Our Time at the Bloom is drawing to a close

Dear Followers,

Well today is Thursday and it is becoming more and more apparent that our time together here in Bloomsburg is all too short. In just two days we will be packing our bags and heading for the land across the Atlantic Ocean. Our classes have been great and there has even been some great inside jokes that have begun to settle amongst the group. The greatest of these is actually finding itself in the world of meme's. One of our peers fell asleep in class today just long enough for someone to snap a quick shot of him. Now, the chats have come alive with his photo and funny sayings based on the topics we were learning in class.

I am interested to see how things turn out with my classes since we were just informed about a form that has to be filled out to transfer credits. What sucks is that they give it to us and our Home university staff and registrar must sign it. Why didn't they think of this like three weeks ago? Well, too late now I suppose. That being said I must fill this out and send it by fax to my school to get signatures. I hope that it all works out.

Today is one of our close friend's, Chris Silvia, birthday. So we traveled to WalMart to get him some cupcakes and make sure we had what we needed for our excursions outside the country. Everything is shaping up to be a great trip. I also got in contact with an old friend who resides in the North American Pontifical College and am planning on meeting with him while I am in Rome. It will be exciting to see him again and talk about life over an authentic Italian meal.

But ttfn ... and don't forget the bacon bits!

Salad

Day 2 Complete

Well here it is the end of day two. Everyone is settling in to their living arrangements and are getting past the small pleasantries of new people and moving on to actually learning about each other. So now that we are stopping, slowing down, and smelling the roses we can finally see how people truly are. Today I was presented with a challenge that I am not so sure I am going to fulfill but if you would like to see me do it all you have to do is comment and tell me to. The challenge is to take a picture of a salad at every place that we travel for the entirety of the trip.

Well, I suppose you want to know what sort of silly things we did today. In our experiences today not much exciting actually happened at least until classes were over. After classes today we all got together to watch The Sound of Music. Let me just say, watching that movie will never be the same after the jokes that were made today. So what were the jokes? Well what happens in bloomsburg stays in bloomsburg or at least for now it does :) However the highlight is always making plans for awesome pictures based off of the film you just watched so we will see what happens.

But for now ... ttfn and don't forget the croutons :)

Late Night Excursions

Well hello again everybody! It is very interesting to see how each and every honors student interacts with each other here in Bloomsburg, PA. For once I can say that I don't see any cliques amongst a group of honors students minus the girls vs guys normal groupings. Of course being a leader and a musician, I consider myself to be very much a people watcher. Now, I need to remember that these are honors students and nothing is every as it originally seems. I can definitely say this is a very cohesive group who works well together, atleast when called to do so.

This morning we started our first day of classes off with a Quest team building session in which we started to try to learn all of our groups names along with working to complete some rather difficult tasks. The first activity was the normal go around the circle, say your name, your major, and something interesting about yourself. Then we moved onto more difficult tasks such as putting ourselves in order of birth month without speaking, followed by order of day of the month without speaking understandable words or using your hands to communicate. We also did activities including getting groups to stand on small boxes, leading blindfolded people through a minefield, and playing with mousetraps .... yes mousetraps. After successfully completing all of their challenges we moved on to enjoy Husky Lounge Dining and the beginning of our two honors courses. We will be studying western music and media during our excursions within and outside the great country of the United States.

Well now that you know what we did today, I am sure you are wondering why I titled this post Late Night Excursions. Well first of all we are honors students so its never actually as late as you think. Most of our "fun" is sitting in the lounge area of our dorm and watching what I believe is called Top Gear or some sort of British comedy show about American things. It is actually quite entertaining to see how they are viewing Americans. All in all I can see that this trip is going to be a very interesting chance to be able to people watch both my peers and those people outside of my country and how they interact with each other. I am looking forward to starting this journey and will definitely keep you all updated as to what happens and what I encounter on my ventures with the honors students of Pennsylvania.

May 28

Dear Followers,

Well, I am a Senior Music Education Major from Clarion University who is an honors student. I am a Tuba player with great expectation for myself and the groups that I am a part of. This being said I applied for the PASSHE Summer Honors Program for 2013. To be honest, I did not have any inkling of an idea that I would get in. Well, I did, and now this is where my blog begins.

Today is the first day of classes in the PASSHE Summer Honors Program 2013. All the students here are having a great time and can't wait for our travel abroad. I cannot wait to get to know my peers better and erect the shrine to "Ms. Hopsalot."

The itinerary for our trip has gone around the block like six times but we finally have a set schedule. I can't wait for our trip outside of the country and I will update you to where we go every day after we have been there. Hopefully I will also get you pictures and cool info that I gather along the way. 

Salad