UIS - The Real Deal: December 2007

Here We Come A Carolling...

I hope everyone is having a good winter break! Just thought I'd let you know what I've been up to.My friends and I decided to go Christmas carolling the other night after making up some harmonies for some of our favorite Christmas songs. I guess we were pretty good because we made $150.00 between the five of us! It was a pretty fun night and my aunt recorded a couple of the songs...

O'Holy Night

Jolly Old St. Nicolas

Winter break is an entire month long and it's kind of hard to keep entertained during this time. I waitress at a bar in town and I'll be going back to my old high school to observe my favorite teachers, Mrs. Weible and Mrs. Dooley. I still need 30 hours of classroom observation, to take the basic skills test and I have a few more classes to take before I can even get into the program. It's a lot of work, I've been going to school during the summer in hopes of graduating on time. Time will only tell, in the meantime I'm gonna keep working hard and hope for the best. Happy Holdays everyone!

In Memory

It was with great sorrow that Kelsey Stumpf passed away yesterday in a car accident. A former UIS student, many are experiencing the loss of a good friend.

Illinois State Police were releasing few details about the fatal accident that occurred Thursday afternoon north of Lebanon.

The accident involved a car and a semitractor-trailer hauling cars.

The two-vehicle crash occurred about 2 p.m. about 1 1/2 miles north of Lebanon on Illinois 4.

A car lost control and smashed head-on into the semi, police said. The car ended up in a ditch along southbound Illinois 4.

The crash resulted in restricted traffic for several hours on Illinois 4 from U.S. 40 to near Lebanon.

Kelsey was a part of the UIS cheerleading squad last year. She was a great athlete and friend.

It is truly a shock to learn of someone dying so young, I offer my deepest sympathy to her family and all of those mourning her loss.

Icy Adventures

It's been a cold few weeks in Springfield, but totally worth it experiencing the beauty of mother nature. UIS sparkles under the snow and ice, the trees turn to frozen statues of their former selves, the leaves encased in ice are like shimmering fossils, capturing the magic of winter.

Frozan leaf!

Steph, Kelli and I took pictures of the campus on our way to our cars.

We really got into the Christmas spirit during our shopping adventures.

Finals just about over, a bunch of us decided to go ice skating! For some it was the perfect way to end the semester, for others it was a break before studying all night for Biochem.

It was Michael's first time ice skating.

Justin and Pavan, yeah you too are so cool... losers.

Some of us need hugs for moral support during finals week.

Aaron doing a 360, is there anything this guy can't do?

Michael is not so talented... on the ice anyways.

Oh yeah, me and Ian rockin out on the ice.

More hugs.. it's gonna be okay Snuggle Bunny.

The sophomores girls, where's Priyanka?

Amanda and I.. well we're professionals.

Volleyball Tournament!

You can register this week Monday, Dec 10, to Thursday Dec 14th in th PAC from 11am-12. Captains must pay up front and sign the rest of their team in.

Parlez Vous Francais is raising money for our trip to Quebec, we would really appreciate your participation in this event, it's going to be a lot of fun!

Roll Dice!

So, it's been a pretty busy few weeks. Finals are coming up and all of us are stressing out! Last night the peer mentors put on a Blues Breakers program with free food, guitar hero, twister,coloring, play-dough, and catchphrase (which if you ask me is even more stressful.) I was working during all of this in the UIS online chat, it was... interesting. Kevin and Matt decided to impersonate me asking potential students, "any sports fans up in da hizzy?" Yeah.. didn't really sound like me, but whatever, it was a fun night.

It snowed that night and all of the lucky people who didn't have labs the next day went outside to play, I was very jealous working on my BioChem presentation, but we did kick butt on it today. Tonight I went to Casino Night where I lost horribly but luckily I have nice friends who gave me their chips! THANK YOU IAN AND MIN! You guys rock!

Black Jack, I say it was rigged...

Roulette

Me and Mary Kate getting our groove on!

Look at the snow!

Work today was really fun, we didn't really work that hard, it was food day! That means Kathryn's jumbalya... yumm. Justin and I decided to rank the counselors today out of boredom from coolest to least cool. Denny got the #1 spot because he dresses so pimp and he never gives us banner :-) The rest we ranked just randomly to make Brian mad (he was ranked 11 of 9) haha. So then they decided to rank the student ambassadors. Needless to say, I was ranked 10 out of 6 :-( They wanted revenge.

Everyone fights for food! Jordan just smiles :-) She was ranked the #1 ambassador.

The Breakfast Club

Aaron and Kevin decided to start living healthy and began The break FEAST Club, every morning they get breakfast at 7:30, it's sooooo early. My suitemate Kelli asked me to come and I said, "Thanks Kelli, but hell no." I decided to go anyway however, this was the first time I woke up before 8 in a LONG time. My classes don't start until 10.