Tulane University Admission Blog - Kelly

Jobs Jobs Jobs

2010-06-19T06:21:00.001-07:00

So once you graduate college... the number one question you are asked... the most daunting question..."What are you doing now? For the past month I have been just telling people "Well, I am applying for a lot of jobs and just kinda waiting" Finally I have something to show for all of my work! I had a first round interview at UPenn in Philly for a research position. Its exactly what I've been looking for and would be such a great opportunity! The phone interview went well so I am heading to Philly next week to "meet the team". It's all very exciting until I think about the fact that I am living my last summer vacation EVER! I better take advantage of it right?

I have been spending lots of time at my lake house which is in South Salem, NY only 40 minutes away from my home in Stamford and have been going into the city (NYC) every so often. I actually went into the city to celebrate my birthday a few weeks ago! Just to prove how much we all miss New Orleans, My friends and I ended up at a place called "Bourbon Street" in NYC... we just can't get enough.

So since I am the youngest and now all the children have gone through college, my parents are planning on moving out of our house! They moved into my home 6 months before I as born so I have lived here my whole life. Although they love the Northeast, they are a little tired of the snowy winters so they are looking at homes in Charleston, SC, which is kind of ironic since that is only an hour and half away from where my boyfriend's family lives. They are heading down south next week to vacation and look at some houses. I move up north and they move down south! I visited Charleston recently when I was visiting my boyfriend in South Carolina and it is very beautiful. While we were out one night we met a group of girls who went to College of Charleston but were from Uptown New Orleans! What a small world...

Fingers crossed I get this job!

Kelly

The End of an Era

2010-06-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

It is June 5th and I am home. Well actually, in Waitsfield, VT at my families ski house in VT. As it is summer, there is no skiing but it is still nice to come up for a weekend and enjoy the scenery.

So as you already may know, I GRADUATED! May 15th, 2010 was the last official day of my Tulane Career. It was an awesome day. We starting it off in a celebratory manner with one mimosa before the celebration. It's quite early yes, with us needing to be at the Superdome by 8 AM, but hey it was out last day as college students so you pull out all the stops.

It's sort of a Tulane Tradition for those students who are crazy enough to get up at that hour. I luckily was one of them. We then all headed to the dome to grab out name tags and get in line. Luckily, Tulane lets students sit whenever they would like within their undergraduate college, so I got to sit with all my fellow science and engineering friends. The first part of the ceremony was amazing. Anderson Cooper was hysterical! A totally memorable graduation speaker. Whenever I tell people about it they are always so jealous. We also had the owner of the Saints present and they showed an homage video. It was actually the only part of the ceremony where I cried, ha. The Saints really get under your skin. After all of the speeches were over, Tulane beach balls rained from the sky and fireworks were set off from the stage! It was a great feeling. They also passed out Tulane decorated umbrellas and I was lucky enough to snag one!

After a short break, we were then called one by one up on to the stage. I am proud to say that due to all of my hard work I graduated Magna Cum Laude with Honors in Psychology. I was .02 away from Summa Cum Laude!!!!! Oh well... I'm still happy with what I achieved. After about an hour and a half of names, my roomates and I headed home where we had a catered brunch for my family at my house. It was a great time. That night my family went out to a beautiful dinner. I had my immediate family, my grandparents, a close family friend and my aunt and uncle in. One of my roomates Alison had 17 guests! We definitely had a full house.

I then spent the next week packing up my room and saying goodbye to my beloved city. It was a very surreal moment when I actually left my house, my room empty for the first time in a year and half. I shed a tear or two then.

What am I up to now that its over? I am home. Looking for jobs. I want to eventually go back to graduate school for my PhD in clinical psychology so in preparation for that I am trying to obtain a research position in the clinical psych field. If you know of anything let me know! Until then, I am just hanging around in Stamford, CT with my fingers crossed...

I know I'll be back to New Orleans soon though.... you just can't get it off of your mind.

And Classes are OVER!!

2010-04-27T11:07:00.001-07:00

So I had my final class today... and it didn't feel like my last class at all. We had our final lecture on hormones in brain and behavior and Professor Wee thanked us for a great semester and I walked out. It should have felt a lot different but oddly it didn't. As I walked back to my house I thought about how fast my 4 years had gone. I remember my last class in High School, jumping for joy (literally) as I RAN out of the building. Being SO excited to head off to college in just a short 2 months. Now that I am graduating from college I in no way have the say feeling. I am excited to move to the next chapter in my life, but I wouldn't mind an extra year or two in college.

Now that classes are over its time for my friends and I to celebrate the time we have left together! We planned a bunch of fun things like a senior pool party at our sorority advisers home which was a great afternoon break. We also planned a senior pub crawl. We took the St. Charles street car to some of our favorite bars. It was a really great last experience for us. We decided to do it "golf" themed because we all love a good theme.

After the pub crawl, we all went to Bruff (the campus dining hall) one last time. We all loved it as much as Freshman year. It was such a surreal experience to be in there all together. Because it was my last time I had to get a little bit of everything, a grilled cheese, the salad bar, some frozen yogurt, the pasta.... I know I know, a little excessive, but hey it was our last horrah!

Over the next week we will do a bunch of other fun stuff (and also study for finals.) I am lucky in that I only have 2 finals. I have also been very thoroughly preparing for my Honors Thesis Defense. It is in just a few days. I am really excited for the experience because it will give me the chance to talk about all of my hard work that I have been doing over the last year. Wish me luck!

Spring Break!

2010-03-31T08:04:00.001-07:00

So when I was high school I always imagined myself going on one of those MTV worthy spring breaks when I finally made it to college. Going crazy on the beach with all of my friends, listening to great music and getting a tan. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately actually, I haven't done that. The past 2 years I have gone to my Grandmother's condo in Pensacola, FL - which is a 3 hour drive from New Orleans.

This year I decided to do something a little different. My best friend goes to the University of Florida and I have yet to visit her during college so I decided to drive down there! It was a 7 and half hour drive (which i did by myself - however not that bad because I listened to my IPOD and a book on tape). It was such a cool experience to be there! Obviously I loved seeing Sarah, but it was my first time at a big southern state school.

First of all, it literally is GATOR CITY! We did go to a bar called Gator City one night, but everywhere all you see is Blue, Orange and Aligators (not real ones, just the mascot). And Gainesville, nicknamed the swamp, really is a SWAMP! It is nothing like any other place I have been in Florida before. Sarah took me around her campus (which she loves) and I must say it is extremely beautiful, we such a new experience for me. She drives to class everyday, while here at Tulane students walk everywhere. She eats off campus everyday, where students here either make it home to get their lunch or they eat on campus and she only goes to campus for class, where students here spend tons of time on campus for many different reasons. It was just some of these little differences that made me appreciate Tulane, and the size of the school.

She took me down Fraternity and Sorority rows, which were hugely different than here. They literally have MANSIONS that the Greek students live in, all secluded and segregated from where other students live. Greek housing at Tulane is integrated with all of the homes where other students live, not secluded at all. I did ask her to drive me by the Pi Phi house at Florida, and ironically it was set on Fraternity row instead of Sorority row! Weird huh?

Because Sarah wasn't on spring break when i was, I was only there Friday - Tuesday. It was a great weekend though and I was so glad to see her! I spend the rest of my time back in New Orleans doing some school work and just laying out at the Levee. I actually got a darker tan in New Orleans than I got in Florida!

Unfortunately, I didn't take ANY pictures while I was there but I will post some more stuff later!

GO GATORS! (I had to say it)
Kelly

FINALLY ITS WARM AGAIN!

2010-03-07T21:57:00.000-08:00

So New Orleans has been upsetting me a little lately. It actually isn't New Orleans fault at all really, its the weather! The entire country has been having a very very cold winter, and we haven't been left out of that. But in my senior year spring semester, the cold can't stop me! As we were preparing for Mardi Gras I realized that I forgot to bring back any of my winter jackets to New Orleans after Christmas break. In a desperate text to my mother I said... "Mom, If you love me, you will 2 day ship my ski jacket." Needless to say, My mother does love me, and the jacket was here 2 days later.

This Mardi Gras was a great time. For the first time in my Tulane Career, I walked from Campus to Downtown. We decided to do it starting in the early afternoon and it took us 2 hours. The walk we took was 4 miles down, straight down St. Charles. It was so fun to be with friends and just enjoy the excitement of Mardi Gras during the day. We did take a few pit stops on our way down, but we made it happily!

Since recovering from Mardi Gras, I've done a ton of fun things! We had two sorority events which were great and I just had the BEST WEEKEND!

So as I have told you before, people from New Orleans go to the "Levee" or as the locals call it, the "Fly" on nice days. This weekend, to say the least, WAS BEAUTIFUL! Both Saturday and Sunday were 70+ and Sunny! On Saturday my friends and I went to the Levee to both lay out and enjoy the sun, but also to support a great cause! At the Levee on Saturday there was a fundraising event for pediatric brain cancer. A local young boy died recently from Brain Cancer, so his family and friends organized this event to raise money and awareness for a cure. The event got together some of the best chef's in the city to donate their time and food to the cause. There were tons of tents set up outside where you could get free food and drinks (and encouraged to provide a donation for the cause!). The event was a Pork based event so most of the dishes somehow incorporated pork! Although I am a vegetarian, my friends all enjoyed the food and said it was fantastic! After the festival we just hung out by the river and got a little color. It couldn't have been a better day.

Lucky for us, today was just as beautiful! I decided to go to the Tulane Baseball game. The boys were in their 3rd game in a series against Ole Miss. They had lost the first two games of the series, but I brought some luck because they won today! They actually played a great game and won by more than 6 runs.

All in all, it was an amazing weekend and I hope New Orleans decides to stay this warm!!!

WHO DAT!

2010-02-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

Since I last posted SO MANY amazing and fun things have happened in the city, but lets just start with the sports.

I went to my first NBA game! I went with a group of my friends and because of some awesome connections we were able to sit in a luxury suite! It was awesome. They provided food and drinks and we had an awesome view of the court! The only disappointing part (other than the Hornets loosing) was that Kim Kardashian did not make an appearance. The word on the street is that when she is in town visiting her boyfriend Reggie Bush, they go to all of the Hornets games - maybe she was busy at an appearance that day.

Although the Hornets lost, it was a great experience. My friends and I tried VERY hard, but unsuccessfully to get on the dance cam. I think they are a little prejudiced against the people in the luxury suites - but hey I can't really complain.

NOW ON TO THE MOST EXCITING NEWS! THE SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!! Unless you don't follow football at all, I am assuming you have already heard this news but us down here just can't get enough. WHO DAT never gets old. For those of you who don't know (and I didn't until I came down to school here) WHO DAT comes from the phrase "Who Dat (that) Say They Gonna Beat Dem (them) Saints." I know, I know, it's not very proper english but it's very fun to chant.

My friends and I decided to watch the game together in a very odd, but fun, spot. We knew that all of the sports bars in the city were going to be PACKED with fans so we decided against that. Instead, a group of our guy friends pulled their couches out on to their lawn and brought two televisions outside and we watched it from there. Luckily, we had a bon fire that kept us warm. The game was SO exciting. When it looked like the saints were about to win with only 5 minutes left, we all ran down to the Boot, which is a local bar and grill to watch the winning moment with a huge crowd. Let me tell you, the Boot was PACKED! It was such a great feeling though seeing everyone go crazy after the win.

In true New Orleans spirit, the celebration could not end right there! My friends and I decided to go downtown to celebrate with everyone in the city. Not to get too emotional here with you, but on the way downtown in my friends car I actually started to tear up a bit. The experience was just so surreal. People were all over the streets and in cars cheering and yelling who dat and waving flags and saints signs. Although I'm from Connecticut and grew up as a Giants fan, in that moment I was so glad to be a part of the New Orleans community. It made me realize just how much I love this city and how badly I am going to miss it next year. The people here are so passionate about what is important to them, and it makes you feel that passionate as well. Luckily I was able to pull it together, stop the tears, and enjoy the rest of the night. I will absolutely be asking for a real Saints jersey for my next birthday.

Happy Groundhog Day!

2010-02-02T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello All -
So the Groundhog saw his shadow this morning and thats means 6 more weeks of winter! I hope he is wrong since Mardi Gras is only 2 weeks away and I can't handle another cold Mardi Gras! Over my past 3 years at Tulane, Mardi Gras has been COLD! I think its a little unfair of the weather gods since it is the one week that everyone in the entire city spends their time outside! So thats why I hope Phil is wrong!

The semester has started off with a bang! With sorority recruitment for the first two weekends I was extremely busy. But lucky for us, it all went really well and last weekend we finally got our New Member class of 55 girls! They are all really great and excited to join the sorority. To celebrate the new Members, the entire sorority went to Cannons, a local resturante for a dinner and desert party. They had amazing mini strawberry cheesecakes that I would definetly recommend. The night was capped off with the success of the Saints clinching their Super Bowl spot! The city went WILD, but I couldn't expect anything less. New Orleans gets excited about everything!
Now that recruitment is over, the semester can finally begin! This past sunday we had a beautifully sunny day so a group of my friends and I decided to go to the levy. "The Levy" or as the locals call it, The Fly, is a grassy area next to the Mississippi river. It is the closest thing to a beach that we have hear in New Orleans, and we love to go lay out there. Although it was only 60 degrees, the sun was shining brightly and I think I may have gotten a little color on my face.

When I came to Tulane I was introduced to a game called "Bags" or "Cornhole". I don't actually think its a southern thing, I think its more of a midwestern game, but people love to play it down here. The game is very simple, you have two wooden boards, that are slanted and have a single hole in them (Take a look at the picture to the right!). You have two teams, and there are 4 corn filled rectangular bags. A member from each team stands on each end, behind the wooden block and throws each bag one at a time toward the block on the other side. Points are accumulated from each bag that goes into the hole or lands on the block. A friend of mine brought his bags set to the Levy and I played two games and won both!

Ok off to class! Have a great Groundhog Day!

Kelly

Thanksgiving is my Favorite Holiday!

2009-12-06T08:40:00.001-08:00

Every year my sorority has our big philanthropy event, Burgers for Books. We have a cook out where we grill burgers and sell them for $2 a piece. All the money we make, we donate to an organization called First Book. For every dollar that they receive, they donate a brand new book to a child who would not otherwise have one. We also added a new event last year called Pie a Pi Phi! For $5, anyone can throw a whipped cream pie at one of our faces! Some girls were scared the pie's, but I was actually kind of excited about it! I was one of the lucky girls to get chosen to be pied. We raised about $700 for the organizaiton which means 700 new books for kids!! I was lucky enough to grill the burgers for the second half of the night, and from what I heard they were very delicious.

So the only bad thing about going abroad was missing Thanksgiving. Although my classes ended in late October, my friends and I decided to stay for an extra month to travel. Because of this, Thanksgiving 2008 was celebrated in Queenstown, New Zealand at a restaurant called the Bunker. Thanksgiving is my FAVORITE holiday of the entire year, so I was very excited to go home for it this year. Every year we spend the day with my Dad's family and have the same foods - everything that I love. Although many people think that Thanksgiving is about the Turkey, coming from a vegetarian let me tell you that the sides are so much better.

Back from Thanksgiving meant only 1 week left of classes! 7/8 done with college is not a fun thinkg =(

Taking Tests and Building Houses

2009-11-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

After the fun of Halloween, it was time to get down to business! The following weekend was extremely busy. I had to take the the GRE psychology subject test, do Habitat for Humanity and then had a sorority date party!

The GRE test was not so fun, but not as bad as I had expected. It was however the longest multiple choice test I have ever taken - 240 questions! I took it at the University of New Orleans. I sat in a room with about 30 other pople who were all taking different exams, from Psychology to Math to Physics. Unline the standard GRE, the subject tests are only offered about 4 times a year. Most of the PhD programs that I am going to apply to require the GRE subject test, but not all PhD or masters programs require them. I haven't gotten my scores back yet but hopefully they are high enough to not have to take it again!

Right after taking the test, I drove to the Ninth Ward where my sorority sisters were building a house with Habitat for Humanity. I was a little late obviously because I was taking the test, but late is better than never! As a senior class, we decided to do Habitat. All of us felt that since we have lived here for almost 4 years now, that it was more than time for us to do our part in building a house. We were there until about 3 PM and we finished 3/4 of the siding on the entire house! It was a really great experience. Especially when other locals families would walk by and say thank you and tell us how greatful they were for what we were doing. I think my dad would be very proud of all of the construction work I was doing! Who knew I knew how to put up siding!

After the long day of building, I came home and took a quick nap before getting ready to go to my date party! A date party is a social event that we have where each girl gets to bring a date for a night out. It was definety a great time.

Ok, talk to you soon!
Kelly

Halloween!

2009-11-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
Halloween this year was a blast. At Tulane, Halloween is not just one day, but extends for the length of the weekend that is closest to its date. So this year, since Halloween fell on a Saturday, it started the Thursday before. Often people have a different costume for each night that they go out, so this year I had 2 costumes. I dressed a a pixie stick with my roomates Friday night and as Modern art Saturday night.
Friday night my roomates and I had a Halloween party at our house. We decided that we should all dress alike as a theme. After contemplating tons of ideas, we somehow found our selves roaming the isles at Walmart for inspiration. At this point I am not really sure how it got to this, but we decided to be different colored Pixie sticks - you know the large sticks of colored sugar that we all love? We bought bright colored outfits and decided to spray paint out hair to match our outfits. In the end, we ended up looking like characters from Dr. Seuss Books, but hey everyone liked it.

On Saturday night, I dressed as a piece of modern art. I wore a skin colored outfit and had my roomates splatter paint on me like i was a canvas. When I came up with the idea, i didn't think about the drying process, ha. I stood in my room with a hairdryer to my body for about a half hour before I could leave the house. The night was tons of fun anyway. We went to a couple more Halloween parties in the area, and then most people head downtown to Frenchman street. The costumes you see down there are like nothing you have ever seen before.

Hope you had a great Halloween!
Kelly

Homecoming and Going Home!

2009-10-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Since I last posted a lot has happened! First of all we had Homecoming! This year, Tulane was celebrated its 175th aniversary. Although there were not alums present from that first graduating class, there were some alums here for 25 and 30 year reunions! One of my good friends Rachel is the daughter of two Tulane alums. Both of them came to visit her and to celebrate their 30 year reunion. I was excited to meet them, however they were so busy celebrating with their friends that I didn't get to see them, let alone Rachel!
Both of my parents came in for the weekend. They arrived Friday night and left Monday morning. On Saturday, we actually had an unlucky mishap when my mom tripped over an uneven sidewalk in the park while on her morning run! In an attempt to save her I-Phone as she fell, she ended up cutting her lip and needing stitches. Luckily for us - there is a state of the art hospital only 7 minutes away! We got her there very quickly and she was as good as new in an hour. We didn't let this mishap ruin the weekend in the slightest. At around noon, my parents and I went to the Homecoming Tailgate. My sorority set up a tent where we have food and drinks for the parents. People played music and celebrated Tulane! All of the tents are set up on the platforms outside of the Superdome. It is tons of fun and goes on for about 4-5 hours.
Have you ever heard of the games bags? Or maybe you know it as cornhole? Well I had never heard of it before I came to school in New Orleans. Apparently it is both popular in the South and the Midwest. My Italian family and I prefer to play bocci. Anyway, to play the game you throw bean bags (which are actually filled with corn kernels) onto a slanted board with a hole in the middle. If the bag lands on the board you get 1 point and if it goes into the hole you get 3. My dad had never played before so this was a first for him. He caught on pretty quickly and although we lost the first game, we came back and won the second! I was pretty proud of us.
For the rest of the weekend my family and I did fun New Orleans things, and got to go to a great dinner at a restaurant called Coquette on Magazine St. My roomates and their parents joined us. It was really fun. On Sunday my dad helped me do some handy work around the house and put up some shelves in my room. Isn't that what Dad's are for??

The following weekend was Tulane's first ever fall break! Luckily for me, it coincided with my Uncle's Wedding in Massachusetts. I flew home on Thursday and came back to NOLA on Sunday. On Friday night I went into NYC and spent some time with my brother (who now lives there) and some friends from Tulane who now work there. It was nice to seem them and I had a great time. On Saturday we drove up to MA for the wedding. It was great to see my family and my cousins who I haven't seen in a long time since I spent my summer here. The wedding was at an airforce base and after the wedding we went to a real USO club! Only specific guests and miltary members are allowed on the base so we felt pretty cool. That Sunday I watched as my beloved NY Giants lost their first game of the season =( and then took a 3 hour flight back.

All in all it was a great two weekends! I will post an update after Halloween. I still can't decide what I am going to be but hopefully it all works out!

Talk to you soon!
Kelly

What a Month!

2009-10-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hi All!
This past month has been chock full! In the third week of September my mommy came to visit! It was her birthday so she came down to stay with me. She has a best friend that lives in Alabama who drove in for the weekend. On the Saturday night she was here we went to Harrah's to see a comedy show. One of my mom's friends who lives in New Orleans, James Cusimano, was actually one of the comics in the show! He was opening for Jodi Borello who was the main act. James did a great job and we were all really proud of him. The main comedian, Jodi was hysterical. The main focus of her stand up was jokes about New Orleans, because she is a local comedian. Although I am from Connecticut, I realized how much I am now a psuedo-local after living here for a little over 3 years. I was laughing at all of her jokes meant for the locals and my mom kept looking over at me and asking me "what is she talking about?". She loved the show anyway! After the show I decided to take my hand at gambling… but I am not brave enough so I just played the Penny slots! I actually won 7 dollars though!! I was very proud of myself and had a lot of fun. If I had played for 5 more minutes I would have gotten a free buffet!

The following weekend I saw ANOTHER comedy show! This time however it was a good friend of mine ding an open mic night at a local comedy club 5 blocks from my house. I was so nervous for him that I couldn’t look at him for half the time. But he did a really great job!! Almost his entire fraternity came to support him and I brought my roommates. It was a great time and he is thinking about doing it again. Maybe next time I will feel less nervous and I can watch the entire thing!

The following night I went to a date party with my friend and it was Jimmy Buffet themed, Margarita Ville! It was tons of fun and they had a great band that played all night. We had a blast. My sorority also had a date party the following weekend. Seniors got to bring two dates so my friends and I brought a huge group of our friends from other sororities and some boys too.

This semester I have a new goal, to stop eating boot pizza at night! For those of you who don’t know, there is a eatery called the Dough Bowl literally 20 feet from the edge of campus. Right where I walk past on my way home if I have been out at. They make delicious, mouth-watering pizza, that all Tulane students love. Even my best friend Brook who visited for a weekend will text me once and a while and tell me that she misses the pizza. The line is always at least 10 people long every night. I have been very weak when it comes to walking past and not buying a slice. My new goal is going to be walk buy and not buy a slice! This weekend will be an easy pass because I am going home for fall break. My uncle is getting married! So my challenge really starts next week… I”ll let you know how it goes.

My honors thesis has been going well too! I have been meeting once a week with my advisor and we have a really good grasp of what we will be researching. We have created the first part of the study and now I have to just work on the main experiment. My advisor and I have planned to submit the final research proposal to the IRB (Institution Review Board) in November and then I will be ready to run my study for the Spring semester. At our last meeting she told me that if the study results are significant we will submit it for publishing. It will so exciting as an undergraduate to have my research published in a Peer Reviewed Psychological Journal! Hopefully it will all go well.

Have a good weekend!
Kelly

Back to New Orleans... Off to Maine!

2009-09-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hey all!
Its now the third week of school and it is flying by! I feel like just yesterday I was moving in to Sharp and starting my freshman year. These first three weeks have been extremely hectic! My sorority has had a couple fun events, 2 mixers with other fraternities and a sister only. A sister only is exactly what it sounds like, an event just for the sorority sisters where we get to spend time together. It was great to see all the girls after the summer. It is very weird though with all of the Juniors gone abroad. I miss all of those girls, but know they are going to love their time abroad just like I did.

Only 2 weeks into school I flew to Portland, ME to surprise my best friend Brook for her birthday! She goes to Colby College in Waterville, ME. Her birthday was September 4th so I left New Orleans at 6AM to get there at around noon! She was moving into her house and I just walked into the house. SHE WAS SHOCKED! I went to give her a hug and she just stood there shaking. It was a great surprise. Visiting Colby was really fun. It is interesting how best friends can go to two such different schools and love their schools just as much. Colby is less than 2000, in a very cold climate and in MUCH smaller city than New Orleans. It is definetly a differnet college experience than going to Tulane, but she and her friends love it just the same. It just goes to show you that picking your University is a totally personal experience. Just because others love a school, doesn't mean that it is for you. You have to really experience it for youself. I think when you know, you just know. Although I am from Connecticut, it was my first time in Maine and it really was nice. After spending my entire summer in New Orleans, Maine felt very cold to me! haha The girls were all making fun of me when I walking around the house in my sweats.

My classes are all really good. I am taking two film classes (Film Analysis and French Cinema). I have two screenings a week. I feel like I am watching more movies this semester than ever in my life! We have watched The Royal Tenebaums, The Wizard of Oz and North by Northwest in my Film Analysis class and two lesser known French films called Napoleon and The Vampiers in French Cinema. I also am taking a class called Communication, Culture and Body, with a subtitle of Feminism, Science Fiction and New Technologies. It is a really cool class and I am getting exposure to the genre of Science Fiction, which is something I am not particulary familiar with. Very interesting stuff!

Ok I am off to go to bed. I am taking a 3 hour GRE course tomorrow that is offered through the Newcomb Institute. It was only $20! I am excited for it because that means that that is 3 less hours that I have to study math on my own! If you don't know, the Newcomb Institute does programing for women at Tulane. Tulane used to be Tulane University for men and Newcomb College for women. The two are completely combined now and we all attend the Newcomb-Tulane Undergraduate College, but to keep the spirit alive and to recognize the donor Sophie Newcomb, they still put on massive amounts of programming for women. Although I am not as involved as I should be, they do a great job of providing resourses as well as great leadership opportunities for women.

Ok enjoy your weekend!
Kelly

Its really happening... I'm a senior.

2009-08-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hi All!
Happy first week of school! Classes started yesterday, and so far so good. It is so interesting to me to see campus so crowded with people since living here all summer it was very empty. All of the new freshman moved in on Saturday which was a very successful day. By 1230 it looked like they were all pretty much moved and and people were getting used to the campus.

For my last week of summer I spent it in Sea Island, Georgia with my best friend and her family. She has a summer house there that they just renovated and it was awesome. It was a pretty short flight from New Orleans. Sea Island is in very south Georgia so we actually flew into Jacksonville, FL and drove from there. The island is about 7 miles long and has ocean on one side and marsh on the other. I spent 5 days there and had a blast. The island has a resort that all residents belong to and every Tuesday and Thursday they have bingo. Unfortunately we didn't win bingo, but I had a blast doing it. After that we did line dances (Macarena, Electric Slide, etc...) with all of the 8 year olds then headed home. It was a great week to end my last summer of college.

So there are some new changes on campus this year...

1. The Reily Center (the gym) got 20 new cardio machines! Very exciting for all the frequent gym goers because there are no longer lines waiting for an eliptical or treadmill.

2. New new eateries in the LBC - Panda Express and a new Mix Ins Salad Bar. I haven't tried either yet but have heard very good reviews from others about them!

3. Half of McAlister Drive is underconstruction. After a very large donation from an alumni, Tulane has begun the process of turning the first half of McAlister Drive into a fully green pedestrian walkway. Hopefully they will be done by December like they promise. Having construction on campus is at times annoying, but at least Tulane is always trying to improve it self.

Ok I am off to start my first homework assignment of the semester! Enjoy your last fews days of summer if you have them!

Kelly

Summer Public Service Internship

2009-07-19T21:40:00.000-07:00

Hey All!
So New Orleans is HOT AS EVER! Its 85+ everyday and only have rained twice since I got back. I have been having a great time. I started my summer internship on the 7th. It is so cool! Let me give you a little background information first.

After Katrina, Tulane revamped their entire core curriculum. One thing that they added was a public service requirement. You take 2 public service classes before you graduate, each which has a 40 hour service requirement. I think this requirement is awesome. Going to school in a city like New Orleans where there is so much help needed, especially since after the storm, it is a great way to give back to a city that gives us so much and becomes our second home for four years.

In addition to being able to fill your service requirement through a class with outside service hours, the Center for Public Service (CPS) also does summer internships, and that's where my internship comes in! At the end of last semester I met with Craig, an advisor at the CPS and he told me about all the partnerships that they had with local institutions that relate to my study area of Psychology. Long story short - I ended up picking the CARE center, which is the New Orleans Child Advocacy Center connected to the Childrens Hospital.

For my internship, I will work 70 hours, complete an online seminar about Public Service in the Health Sciences and get 3 credits! The same as any other regular class at Tulane! In addition to the credits and filling a requirement, I am also getting great experience in my major area that will help so much when applying to Graduate schools.

So I have been working at my internship for 2 weeks now and I love it. I tell all my friends that I feel like I am on Law and Order:SVU. My boss however would hate that I make that comparison haha, but for most people I think it gives a good idea about what we do there. We do the forensic medical exams as well as interviews for abused children throughout New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. This next week, I am going to get to work with the Psychologist they have on staff who does therapy sessions with victims of abuse. I am really excited about that. It will give me great hands on experience into the clinical work that I am interested in going to Graduate School for.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to post from my internship because its not really ethical to take pictures there, but hopefully at the end of it we will go out to dinner or something to celebrate and I can post pictures from that! ha, I can hope right??

Other than that summer in New Orleans is good! I am trying to use my AC as little as possible to keep the energy bill low but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

Hope you are having a great summer too!

Kelly

Bon Dia!

2009-07-08T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys!
So I had the BEST TIME EVER IN BRAZIL! One of the best times of my life. I will recap some of my experience for you!

So the flight was very easy. It was 9 hours from Atlanta and I just slept the entire time. Once we got there customs and immigration was a breeze too. Although all the workers had masked on because of the swine flu, so crazy. We had to fill out a form asking if we had a fever or cough within the past 10 days. After that we had a 4 hour bus ride to Paraty, the city we spent our first week in. We were there for 1 week and then head back to Rio for the next 2 weeks. Portuguese is so difficult to understand, and not many people here speak English. I feel terrible that I cannot communicate with anyone. I try spanish sometimes but it is different and it hasn't been too successful. Luckily both my professors and her husband and son speak it so that is very helpful.

Paraty is a 4 hour drive South of Rio, in between Rio and Sao Paolo. It was a really cute small town with awesome architecture. It has a lot of history too. It became famous because it has a port and became the place through which all of the gold and diamonds discovered in the mountains traveled through to get to Rio de Janiero. Millions of slaves carried the gold and diamonds through Paraty to bring it to Rio. We went on a hike through the trail that they took which is called the Gold Road. It was really cool to see.

The city has a beautiful main area called the historical center which has all of the original stone walkways from 300+ years ago. Paraty is called "Little Venice" because when the tide is high it floods and becomes a water city where they have to travel around by boats. I only saw it with about 6 inches of water in parts of it that were close to the water, but we were able to walk around it so i didn't need a boat.

On our hike of the Gold Road we also got to go sliding down natural water slides! It was a massive rock with a waterfall running down it that went into a river. We hiked up the side of it and then slid down the rock into the river.

The water was freezing but it was a really hot day so you didnt stay cold for long. I did it twice! It was so fun, but my bathing suit got so dirty from the rock. It was worth it though.

After 1 week, we took a 4 hour bus ride back to Rio de Janiero, which means the January River. When Rio was discovered the Portuguese thought that it was on a river (which is actually a bay) and it was in the month of Janurary. Clever huh? ha not really but it sounds pretty to non-portuguese speaking people. We have class every morning from 9-1 and then we either have field trips in the afternoon, or sometimes down time. Our field trips included stuff like going on a city tour, taking a tour through the favelas (ghettos), and visiting Globo stuidos once of the largest media conglomerates in the world! It was so cool, we got to see the set of their current Telenovela being set up for that day's filming.

Our hotel was right across from the beach so after class everyday we would run out to the beach and try and get as much sun in as possible. Because it is in the southern hemisphere it is currently winter so the sun rays were not too strong but the weather was beautiful. I finally got the courage to go swimming and the water was awesome! We also got to explore different areas of Rio at night and got to go to a Soccer game in Maracana stadium, one of the biggest soccer stadiums in the world! Soccer is so important to Brazilians, they say it comes right after religion! haha We saw two local Rio teams play each other and the team I was rooting for one in the last 5 minutes of the game. Pretty exciting!

It was one of the best experiences of my life. I would highly reccomend this program to anyone who is interested in doing a summer study abroad program. I have since then become so in love with Brazilian culture that I bought the Rosetta Stone software to learn Portuguese! I am going to try and go back for a week for New Years if I can because I miss it already!

I now back in New Orleans and just started my Summer Internship through the center for public service. I had my first day on Tuesday and have my second tomorrow so I will fill you in more on that as the time goes on!

Tchau!
Kelly

Off to Brazil!

2009-05-29T15:27:00.001-07:00

Hi All!
I am sitting currently in the Atlanta International Airport waiting for my flight to Brazil! It doesn't leave for 3 hours so I am just hanging out and decided to post!

Wednesday was my 21st Birthday! I went into NYC with a bunch of my friends and we went to a Sushi restaurant and did Karaoke! It was so much fun. It was a great mix of my Tulane and Home friends. My brother just recently moved into NY so we stayed at his apartment and then walked around the city the next day. My best friend Sarah, who now lives in Florida flew in for my birthday. It was great to see her because I haven't seen her in 3 years!

I am very excited to get to Brazil. I am a little nervous because I don't know what to expect! From what I have heard from people who have done this Tulane program in the past, you have class in the hotel for 3-4 hours a day, and then you get to explore the city! I brought my fancy camera that I got as a gift when I went abroad to Australia so hopefully I will take some great pictures that I can post for you!

I'm off! Maybe I'll come back with some Portuguese!

Kelly

I'm a Senior Now!

2009-05-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hey All!
So I can't believe it but my Junior year is over, and I am officially a senior now. It is so crazy to me how quickly it all goes by. I have loved every minute of it and it is now just starting to feel that much more real that in just one year from now I will be graduating and then off to wherever my life takes me ( hopefully to a great graduate school!!).

So since finals ended, which went pretty well I might add, I have just been spending time with my friends and enjoying New Orleans! For the seniors graduating from my sorority we had a crawfish boil at the Levy. The Levy (called the Fly by real locals) is the closest to a beach you are going to get in New Orleans, and Tulane students love it. It is basically a grassy area next to the Mississippi River where students go to hang out and have fun. It is a short walk from campus right on the other side of Audubon park, behind the zoo! The Crawfish boil was tons of fun and it was a great way to honor our seniors.

To celebrate the end of the year a big group of my friends and I also went tubing! Basically we got a bus to take 40 of us about 2 hours north of New Orleans to this river where a company called Wayne's World rents out tubes and dropps you off upstream and you just hang out and let the river take you back down. It is tons of fun and a great way to get a tan! They also have tubes specially made for coolers so people can bring drinks and lunch since you are on the river for almost 4 hours! An all day event that definetly left me pooped but it was so much fun.

We also have had alot of birthday's to celebrate in my house! All 3 of my roomates and I are May babies! Mandy turned 22 on May 4th, Alison turned 21 on May 12th, Joan's Birthday is today the 17th and Mine is in 10 days on the 27th! So before everyone left for the summer, we have had 4 birthday cakes and birthday dinners for our housemates. Everyone got a specialized cake for their tastes. Mine was funfetti vanilla with vanilla frosting because I don't like chocolate! I KNOW, EVERYONE SAYS ITS WEIRD!!! Here is a picture of my roomate Alison on her birthday!
Yesterday was graduation and it was open to the public so a few of my friends that were still in town went to go see our friends graduate. ELLEN DEGENERES WAS THE GUEST SPEAKER! She was AMAZING. SOOO funny! I was laughing the entire time. The other speakers were amazing as well. The seniors that graduated are what we call the "Katrina Class" since they were the freshman that moved in on August 27th 2005, and were evacuated August 27th 2005 for Hurricane Katrina. All the amazing words that every speaker as well as President Cowen had to say about the graduates and what their coming back to New Orleans has meant to the University as well as the city of New Orleans. The whole ceremony made me cry becaus it made realize how lucky I am to be a student at a University in such special city. The fact that their was a jazz band playing throughout the procession, and that they had a local singer come out and sing a song called "I know what It means to miss New Orleans". Never have I ever been to a graduation ceremony that was so personal for the graduates and the people in the audience who love Tulane and New Orleans. It wasn't just about what the students have learned from going to an amazing University and about wishing them good luck in the their future, it was about what they have learned through Tulane, New Orleans, Katrina and all of the public service work they have done in the city. When you graduate from Tulane and you go on to a job, or higher school or just back home you aren't just leaving your college behind, you are leaving behind the most amazing city and people and culture in the entire world behind, and that is something that I think you can't get anywhere else.

Ok, I am off to start packing for home and Brazil! I will do a blog update from Brazil ASAP!

Have a great summer!
Kelly

Time Flys!

2009-04-25T14:26:00.001-07:00

Hey All -
Last time I posted I made a promise to myself I would post more often, and this month has just flown by! And now I only have two days of class left for the semester and then into finals I will go!

Well this month has been awesome. Since I posted last we had CRAWFEST at Tulane! Crawfest is our annual crawfish boil on campus. It was a beautiful day (about 80 and sunny) and they had a great line up of local music come and play. There were 2 huge stages and something crazy like 200,000 lbs of crawfish. They started serving the crawfish at 1130 and the lines were over 200 people long at 11 AM. Unfortunately for me, I dont eat crawfish. haha so I didn't have any, but thats fine I had a blast anyway. There were so many students there but also local New Orleanian families as well. New Orleans loves"fests" (Jazz Fest, French Quarter Fest, etc) and Crawfest is starting to become one of the more popular and successful ones in New Orleans which is awesome for Tulane. I got a great tan and had a blast with my friends.

The following weekend was Easter Weekend. I flew home for the weekend to see my family. When I left New Orleans it was about 80 and sunny and when my mom picked me up at LaGuardia Airport in NY it was 45 and rainy. How I wished I was back in New Orleans immediately. But it was really nice to see my brother and my family. I spent Saturday with my mom's family and then sunday with my dad's. We left right from my grandparents house to the airport so I could get back in Sunday night. Even though we had school off that Monday, I had work and some schoolwork I wanted to get done so I came back a little earlier.

The couple weeks after Easter have been crazy. Classes have been finishing up so I have had exams, papers and final projects due. But it hasn't been ALL work! I got to go to Florida for a weekend for a fraternity formal with a friend of mine and then last night my sorority had their formal. Also, my sorority has just had our senior week to celebrate all of the graduating seniors. It just makes it even more real to me that in about two weeks I will officially be a senior in college and it literally seems unreal.

On some VERY EXCITING NEWS... I am going to BRAZIL this summer! I just applied for one of Tulane's Summer Abroad programs. I am studying intercultural communication as well as brazilian culture for a month with two Tulane professors. I am so excited!! I had such a good time during my semester Abroad in Australia, that I wanted to go abroad AGAIN! This will definetly be a different experience since I am only going to be there for a month but I have always wanted to go to Brazil and I get to take classes for my major while there which is a huge plus!

Ok I am off to study for one of my finals that is coming up! Don't be surprised if I don't post again until after finals are over, there is alot of studying to be done!

Kelly

Welcome To New Orleans!

2009-04-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hey All,
SO much has been going on this past month! One really exciting thing that happened for me was that my best friend came to visit! She likes in Massachusetts but goes to school at Colby in Maine. It was a great experience for her to get to come down to New Orleans in March for some nice sunny weather when it was in the 20s at home in Maine!

So I have SO much planned for her weekend and unfortunately we didn't even get to fit it all in because there is just so much to do and such little time. But we did get to do alot of fun stuff!

She arrived on a Thursday and that night I took her out to one of my favorite Sushi resturantes in the city. It is called Rockin Sake. It is in the warehouse district and they have great bright light decorations all around and play loud awesome music so it really is ROCKIN! and their Sushi is AMAZING!!! It is such a fun atmosphere and great place to go for dinner.

On Friday, we went to Magazine Street and did a little shopping at some of my favorite boutiques. She loved them and although she came attempting not to spend any money, she found a dress she just had to buy, ha. On Friday night we went and saw Tulane Baseball play USC. It was a great game, but unfortunately they lost that day. But the next day they played again and they won big time! ROLL WAVE!

On Saturday, I had volunteering scheduled for my sorority that Morning at the Louisiana Children's Museum so she got to explore campus a little bit while I was at the Children's Museum. It was Dr. Suess Themed Day so we painted the kids faces, helped them make Cat in the Hat hats and and read them story time. It was a great day and the kids had a blast! When I got back, I picked up Brook and I took her downtown. We wandered all over the city, did a little more shopping, had her try Pralines and hung out by the River. We also watched a couple of street shows and looked at some of the local artists paintings. She loved the city and I was so glad to show it to her.

That night I took her to my favorite New Orleans resturante NOLA. NOLA is one of Emeril's resturants and has PHENOMENAL food, great service and a great atmosphere. She loved it too. We both got the redfish which is a really popular fish here in New Orleans. After dinner I took her down to Burbon Street so she could get a feel for that and see the nightlight that downtown new orleans has to offer!

Unfortunately, she had to leave early on Sunday morning to get back to Maine so she didnt miss any more classes on Monday but we had a great weekend and she is planning on coming back again next year!!
We are in the home stretch for this semester and only have 4 weeks of class left. I can't believe in only 4 weeks I will be a senior! It seems like I JUST got here! I can't believe it!

Happy Spring Time!
Kelly

Mardi Gras 2009

2009-02-26T19:05:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!
So the past month has been still very very busy! For starters, I began my psychology internship in the research lab here at Tulane. It has been really fun and I am learning a lot. It is so nice to be able to see what you learn be put into practice. I am going to try and start my honors thesis soon and will potentially get to do my own research.

Valentines Day was a couple of weeks ago! For Valentines Day this year, my sorority sisters and I decorated cards and cookies for the elderly people at the Lambeth House. An assited living home near campus. We do it every year and they really seem to appreciate it! I also got to go out to dinner with my boyfriend to this resturante in uptown called Upperline. I had never been before and it was really delicious! There are so many good resturantes in New Orleans it is hard to go wrong!

As well as school being busy we just finished up with Mardi Gras! It was so great! I got to go to about 5 parades and even saw Val Kilmer! He was the King of Muses, which is the name of one of the parades. For me, being a Tulane student makes me think I am a pseudo-local so I never do any of the touristy things. This is my 3rd Mardi Gras and I have not once been down to Burbon street during any of the parades! They all run uptown anyway, so there is really no need to go downtown. It gets insanely crowded too. Mardi Gras was very successful this year and they had about 80,000 visitors in for the weekend!
Those are almost back up to Pre-Katrina numbers so the board of tourism was very happy. It is always great to see people coming back to the city. Alot of people have no idea how great New Orleans is and how it is basically the same as it was Pre-Katrina. I had never been before the storm so I don't have much to compare it to, but nothing looks run down to me!

For Mardi Gras, many students like to dress up in funny outfits to celebrate the occasion! This year I made myself a sweatshirt that said Mardi Gras 09 on it! I got many compliments however it wasn't really warm enough so on the last day I had to wear my fleece over it. =( My fleece is purple however so it is still in the right color scheme!

Ok thats all I have for now! I will post again soon! HAPPY MARDI GRAS!

Kelly

Class, Recruitment and Fun!

2009-01-21T16:02:00.000-08:00

Hey all!
The first couple of weeks back at school have been busy but great! I finally got all my classes worked out and I am enjoying all of them. I am taking 4 classes for both of my majors and then I am also working as a research assistant in the Psychology Lab. I haven't started yet, but it should be really great. I get to work with one of my former professors on her social psychology research. It will give me great experience that should make me more prepared for graduate school which I plan to apply to this coming fall!

These first two weeks have been ultra busy because of sorority recruitment. I am a member of Pi Beta Phi and last weekend was the first weekend of formal recruitment. I was at our sorority house ALL day Friday, Saturday and Sunday preparing for it. As stressful as it is while we are going through it, in the end they are actually 2 of the best weekends of the semester because we get to spend so much time together. Next weekend is the final 3 days. Friday and Saturday are the third and fourth days of recruitment and Sunday is called Bid Day! It is when the freshman get their official bids from each sorority. Everyone brings their new members to a restaurant for a brunch and to allow them to spend time getting to know the older chapter members. It is so much fun! It makes all the late nights and time spent organizing worth it!

Last Thursday was one of my best friends 21st birthday so we went to one of our favorite sushi restaurants called "Sake Cafe". There were 22 of us at the dinner! As you can see most of the girls are dressed in white because after dinner we went to a big party called Original Sin. My friends and I were in white to be dressed as angels. It was great to be with all of my friends after being abroad last semester. The party was at this location downtown called the board of trade. It was a beautiful building and the party was a lot of fun! Tons of dancing! Below is a picture of my friends and I dressed up at the party!

I am off to go do some reading for class! Talk to you soon!

Kelly

Back at School!

2009-01-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

Hi All!
I just arrived back to New Orleans yesterday. I drove my car down with my mom all the way from Connecticut and it took us 3 days! We stopped overnight in Tennessee, Alabama and then finally made it down to New Orleans. We stayed with one of my mom's friends in Alabama which was nice.

Its great to be back! It seems so weird that I have been gone for 8 months! Not much has changed. The bubble is gone I hear but I haven't seen it yet. I have been spending all of my time driving back and forth from Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and Wal-Mart getting everything I need for my new house! This is my first year living off campus and 3 of my friends and I are moving into a beautiful house on Calhoun St, which is one over from McAlister (which is the main road that runs through campus), so it is really close. I can actually walked about 100 feet and enter the gate directly behind Monroe (freshman dorm).

Since I was gone all last semester, I thought it would be too costly to store alot of stuff so I ended up giving alot of it away, which meant that when I got here I had to go buy all new stuff! But it really hasn't been that bad and with all those superstores so close it is easy to find everything you need.

I can't wait until all the students get down to school. New Orleans is awesome all the time, but it just gets that much better when all the students are here. PLUS I am going to get to see a bunch of my friends who I haven't seen in a very long time! Everyone will start arriving in the next few days so I am super excited about that.

Tonight I am going to go to a japanese Resturante about a mile from Campus called Hana. It is one of my favorites in the area and I have been missing this noodle salad that they make SO badly while I have been gone and I can't wait to eat it. Food is one of the things I have missed most about New Orleans so I can't wait to start going back to all of my favorite places over the next few weeks!

Ok time for dinner! When my room is all set up I will take some pictures of it and my house to show you!

Talk to you soon! Its great to be back!
Kelly

Home Sweet Home

2008-12-11T21:00:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!
I just arrived home from Australia last night and it is good to be home. My last three weeks have been full of adventure and it is nice to be able to just relax. However, I will fill you in on everything I have been up to!

After finals ended in Sydney, my friends and I flew to New Zealand for a 10 day long trip around the South Island. We took a trip called the Kiwi Experience which is a bus that brings you each day to a new city. We started in Christchurch and headed up the east coast all the way around in a huge loop until we got back to Christchurch. New Zealand is an amazingly beautiful country. Almost the entirety of it excluding the coast is huge snow capped mountains, and the mountains are COVERED in sheep! They are everywhere!

The first city we went to after Christchurch was Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a cute little town that is known for its whales, dolphins and seals. When we got there 2 of my friends and I went seal swimming. We had to wear full body wet suits that had hoods so that when we were swimming the seals would think we were one of them and not get scared and swim away. I was glad we had the full body suit on thought because it was FREEZING in the water. It was such an awesome experience because the seals were swimming no more that 4 feet away from me and I got to go right up to them and watch them play on the rocks. Very cool.

Another one of the really awesome places we went to was a place called Fraz Josef. It is on the west coast of the south island and it is famous for its Glaciers! We had planned to do a full day hike up the Glacier but sadly like it does 280 days out of the year in Franz Josef, it RAINED! When it rains they aren't able to bring people up the glacier because the gushing water makes it dangerous and hard to climb. To make up for it though, I went sky diving over the glacier which was one of the most awesome and exciting things I have ever done. I was very nervous going into it, but honestly once I got in the plane i was just so excited that i stopped being scared and i loved every minute of it!

When we got to Queenstown, we took a day trip out to a place called Milford Sound. It was a huge waterway surrounded by huge mountains and waterfalls. Very gorgeous. My friend Brook and I took a plane ride back to Queenstown over the mountains which was super fun and amazingly beautiful.

After New Zealand we flew to Fiji and spend 6 nights there on 3 different Islands. We flew into the mainland and spent one night there. Then the next day we took about a 3 hour boat ride out to the first island. We spent 2 nights there and it was GORGEOUS! The island looked exactly like the islands from the television show Lost. There were probably max 40 people on the island and you could just relax and read and sunbathe and snorkle and do whatever you wanted all day. It was a great change from the moving around of our New Zealand Trip. One day we walked to the summit of the island and looked out over the other islands around us. Our guide pointed out an Island not too far away that was where they filmed the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks! The second night we were there we were part of their traditonal ceremony called a Kava Ceremony and the Fijian people performed songs and dances for us. It was really cool. After the first Island of Kuata, we took another boat another hour to another Island called Kourovo. This one was really pretty also but definetly less remote. They had a pool which was nice, but I did miss the quietness of Kuata.

After all of that I flew back to Sydney for a few days and then got on my plane flight home. I am excited to spend Christmas with my family and head back down to New Orleans and spring semester.

I am so glad I studied abroad, and I would urge EVERYONE to take advantage of this opportunity. It was one of the best times of my life and I will never forget all the amazing things i go to do and see and the people I spent it with. And of course I suggest Sydney! It is SUCH a cool city and Australia is so unique and interesting.

I'll try to post soon!
Kelly

Hello From Down Under!!

2008-11-12T21:51:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone!

I wanted to start off my introducing myself! I am a Junior at Tulane and I love it to death. However, I am actually currently in Sydney, Australia doing a semester abroad at the University of Sydney. It is AMAZING! I am having a great time here! I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to come here and experience a new country and culture for an entire 5 months. Because Australia is in the southern hemisphere they have the complete opposite seasons from us in the States so it is the middle of summer! So the weather is beautiful - which is actually pretty normal for me this time of year going to school in a city like New Orleans. But the bad thing is that because they are entering summer it is the end of their second semester which means finals! I just had my first final this morning and it was SO INTENSE. There were about 400 of us in a huge hall - there were seat numbers and students from 3 different classes all taking different exams in the same room. There were about 30 "exam supervisors" (I know this because they all had name tags on with their executive title - ha ha ) and the main supervisor spoke over a microphone to announce the instructions. What a totally different experience to taking finals at Tulane where you are in your normal classroom with your professor at the front of the room to answer any questions you may have. Sydney Uni (as the local students call it) has over 40,000 students so the student experience is a huge change for me since Tulane has only about 6,000 undergrads. As much as I love it here - I couldn't take this for all 4 years of undergrad. I love the small environment created by Tulane's size much better.

I have been keeping my family updated throughout my semester with all of the awesome things I have been doing so I will fill you in on some of my favorites. I went to Surf Camp in August for a weekend and on a 9 day Spring Break to the Great-Barrier Reef and the east coast of Australia.

Surf Camp!
I just got back from Surf Camp and it was amazing! We left on Friday night and spent almost 7 hours on a bus to get to Crescent Head, a coastal town north of Sydney. We stayed at the camp location, which is a huge house with a bunch of dorm rooms with bunks in it. The beach was just across the street.

We started surfing at 8 am on Saturday morning. We had a quick lesson on the beach and then we were off! I fell the first couple of times I tried to get up but once I got the hang of it I was doing great!

I stood up I would say about 85% of the time! We were learning on what they call the whitewash, the wave that comes after the initial crash. The 2nd day I was actually able to ride a real wave. One of the instructors took me out deeper in the water and helped me catch a big wave, but i freaked out when it crashed and I totally wiped out. But it was fun while it lasted! I definitely want to do it again. It was a blast!

On Saturday night we had a little party on the beach with a fire pit. It was so much fun. There were about 45 people at the surf camp, and 5 instructors. At first it seemed like there weren't enough instructors, but about an hour and half into each surf session plenty of people would get out of the water, so then it ended up being really nice and we got plenty of attention. I definitely think that being an athlete and a dancer helped with my balance and ability to get up on the board. BUT BOY WERE MY ARMS AND CHEST SORE THE NEXT DAY! Surfing is a really amazing workout!

I definitely got tumbled by a few waves. I started getting a little ambitious and trying to ride bigger waves on the second day and it benefited me I would say about a quarter of the time. The rest of the time i would just get dominated by the wave when i was trying to get out deep enough in the water to surf on it. Overall - I would for sure do it again!!

Spring Break!
So for our Spring Break, which they call here a mid-semester break, my friends and I took a 9 day trip. We first went to Cairns, which is in the North East corner of Australia. It is about a 3 hour flight from Sydney. We had definitely been falsely advertised to because when we got there the beach we had expected was non existent! During the day the tide went out so far you couldn't even look out and see water. All you saw was mud! Next to the water though they had this large public pool called a Lagoon. It was the largest pool I have ever seen. So we would go and lay out there and swim during the day. We were there for 3 days and on the second day we went white water rafting in the rainforest. The northern parts of Australia are much more tropical than the southern areas.

To go rafting we had to do an hour rainforest hike from the drop off point to the start of the rapids. Little did we know when we signed up that we would have to trek through the rainforest with the rafts on our backs! That was extremely challenging because the path we took was not a normal forest path - it was what they called a goat track, which meant it had not been cleared much at all and at times we waded though rivers, mud and over huge boulders.

At one point while hiking the guide told us to watch out for 2 specific plants because they were just at the side of the goat track and if we touched them they could potentially be fatal. One would send pain shocks through your body that felt like shattered glass and the other would peel off your skin!!! We were very careful from there on out. About 3/4 of the way through the hike they also informed us that we were likely to encounter leeches! Now I don't think of myself as a "girl" when it comes to the wilderness and animals and such, but leeches are one thing I can't handle! About a minute later i looked down and I had one gnawing at my ankle. I freaked out a little and got one of my friends to get it off of me. I didn't feel so gross however because within 5 minutes more than half of the group has the same experience! Some of my friends even left the leech on their bodies to let them fall off naturally!!! I am not nearly that brave or adventurous.

The rafts we went in were 2 person rafts and we got to go down a classs 4 rapid! It was lots of fun however it started to rain halfway through so that got a little cold. I am happy to report Becca (my raft partner) and I made it safely through and didn't fall out of our rafts once!

When we got home that night I did notice a mysterious rash on my body that started on my back and crept all the way up my neck and down to my butt! Luckily - it went away by the next day so not big deal.

After Cairns, we took an 11 hour bus south to Airlie Beach. A small beach town when we got on a sailboat to sail around the Whitsunday Islands for 3 days and 3 nights. It was blast. I got to go Scuba Diving and Snorkling in the great barrier reef! I saw all sorts of beautiful fish and coral and even 2 sea turtles. They are beautiful in the water. We were following them for a while. At one point we were out snorkling on the reef and the ocean current was so strong it took us about 40 meters from our original spot and we hadn't even noticed! Luckily our sail boat has a dingy with it so they were able to come pick us up from Snorkling.

The Whitsunday Islands are the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The sand is SOOO white and the water is the most amazing mixture of blues in the world. We just stood our at a lookout point for about a half hour just staring at the beautiful water.

After the sailing trip we headed back to Airlie beach where we stayed for another 4 days. We just hung out at the beach and at the Airlie Lagoon until we headed home. It was a great relaxing time. Sadly, we had to return to Sydney for class, but it was fun while it lasted!

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I hope you all enjoyed by updates from Australia! I have one more final to take and then I am off for a 2 1/2 week trip to New Zealand and Fiji - and then I am back to the states on December 10th. I am going to miss Sydney terribly but I am excited for a semester back at Tulane with all of my friends!

I will post a few pictures of me with my friends in Sydney!

Kelly