New Year, New Room!

Hey everyone and welcome to Fall Semester 2012!  This is a new year, so I thought I would try something new and make a video post.  Check it out below, it is all about my new digs up on North Campus!

So there it is! If you have any questions, feel free to email me - smurray4@mail.smcvt.edu, or tweet me - @harasmur!

See you later gator!

The Bus

If you have driven on the highways in New England, you may have seen the huge Saint Michael's College bus cruising around.  It is a large coach bus with a huge SMC athletics decal on the side.  One of the times that I visited Saint Mike's while I was still looking, I was driving up 95 in CT and I saw the bus going in the other direction.  It is really cool to see it driving down the road, even before I decided to come here.

Lately, I haven't been just seeing it from afar, I have been practically living on the bus. This year we have been on the bus for about 44 hours in total.  We have made trips to Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Long Island.  Lucky for us and all the other athletic teams at SMC, the bus is really nice.  It has pretty much everything we need.  Some of the perks of the bus include but are not limited to: TVs with DVD players, nice reclining seats, book lights, wifi, and a bathroom.  Needless to say, the bus is super classy and we are lucky to have it.

Since we have had so much time on the bus, we have taken a lot of pictures (of course) so here are some of the ways that the SMC Softball team uses the bus:

Greer doing her homework.

Everyone on the bus and ready to go!

Beth doing homework and using the wifi.

Greer being a sleepy-head.  

Lindsay is super excited to get going.  She also loves coffee. 

On our trip to Long Island, we got a great view of the NYC sky-line.  You can sort of see it in this picture.

Everyone showing off their prizes from the surprise ball my mom gave us.

Reflection of the bus in a window in Garden City, Long Island.

The best thing about this post? I wrote it on the bus. We are on our way to Saint Anselm's for our last away games.  Wish us luck!

Easter Fun

Happy Easter everyone!

This weekend, the students and SMC were treated to a well deserved four day weekend.  The mini-vacation was in honor of Easter.  While most students went home to visit their families, my family came to me!

We started off the weekend on a high note!  My parents/brother came to watch the softball team sweep AIC on Friday.  Baseball also swept their games and word on the curb is that is the first time both teams have won both games on the same day in SMC history. YAY!!!

We spent Saturday driving around and just relaxing.  I also took my brother and my mom out on the Nature Trail behind the 300's Townhouses.

Then for Easter, we attended mass at Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel, which is the chapel here on campus.  After a great service, we went back to where my family was staying and it turned out that the Easter Bunny had come!! While my brother and I went alittle overboard on the candy, we also made a Murray Family Classic: Monkey Bread.  Monkey Bread is this delicious contraption featuring crescent rolls, butter, cinnamon, sugar, and an oven.  Let's just say I was in a bit of a sugar coma when Easter was all said and done.

That's what happened this weekend.  Now, I am going to start my essay for Philosophy so wish me luck!

Long Time No See

Wow! It has been quite a while since I last wrote on here and I can’t wait to update everyone on what I’ve been doing. 

Softball season started with a bang!   We practiced every weekday and got our butts handed to us by our new conditioning coach, Courtney.  It was a whirlwind and they all of a sudden we were in Florida.  Let’s just say, Florida is great. The weather was awesome, the food was great, and we had a ton of softball and a ton of fun.  We did well for our first time outside on the diamond.  We really held our own.

My row on the airplane, thats Amanda and Grace

We got alittle goofy waiting for Coach to pick up the vans.  Naturally we set the camera on self timer and took some pictures!

While in Florida, I was introduced to so many softball traditions like secret buddies, fancy dinner night, orphan day and theme park day.  I loved learning more about the team.  When we all get together, we are almost always laughing and always having fun.

Orphan Day! These are all the girls whose parents can't make it down to Florida.  Coach spoils us and we go to go to Olive Garden!

Us at Busch Gardens.  Yes thats me in the front with Steph.  Photo cred: Lindsay!

The whole team on fancy dinner night!  Don't we all look really different not in our uniforms?

Then, we were back from Florida and back to school.  The weather last week was unreal!  It was gorgeous.  There were a ton of tours going by and all I kept saying was, “if anyone visits on a day like today and doesn’t come to Saint Mike’s they are crazy!”.  Everyone was outside soaking up the rays or playing a game.  We even had Fox 44 news come to our practice to talk about getting outside so early because the weather!

Recently we have been playing alot and just trying to keep up.  I have been very busy but also having fun.  It is important to find a balance.  Right now we are on the bus on the way back from Connecticut and everyone is trying to keep in the balance.  We have some girls doing homework, some taking quick naps, and some are relaxing.  I am going to try and do some homework for the rest of the ride back up!  Enjoy the rest of your night!

3 Day Weekend!!

This weekend, the hardworking students of SMC had a three day weekend! YAY! I stayed here for the weekend because it was too short to really go home for me.  It was however, perfectly long enough to be super relaxing and really fun!

On Thursday night, I had softball practice.  We ran the timed mile, and although I was freaking out about it, I passed! I was very happy with myself and I spent Thursday night celebrating our conquering of the mile.  We danced and played some really fun games.

On Friday during the day, I caught up on my Glee.  I have been so busy since coming back to school, I haven't been able to watch any TV shows.  I spent Friday lounging in my bed and watching Glee on Hulu, it was AWESOME!  Friday night I spent with my friends Celia and Tara. They both stayed for the weekend as well.  We took goofy photo-booth pictures like this:

Saturday was spent sleeping and doing some homework.  Saturday night I went to Turtle Underground.  Turtle Underground is held in the basement of Purtil on North Campus.  Some/Most weekends, there is a musical performer there.  Last weekend, it was more folk-y music, and this weekend, there was a DJ.  I like going to Turtle Underground because it is like going to a really good free concert.

Everyone came back on Sunday, so my friends and I mainly just hung out and caught up.  I also finished my homework that I was putting off.

So that was my weekend.  The 3 days were much needed for us here and now its back to the grind.  Hope everyone has a great President's Day!

Any questions? Comments? Love Notes?  Tweet me!  Or ask me a question anonymously!

Reflections: Part 2

Hey All!

So happy that it is Thursday and almost the relaxing weekend!  This is the second part to my reflections post.  It is re-going over my original pro/con list for Saint Mikes! Here is Part 1, and below is the original list:

Okay so here we go with the second part of the list...

• Family connection of Tom - Tom is my uncle and he went to Saint Mike's too!  This was a very cool factor in my choice of SMC because I was really connected to the school.
• Distance - I am from Connecticut, and I loved the drive to SMC.  I liked that it was just the perfect amount of space between me and my hometown.  
• Snow - although we haven't actually gotten alot of snow this year, when I visited last year there was a TON of snow and I loved it!! I am a huge snow-lover.
• Real Turkey on Thanksgiving - This is a reference to Thanksgiving Dinner which is held in Alliot each year.  Thanksgiving dinner is absolutely delish and so so fun! They set up table clothes and candles in Alliot and make really good food.
• psych - SMC has a psych major and psychology is one of many (too many) subjects that I am interested in.
• Liberal - I liked the liberal arts feel.  As I said above I have many many interests and the liberal arts curriculum caters to that perfectly.
• Fresh Seminar - Another point relating to the curriculum, I liked the idea of a small freshman seminar where I could meet new people.  I took Living Digital and I found the class very engaging.
• Uniforms - I am not positive about this one...We don't wear uniforms to class of course! This is probably a reference to the softball uniforms.
• Laundry - Also not positive on this one, I really like doing laundry here though, the laundry rooms are very nice and big.
• Clothes - Maybe I liked the style of the students on campus?  I know I really do now, I have seen some of the coolest sweaters on the SMC campus!
• Safe - pretty self-explanatory, I feel safe on campus, and there are bluelights everywhere you look.
• Drive - the drive to school is so gorgeous. All I can think of is "The hills are alive with the sound of musiccccccc"
• Swipe keys - the Knightcard makes getting in and out of building really easy.  It is very convenient.
• Backpacks - My mom and I were both very impressed that students left their backpacks outside of Alliot.  It is a rule, but it shows how trusting SMC students are.
• Mascot - I was a Titan at my high school, and I knew that it would be very difficult to top that, but a Purple Knight comes pretty close.
• Bus - I liked the shuttle to North Campus because it was nice and comfy.
• People live on Campus - I liked that everyone lives here.  The community is really awesome.
• SMC - Sarah Murray's College - get it?
• Friendly stores - this is a reference to Vermont in general.  The people here are just straight up nice.
• Closets - love my big blue closet! Fits everything!!
• 12:1 - teacher to student ratio, which I really appreciated because I wanted a personalized experience

So that's it!   I hope you all enjoyed my reflections and my look at my first impressions of SMC.  

I hope you all have a great weekend!!

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Poems? Compliments?  Tweet me! or Formspring me!

How do you deal with quoteunquote noisy dorm buildings?

The noise doesn't really bother me. This fall, I had to go to bed early on the weekends alot and I just tuned the noise out. I know that some people use earplugs if they really need the quiet. If you need to, you can also ask the people to please quiet down.

Ask me more questions about SMC!!