This weekend I traveled to Hershey, PA for the 46th Annual Pennsylania Circle K District Convention. Circle K is a truly remarkable international service organization for college students. If you're in Key Club in your high school, Circle K is that on a college level. I really strongly recommend you get involved with a Circle K when you get to school! Check the PA District out here: www.pacirclek.org

But anyway! So hundreds of Circle K'ers gathered this weekend to see friends, go through workshops and training, and install a new district board, meaning statewide officers. I had an amazing time. It was such an empowering feeling knowing that everyone there was working to change the world and make positive differences. We had a really successful year, so it was nice to celebrate that.

Our Immediate Past District Governor, Kady, had all almost three hundred of us light candles, as a way to demonstrate how special and powerful working together can be. It was beautiful. No, really it was.

On a less cheesy note, because we were in Hershey, we totally had to visit Hershey's Chocolate World! The tour there was free, so that was fantastic. They take you through the whole process of making chocolate, from beans to bars, if you will. There are three singing cows that provide the soundtrack. And you get free candy afterwards. Glorious!

If you watched Project Runway this season, you might remember the episode where they went to the Hershey's store in Times Square in New York, and made dresses out of those materials? Remember that? Well, anyway, the dresses were on display in Chocolate World! And that was very cool!

Kit, Chris, Rami, Jillian, Christian!

Elisa, Ricky, Victorya, Sweet Pea, Kevin!

Lastly, and randomly, my roommates and I like to color:

Emily's 'family' portrait: Eileen, Emily, me, and Gannett

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Tonight I went with my roommate Gannett and our friends Ian and Brahm to see our friend, whom I call Mikey G, perform at his senior recital. He plays guitar, and his performance was absolutely amazing. He finished with two original pieces: the first was called "Chillin' in the Freezer," because he's a big fan of both the word and the action "chillin'," and the freezer is obviously the best place to carry out that activity. And the second featured numerous solos, trumpet, guitar, tenor saxophone, bass, and piano. It was an enveloping crescendo of music that was at the same time was calming and chill. This fancy guitar solo arrangement came during this Beatles medley, and he was doing all sort of other flowing parts underneath it...Way to go, dude. It was glorious.

I've been busy this week: Sunday was Easter, and my uncle, aunt, and two cousins came to visit. On Monday, my friends and I thought it was very necessary to watch the Michael Jordan/Bugs Bunny classic, "Space Jam". On Tuesday I finished my five page spanish essay and stat homework that ended up being due on Friday, not Wednesday. Tonight was Mikey G's thing. Tomorrow I have a meeting at a possible venue for the end of the year ball that I'm helping to plan for the Honors Program. The last venue we visited was the Philadelphia Zoo! It was super exciting because after our tour we got to stick around and visit the animals:

That's my roommate/my Social Events co-Chair, Emily and a beautiful black panther.

And that's me by a mural of my favorite animal, a hippo.

And on Friday, I'm headed to Hershey, for Circle K District Convention, a statewide gathering for a community service club that I'm in. I'll be there all weekend.

It's crazy how fast everything is going. Once you get back from Spring Break, everything is definitely a whirl!

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I started saying "what's poppin'" in greeting well before I had heard the "Lil Mama" song. Then people started responding with "my lip gloss," and then I sort of figured out that it seemed like I was walking around pretending I was Lil Mama, which is really not the case. But anyway...

My name is Nikki, as you might have read from that nice little bio. It's short for "Nicola," not "Nicole," in case you were wondering. I'm a sophomore Tourism and Hospitality Management major/Spanish minor, and I really am loving every second of it. I came to Temple as a Broadcast Journalism major...that lasted all of two weeks before I realized that I wasn't passionate about it. Luckily for me, my advisors were able to deal with my "What am I going to do with the rest of my life!?" freakout (yeah, yeah, it was premature), and I love my new place in the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.

But I do other stuff too! I'm part of the Honors program here, and am on the Activities Board for it. My official title is "Social Events Co-Chair" and right now we're in the middle of planning a tea tasting party, a 'Remember your Childhood' Day with PB and Js and a Disney movie, and our End of the Year ball. I'm also the Secretary of TU Circle K, a community service club. Any Key Clubbers out there? Well, Circle K is the college level of that.

I also really like to read. Currently, it's "Naked" by David Sedaris. It's hilarious. I collect spoons, too. My most recent is from Oregon-- I spent spring break there visiting a couple of my closest friends from high school. I enjoy cups of tea, the beach, visiting the hippos and big turtles at the zoo, and dangly earrings as well.

That's me in Oregon!

Thanks for reading my fun introduction! I'm sure I'll ramble about something else soon :)

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