In case you haven't noticed, I kind of died with the whole updating thing. Sorry about that. I'll try again for semester two.
A few updates.
1. I am almost offically a French and Music double major. :) 
2. I plan on going to NYU for Music Therapy or (dream of all dreams) Yale, unfortunately they don't have MT, so I'd go for french.
3. I got almost straight A's for semester 1.
4. I'm going out to be Student director of Charm for next year and the years following.
5. MY ROOMMATE -- who i sadly neglected to mention before -- is awesome. It is true. There is no better roommate, and we're good friends. :) And I've finally gotten her to bend to my Graduate school will. :) Speaking of, we have to go watch Numb3rs (Hugh, even our TV show choices are school related :)) Sadly, she's a bio major...but I hate biology, and she can't sing, so we even out. 
Oh and also, I'm on a medical vocal rest, and can't sing for 8 more days...life hates me.

  Always,

   Em

So, I have officially been here for one month and one day today. Isn't that funny. As much as I feel like I belong here and am enjoying myself, there are still times that I feel like I just want to go home and see my friends. Today happens to be one of those days, but it's all good. I keep myself busy with (what else?) homework. I feel like I have been doing good making sure that I keep up with my homework, and that I am not always doing it. I have been getting a good amount of sleep, but I am still tired -- like right now -- of doing homework...heheh.  
 In truth, this week was pretty boring, and I don't have much to say. I'm now meditating for 20 minutes a day because it is my self-development project and I rather enjoy the de-stressing time it allows. 
  I think I shall write more later this week, but as I really don't have much to say...
  TTFN. 
 OH! Well, Wednesday is apple day, which means we at MBC get to spend the day doing communitee service. I am helping to paint the town, which means I go and help paint all the store doors and windows in fall themes. Isnt that fun?!?!?!? I'm rather excited about it myself. And on thursday I have a concert (it's founders day)...so at the end of this week I should have lots to tell. 
  Adieu,
  Emilie

 Bonjour to those who are still reading this blog! It is now week three, and as of this precise moment in time, I am exhausted. Not becase of school in general, but today  was part of  a new series I have created, dubbing it "Study Sunday's" in which, I study. All day; but not the same subject for more than 45 minutes without a 15 minute break in between (as studies have shown that if you study one subject for more than 45 minutes without taking a break you lose some of what you learned...see i"m learning in Psychology!!). Today, I studied from 11-6 in my happy little private study spot, that isn't really private, but not a lot of people go there. I have discovered that I am able to concentrate in this spot very well, and I feel comfortable studying here. You should always -- according to my Psychology study skills lab -- have a spot on campus or in a coffee shop...etc; where you feel comfortable studying. I personally, can't do my best studying in my room. Rooms are supposed to be a repreve, not a study cell, and thus I prefer to do my studying in the study spot I now claim as my own. And, yes, in case any of you are wondering, when someone asks where I study, I say "I'm not telling". Not because I don't want them to have a nice study spot, but  because they are not taking mine. I'll gladly help them find there own. *Please note this is all being said with light humor, I am not an evil study shrew* 
  Hmmm....
  Oh! I have learned, that occasionally, you have to read a collection of essays, say about Gandhi, that are not well put together. When this happens, I find it best to go online and perhaps find a complete essay that the author wrote, and read what was actually meant to be said, that way, when Gandhi begins to sound like a selfish spiritual hypocrite, you can read what was really written, and decide for yourself. It makes the reading of the anthology or collection of essays, a little bit easier. 
 Study skills seemed to be the theme this week, it was the lab topic in Psychology, and the e-mail journal topic for MBC 101. We had to give a study tip, and then create a self development project for the semester. My self-development project is to meditate for 20 minutes each day. OR at minimum 3 days a week. I am going to be starting this tomorrow, so I will let you know how it goes...mind you, I do not know how to meditate. 
   I do not remember if I mentioned this in my last post, but I believe I have come up with (or narrowed down to) 5 majors that I would be interested in persuing. These majors are: Psychology, Anthropology, International Relations, French, and Music....any thoughts? I'm really glad you don't have to declare a major right away, because I don't think it is possible. There are so many choices that I think I change what am going to go for daily...can you imagine if you had to declare? I would be at the office every day wanting to change!!!. 
 Anyway, on an end note, I have a test on tuesday and wenesday in College Algebra and Psychology respectively. Yeah to the later, death to the first. Algebra and I...we don't get along so well, I personally am only taking the dreaded class because I want to take statistics and unforutunately you need college algebra for stats. I don't know why, but you do. Prerequisites are evil. Speaking of tests, on my first French test I recieved a B+, which I was proud of seeing as the whole class is au francais and scares me to death. Secondly, on my first college paper, I recieved the highest grade possible...I may have mentioned this before? If I did I apologize, it made me happy. So, as the moon rises higher in her star blanketed sky, I must pause my writings and shut mine eyes for as the dawn wakes the world, I must wake as well...to complete my french homework! 
   Until next time. 
   ~ Em

 Hello! 
 Well it is the end of week two, and I am taking just a few moments out of my lovely -- and by lovely I mean abolutely infuriating -- french homework. Now, as much as I love french, this has been the week of "lets have everything in Emilie's life go wrong" and so I am a little behind on french, which means that my usual 2.5 hours of french per night has escalated into something that...well lets see, I've been workign on it since 6:30. But, for those of you that are still in high school, don't let this scare you. Its not really that bad. It's off set by all of the time you have to do what you want to do. 
  This weekend I went on a Charm Retreat, with my girls from Charm. It was amazing. We went up to a cabin in the woods, and it was very much my little piece of Maine. We had campfires and we sang -- a lot, as it was kind of the point of the retreat! -- and told ghost stories. It was awesome. It was a good reprieve from MBC, as much as I love being here, it was nice to just step away from the campus. That's the only (-) that I have seen about being here, is that as far as a mile is from campus, you stlil always feel that you are on campus, and sometimes you just want to step away for just a second. Thankfully at MBC there are a lot of opportunities to do that.
   Right now, along with my homework and extra stuff that I am doing (I am now part of the marekting team with Sara for Charm), I am looking at various study abroad opportunities. Right now I am very much looking into spending May Term in Cyprus, or Scotland, and if I can get into it the Virginia Program at Oxford Summer Session, and take classes at Oxford University! Unfortunately only 5 people get into this program, but there are years yet! The Study Abroad opportunities are endless here, and I absolutely love going to the Spencer Center for Civic and Global Engagement (Alex if you are reading this, and you decide to come here, which you should, you will adore the spencer center, and I have no doubt that you will spend much of your time there).
  Hmmm.... OH! on Wednesday I went to see a Hindi film from India entitled "Stars on Earth" the title is in Hindi but if you look it up under the english title you will find it. I think that every teacher should see this movie, it is extremely amazing. All students also. But it was a really awesome experience (although my neighbor here, Krittika, she cheats, because she speaks Hindi, and therefore didn't need to read the sub titles!). On Thursday, Carolyn and I might go to a lecture on Chemistry and the Brain, and on Wednesday we are going to the Internationa Cafe at spencer for this weeks topic which I believe is World Food Prices... last week it was on Medical Tourism.
  I wrote my first college paper this past week, it was on the first chapter of my Conflict Mediation Across Culutres, book. Now, if you think that it is not possible to write 8 pages on one chapter of a book, you are mistaken. Actually, it turns out it can be rather hard to limit what you have to say to just 8 pags. Who would have thought? I'll let you know how I did later.
  Anyway, I know this post is all over the place but, I am keeping to my once a week updates. I'll talk to you all soon. And also, Please e-mail me with comments, thoughts, or if you just want to say hi. I am always desperate for NHS contact. I still check my NHS e-mail, and my MBC e-mail is holmstocke1102@mbc.edu. I hope to hear from you! 
  - Em  

So, technically this should have gone first but I forgot. On the Wed after I had started my classes, a week from when I arrived here for orientation, it hit me that I was hundreds of miles and many hours away from home and I decided, very suddenly that I wanted to go home. Due to some time in which I was not in a good mood and a very long rant about how much I hated Virginia, it was decided that we would go on a hike that would come complete with blueberries and maple syrup (in the form of blueberry pancakes) to give me tastes of home. Trees, blueberries, maple syrup. I was excited.
 Unfortunately, the lovely hurricaine hit and instead it rained all day, although not enough to amuse me. It was actually really boring and we all sat in the dorm in pajamas until 12. We did however still have blueberry pancakes and we postponed the hike until a later date.
 See, college's really do care about you.

As My first week as a college freshman comes to a close, I feel that it is a good time to reflect. Originally I thought I would do this every day, but one thing you learn very quickly...there isn't enough time to do everything you want to do every day. :) I suppose if I am having a night where there is just a million hours of studying left and only a few hours to do it, I will take a break and type my frustrations...but this week has been pretty mellow. I have been getting aquainted with my surroundings, my classes, and my teachers. I have great classes, and the only time I have to wake up before 10:00 is on Tuesday's for my french lab. The classes are very different from what you are used to at high school, they don't diddy dally around the tough stuff. I am taking Intermediate French, and the first day she told us that we were done speaking in english and I have barely heard an english word in that class since. It's instant immersion into the college world. From day one there are auditions and then call backs, clubs to join, places to see and go; but the freedom you have to explore these clubs and places, the town the theater, anything...it's a whole new world from what you are used to in High School.
  I have one 300 level class (which is to say, it is not a class that freshman usually enroll in) and the first day we had the class we were assigned 200 pages of reading, and it keeps going up from there. There are 7 books we will complete by 3/4 of the way through the semester. You learn really quickly to boost up your game, and that if you put off your studying until later hours because you could get through it quickly....you will be in trouble, and need to remedy it.
  I do have to say that well I love my campus and my classes, there are two things I am NOT fond of at the moment. These would be the fact that the closes builiding to my dorm to eat is up a hill that I swear is at a 70degree angle, and there are over 217 stairs to get there. The second would be that it is so HOT and HUMID in Virginia compared to Maine...if I transfer out of here it is going to be north of and including New York. Other than that I am pretty content with my school. 
 The hardest part about being here however, is that I am so far away from my family, and my friends. I miss you all dearly, but I will be home sometime in December for winter break!!!! *counts the days on her calender*
 So that's a little background on how things go. Some of the things that have happened to me so far that I feel I should note? For the first 3 days of school I had two classes scheduled at the exact same time and ran around the campus like a chicken with their head cut off trying to find a teacher that would let me into their block of the class so I didn't have to invent a genetic cloning machine in a day. There was a lot -- A LOT -- of begging involved, but eventually the situation was remedied. YEAH. And on a happier note, my first day of school I auditioned for the two A Capella groups here (baldwin charm, and madrigals) and recieved a call back for both. My second day I attended both of these call backs, for two of the strangest and most satisfying auditions (however good or bad they went) and -- after highly regretting the fact that I had left my water bottle* in my dorm room -- recieved the news that night -- through very unconventional means -- that I was a new member of Baldwin Charm!!! MBC's only Pop A Capella group. I am very happy with that. 
 As much as I would love to tell you more, I do have a lot to study, and need to go venture into the worlds of texbooks, Imaginez, and a lot of stuff about Gandhi. 
 I bid you Adieu and look forward to seeing some of you in Dec. 
  Always, 
  Emilie