It's All Over!

Welp, there it is. College. Done. I finished my last final about an hour ago. Called my parents to tell them the news. And it looks like I will be graduating!! Haha, was there ever any doubt?!? It's a bit surreal to think that my 4 years here are just 5 days away from being over... I don't want to dwell on it too much cuz I may start crying! This week should be fun filled. It's officially Senior Week. Tomorrow is our cuise on Lake George and a clambake. Tonight I've been invited to a party at the President's house (not the White House) and then we have Karakoe, Thursday I have a job interview and then my friends and I are having a last get together with the Seniors at my house, Friday we have "backyard games" with faculty and administrators, Saturday is an awards ceremony, and then *tear* graduation at the Times Union Center dowtnown on Sunday morning.

I'll keep you posted on how the interview goes. Keep your fingers crossed! I've already reeived 2 job offers, but not quite for what I want so I'm hoping this is the one! Anyways, I know a lot of you still reading this have decided to come to Siena and that is Awesome!!!! I remember what it feels like to be in those shoes and I'm so excited for all of you! Good luck as you finish the school year. I will try to come blog one more time before all is said and done! See you soon!

The Bottom of the 9th

As it stands, I only have two more classes and three exams until my junior year at Siena comes to a close. Once again it has been an exciting, sometimes stressful, and always fun year. As the semester reaches its end, there are still a few more things in store for me. On Tuesday I have three different events to go to, a barbecue put on by the political science society which will be joined by all of the faculty. It should be a great time and serve to facilitate interaction between faculty and students. Just after that, the campus will be bidding farewell to our Chaplain Fr. Bill Beaudin, as he takes a six-month sabbatical to study at Boston College. Fr. Bill is one of those amazing individuals who truly makes the Siena community so special, and we will eagerly await his return from BC. Then after that, the Honors Program will be holding a dinner for students who will be authoring a thesis of the course of next year. The events will be a great way to cap off the year!

SienaFest and almost Senior Week!

Hey everyone!

I don't want to duplicate Josh's blog too much, but as mentioned we had SienaFest this weekend and it was an absolute BLAST! The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time outside listening to music, participating in the events, and hanging with friends! It's definitely going to be one of the things I miss the most about this place.

So there is less than one week of classes which is crazy. My college career is almost over :( This week is pretty much just wrapping everything up. On Friday I will be inducted into the Philosophy National Honor Society and also present my project titled "Ireland: From Celtic Tradition to Celtic Tiger, A Newer Younger Face" at Siena's Academic Celebration. I will say my posterboard looks pretty stellar haha!

Coming up in 2 weeks is Senior Week!! Finals are still going on here and there, but the week before graduation there are a ton of things going on for Seniors both on campus and off. A lot of us will be going up to Lake George for a little cruise, there are activities on campus, a trip to Foxwoods in CT, and a ton onf other things. It's like SienaFest for Seniors (without the concert!). We all can't wait, but again its one of those sad times too when you think about it too much. I have to be an adult in the real world soon....bummer. Welp, I'm a little hungry so I'm going to grab some Lunch-to-Go. See you soon! P.S. IT'S TIME TO MAKE THAT DECISION!!!!! (good luck!)

Siena Fest!....

Hey everyone!....I had the most unbelievable weekend of my college life. I don't know where to begin. The weather first of all was unbelievable which contributed to the enjoyment of being outside for the weekend. Campus seemed to just come alive. Everyone was running around in their summer attire, barbeques were everywhere on campus, Padua beach and Siena beach was packed with people laying out catching some rays, tossing footballs or Frisbees. Aside from the big concert with Second Hand Serenade and Red Jump Suit Apparatus, some of the students who were part of bands on campus were playing little shows on Friday. Activities were everywhere you looked on campus. A minicarnival was in the arc on Saturday with a jumpy tent and an eating contest. The baseball team had a game so a bunch of my friends and I went to that. The townhouses were also a blast! Everyone was outside grilling, chillen outside the houses in lawn chairs chit chatting, and hitting around the beach ball. It got a little crazy, but it was all in good fun. I was so sad to have the weekend come to an end. Siena Fest was the greatest time ever, no joke! There was something going on at all times on campus and it seemed like the beginning of the year, I met so many more new people it was insane. I felt like I hardly knew anyone at times. People were crawling out the wood works, but I didn’t mind, I love meeting new people. I hate that this year is almost over. It’s going to be sad to see some of the seniors leave, although I know I'll probably run into them next year at some point or another. After this week exams begin and then its back to Vermont for me. Back to the family and the working world! Oyyyyyyyy…..

Take it easy ya'll....Josh Baillargeon

The end of the semester has arrived...

Wow, a week and a half and finals are here! I can't believe it! I have no idea where this semester has gone! Come to think of it, I have no idea where this past year has gone! My junior year of college is almost over... which means I'll be returning in the Fall as a Senior! It certainly doesn't feel like I've spent three years here at Siena. I can't even begin to tell you how fast time flies when you're in college.

So, between now and the end of the semester, there is so much to be done. As vice-president of the club Read for the Stars, we work with kids in the inner school system. We're in the process of trying to plan an end of the year pizza party for all the kids and volunteers! Also, Bhangra is coming to an end. We've got two more performances before the semester ends on campus and tomorrow, we're all going out to dinner to celebrate a great semester together.

I'm also in the process of finalizing my topic for my honors thesis which I will be writing next year. I'm focusing on positive youth development and doing a case study into a camp I attend every summer for high school kids. To add to that, I'm in the middle of writing a term paper for my Honors Ethics class. I'ts a 25 page paper on the morality of genocide. I've been working on it for about a month now.

Anyway, I should probably get started on that long list of things I've got to do.
Until next time,
Indira

Only 17 More Days!

Ciao Tutti!
Its a-mazing how quickly time flys! I can't believe i've been living in Italy for 4 months now..so wild. It has been an awesome experience. Anyway, let me take some time to tell you what i've been up to. I havent posted a blog in a while because i have been so busy with so many things. Ok lets start at easter break. For easter we had 4 days off so my friends and I went down to southern Italy to visit our cousins for the easter holiday. Then we went over to the Amalfi Coast which is absolutely beautiful. It was such an awesome vacation.




Anyways so now we've been back here in Siena for a while and have been keeping busy. The semester is winding down so everyone is busy with exams and final projects. For most of the classes here the final assignment is a 10 page research paper in italian. I'm sure i've mentioned this before. But anyways, we're all working very hard. We all have different levels of Italian so for some its more difficult than others. Last week our school took us on an excursion to the famous Perugina chocolate factory. Perugina is the company where they make those famous Baci chocolates with the love quotes inside. It was so cool to see this huge factory..and..eat the chocolate.



THEN after the chocolate factory they took us over to Assisi. As i'm sure you know, Assisi is a very important city for Siena College students because thats where St. Francis was from. The day we we're there was actually the same day as an international conference of all of the Friars of the Franciscan order so, our own Br. Brian Belanger (Siena College Director of International Programs) met us there!! He took us all around Assisi and gave us an awesome tour. It was so cool to be there becuase there is so much important heritage...esp for us Siena College kids.




Allora (as they say here in Italy for "okay then") Its time to get back to work. Oh and i forgot to say that next weekend my friends and I are going to Athens, Greece for the weekend. Its going to be like our last trip and i've always wanted to go to Greece so im SO excited.

Ciao Ciao!

Gregorio

Senior Formal, SienaFest, and Winding Down

Hey guys! Now that the nice weather is here I hope everyone is getting outside and enjoying themselves. I know I sure am, but I'm trying very hard to combat Senioritis!!! This past weekend, Seniors attended a formal at a local banquet facility. It was an absolute blast. The students who coordinated it did a great job and the hundreds of us who went had an awesome time! But as fun as it was, I'm not sure if it will be able to compare to SienaFest!

For those of you who don't know, SienaFest is our Spring weekend here on campus where we have concerts, carnival events, outdoor movies, give aways, and an overall great atmosphere on campus. This year's theme is Go Big or Go Home. You know which one I'll be doing. We are getting the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Secondhand Serenade to play. I will be hosting the gross eating competition called "Would You Eat This?", and I'm also in a battle of the bands called Musical Mayhem- the winning band gets to open for RJA and SS!!

Anyways it's going to be a big week but I still have some work to do. I have a project on the cultural changes in Ireland over the last century, a philosophy paper on a person's ability to know anything, a presentation in my business class and more. Wish me luck! See you soon!

Oneonta Conference

Hello all. Well, this morning I was at the Oneonta Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. I was there to present a paper I had written last semester for my Philosophy of Love class. I, along with several other students across the country, was able to present my work to the conference. Students came all the way from Illinois, Missouri, and Maryland. My paper concerned the opera Tristan and Isolde (you might be familiar with the recently-made film adaptation, which really does not do the story justice), and the relationship between love and death. It was definitely a worthwhile experience and I was happy to be able to get some feedback about my own particular views.

In other news I have been selected as a Siena Summer Legal Fellow for 2009. This is an exciting opportunity for me, considering how I want to pursue a career in law. I have been placed at the Feerick Center for Social Justice and Disupte Resolution at Fordham Law school in Manhattan. There, I will engage in legal research and work with real cases with real consequences. The Summer Legal Fellows program was one of the opportunities that originally attracted me to Siena; according to Dr. Cutler, the pre-law advisor here, it is the only program of its kind at the undergraduate level. Needless to say, I am definitely looking forward to it.

Spring!

Hey everyone!...It's spring time. Finally! Well at least in NY it seems that way. Back home in Vermont we still have some snow banks and in the mountains there are about 5 to 8 inches. Got to love living in the Northeast Kingdom. At Siena though, I'm loving the warm weather, cool breeze and the longer days. It's class during the day, street hockey in the afternoon, and homework on the evenings. Everyone is out and about. All the girls are laying out on the Siena beach aka the lawn in front of the library, and the boys are throw the football and baseball around or playing some hoops. I love spring, but I’m finding it so much harder to get my work done. Professors are cautioning us to get our papers out of the way. Warmer weather is coming our way, Siena Fest is next weekend and Finals are the week after. It's time to get papers done now or its going to come crunch time and I'm going to have a million papers and presentations to do in one night! Yikes...I'm scared to even think about exams. Even though I only have two: Calculus and Chemistry, I'm going to find myself stuck in the library or in the lounge until the early hours of the morning, cramming as much information as I can. Chemistry doesn't bother me as much as Calculus does, but we'll cross those bridges when they come. For now it’s off to play in the sun!

Take care...Josh Baillargeon

From Gettysburg to Mechanicville

Well, for those of you who read my last blog, let me just say my trip to the Gettysburg was amazing. The battlefield today is covered with monuments most of which would be meaningless to the average tourist. Luckily, we Siena students were accompanied by John Vallely, professor of military history here at Siena. Mr. Vallely did an excellent job of making the monuments "come alive" through the stories behind them. On the right is my favorite monument that I saw; it is a memorial to all the North Carolinians who fought at Gettysburg. The monument, which depicts five men forever marching toward Union lines, is meant to evoke the valor of those men who engaged in Pickett's Charge.

Although the trip was very enjoyable, I have to admit that I was exhausted upon my return, and was glad to have a short week of class at Siena. I am now recharging my batteries at home in Mechanicville, happily sleeping away my vacation! Happy Easter!

Until Next Time,

Mike DiSiena