The 10 Not So Secret Dorm Secrets

Gabrielle Malanowski '15

Elmira is a mostly residential campus, that strongly encourages to the max that you live on campus, and if you ask me the campus is like a little town. You got the library, the bookstore, the gym, the food markets, and even a doctor. Its cool but weird. Though I figured since most if not all of you will be living on campus might as well tell you ten things that happen in the dorms (well at least Alumni on one certain floor in particular).

1.) You will see times where there are people walking down the hall in towels and they will start up a conversation with people they pass. Kinda awkward sometimes.

2.) When someone has homemade food from home like cookies, people will descend upon you for a piece. (Watch out those teeth maybe aiming for the cookie but they could miss and bite you instead.)

3.) There maybe a knock on your door, that when you open it you will find two bodies sprawled in front of your door, saying hi and laughing for absolutely no reasons.
4.) Each floor has a person who I will call the Hugger. On my floor the chick is very fun and will hug you when ever she sees you. It's nice on those days you need a hug but don't want to ask for one.

5.) At one o'clock in the morning you might see people rolling down the hallway. (Watch out they could take you down like a bowling pin.)

6.) There will be doors on the floor open, but remember they aren't always open so you can look in, sometimes people just want air.(p.s. every floor has the door peeker do not be afraid to tell them off for doing it when you want privacy.)

7.) On your birthday you door maybe vandalised with post it notes saying happy birthday, balloons, or streamers!

8.) People will do their laundry and fall under two categories either be the people who are punctual picking it up, or will be the person who leave it there all day. (man I hate those people.)

9.) Warning! There will be people on the floor who believe they are still at home and will leave their dishes in the sink for days, until someone else cleans them when they get fed up seeing the dishes there. Grr, those people if I get my hands on them.

10.) Random floor dance parties, while the tours are going through!!! (Ok, well this one hasn't happened yet but my floor is trying to make it happen.)

So this is a message from the undercover secret dorm agent. Ok not really but whatever. Over and out.

Taking a break from writing by doing a little writing

Gabrielle Malanowski '15

So another men's hockey game tonight and we won again!!! Yaaaaaaay. Yesterday must have been the quietest day in Alumni and the most stressed out. Almost everybody was working on their freshman writing Plato paper. Let's just leave it at, nobody was in a good mood. Well, except me. I had gotten my essay done on Wednesday night thinking it was due Thursday. My mistake. Though the twenty page paper draft is creeping up on everyone. Mine is due Thursday, and I got 15 pages. Wishing I had more, or a magic godmother to finish it for me. Everybody here is wishing that I think. Mine is on Witchcraft and witch persecution, not a very happy topic. Well ta-ta for now, got those 5 pages to do, ugh.

Gabrielle Malanowski '15

So life at Elmira has been going ok so far. Just the other day on Halloween night us alumniers had our big Halloween event. We named it Alum-night of the Dead and it had a great turn out. We had over seventy people come and it was lots of fun. We had cake, orange pop ice cream floats. They were so good, people loved them. We decked out the Lounge in Halloween stuff and got dressed up and went to the party. It only lasted an hour but believe it or not we had alot of people tell us we did a great job and they couldn't wait to see what we did for a Christmas party, and i said christmas party? Who said we are having one? Ok well maybe i didn't think or say anything but we put alot of work into setting this one up and are really considering doing another for Christmas. I so can't wait to see what we come up with. (P.S. Dorm council might seem like something for geeks but it's not. We set up all the rocking dorm parties or so we hear and get to help with some cool descisions like DORM APAREL WOO-HOO).

Also just wanted to mention the man auction that was put on last night by the student UN to help raise some funds for them. The place was packed with mostly girls, but there was some guys too. They one by one introduced the men, each had music that started for them in particular and one by one they were sold off. There were quite a few nice ones too. The stripped to thier boxer, briefs, whatever they were wearing and us girls screamed in bliss. It was so much fun and a really good way to destress after a day of class and community service. One girl bought a man by herself for $120 dollars. Ridiculous but so much. When you bought a man you got a picture with him and a dance at holiday ball. Very cool. I even with eight other girls bid on a man and we won him. We are all so excited to go to the ball so we can each get our dance. So that's what has been going on here, that i feel needed saying. Write you later, over and out.

The ups and downs of college

Gabrielle Malanowski '15

So in college I am sorry to inform you but you will have bad days. Whether those days be bad ones because a severe wave of homesickness or just a day filled with bad quizzes, and the feeling that your a ghost, not taking anything in or seeing anthing really. Whatever kind of day it is, you will have them and wish you didn't. Well, friday was my bad day. It began with an anatomy lab of disecting cats that started out cool but after thirty minutes of smelling formeldahyde I was fed up with it and i felt that everything was going in one ear and out the other. Then to top it all off, this continued through the rest of the day. By the time my last class arrived I might as well have been the living dead. My day had gone so bad that I had just wanted to see my mom and talk to her about my day. I felt like crying becuase my phone was dead, and all contact with the outside world was gone. I felt souless, so I planned on going and taking a nap, hoping the day would get better. (the gosh darn nap strikes again) Well around five pm I found out about the Hockey game (the first men's game of the season) that would be happening later that night and after some self-convincing I decided to go with two of my friends. We meet in the parking lot by the campus center and at 6:30 got onto a bus with more than 35 other college students and packed ourselves like sardines into the bus that would take us to the the hockey game ten minutes away for free. A very cool deal if you ask me. So we got there and flocked out and into the dome and found seats. Now one of my friends wanted to sit in the orange seats. If you don't know what the orange seats are, they are four or five rows of seats up against the glass where, if your not careful, you could get your head knocked off by a flying puck. Very exhilerating. So I sat and explained some of the game to my first-timer friends and we were off watching a great game. We all screamed in joy when the other team got a pemalty for a not so nice move and watched as they were smashed into the glass. Before we knew it, us three very non-violent chicks had become blood thirsty for a fight or another take down. We almost saw a fight break out but it didn't . . .unfortunately. The game was great, even though we lost to the other team 7 to 3 I think. It was good, and suprisingly enough, the two hours away from campus and away from all my homework was good for me and suddenly my day didn't seem so bad. So remember, school work is great and all that but don't forget to go to activties. See a comedian, go to a hockey game, do something other than homework so you don't fall apart. Over and out write you later.

Model UN

Christopher Hennessy ’15

Midterm break is one of the best things that can happen to a student on campus. After the stress and worry of midterms a body is drained of all life and vitality. I shudder to think of the horror of finals. Now this is me being overly dramatic of course. Midterms really can just be considered another big test in a cycle of big tests that is school. Midterm break is just nice because it is a good time to relax and go home see family and good times were had by all. I used my midterm break to go home and see family and friends and sleep. Sleep is very very important on break.

Now is time to shamelessly plug a club, which I just noticed rhymes. Model UN is basically where you go to conferences and be a part of the UN. This year we are going to conferences in McGill, yes the one in Canada, Brown and Cornell. I am very excited and do not mind which one I go to. It is a great way to meet people from around the world and to enjoy yourself taking part in a simulation of international politics. We are also a fun bunch of people so check us out!

Napping and Midterms

Gabrielle Malanowski '15

So who would have thought my first post would be about midterms? Definitely not me but it is. So it's 2:30 in the morning and at 8am I have my first midterm. The dreaded freshman writing midterm. Can't you hear the Jaws music or some scary background music playing as I am saying freshman writing MIDTERM for god's sake! So yes they gave us an idea about what the question we will have to write about will be, but still when writing makes you cringe inside in general this is just the worst. All my friends here are so confindant about the ideas and question they will write about while just praying that it goe well. Most my friends like to get things done early while I try to do that but really it doesn't work for me. I am a procrastinator at heart when I really don't want to do something. Though it only happens with school work. Hmm . . .wierd. So I can't sleep becuse I'm nervous and on top of that I have my tutorial today. I have to have ten pages about my twenty page paper done already. I have eight, not good. So I should mention that freshman writing can start as early as 8am for those unlucky ones who get that time. It has actaully turned me and quite a few other at good ol' Elmira into quite the nappers. WARNING COLLEGE WILL TURN YOU INTO A NAPPER IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL.

So being a napper is not a bad thing it's just something that happens so don't be afraid, plus it doesn't effect everyone. So got a midterm today and one tomorrow. The school is bringing in a therpy dog so people can destress between midterms, I am so using that to my advantage. Well so long for now, and the midterms aren't gonna be as hard as i make them sound. I think I'm just nervous since they will be the first one of my college career. So good luck and happy reading.

Parents’ Weekend

Christopher Hennessy ’15

Hello everybody and welcome to my first official blog post of the year and well ever! For those who don’t know this is going to be about me commenting about things around and about campus and just telling everyone who cares to read this about my EC experience. So onward to the what’s happened around campus!

This past weekend was Parents’ Weekend! It is basically the weekend around a month after school starts where parents come and visit their kids. There are all sorts of fun activities going around campus for the parents to look at and if their child is a freshman they can sit in on a Writing class if they choose. I had a lot of fun touring around campus, playing ultimate Frisbee, going to a comedian and even at the dinner dance. It’s basically a time to bond with your parents after your first month away.

After I talk about a big event that happened during the week I take the time to either shamelessly plug one of the clubs I am in, or take the time to tell a story of some sort of something that happened to me. This week it is going to be a shameless plug. For those of you who do not know what it is, Ultimate Frisbee is one of the most fun activities on the planet. I’m not sure what it is, because if you separate what you actually have to do in the game, run around and catch and throw a Frisbee, it doesn’t seem to be all that exciting. But as soon as you put them together and make teams it becomes a magical combination that is hard to beat. The Ultimate Frisbee Club here at EC is fairly active and we meet twice a week. It is always a highlight of my day when I get to play.

That’s all I have this week, so until next time!