Closing Blog

This semester has once again gone so fast, I cannot believe it is over. My junior year is on day away from being officially completed and I couldn't be more excited! As you have read, I will be studying abroad next semester and then I will be back on the Caldwell Campus for the last Spring semester of my undergraduate career, and also the last season that I will be competing on the Caldwell Softball Team. So many of my close friends are graduating and I know next year will not be the same without them. With the close of every year and every semester comes big changes. For me personally, these changes will hopefully be life changing. I am excited for what is to come in my life and the opportunities that will present themselves in the future.  I'm sure that I will not stop blogging, especially when I am over in Spain and then continuing on into my teaching career to learn about the new advances and gadgets in my field.  Thanks for following my blog!!

End of the semester

With the end of the semester just around the corner, there are many things to do and many dead lines to meet. Along with getting the last reports in on time and studying for finals, I am tying up the last loose ends for my trip to Spain. Once all my paper work is in, my next step is to take a trip to the Spanish Consulate in NYC to apply for my Visa. And the last thing to do is coordinate my flight to Spain with the rest of the college students from Minnesota that I will be studying with. After all that is done, I will be on my way to Spain on September 1st! I am so excited for this opportunity and cannot wait to leave. This will be an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget!

Regional Tournament 2012

The Caldwell Cougars have made the Regional tournament once again. Unfortunately, we did not do as well as we had hoped the previous weekend. Since we performed so well during the regular season, we have seeded 4th in the North East Region. Only 8 teams per region make this tournament and only 64 teams in the country are privileged enough to be playing this weekend. We are playing at Southern Connecticut State University. There are two brackets in the North East Region. The four teams in our region are Southern Connecticut, UMASS-Lowell, and Assumption College. The winner of this bracket goes on to play the winner of the other bracket the following weekend in a three-game series. We all hope that we can advance to the next round; the Super Regionals. GO COUGARS!

Softball Playoffs 2012

The regular season has come to a close. It was a short and quick one, but we got all of our games in. Our overall record was 37-12. We finished second in the CACC conference and ranked 5th in the Northeast Region. This is a great accomplishment for us especially with all the freshman on our team. They have really adapted and arose to the higher level of play. This upcoming weekend we are playing in the CACC conference tournament where we are ceded second. This is an advantage for us because we will be the Home team every game until we play the number one cede. Our goal this weekend is to win the Conference tournament. if we win we are automatically into the Regional Tournament the following weekend and we keep any other team in our conference from going too. However, our high ranking in the region as it is, will most likely carry us into the Regional Tournament even if we do not win this weekend. So from my stand point right now, I will have at least two more weeks of great softball before our season could come to an end. GO COUGARS!

Segovia, Spain

Today I have made my decision that I will b studying in Segovia Spain from September 2, 2012 until December 4th, 2012. I will live with a host family in Segovia. There are about 22 students from Bethel University and Concordia University going as well. I will take about three to four Spanish calsses along with an internship in a spanish speaking elementary school that will count for credits. When I arrive I will be immersed into an intense spanish review for the first week and a half before my classes begin. There are paid excursions I will be attending. They have four one day trips around Spain. There are also a few overnight trips. I will spend five days in Madrid and Sevilla. There is alos a four day trip to Barcelona. We have a nin day break in the middl of October, which is when I will go and visit one of my good friends who is living in Germany. I am so excited for this opportunity! One wekends I am free to travel around the country adn the other countries in Europe. The school also sets up a regular Spainsh speaking university students who is learning english with one of the students we are traveling with and we spend half the time speaking in English and half the time speaking in Spanish, where we correct eachothr grammatically and phonetically. This is a great opportunity to really master the language. I am so excited and cannot wait until I am on the plane to Spain!

Spain 2

I have been wanting to study abroad ever since I started college. Once I decided that my second major would be spanish, by goal was obviously Spain. I have been trying to go for the past two years, and now Caldwell finally has a couple of connections. I will not be going through Caldwell since they do not have s direct connection to a university in Spain, but both of these programs allow students from Caldwell to go through their program. The Segovia option is through  a school called Bethel. At this university, I would live with a host family and have an opportunity at an internship teaching english as a second language in an elementary school. The downside to this option is that in order to go with Bethel, I would have to sign an agreement and the agreement is a bit conservative and restrictive to say the least. My other option is in Grenada. Hre, I would live in a dorm with many other students from all over the world. One of my friends, Monica, who also attends Caldwell is in this program at this very moment. She is loving it and is traveling and seeing the country and learning the language. The plus to this option is that I know it is a good program and I will absolutely love it. My decison will come down to my preferance and where I feel more comfortable.