3 Days of Class Left!

Last week flew by and this week is going to fly by just as fast! Well hopefully! Last week I had my Organizational Behavior presentation. My group killed our presentation, we were one of the best in the class I must say. Today I had a presentation in Data Decision and Analysis. It went smoothly but it was kind of awkward because all of the groups came to a consensus outside of class that we all didn't really know what to present. My group was the first one to present today so I guess that was good and bad. Good in being that there were no expectations, bad in that we couldn't change our presentation if we missed something. I have three more days of class and then this semester is over, THANK GOD! This has been by far the worst semester of my college career. Probably because I was so unmotivated at the beginning and switched my major.

On the sports front, Notre Dame's coach Charlie Weis was let go after finishing the season 6-6. Really disappointing because 1) I had much higher expectations for Weis and Notre Dame and 2) Jimmy Clausen declared for the NFL Draft rather than playing in his senior season. Notre Dame also declined a bowl game this season which I thought was unfortunate. Clausen will be one of the top quarterbacks in this years draft, along with Tim Tebow of Florida, Colt McCoy of Texas, and Sam Bradford of Oklahoma.

My UConn Huskies received a bowl game however against South Carolina in the PapaJohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Alabama. UConn had a strong season ending 7-5 but with multiple close losses. They lost to undefeated Cincinnati by 2, Pittsburgh by 3, West Virginia by 4, and North Carolina by 2. Either way, I'm really excited to watch UConn in a bowl game this January.

UConn basketball is coming along, although I have a feeling its not going to be the season I want it to be. They just played Harvard which should have been a blow out and barely won, 79-73. They play Kentucky next which is going to be a tough game. At 6-1 their only loss is to Duke, but it wasn't even a close game and so far UConn has only played easy opponents, besides Duke. Kentucky will definitely test their defense and scoring might be tough. They lost so many players last year that this season might be a rebuilding season, but in UConn Country, we're always looking for a National Championship.

With winter break almost here, I've been thinking about a second job. I won't be working in the admissions office over break, so it will just be Banana Republic and I'm not getting too many hours there. I've been looking for jobs, but right now everything is seasonal and I really want to find a part time job that won't end in January.

Now I need to find something to wear to Winter Ball on Thursday. A Black Tie affair that I probably won't be wearing black to.

-CG

Black Friday and College Sports

Hello All!

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey! I've been back in Boston for a few days now, but I got to spend some time at home earlier in the week. I went home Tuesday night and played poker with all my friends like we used to in high school. It was great catching up with all the guys and telling stories. Wednesday I played golf with two of my teammates from high school which was great. Later that night I went to Mohegan Sun with my friend Lindsay which was amazing. Thursday morning I drove back to Boston to have Thanksgiving at my cousin's house with my family. I definitely ate my weight in turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, apple pie, and ice cream. Better start going to the gym again!

Now the craziness starts. At 11 PM I decided to go to the Wrentham Outlets that opened at midnight for some shopping. I went with my friend TJ and it turned into a 5 hour trip. We left Boston at 11:45 and didn't get to the outlets until 2:30. It's usually a 45 minute drive, but the highway was a parking lot and trying to find a parking spot at the outlets took forever. There were so many people there that it was almost impossible to walk. Even though it was crazy, I still got some good deals, I bought new snowboarding pants and a jacket from Oakley that normally would have cost a few hundred dollars but I only paid $130. I didn't get home until about 4:30 and passed out right when I walked in the door. Then Friday I worked 1-8 at Banana Republic. For never working on Black Friday or working retail before, I really had no idea what to expect. I've always worked in the restaurant industry which isn't the same on Black Friday as a retail store. Banana was definitely packed when I came in at 1. It was non-stop, running to the back for more clothes, running to and from the changing rooms with different sizes, talking to multiple customers at once, and trying to keep my part of the store neat. I was exhausted after working, but unfortunately I had to work again Saturday at 8 am. Luckily it wasn't as busy that early in the morning, so I took it easy and when I got home, pretty much watched movies and sports all day.

Friday my UConn Huskies lost to Duke in the NIT Tip Off finals in New York. I was pretty upset with the game because I felt the officiating was definitely one-sided in favor of Duke. I know that's not an excuse by any means, but its tough when calls are blatently going in Duke's favor.

Currently I'm watching the Notre Dame-Stanford game. Unfortunately it looks like this will be Charlie Weis' last game as Notre Dame's head coach. When I first heard Charlie Weis was going to become the coach of Notre Dame 4 years ago, I was stoked! It was just what Notre Dame needed and Weis was successful at first getting them to a few bowl games. However the past few years have been rough and it looks like Notre Dame will be under a new coach next year.

Next Saturday will be the Florida-Alabama game in the SEC title matchup. I really am hoping for the upset but I feel Tim Tebow is just too strong of a player to let that happen. Either way, its going to be a great game that I can't wait for.

That's it for now, I'll blog ya later!

-CG

New England - Golf and Snowboarding

Alright so I'm blogging from my apartment, 1) because I'm in the middle of packing all my laundry into trash bags so my Mom can do it for me when I get home, 2) because I'm super excited that my plans have changed slightly, and 3) because I'm going to try and start blogging more often, (I'm secretly an A list celebrity).

So like I said, my plans changed. I'm going home to play golf with two of my high school teammates at Foxwoods Resort and Casino, at their Lake of Isles course.

Then I'm probably going to spend some time at the Casino "catching up" with my friends. We've been playing golf together since we were like 8 so it'll be a good time. Then I believe I will be driving the 20 minutes inbetween Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun to go see some of my other friends that are spending the night at Mohegan. I have to say I'm partial to Mohegan, its definitely a much friendlier, bigger, and more fun casino than Foxwoods.

Then Thursday morning I will be coming back to Boston to have Thanksgiving at my cousin's house in Watertown (those plans didn't change). But Friday I have plans to go to Sunday River in Maine to go snowboarding. I'm pumped because I've had the itch to go to the mountain and I've never been this early in the season. Although leaving at 6 am to get there at 9 is going to be really unfortunate.


This morning was amazing in the fact that I got to sleep in! It was glorious, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I had breakfast with my friend Geralyn, last time I'd see her until after break which was nice. Then I went into the office to say goodbye to some last ambassadors and went home. I also got notice that I have to serve jury duty in January. I've decided that I'm going to postpone it because I don't want to miss class for jury duty, especially if I'm not getting paid. And although serving in a jury during an exciting case might be cool, the chances of me being assigned an exciting case are slim to none. So I rather wait for a time when I don't have class or work to serve my civic duties :).

Alright back to packing and cleaning my apartment before I hit the road for Connecticut.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all have a great holiday and eat lots of turkey!!

-CG-izzle

First Break of the Year!

I am officially on Thanksgiving break and it feels amazing! Although I am still here in Boston (and will be throughout break), I am done with classes. I do have my SU 101 section tonight at 4:00 but all I have to do is collect their final paper and eat pizza with my students. Doesn't sound too hard right? So this break will be the first real (not 3 day weekend) break from school. I'm definitely excited but also a little torn. I'm not going home to Connecticut for break because my cousins who live in Watertown (just outside the city) want to host Thanksgiving as their last Thanksgiving here on the East coast before moving back to California. I'm kind of happy to be staying in the city for Thanksgiving because I never have, but at the same time I'm going to miss going home a lot. I'll definitely be missing the hometown football game and tailgating with all my friends, meeting up with all my golf team friends at the local breakfast place, and seeing all my neighbors. I'm pretty sure I'm going to go home for a day or so, so I can atleast see everyone. I'm working black Friday at Banana Republic and I'm sort of afraid because I've never worked in retail before and black Friday is probably one of the worst if not the worst day to work.

This weekend we had an Ambassador get together at Kristin's apartment for a "Not Your Average Thanksgiving Dinner". There was so much food that I felt like I was Adam Richmond from Man vs. Food trying to accomplish the impossible. There was baked ziti, eggplant parm, garlic bread, sushi boat, mashed potatoes, salad, pizza dip, funfetti cake, cheesecake, pumpkin cheesecake, and assorted bakery goods. It was the most food in a college apartment at one time that I've ever seen. Here are some pictures from the night, there were thousands (yes thousands), but these are the elite:

(Me, John, Matt - chic as usual)

The Whole Family (minus TJ, Beckee, Julie, and Allison)

(The Fellas - minus TJ who was in San Diego)

The Ladies (minus Beckee who was in Chicago, Julie who with her sister, and Allison who was celebrating her roommate's birthday)

As you can see, we clean up pretty well! Speaking of cleaning up, Winter Ball is in a few weeks and I can't wait! It's at the State Street building in downtown crossing and its supposed to have one of the best views in the city. As well as Winter Ball, the ambassadors are having an ugly sweater party which will be fun as well! I need to find an ugly sweater though so when I go home at some point, I'll probably borrow one from my dad.

I know I haven't blogged in a while so I'm missing a lot of details about the past month or so, but I'm going to blog a lot while over break and Christmas break so don't worry, more blogs are coming!

Stay classy Boston!

-CG

Do What You Want In Life, Never Settle

So I'm halfway through my Junior year of college (although I wish I was a Freshman again), and I have had a quarter-life crisis. Unfortunately I have been really unmotivated in class lately and I have realized why. Currently I'm an accounting major with a minor in finance. The reason why I chose accounting going into college was because I took a few courses in high school and did extraordinarily well so I figured that would be a good field to major in. After my first few accounting classes last year, I was still really excited but this year after sitting through half a semester of two more accounting classes, I began to think maybe accounting isn't for me. After going to a few interviews for accounting internships, I started to seriously think of a change of major. This was a huge deal to me since I still want to graduate on time, but at the same time want to be doing something that makes me happy. After thinking about this for a while, I decided that I need to do something that works with people. Friends, family and co-workers have always told me I have great interpersonal skills and my personality would be wasted sitting behind a desk everyday crunching numbers. I never really thought much about it until now. I love speaking to students and being part of something that has an effect on students' lives. This made me really think about education. I never really thought about teaching because I knew their salaries were never comparable to an accountants, but after deeper thought, I realized I rather be happy with my job and get paid less, then dread going to work and hate life, even if it meant I would make more every year. The only problem with becoming a teacher is that I'm currently enrolled in the business school and if I were to switch majors now, I would be on track to graduate a year late. I could take an alternate route in getting accredited to become a teacher in a public school, but that would also take a long time and I would still be stuck with a bachelor's degree in business. This made me think of a few other options.

Being a Trustee Ambassador, I began to think about college recruiting and being a counselor. The good thing about being a college counselor is that I could be one with a business degree. Furthermore, I could get my Master's in higher education and/or college admission counseling. I definitely want to hold a Master's degree to help further my career, and I could definitely see me working in an admissions office for a while. This also made me think a little further in that I love working for Suffolk now, so hopefully someday there will be an open admission position that I could apply for. If I ever got the chance to work for Suffolk, I would definitely take it right away. But for now my plan is this:

- Graduate from Suffolk University with a bachelor's degree in Management.
(I'm switching to a management major because it's the best chance of me having the highest GPA possible, which will be crucial in applying to grad school)
-Find an open admissions position in a college/university in the Boston area
-Attend Graduate school for my Master's in Education
-Eventually work for Suffolk University

You're probably thinking that I'm crazy and you're totally correct, to a point. Being happy in life is something that I value and everyone should too. Working for an accounting firm day in and day out was not going to make me happy, even though I was good at it when I tried. But clearly I haven't been motivated lately to try and my grades have shown that. I think I'm doing the right thing now and I'm really excited.

Advice to prospective students/incoming Freshman:
-Don't feel like you have to choose a major right away, definitely pick a major that you know you want to be a part of
-Test out different fields of study you might be interested in
-Don't always think if you know what you want to do, you're all set, it may not end up that way
-Ask as many questions as possible about possible majors
-Do what makes you happy, don't let others tell you what to do

This has definitely been the most philosophical, indepth blog I've ever written.

-CG

Seasons Change and Life Moves On

The seasons are definitely changing here in Boston. I was driving in the suburbs with my roommate the other day and we were noticing how all the leaves were changing. I remember when my homework was to bring in different color leaves to glue to a piece of paper. I would give anything to have homework like that again. Living in downtown Boston sometimes makes you forget about fall because there just aren't enough trees around. I love fall, but it definitely makes me frustrated because I know winter is right around the corner.

So golf season has ended, it was a decent season. Unfortunately I had to miss my Conference Championship due to an admissions event, however playing at the cape was really fun this year. We had a great team at the cape, and even though the weather was really bad, we still had a lot of fun.

I have been extremely busy with school and work that I barely have time to breathe. My weekends have been packed with golf, work, and friends. Since turning 21, my bank account has been struggling big time. I'm beginning to think I need to pick up another job. My friend Nicole just started working at Banana Republic and told me they're still hiring so I might try for a job there. The nice thing is that you get 50% off anything you buy at Banana Republic or the Gap.

I finally traded in my BlackBerry for an iPhone this weekend. My roommate and I have been thinking about getting one for a while and this weekend we finally did it. We both left Verizon at the same time and joined AT&T. Not going to lie, for the money, the iPhone is the way to go. It's actually the same amount for a BlackBerry plan at Verizon than for an iPhone plan at AT&T. My roommate and I decided to get a family plan with AT&T (we said we were cousins) which made it cheaper for us each month. Since I got my iPhone on Sunday, I have not been able to put it down at all. I'm truely addicted to it already.

Celtics opening night tonight at 7 against the Cavs!

-CG

I'm Getting Old...

So I've been 21 for almost two months now, and I never realized until now that I'm getting old. I've been to a dozen 21st birthdays in the past few weeks and its made me realize, all my friends are getting older, which means I am. Scary.

My roommate turned 21 two days ago which has turned this week into quite the adventure. My friend Allison turned 21 last night. My best friend from home turned 21 two days ago as well, its crazy! Last night I went to the karaoke bar for Allison's birthday, I'm definitely not a good singer. But that's the point of karaoke right? I think its more fun when people aren't good at it rather than people being amazing singers intimidating everyone else.

I have an interview with Walter and Shuffain P.C. on Monday and I'm really nervous yet anxious at the same time. Funny how those two emotions always collide with each other. I'm definitely nervous because it's my first real interview for an accounting job, yet I'm kind of excited/anxious for it too.

The first golf tournament of the season is this weekend down in Connecticut. It's at the same course last year where our team did really well. I'm excited to go back home for the weekend, but unfortunately I won't be seeing any of my family. My dad is currently roadtripping it to the West coast. He left back in the end of September and won't be back until the end of October. Lucky him. My mom unfortunately doesn't have the time to come see me play so unfortunately no one will be following me on the course like usual. Oh well.

I just became a member of the zipcar community and it is awesome! Zipcars are cars you can rent by the hour or for the day and use them at your disposal. There are zipcars all over the city of Boston and all you do is pay a simple membership fee. So far I've only driven the BMW, (yeah that's right). I drove it to practice the other day because I couldn't make practice on time, and also to Sonic in Peabody. Yes there is a Sonic in New England. How crazy is that?? But zipcars are really convenient and even though I have my car parked in Watertown, it's a lot easier for me to use zipcars for small things here in the city.

Now I get to decorate the Welcome Center with Kristina for our fall events. Sorry Rach, you missed out! :)

-CG