also had a list of good substitute schedules in case classes became full by the time it was my turn to sign-up.  Once you have your unofficial schedule, it is important to check VIP right before your sign-up time in order to make the necessary adjustments if a section you wanted becomes full. 

Then, at the moment the clock changes, you must enter your information to VIP and start typing the course codes (that hopefully you wrote down ahead of time) in order to make this part of the process last less than 2 minutes! 

On Wednesday, I was able to register at 8:50 am, and I had my course information ready to go so I could type the 6 digit code as quickly as possible.  The nice thing was that even though I'm not in the Honors College I had a great sign-up time, but I can't figure out how that time was determined.  My only guess is GPA or Hours Earned in College.  Either way, that's motivation to take AP classes in high school and to maintain good grades in college. 

Let me know if you have any questions!  The process is similar during Orientation for incoming Freshmen, but you will definitely be guided by a group of advisors. 

Posted by Lydia at 07:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before I came to college I was honestly one of the luckiest kids because my parents never made me do laundry.  By this I mean I never had to physically figure out what clothes could be washed together and I never had to decide what temperature to set the water.  This meant that growing up I never ruined a shirt or turned my socks pink. 

Well, once college rolled around my parents told me it was time for me to learn.  When my mom took me to tour Capstone House, we took a trip to the basement and looked at the washing machines and dryers.  These college laundry machines were made for every type of person because they only have 3 buttons to choose from!  I literally stick all of my pajamas and basketball clothes in one machine and push "bright colors" and then I put all of my nicer tops and pants in another machine and push "bright colors".  After about 40 minutes of waiting I put all of my pjs and athletic gear in a dryer and push "permanent press" to hopefully eliminate some of the wrinkles.  In the meantime I take my other clothes back to my room, put them on hangers and drape everything around my room. 

The thing is, I really don't enjoy doing laundry.  Yes, it is convenient because it's in the same building, but it takes close to a two hour block of time to complete!  Luckily for me I always manage to rearrange my schedule to fit it in.  However, I rarely plan enough time to fold all of my "dried" clothes.  Let's just say if clothes are even the slightest bit wet, they should not be left in a laundry basket.  I've learned to get over my dislike for wrinkled clothes since it's always my own fault. 

I will leave you with this piece of advice: Do not try and do laundry on Sunday nights, it never works.  Also, if you think the laundry room will be empty at 2 am on a Friday night, you're probably wrong because it seems like someone is always sharing the basement with you.  So plan ahead and don't wait until you're down to your last outfit! 

Posted by Lydia at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's time to meet the other 59 students who worked hard, got involved, and sweated through a few essay questions.  Tuesday afternoon, there was a gathering for the class of 2009's International Business students.  It was a business casual event where everyone was able to mingle, eat some food, and meet the International Business professors. 

After everyone's picture was taken for a pictureboard, we all filed into a room where the faculty was introduced and details of our newly accepted class were revealed.  My arms became covered when goosebumps when I learned that the IB Faculty is comprised of all PhD professors who graduated from places such as MIT, Harvard, and the Wharton School of Business.  It is also interesting to note that the professor teaching Business in Latin American is Hispanic and the woman teaching Business in Asia is Asian.  I definitely think this brings a great angle to the program.  In regard to my specific class, the average GPA was a 3.89, about half of the class is honors college students, and we are the most diverse class in regard to foreign languages and involvement on campus.  Quite impressive I must say.  I was also interested to learn that the International Business program now accepts 60 students per year instead of 50.  This still keeps the program competitive but your chances also increase just a smidge! 

Also, I know a lot of you have probably heard the myth that you need languages such as Chinese or Japanese on top of French or Spanish to be accepted.  This is not true.  Of course the program loves to see successful students who are studying Arabic or an Asian dialect, but I met plenty of other students like myself who were accepted with one foreign language and great credentials.  Personally, I recommend you do what is best for you! 

I'm really excited about the Fall and I will finally get to take my first International Business course about Globalization and also my first Finance course, which is my second major.  This is also the first summer I have homework.  Our class has to read The World is Flat: A Brief History of 21st Century for the IBUS 310 class. 

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know! 

Posted by Lydia at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)