When you're a senior, there are a lot of last things. Like the last Friday before your last Friday that isn't a reading day Friday (imagine being one of my roommates and having to listen to all of my "lasts"). Anyway, one of the larger lasts that I was going to acknowledge was my last class. Yes, my last class ever (as an undergraduate)...weird. This is probably the most boring clip I have ever put on my vlog, but it was pretty exciting (/sad) for me, so I figured that I would put it up. Enjoy.

So I'm completely sorry for not updating in a while, you get kinda busy when you're a senior. But anyway, my friends and I just recently discovered the Fair Trade Cafe. Now we go pretty much every week. They have homemade soup and sandwiches all completely fair trade. Here's a video of my friend Alaina talking about it. I kinda put her on the spot, but she does a great job!

(oh, and by the way, 24 days until graduation (ahhh!)).

The weather is amazing today, so my roommates and I took a stroll downtown. Here's a clip I took this morning at Central Market. I explain it in the clip, but you can't really hear me (sorry). Central Market is a farmers market in downtown Lancaster. (Random Fact: It's actually the oldest continuously run farmers market in the country). Anyway, my friends and I try to make it down there every Friday to get food (they're addicted to the empanadas). I'm going to apologize in advance for the short clips. My camera was running out of battery (it's charging now), so I didn't want to waste it all on one clip.

A capella is really popular at F&M. There are three groups, Poor Richards (co-ed), Sweet Ophelia (all female), and Chessmen (all male). Here's a video of the Chesssmen at their Spring Preview concert last week performing their rendition of "Hooked On a Feeling". I sang this song to Lauren, but she just didn't feel the vibe...

So, at the game this past Saturday, the girls dance team performed at halftime (like they do at every basketball game). Here's a video of a part of their performance. Sorry for the short description, I'm in DC at a conference (more on that later) and quasi-brain dead (we had to get up early this morning).

So, if I had to pick a most popular sport at F&M, it would definitely be men's basketball. Basketball games are always a lot of fun. Here's a video of our team playing Ursinus. Did we win? No, not quite, but we played awesome and came back from a 12 point deficit to tie the game, only to lose by a couple of points.

Like I mentioned in my last entry, this week is finals week. So, instead of studying, I decided to procrastinate a little by showing you how pretty F&M is during the winter. Every winter, F&M puts lights on a bunch of the trees. It looks really good.

This week is finals week. A tradition that we have at F&M is something called a Flapjack Fest which happens every semester during reading days. Professors, staff, and administrators come out and serve the student body breakfast food from 9 until midnight. It's always a lot of fun and a great way to de-stress before finals.

So I know something that everyone misses from elementary school are field trips. Do not fear, there are field trips in college too! AND you get to go to much cooler places, like nuclear power plants. This semester I have a class called Nuclear Power, Weapons, and Waste Disposal. Last week we took a field trip. Below is a picture of my class at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (yes, that Three Mile Island!). You can see reactor 2, where the accident happened in 1979 on the left of the picture. It's the dome looking thing behind the trees all the way on the left. Cool, eh

This past weekend was family weekend. As part of that, our instrumental groups put on a really cool concert called Spectrum. There are four different ensembles performing (Jazz Band, Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, and Philharmonia) nonstop for 75 minutes. That's right, not even a break for applause. In between the groups we have soloists or small chamber groups perform. Here we have Colette Buchanan '08 performing her own original (to say the least) arrangement on the electric violin. I cut and pasted a bunch of things together for the sake of time. If you want to see the whole video, let me know. I have some more clips of Spectrum, hopefully I'll get them out soon. (Make sure you watch to the end!!)

As part of the PIT program (see previous entry) we (the PIT Assistants, who are upperclassmen which help the program run smoothly, put on a skit for the first-years. This year was a cheer off. The video is the end of the cheer off while the "judges" are tallying the scores. Things were pretty competitive, as you'll see in the clip. There are no camera tricks involved, just the awesome acting abilities of the PAs! You also get to check out my pretty embarassing outfit. Want to see the rest of the skit (I know you do)? You'll just have to be in PIT.

Okay, I know I haven't updated in a while. I'm sorry, it won't happen again! To be completely honest, I lost the cord to my camera, so I couldn't charge it. But, I'm up and running again! So you may be wondering what I did all summer. Well, I stayed at F&M and planned the PIT Program. PIT is a pre-orientation program for 50 First-Year students. During the day they get split into groups and do some kind of (fun) community service activity. Then at night we do fun things like go to Hershey Park (which is only 30 minutes from campus). So, here is a clip from Hershey Park. Roller coasters and I just...well you'll see... (sorry about the horrible lighting)

In May, I went to Lima, Peru for two and a half weeks. I was given a travel award by F&M to study the difference in the treatment of the elderly in Peru compared to in the US, so I didn't have to pay for my trip (that's right...I didn't pay a dime!). I went with a program called Cross Cultural Solutions. What CCS does is send people to different parts of the world to do volunteer work.  It was an AMAZING experience that changed my life! The song you hear is the abuelos (that's what we called them, it means grandparents) praying before lunch. I tried to put a bunch of stuff into a little bit of time, so excuse the horrible editing job. I'll get better! If you want more pictures or want to hear more about it, let me know.

This is Dr. Feit, he was my lab professor for Cell Biology. One day our lab ended early so he decided to take us to a music room and share with us his love for Rock 'n Roll.

Megan (my suitemate) choreographed a dance for our annual Student Choreography Showcase in the spring. It's made up of dances choreographed by students. Make sure you watch until the end because Cori did her own dancing for everyone! I'll let you make your own decision about which was better! Thanks to Mariah Cori for taping for me (I had my own concert to go to).

So, here's our attempt to get into the Guiness Book for "Most Singers of Happy Birthday,' as recorded in the midst of the crowd. And look at Alan--he's like the quintessential Diplomat poster-boy!

Over 1000 people gathered on Hartman Green to sing Happy Birthday for Ben Franklin's 300th. And since this is a copyrighted song, our "performance" was really a protest of overly-strict copyright laws, something we think Ben would have liked. Here's to upending "a foolish consistency!"

Here's some more of our campus celebration of Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. There were lots of crafts, 18th century science demonstrations by an F&M professor, a mock tavern, and the Big Guy himself was even there to pose for pictures! (That's Sara with "Ben")

The campus had a HUGE party to celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. It was pretty cool...lots of people in costume, colonial dancing, canons, stuff like that. Here I am trying out my new steps with a new friend from Wharton Elementary School, which is a block from campus.

So here's a quick look at my room, all decorated for Christmas (Editor's Note: Sorry, Billy, I just found this tape under a pile on my desk!).

One thing my suite is good at is procrastinating! So when it was time for Jen and I to study, the only logical thing to do was to turn on the TV and break out the camera. Of course we got a lot done in the process...or not.

Every semester we bring lots of elementary school kids from the local schools on campus and hold all different workshops for them. As you may (or may not) know, I'm the president of the African Drumming Club--so one of the workshops we held was African Drumming. This is the performance at lunch time with the kids. Check out the pretty cool drum switch I pull! Thanks to Hallie for taping.