Happy almost Valentine's Day!

Hello again everyone!

It's been a little while since my last post but everything here has been going well :) I've been surviving my classes, barely, thanks to vertebrate anatomy, and swimming is starting to wind down and we're all getting focused for championships in two weeks!

Last Thursday, I headed to Smuggs to do some skiing in the afternoon with my friend Kim. I have to say my skiing is getting a lot better. (Friends, hold your comments) I'm starting to actually pick up the pace a bit and I didn't even fall once last time! Although the time before I had a couple of epic spills that would probably make up for it. On Friday, the team went down to Boston to compete in the MIT invitational. There were so many fast swimmers and a bunch of great teams there like Tufts, Williams and Wheaton to name a few. I had some really good swims and I was so excited to be at my favorite pool. MIT has such a great facility and my mom came to watch and brought me some goodies. :)

I love to hear that people are reading my blog. I had a comment last time about managing time and schedules. First years pick their classes in the summer at a summer registration day. At first, it's a little weird coming from a blocked, action packed high school day to being able to chose your classes and schedule them when you'd like. After the first semester you generally get a feel for what times you like and work all the ins and outs about which schedules fit you best. I tend to work best when my classes are in the morning and I'm done around 1 or 2. I tend to get really tired in the afternoon and I like to get my classes over with early. But some, or most students like to spread their classes out throughout the day or start them in the afternoon. Most classes have different time sections with different teachers so you can chose the ones that work out best for you. Our practice runs at 3:30 to 5:30 so if we have a class that runs past 4, we have the option of going at 5:30 am or a two hour time slot we may have during the day. 5:30 am isn't as horrible as it sounds and it actually wakes me up and it feels good having practice out of the way. (I know, I'm nuts.) From my understanding most sports teams have different options for classes that run late, and I know all Coaches are more concerned with academics and know that school always comes first. I hope that helps a little bit and please let me know if there are any more questions I can help you with :).

This weekend is a long weekend so a few students will be going home, but us dedicated swimmers are staying here on campus and relaxing, getting some work done and preparing for only 5 more practice days of the season!!! Today after practice, a few of the kids in my lane were playing around with an underwater camera and we got some really cool pics such as this one. You'll notice another fellow blogger Christine next to me on the right. It was only after a million tries I realized I have a hard time sinking slash holding my breath so I happened to ruin a couple good ones. But this one came out surprisingly well! But in any event, I hope everyone has a great weekend and great Valentine's Day. Keep those comments coming and I'll talk to you soon!

TGIF!!

Hi Happy Friday!!!

I'm so excited I've been getting so many comments on my posts! It's so good to hear that people are reading and enjoying my blog!! I've also been receiving some Facebook messages about what life is like here and I just recently joined KnightSpace (the social networking thing for accepted students) so hopefully I'll continue to do my best letting everyone know what St. Mike's is all about :) But keep the comments coming, I love them!

On my last post, I received a comment about the Journalism program here. I'm a journalism minor and some of my most interesting classes are my journalism ones. My roommate Catie is actually a journalism major. She loves it and is looking to do public relations or maybe some TV reporting :) A journalism major/minor is such a cool thing to have because there's so many things you can do with it! Our Journalism program, I think, is one of the best at St. Mike's. The department has great faculty that are willing to help and who come from all different areas of expertise. And although it is a lot of work, it definitely pays off. Your freshman year journalism classes usually consist of the entry course for a Journalism Major/Minor, Mass Communications and Society. Followed by New Media or Writing for Media I. I'm taking New Media right now and I'm loving it. We're doing all sorts of cool computer things like working with Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver for building web sites. If you're looking into reporting, we have two publications. The Defender is our print newspaper here on campus that covers really interesting stories about what's happening around Campus. The Echo, is the online journalism publication. They're both student-run and journalism students usually provide most of the stories for both. The Journalism Department offers courses in a wide range of classes to cover different interests. There's different feature writing courses every semester, Acting for the Camera, Photojournalism, and Newspaper Management just to name a few. I know that Catie is always running around interviewing people, covering events, and spending a lot of time in Bergeron (the journalism building) and she's had some great stories published in The Defender last semester. If you haven't already you should definitely check out the journalism department website http://catalog.smcvt.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=7&poid=586&bc=1 and I hope I helped a little :)

But anyway, right now I've finished all my classes for the day and sooo looking forward to the weekend! In my comparative vertebrate anatomy class we're studying the anatomy of a cat so I've been spending a lot of time in the bio lab examining cat bones and such for my practical on Tuesday. In our lecture, we're learning about the evolution of vertebrates and why vertebrates have many of the bones they do. It's strangely interesting and I'm actually enjoying it haha. I've noticed I haven't posted pictures in a while so until I take some really interesting ones of me frolicking outside in the Vermont snow or doing something incredibly riveting here's a nice picture of Me, Catie and Maggie. Enjoy, have a great weekend and keep those comments coming!! :)

Tuesday Things...

Hi again everyone!

I hope everyone is enjoying their week. Things are back to normal here on campus and everyone has gotten into the swing of classes and things after break. We've had some pretty cold weather up here but as students in Vermont, we're pretty used to it so we bundle up and do the best we can to survive it! I on the other hand seemed to have contracted a sinus infection so I decided to head home last weekend to get some rest and get better. We didn't have a meet last weekend so it seemed like a pretty good weekend to take a break. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE weekends at St.Mike's but once in awhile, heading home to rest and eat some home food sounds lovely. And indeed it was. Even though I live in Cape Cod, MA there's plenty of ways to get home from if you need some time away. Usually, there's at least someone going home around the same time and area that you can catch a ride with, and as always, there's the bus which isn't too bad and not that expensive. So I had a lovely weekend sleeping and reading Twilight (yes, I'm one of those). It's strangely interesting, and a ton of my friends are into it too! I'm waiting to finish the first book so I can see the movie when it comes out on DVD. It's quite addicting, I highly recommend it. :)

In other news, 3 more weeks of swimming left!!! (I'm not THAT excited or anything, okay well maybe I am.) The season is flying by and before you know it we'll be at champs and done with swimming until next October! Last night I had Irish step dancing. My calves slash every bone slash muscle below my hips are killing me. But it's totally worth it. I had a ton of fun and it went surprisingly better than the first practice. Irish dancing I found is a lot like riding a bike. I haven't competed since 8th grade but you never really lose or forget how to do it. It might take you a few classes to get back into shape, but once the initial shock of "wow, I can't remember the last time I used these muscles" passes, everything else seems to come. And thank God for that. There are about ten or twelve other kids in the class. And yes, I mean kids, or teenagers, and they are all SO good and really help me out. The Celtic Knights along with a ton of other Irish performers are preparing for a show sometime in March for the Celtic Festival here in Burlington. I was in a few shows last year around St. Patrick's Day and it was so much fun. I love performing :)

But in any event, I'm looking forward to the weekend. Our last home meet, and senior meet is on Saturday against Norwich and Assumption and then on Sunday I'll be heading to Smuggs to do some skiing. Wish me luck, hopefully my friends won't be too frustrated with me. Let's just say I'm not the "quickest" one on the slopes. As always, I love to hear that people are reading and if anyone has any questions at all please let me know! I think most of the upcoming freshmen should be hearing or already heard if they've been accepted or not so good luck and I look forward to hearing from you!!

Welcome to Antartica...I mean..Vermont.

So current temperature in Colchester, Vermont right now is....(brace yourselves) 1 degree farenheit. Which is today's high temperature, with a low of -13. This week has had record setting temperatures so everyone has been bundling up to brave the cold outside :)

In other news, classes have started :). I have a pretty good schedule this semester. With British Literature 2, Anatomy, and Spanish on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Bio Lab with New Media on Tuesdays and just New Media on Thursdays. So overall not a bad combo. I'm sure it will be a lot of work though so I'll really have to stay on top of things. I'm looking forward to my New Media class. It's a requirement for my Journalism minor and it seems like a really cool class. We're going to learn how to build a website, do some programming, and use programs like photoshop and dreamweaver. I'm excited! :)
I'm also starting Irish Dance this semester. I'll be doing some things with the celtic knights, the irish step dance group at St. Mike's, but some of the girls in the group and I will be taking extra classes with the McFadden School of Irish Dance in Essex. I took a break last semester from it to concentrate on swimming but I definatley missed it a ton. I'll have dance class on Monday nights for an hour or two which I'm so excited for. Swimming is still going well, only a month left until championships. It's amazing how fast it's going by, and the end of the season is always my favorite because you can always see how much everyone has improved :). We have a home meet Saturday against St. Rose, and I think on Friday night the girls team is going to see Bride Wars at the movies so that should be fun! I'll update after the weekend, until then stay warm!! :)

Break, Florida and everything else! :)

Why hello again! :)

So I'm back at SMC after a short but very eventful break. I made through finals and everything just fine and a few days after christmas the swim team made their annual training trip to florida :). Florida is always such a great time for the team. We're able to put everything aside, without any distractions and focus on being with our team and working hard. We do double practices everyday , one in the morning and once in the afternoon and we're able to get some sun at the beach in between. So overall it is a ton of work but its defiantly worth it. Here's a picture of some of the team outside our hotel before we went out to dinner for New Year's Eve. We stay at the Bilmar in Treasure Island (near Tampa Bay) Florida. Our beloved Bilmar is soo beautiful, right on the beach and the sunsets are absolutely amazing. Another plus is swimming in outdoor pools so getting a nice tan is obviously a priority. The team after Florida comes up early before classes to do some more doubles. Tomorrow will be our last day of doubles and then we have our meet against Bentley on Saturday at home :).

I hope Santa was good to everyone and everyone had a nice New Year :). I got a new camera for christmas which I'm pumped about so videos and pictures can now return to my blog! Last night, my mom asked me what my new years resolution was. I told her I didn't know, but since then it's got me thinking to what exactly I want to do this year. I know I want to do well in swimming, and get good grades and all of that typical stuff. But looking back, 2008 was a great year for me, and all I want is to have another one. I have great friends and family at home and at school, and I'm a pretty healthy, active person, and everything seems to go pretty well for me most of the time, so I guess all I can ask for is that to continue through 2009 :).

So I'll try to keep this thing a little more updated now that classes are starting on Monday. I'm excited for everyone to move back in and get things rolling again to a great spring semester. I'm so glad that I've been getting comments lately. (okay so some of them are from my friends, but hey at least people are reading! hahaha) A nice little comment was from my Dad's cousin who graduated from St. Mike's its so nice to hear that she's reading too :) I hope everyone has a great week and talk to you soon!

Procrastination...

Hi Everyone!



It's been quite sometime since my last post so I'll try to update everyone. The weekend after Thanksgiving break was spent at NE-10 championships at Southern Connecticut. It was a long meet, (3 days) but the team held together really well and we all had a great time!
Since then it has been a crazy week on campus with papers, and this week being finals week....eeek.
So I'm officially done with the fall semester of my sophomore year at St. Mike's. It's scary how fast it's going. It felt like just yesterday I was pulling in for orientation in August or preparing for my first day of classes. I don't even like to think about it because I'm going to be so sad to leave this place but I have a feeling I'm going to wake up as a spring semester senior and wonder where all the time has gone. But, on a happier note, I do have two years and a semester left, so I'm most definitely going to make the most of it :)
Today, I had my first final, which was varieties of Christianity. A lot of my friends were taking the same course so we had a nice little study sesh yesterday in the library. The library was actually packed yesterday, but I love it because there's always a quiet spot to find and when 8:30 roles around there's free coffee and cookies for a nice little study pick-me-up.
Also, the campus is so alive with tons of holiday cheer!! We had a nice little swim team Christmas gathering on Saturday and we all listening to Christmas music and dressed up. I wasn't feeling the whole Christmas season but now I most definitely am. We also got some serious snow last week which really adds to the whole effect :)
So now I should seriously study. I have Mass Communications and Society tomorrow, then Spanish, and the British Literature on Thursday. And then finally break! I'll keep everyone update on how things are going, and as always comments are always welcomed! Which reminds me...
Katharine left a great comment on my last post about swimming workouts. I'm so happy you're thinking of St. Mikes. First of all you should e-mail our awesome coach, Jim Donoghue and let him know you're interested. He'd love to hear from you...jdonoghue@smcvt.edu . Secondly, we practice from Monday-Friday 3:30-5:30. We ususally lift about two days a week just to keep us in shape. Our workouts can be challenging but they are honestly not hard to get through and we practice as a team so you always have a great support between our coaches and your lane-mates. (hi christine) I can definatley tell you more specifics if you need to, you can IM me mairead330 or facebook me :). Hope this helps!!

Have a great holiday everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble gobble...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope everyone had a great holiday and ate lots and lots. I know I did. I made it back to Sagamore Beach on Tuesday night after classes and I'm so glad to be home. Although, I love everything and everyone at St. Mike's, its so nice to take a break from it all and eat delicious home cooked food. My dad is an awesome cook, and looks forward to preparing this meal all year. We had my aunt, uncle, and two cousins up from Maryland, as well as my two grandparents who are making the pilgrimage to Florida for the winter early tomorrow morning. The turkey was delish, and I had been craving my Dad's mashed potatoes for weeks now. Needless to say, my craving was more than satisfied. Here's a lovely pic of my Auntie, my cousin Sarah, and I in front of our dining room table. Which was personally decorated by Martha Stewart. Not really, just my Mom, but could have fooled me :).

Tomorrow, my mom and I are going to the Vineyard for the night. I'm so excited because Martha's Vineyard is literally my favorite place on earth. Yes, even in the winter. Most of the shops are closing, if not already closed, and they have really great deals at some of my favorite stores. I'd rather skip the black Friday madness and head off to an island. Just personal preference.

I know it's been a little while from my last post. So I'll try to recap. Last Friday, the girls and I stayed out in the homeless shack for an hour. And, of course, it was one of the coldest, snowiest days of the year. Excellent. But, none the less, it was fun and time well spent. We all look really great in this pic...not really... but it's still funny.

This weekend was so much fun because we didn't have a swim meet allllll weeekendd! Not to say swimming isn't fun, it was just so nice to actually experience a Saturday. I went to the Varsity and JV hockey games on Saturday with a few of my friends, and hit up Al's French Fries in between. Al's is amazing. You have to go. End of story. On Sunday, I relaxed and did some major homework. And Monday and Tuesday flew by and before I knew it, I was home. Last week, I also did a virtual open house for prospective students. It was so cool to talk to St. Mike's Class of 2013 hopefulls. Maybe I even chatted with some of my readers. Virtual open houses are really fun and all incoming freshman, no matter which colleges you are applying to, should definitely check them out!

Sorry for the lack in postage, I promise I'll let you know how the vineyard trip as well as our 3 day meet in Southern Connecticut next weekend goes. Hope everyone had a great holiday!! Talk to you soon!