Sorry I have been MIA the last couple of weeks. My life has been crazy with classes, extracurriculars, and getting ready to go abroad.
That’s right! Next semester I will be in Nantes, France!!!
Nantes
Nantes is about two and a half hours away from Paris by train, and is the 6th largest city in France with almost 900,000 residents. As much as I would have loved to go to Paris, I chose to go to Nantes because the population of native English speakers is very small. This means that I will be forced to use French all of the time; if not in the city, then at home with my host family!
While there, I will be taking classes (en français, bien sur!) at the IES program center in the middle of the city. I applied for an internship to teach English au lycee to high school-aged students,so I might be doing that as well!
The main reason I am going abroad is because it is required for my studies. As a French education major, it is important that I have a solid background in French and authentic experiences to bring into my future classroom. Luckily, Hope and my program IES have been wonderful in helping me prepare for my trip. I went to a study abroad orientation with the 100 other students from Hope who will be abroad next semester, and have been in constant communication with my IES program representative for the past several months. The process has been long and somewhat stressful but well worth it. My forms are in, and I have my visa and plane ticket!
I will leave for France on January 7 and will return on May 11. During that time, I will be blogging and tweeting about my adventures, so check back for updates often! I can’t wait to fill you in on what I will be doing!
I cannot even believe that it is DECEMBER already! Where did the semester go??
It would be impossible for me to sum up three months in one blog post, so instead I will focus on some highlights!
My Field Placement
My education classes this semester required a field placement, which I completed at a local area high school in a French class. It was my first time in a high school placement and I initially I was really worried about whether or not the students would see me as an authority figure. My fears went away as soon as the they started asking me for help and called me “mademoiselle”. It was great to see the concepts I learned in my colleges class applied to a real high school classroom. It made me for the day when I will have my own classroom!
Orientation
I wrote a post about Orientation earlier in the semester, but I’m going to write about it again because it was seriously the best time. My semester would have completely different had I not done Orientation. I made several new friendships and have been able to maintain them. I’m so thankful for the great times we had together and so happy that we were able to put on a successful Orientation program for the freshmen and their families.
The 2013 Orientation Staff
Nykerk
Fall at Hope College would not be fall without Nykerk. The crazy 3 1/2 weeks of rehearsals are always worth it. Being a coach is much different than being a participant but is just as fun. It was awesome to make new friends, help Gabby create her speech, and of course win the cup!
What were some of the things you did this semester? Tell me on Twitter or in a comment!
It’s that time of the year again, FINALS WEEK! Firstly, I would like to welcome all of the freshmen to finals week. I just want to share some tips with all of you on how to survive this week. For those of you in high school, read this to prepare yourself! It’s never too early to start getting ready! Freshmen, you might find this useful as this is your first set of finals. Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors, I know you have been through finals at Hope before, but maybe you can learn something new. Well, here we go!
SLEEP SLEEP SLEEP:
Ok, so you might think I’m crazy, but sleep is so important during finals week. Without it, you won’t be able to retain anything you learned, and you will lose your focus easily. Not to mention you’ll be fatigued, then that could lead to less studying. Research shows that for optimal learning, you need a minimum of 9.25 hours of sleep each night. So, this means that if you sleep this long, the neuronal connections in your brain strengthen, which causes a retainment in learning! Cool, huh? Anyway, you should make sleep your priority. With enough sleep, you won’t need that coffee because you will have all the energy you need!
PRIORITIZE!
Obviously, we all have more than one exam (with the exception of a fewer people…). Prioritize your studying in accordance to difficulty, date, or both! In order to do this, you have to manage your time. Plan out your week, and in doing so, you’re setting it in stone (for yourself). If you follow your plan, you’d be surprised how effective it can be! For example, if you have a cumulative exam on Tuesday, but just an exam on new material on Monday, make sure you have been studying your exam for Tuesday, but make room for the new stuff too. Remember, you can’t remember an entire semester in a couple of days. Planning ahead and prioritizing work is KEY!
DE-STRESSING
Stress is super common during finals week. If you haven’t read about my stress blog post here! I’m just going to summarize a few points here. If you’re stressed, there is no way that what you are studying will retain. It is so important to give yourself breaks while studying. Splitting your study sessions are effective, and give your brain time to process the new information! EXERCISING is a great way to de-stress. You literally kill two birds with one stone in doing so. You are doing something healthy for your body, and you’ll feel great afterwards, so studying will be easier because you’ll have motivation! And exercising prevents you from getting sick, and this is something that happens to so many of us.
STAY HEALTHY!
Make sure you don’t compromise your health during finals week. If anything, you should be eating healthier! You’ll get more energy and you’re helping your body out. Eating healthy and staying active reduce your chances of getting sick, which will keep you focused for your studying and your exams!
In Conclusion…
I can guarantee you that if you take at least some of my advice, your finals week will get a little better. For those of you at Hope, or who have finals this week, GOOD LUCK! We can all get through this week. Study hard and take care of yourselves. Try your best, but remember, grades don’t define who YOU are! It’s your effort, dedication, and work ethic that define you! God bless, and I will post again soon! If you haven’t already, make sure to read some of my other posts during your study break and follow me on twitter!
P.S. If you are a student who applied to Hope and was accepted, CONGRATULATIONS! All of your hard work has paid off, and everyone at Hope is ready for you 🙂 I wish you luck in your college decision-making process!
For the past week, I’ve been consuming the life of study, study, studying, with a side of sleep and food. But because the quantities of sleep and food are more limited than I would like, I’ve had to turn to the “typical” college student’s go-to: caffeine. The more I can find it in coffee form, the better.
I’m not a typical caffeine consumer on a regular basis — I usually stick with tea. But I’ve found that once I start to feel a little bit burned-out on studying or a little bit drowsy, a tiny bit of caffeine refocuses my attention on my work and I find myself significantly more productive.
I do have to say, the “week before finals week” hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. With my class load this semester, I haven’t pull an “all-nighter,” as my classes do not call for that (we’ll see how it goes in the future, though!). As long as you study little by little each day the week before the test, you’ll be good to go by the final.
With only a few days left until the final exams begin, I do have to say I’m feeling prepared. I just keep my coffee mug at hand and my notebooks close beside me.
This has been my side motivation to make me giggle throughout the week.:) My study breaks typically contain Pinterest-related motivational quotes and jokes.
What’s your favorite caffeinated drink? Comment below or tweet at me @hopesophie17! Or, if you have questions or comments, please feel free to send me an email at sophie.guetzko@hope.edu.
I LOVE winter and Christmas, except maybe the part where it’s freezing cold all the time. I think winter is so beautiful and I just love everything about the Christmas season. Here are some of my favorite parts!
Christmas Songs
I love Christmas carols and just most songs about winter and stuff in general. They make me so happy! Here is a playlist of a few of my favorites!
Giving Gifts
In the past couple years, I’ve realized how much fun it really is to give gifts to people. I think I get more excited for the recipients to open their presents than they do sometimes. So many people have such an awesome giving spirit during this busy time of year. Check out what awesome things the Durfee Hall men are doing right now!
Celebrating Jesus
I have always loved celebrating Advent and singing Christmas carols in church. I think it’s so cool and such a great way to relax from how busy we are and remember what the Christmas season is really about. I always like to read the Christmas story in Luke around this time of year, and I especially love Mary’s song, the Magnificat, which we actually talked about in Chapel this week. She is so joyful and thankful, even though she is about to face a lot of adversity in her community, and I think that’s so cool. I love to read the story of Jesus’ birth. Which brings me to my next point…
Charlie Brown Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas!
Linus has always been my favorite… But the little guy just really melts my heart in this one when he reads the Christmas story for everyone.
Family Time
My brothers and I at church on the Sunday before Christmas. I guess this might have been a few years ago.
I love having my whole family home for Christmas. It’s always so relaxed and fun and we have so many traditions (like watching A Christmas Story for like 24 hours straight…!).
I could name so many more, but these are just a few of my favorite parts! What do you love about winter and Christmas? Let me know by leaving a comment, emailing me at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu or tweeting @hopekathryn17!
“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
I have neglected to tell you about my fabulous summer right here in Holland, Michigan. As a third year researcher at Hope, this summer was my ultimate time to grow in the lab. I was blessed to receive the Wolterink Prize in Biology in the Spring of 2013 for an upperclassman student that shows promise in research, funding me for a summer research position here at Hope. I had already applied to do research with Dr. Fraley (my lab mentor) for the summer, so it was perfect! He was happy that I was paid for, and I was happy that I for sure got a spot!
I was joined by three other students (all current seniors) in the lab for the summer, and boy did we have a blast. Working on multiple studies, we focused on progressing our projects and delving into the research we are not able to progress much on during the academic year. We worked on GnIH rat studies, cannulizing different locations of the hypothalamus to determine what the affect of GnIH is on feeding behaviors, behavioral duck studies, and a brand new water study on ducks that is technically TOP SECRET.
When thinking about research, it’s really a two way street. What can the student do for the mentor (of course- putting in the work and learning the material) but also what the mentor can do for the student. Teaching a scientist how to do science is NOT EASY. As new members come into our lab, veteran members are constantly learning how to best teach and mentor the new members. I give Dr. Fraley such credit for doing this 365 days a year for consistently new lab members.
Also, mentors give you CONNECTIONS. One of the most powerful things Dr. Fraley has done for us (other than teaching us science, and how to conduct science), is bringing us to national conferences and introducing us to elite members of the scientific community.
We had two AWESOME opportunities this summer to really get to know some of the top members in the poultry field. The first event was a research conference at Maple Leaf Farms Co. to introduce the executives at MLF to the research and potential research that can be done to improve the poultry industry and standards they use daily.
Alexis Presenting for Maple Leaf Farms
Two of our lab members presented posters at MLF, and two of us did 15 minute presentations on our research. I happened to give a 15 minute presentation and BOY was a I NERVOUS. Standing in front of experts in your field and presenting on your findings is quite intimidating. However, the crowd was very receptive, interested, and asked GREAT questions that really helped me improve my research goals and define the next steps in my project.
We met an incredible amount of scientists, PhD and Masters Students and it was a great time to learn not only about other research but about possible careers in the sciences. You can read about graduate schools and opportunities there, but hearing it first-hand from students attending these schools is really a great resource.
2 generations of Poultry Scientists
At both conferences, we got to meet up with our “Lab Uncle and cousins,” Dr. Fraley’s colleague Dr. Michael Lilburn and his students. It was fun to pretend they were our “Lab Family.”
The Fraley Lab with Grandma!
We also met Dr. Fraley’s lab mentor and his wife! We had been anticipating meeting our “grandma and grandpa” for weeks before our conferences. When our “lab grandma” approached, she really surprised us by screaming, “ITS ME!!! GRANDMA!!!!” We definitely got a kick out of that.
Of course our days weren’t only spent inside learning science and talking to colleagues. We got to do some site-seeing, mostly in Old Town San Diego. It was fantastic! With little shops, restaurants and performers, it was a great way to experience San Diego for the first time.
Sightseeing in San Diego Old TownDr. Mamduh Sifri who joined us both in Indiana and San Diego
While at the national conference, Chelsea Campbell and I presented yet again. This time, we did a 10 minute presentation with 5 minutes for questions from the audience. At the end of the conference, we got awards for our quality presentations. We were even featured on KnowHope later that week!
Fabulous Four In San Diego
Though the summer was fun, of course, time goes on. Soon, I’ll fill you in on the Van Andel Institute conference we attended with new members of our lab. I am really proud of our new members who are really acclimating well and making great advances on our projects.
The Fraley Lab at VAI for WMRUGS 2013
If you have any questions about summer research, or research at Hope, feel free to email me at amanda.porter@hope.edu or tweet me @hopeamanda15.
Usually around Thanksgiving Break, I’m rushing to finish my homework and trying to go to earlier classes so I can be home as soon as possible. This year was a bit different. Yes, I still rushed to get my homework done so I didn’t have to do anything in LAS VEGAS! This year for Thanksgiving, I had the great opportunity to go Las Vegas. One of my aunts turned 60 just this past week, so my cousin wanted to do something grand. Her solution = Las Vegas. To make the whole vacation even better, my aunt didn’t know that I was coming, until I surprised her at McCarran International Airport in Vegas! She was shocked to say the least. Ok, I am going to give you the rundown on my vacation! Hope you enjoy it!
DAY 1
So on Thanksgiving Day, I woke up at 2:30 AM. You heard me right. Don’t worry though, I went to bed really early so I wouldn’t be exhausted. So after getting ready an hour later, I said goodbye to Michigan. I drove to Gerald R. Ford International Airport at 3:30 AM. I brought one of my best buddies with me so he could drive my car back. Joey, if you’re reading this, I just want to tell you that I am eternally grateful. At around 4:15 AM, I arrived at the airport. Then, I did the usual. Check-in, security, wait, board, then TAKE OFF at 5:30 AM! My itinerary was ridiculous, but the cheapest flight is what I wanted. I went to Chicago, followed by Houston, then Las Vegas. Here are some pictures during my two flights!
Here is the city of Chicago early morning.Flying over the Sierra Nevada mountains!
After arriving at the airport, I only had to wait a half hour at the gate my family was arriving through. Then, BAM. SURPRISE! From this point, my vacation began! We got our rental car, and the first stop we made is to Jollibee, a Filipino fast food chain. You all have no idea how important this was to me. The last time I ate Jollibee was this past summer in the Philippines. I never knew when I would eat it again. I am so thankful for the strong Filipino community in Las Vegas.
Here is the “Ronald McDonald” of my favorite Filipino fast food chain restaurant!
Ok anyways, after that, we checked into our hotel!!!! Guess where? (It starts with a “B!”). After settling in and taking some time to relax, we hit the famous Las Vegas Strip. We went to the Monte Carlo, Aria, New York New York, Paris, Bellagio, Paris, and Caesar’s Palace. Check out my slideshow below to see some pictures!
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Because I was up at 2:30 in the morning, I hit the hay pretty early, and that was at 9:00 PM. Not to mention that Nevada is in the Pacific Time Zone, which meant I gained an extra three hours to my day, added to my exhaustion. I had to get a great sleep because I had to be rested for Black Friday shopping!
DAY 2
I had set my alarm for 5:00 AM. so we could be walking around shopping at 6:00 AM. Usually when I am home for Thanksgiving, I don’t sleep and stay up with my cousins and hit the shops at midnight! This year was an exception. We went to the Premium Las Vegas Outlets North, which had a bunch of stores, and was I thankful! I got some pretty sweet deals at Nike, Lacoste, and Tommy Hilfiger. I got A LOT of my Christmas shopping done! Of course after shopping was eating and resting. I also worked out around noon. I can’t break my cycle! The athletic area was phenomenal to say the least! So after my workout and rest, we walked to The Venetian for a gondola ride. IT WAS SO COOL. The Venetian made it seem like I was in Rome! Las Vegas actually made me feel like I was in so many countries at once! At Caesar’s Palace, I felt like I was in Greece. At The Venetian and The Bellagio, I felt like I was in Italy. Paris made me feel like I was in… PARIS!
Here I am smiling at The Venetian before the gondola!
After The Venetian, we went back to our hotel to rest (of course). We took a lot of naps just because we had really busy days! My family and I got spiffied up and we went to Todd English’s OLiVES restaurant at The Bellagio! It was super fancy, so I’m glad I dressed up for the occasion. I had the Sea Scallops, and boy were they the best sea scallops I’ve ever had! They are my favorite seafood. After dinner, we relaxed some more.
At around 9:15 PM, we headed our way to the Cirque du Soleil “O” theater at The Bellagio! “O” is an aquatic acrobatic performance put on by Cirque du Soleil. Have you heard of them? Even if the answer to the last question was “YES,” watch this YouTube clip of it. I WAS IN AWE THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE SHOW.
After the show, it was bedtime. We had so much planned for day 3 that we needed sleep!
DAY 3
Ok, you know the drill. Wake up, eat, shower, and then get going on our day. Today was another special day because we went to the Hoover Dam near Boulder City, Nevada! Boulder City was only about 45 minutes away from The Strip, so why wouldn’t you go to the Hoover Dam? After the drive, we went sightseeing. I’ve only seen the Hoover Dam in pictures, so seeing it in real life, TWO THUMBS UP! Here is the dam’s little “synopsis.”
It was built in 1931 and finished in 1935. It is located on the Colorado River near the border of Nevada and Arizona. Once the dam was completed, the Colorado River backed up (of course) creating Lake Meade (which is technically called a reservoir). Then in 2010, the Hoover Dam Memorial Bridge was completed, which was another link between Nevada and Arizona. Look at my slideshow below to see my pictures!
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After visiting Hoover Dam, we ate at a Filipino restaurant, shopped some more, and then relaxed of course. After dinner, around 6:15 PM, we headed to The Monte Carlo for the last performance of the vacation, THE BLUE MAN GROUP! I was so excited for this. I’ve heard so many great things about them, but have never seen them! Their show was simply amazing. What a great experience!
After the show, it was back to our hotel to pack and get ready for our long day of travel the following day.
DAY 4
Yes, this is a long post. But at least it was exciting, right!? Anyways, this was the shortest day we had. It was simple; wake up at 3:00 AM, check-out, return our rental car, then fly home. This itinerary was much more simple. Las Vegas – Chicago – Grand Rapids. I did have one big bummer though. My flight for Grand Rapids was delayed for an hour. Then another, and another, and another. You read that right. I was delayed in O’Hare for 4 hours! Myself, along with the rest of the plane were so upset. All we wanted to do was be home! United Airlines truly felt awful about our delay, so they reimbursed the passengers on my flight with money (which we deserved, and was a professional gesture!).
Las Vegas was a great place to visit, but I would never want to live there, too crazy! I just wanted to be home on Sunday. When I did get back, my awesome friend Betsy picked me up from the airport, then it was time for HOPE! Followed by studying and seeing my friends!
It is now the last week of class. It is crazy to think about, but it’s reality. I just have to finish this week strong, and get a head start on my studying. Next week, it’s CHRISTMAS BREAK! Stay tuned for another post this week!
Thanks for reading all! Make sure to follow me on twitter!
There’s something about being a college student that has taken me from being half-full thankful to overflowing thankful. Maybe it’s the friends I’ve made, the professors I’ve had, or the fact that my family is so far away (which makes seeing them that much more important!) Regardless, I know my experience as a college student has contributed to the gratitude I feel for my parents for providing me with the education and the opportunities Hope provides.
Of course, I’m partially biased here — but I’m in love with everything Hope has to offer. The helpfulness of the professors, the difficulty of classes, friendships; and beyond academics, the most important part of me — my faith — have contributed to finding my passion and purpose in life in the short amount of time I’ve been here.
Although being thankful is naturally amplified at Thanksgiving, I’m thankful year-round for my family. This weekend, they came up to visit me here at Hope and we made the half-hour trek up to the Grand Rapids area to stay with my aunt, uncle, and cousins for the weekend! We had a blast making cookies, eating delicious food, and taking goofy pictures. I also learned how to knit and knitted a whole scarf in one day!
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A common theme of my brother, Harrison, and I being together is taking an unbelievable amount of embarrassing “selfies.” I’ve picked out a couple to share. 🙂
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Time spent with my family means the most to me. I thought that maybe I would wish I was home with them instead, but I realized that it doesn’t matter where we are as long as we’re together. Cliché, perhaps, but it’s for real. Regardless of where we are, it’s always fun to catch up with what’s happening in our lives.
What are you thankful for? Comment below or tweet at me @hopesophie17. Want to know more about what’s it’s like to be an out-of-state student or just want to hear more about life at Hope? Send me an email at sophie.guetzko@hope.edu.
Happy Holidays, everyone!!! Thanksgiving is finally here which means two things: food and family. I hope everyone is home and enjoying their short break. As for me, I was not able to go home, but I got the next best thing. My brother and two closest friends came to Michigan and are staying in Holland with me! Although it’s pretty dead around here, we still managed to find some really fun things to do.
For starters, Melissa and Alex were the first to arrive, so I gave them a tour of campus since they have never been here before. Once we finished the tour, we just relaxed for a while since we were pretty wiped out from walking all over the place. Then we made a nice and simple spaghetti dinner and caught up for a while. It was so nice to just sit around and talk about home and things that I can’t talk about with my Midwestern friends. Next, we made our way down to PeachWave and enjoyed some frozen yogurt. Don’t you agree that eating frozen dessert is the best choice when it is literally freezing outside? Even though the yogurt just made us colder, it was well worth it. After that, we literally just sat around and watched six episodes of Modern Family until my brother arrived on the train. I’ve never seen that show but it is our mission to finish watching the first season. When Brian arrived we continued to watch and ate cookies. We were basically couch potatoes, but we deserved it after these stressful past few weeks!
Melissa and Alex hanging around the anchorMelissa and Alex having some fun with the statues
On Thanksgiving Day, we started cooking everything around 10 AM and went for a nice walk in the snow while things were cooking. I’m slowly growing to enjoy the snow now that I’m around it more but I still am annoyed when the darn wind blows it in my face! Anyway, after our nice walk we watched more Modern Family and showed each other some fun YouTube videos and just enjoyed being inside after being in the cold for a while. When everything was done cooking, I was surprised how well everything turned out! I mean, I made a jello salad and cooked a pre-cooked turkey so that was pretty idiot-proof, but Melissa was the real cook! She made a complicated cranberry sauce and a sweet potato salad that was absolutely delicious. Of course, we took pictures of everything we made because we felt like adults by making our first Thanksgiving dinner ever without our parents around to tell us how to do everything. I’d say it was quite a success! We decided we should probably start digesting before moving on to dessert so we watched a Tina Fey movie called Admission. In addition, to pass the time we played some pretty intense rounds of CatchPhrase and then ate some ice cream. At this point it was about 1 AM so we decided to call it quits and get some sleep.
Our very successful Thanksgiving dinner!
Today we all woke up and had some leftover turkey and basically had Thanksgiving round two! Instead of bumming around again, we played an epic game of Telephone Pictionary with another friend that came over. This game is literally one of my favorites because it turns out hilarious whenever you play it. Anyway, today we are planning on seeing Thor and then going out to dinner and maybe making cookies and hanging with other friends of mine that are around. Besides that, I’m not sure what is in store for us but it will be a blast regardless. It’s times like these that I really grow to appreciate the people in my life when things become stressful and I need an outlet. I am truly thankful and blessed to have such awesome people surrounding me when things are tough but also to be a reminder of home when none of us are able to take the long journey there. I hope everyone is having a great break and enjoying the rest of their time off!
Before you read this post, you should probably start this video and listen to the gloriousness that is this song. Okay, thanks.
Alright, now that you’ve pressed play, feel free to read!
On Tuesday of this week, President Knapp invited everyone to come over and stand outside of his house while they lit up a big tree in his yard for Christmas.
Before the tree was lit……And after!
Then we sang Christmas carols, and on the last song, “Silent Night”, we all held candles! It was really cool! The Knapps also had snacks for us all and invited students to hang out on the patio behind their house. It was so awesome to be a part of the first tree lighting at Hope. It’s going to be such a cool tradition in years to come! Here are a few more pictures from the event!
President Knapp getting ready to light the tree!Plugging in the tree!My candle during Silent Night!My friends Jess, Kelly, Lauren, Grace, and I!
Thanks for reading! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are enjoying a great start to the Christmas season! Make sure to leave a comment, send me an email at kathryn.krieger@hope.edu, or tweet @hopekathryn17! I’d love to hear from you!
The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.
