So now I am back in C-bus after a very eventful spring break. I like to think that I covered the bases on my trip: a visit to UF, 5 days in Daytona Beach, a day at Magic Kingdom, and even had some time left over to spend with my family. As you can imagine, I am exhausted. Whew.

In a nutshell, spring break was a blast. As I mentioned before, I went down with 13 people from my floor in Smith Hall and we all stayed at the same hotel. When we arrived, everyone from the Florida schools was leaving, so the main spring break festivities were over. But this was fine because all we wanted to do was lay out by the pool and chill. For the most part all we did was spend time at the beach/pool and go dancing at night...yeah even I got my groove on. After the beach, a few friends came home with me to Orlando and we went to Disney and saw "I Love You, Man." If you haven't seen it yet, please do, it's hilarious.

So now that I am back at school, life could not possibly be anymore stressful. As a part of the University Host Program, we have to all prepare for GoBuckeye Day, which is the most important day for incoming freshman. There are supposed to be about 800 students (with their parents) all scattered around campus looking for their desired colleges and events related. I'm really looking forward to meeting incoming freshman and sharing my passion for this school. Then I have to work a ton at the front desk of Smith to make up for all of the money spent over break, and finally I have to find a job for the summer and a place to stay in Columbus. To clarify, I am trying to stay in Columbus to work towards my residency, which would ultimately bring down my tuition costs. Overall, I am really looking forward to working as a Host. When my parents asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I told then that anything that involves Ohio State. I know that sounds ridiculous, but I could honestly work the rest of my life trying to sell this place to incoming students and trying to share my experiences. (Imagine, I've only been here one year, I can't imagine how I'll feel after three more years--oh boy!)

And now to make finish my perspectives on Ohio State I thought I would just hit you all with some quick facts about OSU:

19th of all universities

Offer over 170 majors

400,000+ living alumni (great connections)

Mascot: Brutus Buckeye

Colors: Scarlet and Grey

OSU is solid in every field, especially Natural Sciences, Engineering, Business, Arts & Sciences, and Medicine

Go Bucks!

Kenny Chesney- There Goes My Life

Posted by Dare_to_Explore at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FINALS, FINALS, FINALS!
It is such a glorious feeling to be done with exams and to finally put an end to the late night cram sessions and diet of vitamin water and Swedish fish. To be honest, my workload for this exam week wasn’t as bad as everyone else: I only had two exams and both of them were on the same day. I know it’s crazy, out of four classes, I only had two exams. Well English’s final was a HUGE paper worth like 45 percent of our grade and my Freshman Seminar did not have one. By the way, I cannot remember if I explained what a FS is, but it’s a class that OSU offers for freshman on stuff that is actually interesting. I mean don’t get me wrong, physics and mathematics are a blast, but it doesn’t compare with reading tabloids and discussing them in class (that was the premise of my entire class- I know, awesome!) But anyways, I feel like I did OK. Math sucked as always and Bio was pretty easy. Hopefully I did Ok.
So now onto the awesome part of my blog:

As I type, I am sitting in an airport, once again, waiting for my plane to come so I can go back to Florida and take in the sun. It is now officially spring break! Yeahhhhhhhhh! This is going to be a blast. For the first time ever, I am going to do the whole spring break thing, you know like sitting on the beach with your best buds for days without a care in the world. It’s funny; about 15 people from my dorm floor and myself have all booked rooms in the same hotel in Daytona Beach, Fl. So instead of getting away from all the craziness that I experience everyday with these people, I now get the chance to celebrate spring break with them as well. It is going to be awesome. Just five days on the beach, getting a tan, and having nothing to do. This trip is long overdue.
And now onto the second part of my “questions about OSU” segment. Last time I covered size and where the best place to live is (being very biased). So now I have decided to talk about the most important aspect of any transition from home: the food. How good is the food at The Ohio State University? On a letter grade scale, I would give it a B-. But on the scale for typical types of food at college, I would give it an A. Whatever you like, we have it: there’s pasta, organic food, pizza, Chinese food, paninis, subs, etc. The only reason why I feel that it OSU is slacking is because there is no place to get a good cheeseburger. There are like 5 pizza joints on this campus, a Chipotle, and a lot of fast food, but not a good place to get a nice burger and fries (I’m not talking about the fast food version, just the campus style burgers. But if you prefer a subtler approach like pizza and a coke (or “pop”) then you’re in heaven. Even if you ever get tired of the traditional campus food style, OSU offers meals at The Blackwell and The Viewpoint, two upscale restaurants where you can get a steak, vegetable, and an unbelievable dessert for only 3 swipes (meal swipes). In a nutshell, there is a lot to eat here and there is no reason why you should ever go hungry.
Hope everyone has a great week and of course, Go Bucks!

Dave Matthews Band- Satellite

Posted by Dare_to_Explore at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So as you all could have guessed, it is time to focus again, which means that it is slowly becoming finals week. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh not again!! But the best part about this one is thinking about what comes after the exams: home and spring break- oh yeah.

Speaking of spring break, we have had the most amazing weather for the past few days here. I can't remember if it was last Thursday or Friday but all of a sudden it seemed as if someone hit a switch and it became 68 and sunny. It was unbelievable. Everyone was out on the Oval playing frisbee, baseball, football or just goofing around. The weirdest thing is that this weather feels a lot better than the hot days I'm used to in Florida because I have nothing to look forward to. In other words, since I suffered 4 months of gruesome winter cold, this warmth is like my saving grace. Hopefully it never goes away.

So I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I am now a University Host and am loving every moment of it. There is nothing better than talking about what makes OSU better than any other university out there and I feel as I could major in being a buckeye. The training for this job is interesting: I had to take another campus tour and shadow the whole overview process. Basically, I had to watch the whole slideshow about OSU's academics, community life, traditions, and why I should come here, even though I am already a current student. There were many times when I connected with the presentation, such as the ones about out-of-state perspective and tuition costs, and this made me remember what I am here to do: get an education. Then the dagger--the speaker discussed the pride of the Buckeye family and showed Script Ohio and everyone in the 'Shoe screaming. Ahh pure bliss... there is no sight better in the whole world. Well at least in Ohio.

Now as promised, I am going to review some stuff that perspective students or admitted students may have concerns about when deciding on if he or she should come to Ohio State. One of my biggest concerns was size and, "am I going to get lost?"

Depending on where you live your first year (North, South, or West Campus) you will become accustomed to that area and all of the important buildings surrounding it such as classes and places to eat. For me personally, I live on South campus (Smith Hall) and I have centered everything around my building and made a map based on landmarks. For example, I live near Drinko Hall, which is the college of law, and right next to the new union, the south oval, and Jesse Owens South (a south campus gym). This way has helped me out a ton when I come back from class and see 4 identical towers, knowing one them is my home- Smith. The first two weeks of school help you out a ton when it comes to locating things, it really did for me. During the first week of class, there are university workers that set up tents full of food, drinks, and maps, and help you find your bearings and your way to class. Honestly, I must have been to these tents at least 2 times a day- no joke. The one thing that our president E. Gordon Gee strongly believes is that " you can make a large campus smaller but you can't make a small campus bigger." There is so much to do on this campus that if you wanted, you could find something to do everyday at all of them (North, South, West). Even though it appears intimidating, it's very easy to get accustomed to this place to the point where it slowly becomes your home.

I hope this clarified a little concern. Have a great day and of course, GO BUCKS!!

Marc Anthony- Preciosa

Posted by Dare_to_Explore at 9:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)