Do you know how most people like to end things with a bang? Well my fall semester ended with a busier schedule and more end-of-the year events than my small little planner could hold.
In my last week before the break started, I celebrated a great semester with my fellow R-Journalists over lunch at the lovely Spice restaurant on Park Avenue, enjoyed a feast of salad, pasta, pizza, and dessert with the editorial staff of The Sandspur, and even attended a going away party for my RCC professor, Hoyt Edge.
Over the weekend, my entourage of lovely ladies and I headed over the Alfond Sports Complex on campus and enjoyed the Attitudes Dance Show, which was hosted by the Rollins Dancers. A few days later, Alli, Katie and I tiptoed into the Knowles Memorial Chapel right before the doors closed and the Vespers performance began. We pushed our way past a pew of women with their shiny broaches and men with their gray sports jackets to find a seat in the back. A few minutes later, my roommate, Libby, came walking down the aisle with a candle in her hand as a part of the introductory procession of the show. It was a beautiful performance, and even though my view was slightly obstructed by the rather tall man sitting directly in front of me, it still proved to be quite the enjoyable evening.
Photo: Here I am with Libby, Katie, and Alli outside of the Knowles Memorial Chapel after Vespers.
The next few days were busy with late nights in the library writing political theory papers and studying from a mound of textbooks. Nevertheless, I still had time to enjoy a night out with my friend Adam at his fraternity semi-formal as well as spend time with a beautiful girl named Emily at Holiday Funfest where we spent the afternoon making candy cane crafts and eating sugar. As exhausting as chasing after a four year-old on a sugar high is, Holiday Funfest was still probably my favorite event of the week.
Photo: Emily really got into the "make your own gingerbread house" booth, but 'm pretty sure we got more icing on ourselves than on the house.
A few days later, I was on the road with my roommate Katie. We decided to spice up our Christmas vacation by taking a road trip to her hometown in Georgia. As tiring as a nine-hour road trip may be, it doesn’t seem too bad when you are laughing over fall semester memories, complaining about the fickleness of men, and playing a “That’s what she said” billboard contest with one of your best friends.
My few days in Dahlonega, Georgia were filled with a variety of adventures, good laughs and great food (her parents made the best breakfast). Katie and I went with her parents to a tree farm, and I had the lovely and highly anticipated experience of chopping down my first Christmas tree. We also took a tour of the CNN news station in Atlanta, ate lunch on the 74th floor of the Weston hotel, and sampled over fifty flavors of Coke at the Coca-Cola factory. Also important to note: being a Florida girl, I had no idea at the amount of foliage that actually existed in the world. Who knew that one state could have so many trees?
Photo: This was one of the rooms in the Coca-Cola Factory. I thought the artwork was so beautiful and colorful.
Returning home for the remainder of my Christmas break, I spent the next two weeks eating an endless amount of food, screaming out answers to board game questions, and chasing my Papa’s fat pug, Harley, around the house. You see, it is family tradition that every Christmas and summer, my cousins from Tennessee drive to Central Florida and spend a week or so at my grandparents. So for 10 days, my grandparent’s typically quiet house was filled with eight extra people, two more dogs, and then my family.
We spent our mornings out and about around town, enjoying the recession prices at the local malls, and our afternoons were filled with playing Scrabble and video games. The real action happened at night. After a day of cooking, my Filipino grandmother would present us with several bowls of glass noodles, fried rice, eggrolls, fried chicken and wontons. After eating our fill and much much more, we would all break out the board games and divide our lot into two as the battle began.
There would screaming and hollering and squeals and giggles erupting from our little corner of the kitchen as we tried our hand at games such as Last Word, MadGab, and Catchphrase. Addicted to the high of competition and the euphoria produced by laughter, we spent all of our nights like this until sadly Christmas break had ended, and it was time to part until the summer.
Photo: Instead of throwing away all of our colorful bows, we decided to recycle them on my cousins' dog, Precious.
I had only a few days before it was time to return to school for my intersession class. I spent them lounging around the house lazily with my family and dogs, saying goodbye to my hometown friends, and then packing for my next semester. I was sad to leave home, but I couldn’t help but be excited about the semester to come. The fall had been more of an adventure than I had planned, and I knew in my gut that this spring would be filled with so many more memories and laughs. So I packed my car with my clothes and Christmas presents crammed desperately inside, and I drove through my hometown towards the interstate.
Walking back into my room on campus felt a bit surreal yet so comfortingly familiar. I was the first one back so the room was still hot from the air conditioner being off, and the fridge still sat rebelliously unplugged and out of its place. It wasn’t long before Katie arrived, and we spent our afternoon unpacking our cars and attempting to fit everything in our closets and shelves.
The next day our intercessions started. Hers was “Disney in the City” and mine was “Genocide in Bosnia.” While she was out playing school field trip at the Disney theme parks, I was in a classroom studying one of the most horrific massacres in human history. However, I wouldn’t change my intercession for anything. It took only one day before I was completely absorbed in the topic.
The horror of the past terrified me as the optimism of the future humbled me. My professor was amazing. She knew more about the history of former Yugoslavia than I could ever imagine possible. Through the movies and documentaries that we watched, the political readings we studied, and the conversations that we engaged in, I became enraptured in the topic.
Before I took the class, I admittedly had trouble locating Bosnia on a map, but after a week, I knew more about the history, culture and government of Bosnia than I ever could have imagined. Needless to say, I really enjoyed the intersession and was sad to part with it. However, I was indeed looking forward to a long weekend of rest before the rest of my classes and the beautiful madness of the semester began.
Growing up in Central Florida, Brittany had always imagined attending a college where the snow flowed heavily. However, all thoughts of donning her heavy winter coat dissipated when she laid eyes on Rollins. A picturesque private school only a few hours from her hometown, Rollins swept her off her feet.
Now a sophomore, Brittany devotes the majority of her time to The Sandspur, where she works as the Life & Times editor, and to R-TV, where she serves as the director of public relations. Brittany said, “Over the past year, Rollins has become a second home to me. It has provided me with an atmosphere in which I can live and thrive.”
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