And Here are those pictures!

Time flies when you're having fun! I know that I left off with plans to go to rolloff farms, well we went. It was nothing special they didn't even have caramel apples! it was an outrage! That weekend we had a day off on friday for our fall break so we hung out and relaxed and it was really nice. I got a job on campus I get paid for planning events for Big Brother, Big Sister on campus. I'm really excited for this job because I get paid for doing things I was already doing. Last week Taylor Meske came and visited me and went to a concert. It was so great to have a friend up here and having the opportunity to share my new life with her. Then last weekend was parents weekend. It was so much fun, we went to the beach and ate good food and just spent some quality time together. It was the first time since I left the house that I got to spend an extended amount of time with my parents together. This week is the Halloween party for Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Tomorrow I get to meet my little sister which should be interesting I went to the elementary school yesterday to meet her counselor and learn about Rachels (the my little sister) past. This is such a good opportunity for my major in Social Work and to get experience with an emotionally disturbed child is exactly what I need.  The counselor also brought up a good point that starting with elementary aged children isn't as high risk as dealing with teenagers in the counseling field. This would give me a chance to ease into social working instead of jumping right into teenage girls dealing with boys and depression and everything else that happens in high school. That's about it for right now! Hope everybody is doing amazing. Talk to you soon! 29 days until I come home!

P.S. The pictures in the winter wear was on sunday when we heard that Colorado was getting snow, we were so homesick (even Amy, who's from colorado) we channeled ourselves to the weather. 

I felt like now was an appropriate time to fill in everybody about what's happening in my life this week...

Last week I had to chance to go back to colorado and visit, what an amazing time it was to be home and I realized while I was there I do not miss the wind one bit! I got to see the whole family except for Zach, Michelle and Coda, I was so happy to be home. But of course all good things must come to an end, and I had to head back to school and school work. 

This week every single one of my friends have started getting sick, including in another residence all a mono epidemic. We're all praying it doesn't reach Clark Hall (that's my dorm).  Anyways, Neil has been sick this whole week and last night he discovered that in my handy dandy first aid kit that my mom built be I had things that would make him feel better, such as nyquil and amoxycillin from africa. He took an amoxyicillan and today he actually feels better! Unfortunately, I am now learning what it feels like to play mommy to a sick child because now amy, my roommate has come down with a flu/cold. When I got home tonight she was already sick and in bed and when I asked her if she had taken anything she said all she had taken was vitamin C. So I gave her some nyquil and water and sent her to sleep. She's worried she has mono. Let's just hope I don't get sick for the weekend!

This weekend is our fall break and we're planning on going to the pumpkin patch on friday in celebration. It should be a lot of fun and I will have pictures to post from it. I hope everybody is doing great and I'll keep you updated. 

Sorry it's been a long time

It really has been a long time since I've said anything to you guys. Sorry, I was waiting to get some good pictures! Wow, a lot has been going on here on campus though. Last week I got the news that I was not elected Residence Hall President but also that I was elected freshman class representative, which is tied in with the student government (Pacific Undergrad Community Council, or PUCC) here on campus. I'm so excited to have been voted by my peers for this position even though the only other person running for the spot is my neighbor and there are some new found tensions. 

The highlight of my week last week was when my mommy came to visit me. It was so great to see a familiar face and spend time with people that aren't the one's you see everyday. We went to the Portland Market and also the Pikes Place Market. I was so happy to be able to take her up to Seattle because when I started my college search that was my first stop and I fell in love with the city. I'm so thankful that she came and I wish she could've stayed for weeks but she left and I'm so happy I got to see her. 

Last night, the FYS (freshman year seminar) classes had to go to Carmen, the opera downtown. Being the first opera I've even attended it was a truly enlightening experience, even though the opera was almost 4 hours long and never really developed a plot that's just my personal opinion. 

So there you have it, my life in a nut shell. Certainly exciting things have been happening here!

This weekend has gone by so quickly! I know I'm jumping the gun though and I know I need to talk about my week first. 

This week was fairly uneventful, I got really homesick for the first time and it was miserable. I worked through it though and I'm up and running again. Friday I had a meeting with the humanities director who is also the Big Brothers Big Sisters coordinator for Pacific and she's really excited to have me planning events for the kids. She's think movie nights (good thing I got netflix) I'm thinking like a christmas crafts day and corn maze day or pumpkin carving contest. Amy is excited to brainstorm with me. 

On the political front I have kind of cooled it with campaigning because I couldn't handle the mean hawaiians anymore. They are vicious and come in large numbers. A group of hawaiians even came to our door at midnight the other night just to tell us to stop being mean to their roommate. We have never even met them! We were kind of mad we had to wake up at midnight for that too. 

My RA, Akbar, has nominated me for PUCC (Pacific Undergrad Community Council) freshman representative too so now I'm waiting to see if I get to be apart of that too. It's a lot going on but I still have time to have fun with my friends I've made on my floor. We realized last night we hardly know anybody in other dorms. 

This weekend was a lot of fun. We went to a rubix cube party (though we didn't participate (these parties you wear a bunch of different colors and then try to leave only wearing one color. We like our clothes too much to give them away to strangers though)). Then on saturday night we went to seaside to roast marshmellows and have a group sing a long around the campfire. It was so cold but so much fun and really cool to sit by the ocean since I've never really done that.  So now it's sunday and we're trying to motivate ourselves to that last bit of homework but it's hard. I hope everybody is doing great. 

P.S. It still hasn't rained. :)

It still hasn't rained.

I thought I moved to Oregon to live in the rainy part of the United States... I still hasn't rained. It's really kind of aggravating. School is in full gear with already 4 papers to write and readings in every class it's good to have something to do though. 

This past weekend John came and visited and so Amy (my roommate) and I showed him around the harsh streets of forest grove and then took him to portland and then on sunday to seattle and went to the pikes place market and kurt cobains house. It was so great to have him here and it was so much fun.

Today I had an interview with Big Brothers Big Sisters, and friday I have a meeting to be the events coordinator for the events held on campus. I need to start brainstorming things I would want to do with a bunch of 4th and 5th graders. 

Elections for hall council are coming up and campaigning is in full bloom. It's a hard life to be a politician but at least all my friends are supporting me, like rehanging all the signs people rip down and such. 

It's dinner time here though so we're going to head down and have some tasty food! Hope everybody is great!

Love, Kenzie

So here I am...

So by mildly popular demand I've gotten a blog for everybody to read while I'm here at school. It's amazing to think that I've lived here almost two weeks and I'm still alive, I guess it's all the expert parenting I got. 

I guess I should start from when mom and dad left and we cried, and then my roommate and I cried and then we cried some more and by dinner time we were better. :) The first day of real classes was kind of tense, I woke up really early to make sure that I wouldn't miss my first 8 a.m. class. Luckily I have yet to miss any classes. 

The teachers here are really cool and like all professors they have stories and love to talk about themselves. My social problems prof taught at berkley, my humanities (of FYS first year seminar) prof speaks about the middle east on NPR. My principals of social work class prof is like 30 and she's already taught for A&M. It's really cool to be in the presence of teachers that are experts on what they teach and even write some of the rules themselves, many of them being published. 

So that's all I really have to say about learning so far, it's crazy I've never been to a first day of school and gotten so much homework. I think I'm managing pretty well so far. 

The food here is okay now that schools started it's a little better, we have a burrito bar that is a cheap knockoff of chipotle. We have a stirfry man and always pizza, salad, sandwich bar. Then it alternates from From Home which is like meatloaf of spare ribs for the Hawai'ians. I stay away from the grill but apparently they had wings the other night. mmm I miss wings. 

So now to the friends I guess... I have a really great group of friends, they are all pretty much people that live on my floor. I love my roommate Amy we're so great together and it's a huge relief to have her. Neil lives down the hall and Kelsi lives across the hall. Our neighbors are so loud and literally shakes our beds with there bass. Since apparently it doesn't rain in Oregon, we constantly have our windows open trying to cool down our room as much as possible. With this, we have learned to love how loud the people underneath us are too. We've met other people in our hall but nobody really around campus. 

I'm also running for president for our hall and planning on starting campaigning today. (yay!)

I guess in other news I have to do a community service project for my Social Principals class and I'm thinking about volunteering at the Washing County Juveinile department. 

I hope every body is doing great and I would love to hear from anybody.