Last night, I visited Eileen and Gannett, who are subletting two rooms in a beautiful house sort of the on the border between South Philly and Center City. They went shopping with one of their housemates, Greg, and by the time I got there, had the grill fired up and vegetables chopped. Within minutes, I was eating a delicious hamburger topped with mango and avocado, and grilled pineapple and peppers. We were sitting out in their little backyard--the weather was beautiful! It was such a good night, and definitely was a good way to just relax.

I've been running around like a crazy person lately, interning, taking classes, making dinner, and stuff like that. I've also been trying to work out everything with Granada; there are about a billion forms. If you're in the same boat with finals or AP exams or graduation parties, I recommend you barbecue with some friends. Definite destresser!

I must also apologize for the lack of pictures. My camera has met its demise, but I'll be getting another one soon!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, there goes sophomore year!

Moving out was sort of stressful. My roommates and I ended up being very late with our checkout times. We had way too much stuff to deal with, I guess is the bottom line. I was supposed to drive Eileen to Trenton to catch a train, but we were way late for that. I also couldn't fit all my stuff in my car, so I left it in my friend Steve's room (He got to stay late because he's an RA), and picked it up the next day (with chocolate chip cookies in hand to thank him for letting my copious amounts of stuff take over his room).

I've spent the last couple days sleeping and hanging out with my high school friends, basically. It's a good start to summer! Tomorrow I start my Junior Internship (a requirement for the major). I'll be working at a wedding planning agency about fifteen minutes from my house. I'm also taking Public Speaking on Monday and Wednesday nights. I'll be moving to my new apartment in South Philly on June 1, so that's pretty exciting!

So there wasn't that much of a break before my internship and class start, but I think that's okay. I'd probably get bored if I wasn't busy enough!

I'm really looking forward to (slash am really terrified and nervous and overwhelmed about) the end of the summer, when I leave for Granada! I'll be spending the fall semester there.

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 4:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So last night we decided to have a science night? No, really. We did. We're not normally that scholarly. Several people presented on different topics.

Mike D and Max had a great binder of data that they called an "anthropologic study." One graph was about the positive correlation between the amount of time Amanda Bynes portrays a man in a movie and the amount that N403 (me and my roommates) enjoy the movie. Now, this isn't entirely fair, because I am the only one of my roommates (maybe Amanda is with me) who truly appreciates the glory that is the movie "She's The Man."

"She's The Man" trailer! Watch and enjoy!

Their last graph showed the percentage of N403 (again, me and my roommates) leaving the country next semester and then the percentage of Mike D and Max are going to miss N403...both 100%. A little sad!

And here's a group picture!

Eileen, Steve, Pete, Me, Brad, Amanda, Gannett, Max, Emily, and Mike D

The rest of my life is spent in packing, studying for finals, getting stuff together for studying in Granada, hoping my internship for this summer gets approved, and sort of panicking because I lost my flash drive that has a pretty important powerpoint presentation on it. Oh well! I think it's actually in the School of Tourism's Career Development office... Hopefully I'll find it on Monday.

Until then! I will pack and probably watch "She's the Man" because I've been thinking about it so much in the last couple minutes. Though I think I have watched it five times in the last week.
Enjoy your weekends!

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 9:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I found out I got into a study abroad program in Granada this coming fall! I'm super pumped! I'll be taking a ton of Spanish classes, and I think I'll just about finish my Spanish minor, which is exciting.

Granada!

My roommates and some of my friends are leaving, too: Eileen and Amanda are going to Rome (with Cindy and Danielle), Gannett to Ghana, Emily to Italy and then London (along with Beth and Emilie), my other friend Emily is going to Puerto Rico, and Kate to somewhere outside of London. Brahm is trying to go to Amsterdam. My friend Steve probably won't be here when we all get back because he's planning on going to Rome next spring.

It's a little weird. Most of my little core group won't exist at Temple for a semester. This is also the last year we're eligible to live in a residence hall, and so next year we won't be back in our unified little "Hey I can walk down the hallway to see you!" type world.

I think I'm excited though. New experiences, more opportunities to explore the city, more chances to get involved in different things. Right now everything is just a little overwhelming-- the copious amounts of group projects, studying for macro and stat (which I'm not sure I'll ever really understand), and finishing up end of the year club responsibilities (today I have to train the new Social Events Chair for Honors Activities Board). Not to mention end of the year celebrations!

Here's a picture from our costume-ish party last weekend. Amanda was Bret Michaels, Eileen was something beautiful, and I was the sun.

Posted by Nikki Gleason at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)