classes

This week registration for new classes began. As you might know this is the last time I'll ever register for courses at St. Lawrence. Now that I've finally lived through nearly 7 full semesters of classes I thought I'd share with you all some of my favorites. (And if there are any current students reading this, keep these in mind as you put together your future class schedules)

1.     Religious Studies 102: Religion & Science

We've got just over one month to go in the 2011-2012 school yeah and it's incredibly hard to believe my time here at SLU is just about half over.  I swear I just got here...

This is it...the last week of classes for the Fall semester...or should I say, the last four days.  We don't have class on Friday because it's "reading day," so we have a little bit more than just a weekend to learn everything we need to learn for those Monday finals.  My brother goes to Cornell, and they get more of a reading week, which I think would be nice and I would definitely take advantage of it, but I suppose there are many who would not, so this is the way it goes.

It seems that the British pop band "Hot Chocolate" and myself now have something in common...we believe in miracles!  At St. Lawrence, our system of Academic Planning and Registration (APR) is the way in which we sign up for classes each semester.  Basically, the way it works is that a person creates a list of classes in which they are interested, chooses (usually) four of them that they want the most, and requests them, hoping for the best.  Seniors get first priority, followed by juniors, sophomores, and then freshman.

The ceremony was held in the shadow of the sawmill, red chipping boards a quaint backdrop to an atypical St. Lawrence Saturday scene. But I wasn’t at St. Lawrence last Saturday. No, three classmates and I passed up some first-weekend-back revelry to visit the Croghan Island Mill. Because sawmills are exciting, right? Well, that, and inspiring, as an even more inspiring St. Lawrence professor taught her Environmental Studies class last fall.

Group projects are always a little stressful but last week proved that some projects--even though I lost a lot of sleep over it--are definitely worth it. Ever since coming back from El Paso for the spring break trip for one of my classes, the seven other students in my class and I were inspired to take action and raise awareness about the issues we were able to personally see along the US-Mexico border.

Once again, I am back on campus and getting into the flow of classes again. All the snow has disappeared and it's a balmy 45 degrees outside right now. I spent Spring Break at Red River Gorge in Kentucky rock climbing with the guide training program. It was so much fun! It was high sixties everyday and sunny. Plus I got to climb everyday and learn a lot. Everyone I've talked to seems to have had a great time over break- Georgia with the Frisbee Team, backcountry skiing in the Chic Choc mountains with the Outdoor Program, hiking in the high peaks for a whole week, ski marathons on Mt.

Campus is amazing. I have been on campus for two weeks now. As I mentioned in previous entries, I was scheduled for the Rock Climbing pre-orientation trip, so I was scheduled to arrive on August 19th, which was about 5 days before everyone else was to arrive (August 23rd). Two weeks might not seem long to most people but I already feel like I have been here for much longer than that (in a good way!) My first two weeks have been certainly eventful!