WHO DAT!

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!

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!

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

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!

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!

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!

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