SPRINGGG

Okay, so I'm officially horrible about updating my blog...
There are a few things I've been meaning to write about in the past two months. I'll just write about all the cool Vandylicious stuff I've been up to...or at least as much of it as I can pull from my memory bank.
First and foremost, ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK. Oh my gosh. I cannot possibly write enough about it. It was the best thing I've ever participated in here at Vandy. You hear that, prospies? EVER. Come to Vandy and partake in ASB and you will have lived the good life. Have no idea what I'm talking about? I'll fill you in. ASB was founded at Vanderbilt in 1987 but has now spread to colleges all over the country because it's so cool like that. The idea behind it is that instead of going home or to the beach for spring break, you go on a service trip with a group of other students to a specific site and do a service project for a week. My group of ten students, who shall henceforth be referred to as my ASB family, went to McCreary County, Kentucky to work with a housing and development corporation there. We basically made a lot of house calls for the elderly involving painting, yard work, cleaning, and the like, but it was really cool because we met so many people who lived there and got to hear all about their lives (80 year-old Mrs. Wilson was my favorite--she made us a strawberry shortcake). Although the service part of it was fun (and fulfilling), my favorite part of the trip was making so many new friends. I mean, think about it: I spent one week with the same nine people living in a one-room house (not as bad as it sounds--it had bathrooms) and making WalMart runs with them. Oh, and every night we watched The Office, Season Three on DVD on Matt's computer (Matt was one of my site leaders). We also did these things called Life Maps where you tell your group members your life story and then they get to ask you all kinds of questions like what your goals are, why you came to Vandy, what you want to be when you grow up, etc. So I learned a lot about everyone's lives and families and dreams and personalities. It was the best experience ever. And then we came back to Vandy and have continued to hang out together. Actually, I saw a bunch of them on Saturday night at Alyssa's suite (Alyssa was my other site leader). End of ASB story (but please feel free to ask questions because, as you can see, I'm pretty obsessed).
Also...Cafe con Leche was a couple of weekends ago and was simply superb. It's an event put on every spring by Vanderbilt Association of Hispanic Students (VAHS) where they have all kinds of Latin American dances. Some of my friends were dancing in it so it was really cool to go and watch them do the Salsa, Tango, and lots of other dances whose names I cannot possibly remember, let alone spell. Cafe con Leche is cool though because just like Asian New Year Festival, Diwali, and other cultural events, you don't necessarily have to be a person of that cultural background in order to participate. Case in point: one of my friends who danced is half-Indian, one of them is Egyptian, and one of them is white. Yay diversity.
The thing that has got me in the BEST mood right now is the spring weather. It's finally here! And let me tell you, Vandy's campus beats them all. It is gorgeous here right now. All of the flowers are in bloom and wherever you walk, you're able to smell them and see the little petals everywhere. Come here for a visit in the next few weeks and try and prove me wrong. I dare you.
Finally, Rites of Spring is next weekend (!!!). This is a big deal, people. It's our weekend-long outdoor concert on Alumni Lawn where you basically pay like ten or fifteen bucks for a pass and you can go see musical acts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Just to give you a taste of who's coming this year, let me do some name dropping: Lil Jon, Colbie Caillet ("Bubbly," anyone?), Feist (so we can all rock out the songs from the Apple commercials), Spoon, Old Crow Medicine Show, and The Avett Brothers, just to name a few. I'm rather excited.

Oh, and by the way, course registration is going on right now so I'm pretty much like a kid on Christmas morning. Yes, I look forward to scheduling that much. It's just so exciting to look at the Schedule of Courses and see all the options I have for Fall 2008! I can hardly decide what to take. But anyway, if you're interested in sharing in the fun, click here.

I know all of you high school seniors out there have received your admissions letters by this point. Chances are that if you're reading this blog you've either been accepted or wait listed and are wondering if you should come to Vandy next year. Let me make the decision easy for you: Y-E-S. Really, you guys, it's no contest. Vandy is amazing and the opening of The Commons is going to make it even better. Trust me: I live here now (in The Commons) and wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
If you still need to be convinced, check out this blog entry that I found on insidevandy.com called "Top Ten Reasons I Love Vandy." I think it's very persuasive ;)

That's all I've got for now. Sorry for the lack of updates. If you're reading this, and you're a senior and you're trying to make your college decision, I would LOVE to talk to you! Leave a comment and we can chat.

Happy Spring!