Let's Start an Epidemic!

• A smile CAN change a life!
• Somebody, anybody, make math and science FUN! It can happen!
• Teachers--care!
• Sing aloud to the song stuck in your head!
• Dance in public to your iPod!
• Dream big! Live bigger!
• Don't just think positive; be positive
• Don't forget to look up..
• or to stop and smell the roses--literally.

Just some random thoughts. Be inspired! haha.

Just another glorious day..

It's about 1:20 in the morning, I have to wake up in less that 5 hours to go stand in line for a football ticket, I have class at 10. Wow. So, why am I still awake? Let me just tell you!
I had to write a paper for my theatre class. Of course I waited until the last minute (it's due tomorrow morning). I had to go to a play, which I went to on October 11th. That was a long time ago! So, other than not remembering much about it, I didn't hardly understand the play to begin with. I still managed to write a 2-page analysis/critique of the darn thing. I finished that at about midnight.
Remember how busy my past week was? I had 6 papers due, a midterm, biology homework, a quiz, readings, and biology homework. Not to mention I was getting sick, and had to go to the doctor. Geez! Well, on top of all of that, I was supposed to start making out a schedule for next semester!
Totally overwhelming. I just wanted to get through the week. I was definitely not concerned with what classes I might want to take next semester. Well, that's what I've been doing since midnight. Looking over my degree plan, etc. I have a general idea of my dream classes, but I need to talk to an advisor to make sure that is all ok before i'll actually start checking out the times and molding a schedule. Ughhh..so frustrating.
So, next semester is only a few months away..next year, well, almost a year away. A few friends and I are already doing the whole house-hunting thing. How am I supposed to know if I can live with these people? Will I be able to hold down a job AND 15 hours of school? Am I going to try to get into the UTeach program? So much to think about.
TOO much to think about with another paper due this week and a test. I'm also starting a team project in my creativity class on Tuesday. That's a huge deal. The team has to 'hang out' outside of class. Like, dinner, or a movie or something not related to our project. I don't even know what we're supposed to be doing yet. It'll be alot of work knowing the professor though.
On a lighter note, church was awesome today. I supposed it really is always awesome. Being surrounded by other Christians after a long week on this campus is a good thing. Especially when it's not always at the end of every week. Which is terrible. I mean, that was a HUGE part of me being here. I mean, I am supposed to be a priest, and I can't even get myself to church once a week. That, with God's help, is going to change. He broke me down last night, and wow, what a difference I already feel. It was a very humbling experience.
HE is the one and only reason I'm where I am, living my dream. He got me here, how do I have any right to turn away? Man, it really hurts when you have to face up to something like that. Ouch. But, it'll be worth it.
Ok, back to church.
Today, all of the different ethnic ministries were recognized today. The Korean minister opened in prayer in Korean(?) I guess that's what he was speaking. Then, the Chinese choir sand a song in Chinese. The second sond they sang was Above All. They sang the majority of the song in English, then sand the chorus in Chinese. It was beautiful!
Next, the Hispanic preacher stood and said "El Vive!..He lives!" He went back and forth between Spanish and English, and even had the congregation speaking in Spanish. Praising the Lord in another language! Then, the Hispanic children's choir went up and sang Jesus Loves the Little Children in Spanish. Too cute.
Next, a Romanian pastor spoke in his native tongue. The words just flowed so gracefully out of his mouth.
To top it all off, each different ethnic representative read a passage of scripture in their respective language. It was amazing to see such culturely different people in the same place, at the same time, for the same purpose: To praise Jesus Christ.
I'll be back home in about 22 days I think it is. Thanksgiving..YUM! So excited about home-cookin'!
Well, I better close this up. It's 1:45 and I'm still not even ready for bed. Ay.
:)

Even Sorrier..more sorry? Eh.whatever!

All I'm saying is sorry it's been so long. I really haven't had anything worth posting about.
I have a midterm tomorrow that I'm studying for. Busy week with about 6 pages to write and a play to read. Oh well, I'll be good!
Today is SO cold! I woke up and my roommate had texted me to tell me to wear my winter clothes. Boy was she right. It's cold, windy, and rainy. Love this weather, but wasn't thrilled when I had to walk all the way to class. I was very tempted to just stay in bed. Turns out, I wouldn't have missed much of anything. I was slightly frustrated when I realized that.
Alright, well I know this didn't do much, but I have to get back to my work. Woot!

My Apologies

Not writing for about 10 days is just part of the Blogging world. I apologize. So I'm really excited about getting to see everyone back home. Good times. But, I do love it in Austin, so I was glad to be back in the ATX.
I must confess, this blog won't be much to write home about. I'm just writing to make sure I keep up with this thing. I ended up making a 77 on my Biology test which, I must add, was one point above average! And, as you all know, that is passing!! Yay!! (This isn't a grade I would usually be proud of, but I really thought I bombed it..some of you know that)
I just took a journalism test. I was really worried about this one too, but thankfully, it was actually easy! *knock on wood* It was really long. 72 multiple choice/true or false and an essay with 7 different points to mention. In just over an hour. College.
Anyhow, I was pretty confident.
Now it's naptime!

Church

I know the people that read this, and I was a little hesitant to post this blog, but I decided I might as well be honest (urgh..don't be mad!).
Yesterday was Sunday...the 4th Sunday I've been in Austin. Well, I finally went to church. It's not like I hadn't wanted to be going, I just didn't know where, or with who.
I finally did it though, and am SO glad I did. It was awesome. God is awesome. My friend, Kim, and I both went. Turns out she'd been wanting to go too, but didn't know who to ask. We went to 'Sunday school,' which we didn't like so much. It was too big (next week we're going to try the smaller group sessions). Then was 'big' church. People back home know what I mean by that. Anyhow, this church was massive! There were so many people, and the choir was huge. The number of the people isn't what made it so great though. You could FEEL everyone's love and their excitement to be there praising The Lord and learning more about Him. Wow.
I need to go to class, but maybe I'll write more about it later on today.

Some Pictures from the TCU game!

Simple Update

Well, my mom complained that I didn't write enough, so I thought I'd give a simple update. I'm actually in the library right now, finally about to go back to the dorm. I've been here for several hours, and can't say that I accomplished too terribly much.
Don't get me wrong, I did some reading, but nothing extravagant.
For those who didn't know, I'm trying out for crew, which is rowing. Yes me, Meredith Armstrong, is trying out for an NCAA sport that she has never even attempted before. I had orientation a few days ago. I went in jeans, a cute tank top, and flip-flops. I hadn't had a chance to change out of those clothes. Well, little to my knowledge, orientation was a mini-workout. So, there I was working out in those clothes. It was a sight to see.
Yesterday was the first official day, and I couldn't even go. I had a class during the workout times, so the coach emailed me an alternate workout. Funnnnn! Not!
So today was MY first official day of tryouts. I showed up, appropriately clothed this time, scared as can be. I was so worried about my physical condition that I felt sick to my stomach. I won't go into the details, but it wasn't too bad (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the main conditioning days...today is Thursday). I'm sure that tomorrow will be a little more difficult, but I'm actually ready for the challenge.
Pretty excited. I think this will get me into the habbit of working out on a regular basis whether I make the team or not.

OK, well, it's getting late, and I still haven't even showered. Gross, I know.
I'm heading back to the dorm now!

UT vs. TCU

So this week went well. It was perfectly ended with an AWESOME game against TCU. Down 10-0 (I think) at the half, we came back and won 34-13..maybe? Ok, so doesn't sound like I was as into it as I truly was. Anyhow, it was amazing. We were stuffed into the stands..wow. So much school spirit!
So I was going to post a picture I took on my phone, but it wasn't clear at all! I may try to get one from my roommate later on. So what was this picture of you may wonder.
Well, guess who I saw at this game..Matthew Mcconaughey and Lance Armstrong were sitting up in the box watching the game. I was so close!! Wow. So exciting.
Ok, I'm thinking about doing some reading now.
But yay for cute actors and athletes..so many athletes!

UT Football...

Rocks my socks! We beat Arkansas State 21-13..wasn't the greatest played game of all time, by far, but it was my first Texas game. AMAZING. I was lovin' it! Can't wait until this saturday when we beat up on TCU! woot!
Alright well just so nobody thinks I don't even do work here, I do. I read 76 pages today, two different articles on the internet and watched a 20 minute clip Friday. See, I do homework. Well..hope you like the pictures!
hook'em!

Oops!

Ok, yesterday was my second day of class. I had Advertising: Creativity and the American Culture first. Wow! This class is going to ROCK! I'm totally stoked about diving into this class. The professor is Israeli(no telling how wrong that was spelled), and teaching our American Culture class. He did make sure to point that out to us all. It's a really big class. 400 or so I think. Anyhow, our assignments for the first night were watching a speaker on youtube, and reading two shorter online articles. All of which were very interesting. Critical issues in Journalism was another big one. Sadly, I must confess I was nearly 10 minutes late for this one. Eek. It happens I guess, but hopefully not again anytime soon. Apparently it takes a while to get out of classrooms with 400 students. Who would've thought that everyone wants to leave when class is dismissed? That is on my to-do list for my 3day weekend: Finding shorter routes to classes from classes. The journalism class makes me nervous though. Ugh..it's so..boring. I'll survive though.
Well that was it for yesterday.
Boy do I wish that was true.
So, I had like, 30 chemistry problems and 26 pages of reading to do for the Biology class. I walked over to the Co-op after my classes yesterday morning to pick up my book, still not knowing what I was to do about the chemistry work. Well, as soon as I walk into my dorm, I saw an email saying I was being dropped from the Bio class. WHAT!? I'm in a first-year-interest group, which is a group of freshman studying something similiar. This same group was pre-scheduled for 3 different classes, one of which was Bio. So I thought I had immunity from the prerequisites described.
I even emailed the TA, professor, and my advisor.
Well long story a little shorter and a lot less stressful, things got mixed up, and all of the FIG members were being dropped, but placed in an alternative biology class. This one for non-majors. Yes!
It meant no reading those pages, and no chem homework! woohoo!
I did have to go back to the Co-0p and get refunded for my book. Which I found out, the other bio class had a book half the price of the original.
Ok, I reallllly need to go get ready for class. So, ciao!

First Day

So, today was the day! I started it off at 10 this morning with Introduction to Theatre. Wow! That class seems like it is going to be SO much fun! I'm really really excited about that one. Then I took a little break and headed to Biology at 12. Ick. That will be horrible, but did I expect anything else? So I didn't have another class until 4. I had to walk all the way across campus to my Freshman Seminar. It was worth it I guess. It should be a pretty good experience.

Pictures

Are up..well, down I suppose. Anyhow, there they are.

First Night

Ok, so I got here yesterday, but my mom and grandma wanted me to stay at the hotel with them. Well, my roommate wasn't going to be here until today, so I just decided I'd go ahead and stay with them. So Arissa, my roomie, got here around 2. Guess what? She's not staying here tonight! So, I'm still stuck here alone my first night. Gawh.
My room looks pretty good though. I'll try to post some pictures sometime soon. I'm semi-tired though, so I'm thinkin' I'll get to bed.

10 Hours!

And I'll be leaving for Austin! Yay! I'm really excited..but still not 100% packed (uh-oh)! Well, I can't wait to be writing from my dorm.
Ciao for now!

Shopping

That's what I did nearly all day today. I went and got bedding, and other extra stuff for my dorm! Yay! So exciting.

True Post #1

Hopefully you've made it through the introduction (I think it posts these on the page in order of most recently published, so you may want to take the time to scroll down a bit and check out 'New Beginnings').

As you probably know, this summer, I have working at Sonic Drive-In. The plan was to work until the week before the big day; moving day.
Going off to college has always been my dream. Not attending college after high school never even crossed my mind. So after I was accepted in to my choice school, The University of Texas at Austin, my dream started becoming a reality. I received my acceptance letter in December, so it still didn't feel quite so 'real.' As boxes were crossed off on the calendar, my distant future was becoming..my closer future. Not what you were expecting? Me neither. Here I am, less than a week away from my check-in day, and it still seems so surreal.
Back to the Sonic story. Today was finally the day. Time to move you may be thinking, but that's not quite it. Actually, today was my last day of work. What exactly is the relevence of that? Well, it makes my college dream feel so much more...well, real.
Ok, I'm talking in circles. I've been dreaming of college for the last 6 years (at least) and now I'm leaving for college in 6 days.

Wow.
How Surreal.

New Beginnings

Wow..after becoming so myspace/facebook literate, I have become a complete stranger to Blogspot. This is actually my second blog. I was inspired to start a new one by Boog. He's all about Blogs. He made a good point when saying that to even log into Myspace, one is exposed to such..trash. Though he did not convince me to delete my page, it was a big reason for my descision to post on Blogspot as opposed to Myspace. As the description states, I would like to keep everyone back home up to date on my 'College Life.' Sure I'll come back and visist, but thinking of filling multiple people in on a whole months' happenings in a two day timespan gives me a headache.
Though I may choose to log into Myspace and risk seeing the trash that is available, there is no need in me sentencing you to the same. So, as I was checking out one of Boog's various site's, I was motivated.
I plan to TRY to give some sort of report at least three times a week while away at school. So as to avoid the two day cram on my visits. Make sense?
I guess you'll all know how many friends I make by the number of entries I post. The more the not so merrier in this case I'd say. Ha. Get it? Ok, maybe not so funny.

Well, this is the Introduction.

Welcome to The New Aventures of Meredith!