You're Never Too Old For Field Trips!

Hi everyone!
I hope you have had a fantastic week/weekend since I last blogged! This past week was pretty crazy busy - if I may say so myself! Classes are really in full swing now that we are heading into our third week - I have my second Environmental Problem Solving quiz tomorrow and my first project due this Thursday! Last week I went on 2 (that's right TWO) field trips - all in one day! Crazy right? Usually in High School you go on a field trip and it takes all day, it's awesome no classes, no homework, maybe a short paragraph about what you did. Don't worry friends in college (at least in some of your classes) field trips do exist. Last Thursday (the 8th), my Environmental Problem Solving class went on a field trip during our lab time to the Tom Ridge Environmental Center (TREC), down on Presque Isle State Park. The TREC is a pretty cool place.

Tom Ridge Environmental Center at Presque Isle

When we got there we heard had a short lecture about what goes on at TREC. We learned about water pollution, fish, plants, animals, and  a ton of other environmental issues and how TREC is helping to curb problems and inform the public. Then we went on a scavenger hunt throughout TREC. We had a list of questions that we had to answer and could only answer by going through the center and learning more about what we had just heard. We even climbed the observation tower which we thought would be a good idea to run up. Poor choice - way more stairs than expected. But the view from the top was great, you could see really far out onto Erie Lake and back into the city of Erie. It was a pretty fun field trip and it was nice to get off campus and experience more of the city!
My second field trip of the day was to the Erie Art Museum with my Aesthetic Education class later that afternoon. I had never been to the Erie Art Museum, although I had driven past it countless times! I'm glad I got to go, they had some really nice exhibits and it was fun to get to do the self tour with my classmates. Not only were we learning, but we had some fun too! Now, I have to say the museum was way bigger than I thought. I was really impressed with it, and I'm happy to check that off my bucket list of things to do in Erie.

Erie Art Museum

This week should be pretty fun/crazy. I have a ton of meetings and as I mentioned before - my first project due Thursday! So I'm off to do my reading so I can finish the project!
Later Gators.

Winter Classes - Winter Term... Here we go!

Hey Everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I blogged! But we are just getting into our second week of classes here at Mercyhurst College for our Winter Term! If you didn't know already Mercyhurst is on a trimester system. This means we have 3 terms of classes each year. Each term is ten weeks long and you take 3-4 classes each term. This is nice because you only focus on a few things at a time instead of spreading yourself thin with a ton of classes. This term I'm taking 10 credits - which is equal to 3 classes and one lab class. I am taking Applied Linguistics, Aesthetic Education, and Environmental Problem Solving - which has a lab course. So far I really like my classes! My Linguistics class is super intriguing and I love languages so this just fits perfectly! My Aesthetic Education class is all about teaching and involving the arts in regular education classroom. It is a really hands on class and from looking at the syllabus we will have quite a few guest speakers and artists come in and work with us! The Environmental Problem Solving class is pretty interesting so far. We are going to look at a wide range of issues concerning our planet - everything from overpopulation to pollution to natural resources. It is definitely a class that will make you think twice before doing something environmentally questionable like not recycling or littering.

Last night the Ambassador Club had their annual "Chrisgiving" dinner. It's a cross between Christmas and Thanksgiving and it's a chance for the whole club and the new pledges to get together to hang out and eat lots of good holiday food! Everyone dresses up in their ugliest sweaters and Christmas outfits for a fantastic time! We have a contest to see who can wear the ugliest sweater/best dressed which is always a good time!

Senior Ambassadors with plenty of Chrisgiving Cheer!

Later Gators!