Minion Central

Howdy friends!! Here is a brief post about my theme for Term 01 at TIP! 

Despicable Me

So, what does this mean? Each RC needs to complete door decs and a bulletin board each term for the tipsters. So, I chose to go with Despicable Me as a theme since Despicable Me 2 is coming out in a few weeks and well, minions are adorable!

 So here is my minion! I needed to make 35 of these so it was exhausting to cut all of them out and then assemble all of the pieces together. But, they are precious. 

For my RC Group... their minions look similar to mine but I alternated the color for their names and added glitter glue to them so they are more fun! 

The girls love them! Even some of the parents commented and said they were really well done. I'm so happy that my hard work paid off and that the girls think they are adorable. 

Because lets be honest, minions are so freaking cute ;) 

So, here is a pic of my bulletin board! Sorry, for the poor picture quality! 

On the left side there is Tipster Information. This basically includes the daily schedule, rules, weekend events and basic information the Duke provided us! 

and the right side... is where the party is at! That is the Despicable Me side! At the top, there is a paper chain that is a countdown to DM2! -- 22 days for all of ya minions lovers! The rest of the board has little pictures from the movie, the DM2 soundtrack, some random trivia questions and facts! 

So, those are my door decs and bulletin board

for TIP Summer 2013 Term 01. Another Despicable Me

note (that I will be writing about this week) is my RC
Group's name is actually "Alex's Minions."

But, I will be putting up a pic of our mural when we finish it 

tonight and give a description! So look forward to that ;) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Howdy Y'all

Howdy Y'all! -- That feels so weird for me to say! But, I'm currently in Texas living the RA dream! I have been in Texas for a little over 2 days and I'm already in love. I love College Station and Texas A&M. I love how people talk and take the time to enjoy their meals. I love all the smiles and the traditions that encompass this university and Duke TIP. 

So a quick recap of the past couple of days: 

travel... Traveling to Texas A&M was a breeze! I had two flights to get me where I am which was a bit exhausting... for those of you who have been to the Dallas Airport walking to each gate is quite the workout. I ran into no issues traveling though. I am already getting pretty acquainted with College Station, they have literally every store imaginable here (random fact). 

new staff... The people are so awesome! I love the residential team and the academic team so much! All of us come from very diverse backgrounds and I feel like I can learn so much from them. We all hit it off really well too, which is definitely a bonus.

training... terrific! We have gone over the basic stuff like policy & action reports... we also went over "Day in the Life" which I will probably write about next week when I start living it. We have done tons of awesome icebreakers which... I'm definitely gonna bring back to the Mount because they are too awesome to not share--- and I'm a bit of an ice-breaker junky! 

food... dining services has been great! They have a pretty good & healthy variety and Texas A&M has SO many dining halls and options. The res. staff and I also went to a local Texas A&M hot spot called Happy Yogurt, where I tried my first boba shake. It has an interesting texture, but was seriously delicious! Like I want one right now.

living arrangements... Well, I'm living in Freshmen housing... but we have AC and the dorm facility is very nice. Below are some pictures of my room :) Oh... and for the past two days I have taken ice cold showers-- the hot water takes awhile to come on and I can't justify letting the water run for 20+ minutes just to have a hot shower. 

My own sink! I feel spoiled. But,
I'm still living with a community bathroom.
So, hello *howdy* shower shoes!

 

Last night we took a long walk to the Bonfire Memorial at Texas A&M. This was an incredible and sad experience. For the full story on why there is a memorial and the tragedy behind it... click here! 

So, there is a recap of my first couple of days here in Texas. I cannot wait to meet my RC Group and other Tipsters. As I sit here and type out this post I can't help but feel so blessed for this incredible opportunity. 

Oh and random connection: the grad student who told me to apply to Duke TIP when I went to Next GEN in Las Vegas back in March is actually my boss here. We didn't realize it until yesterday during an ice-breaker. How weird is that?

Stay beautiful readers! 

Beach Week Tradition

For the past 3 years I have gone to the Ocean City with my close friend Petra! It has kind of turned into a tradition of ours that I hope we continue for many years to come! I am so thankful to her parents who have trusted us enough to let us stay in their condo for a week each year. Some of my favorite memories have been made there.

This yearly beach week is always a blast and I have made so many fond memories which include the discovery of cranberry ginger ale, singing to Jimmy Buffet, making tons of delicious meals, and enjoying great company. 

Below is a brief recap of the past three years of great times in OC!

 Year 1: 2010

This was a spontaneous beach trip that covered a nice extended weekend in May!

Who Was There: Petra, Molly and I

What Did We Do: Lounged on the beach, played mini-golf, and board-walked it up! We had dinner at the Bayside Skillet and of course we had Dumser's.

Petra and I

This was a great trip! Some highlights included the discovery of my favorite soda... cranberry ginger ale. Also, the discovery that we all share an equal amount of love for The Sound of Music and enjoy singing the songs!

It was awesome getting closer with both Petra and Molly and in my opinion this trip definitely helped establish a stronger friendship for us all.

In this picture... Petra was dying Daniela's hair... and we were
all wearing matching Play It Safe t-shirts.

Play It Safe: is an OC initiative to keep seniors safe while
they are at beach week. They hosted tons of FREE and fun
events to keep students from drinking and making poor
decisions. Also, to help seniors avoid drinking and driving
they handed out free bus wristbands so that no one has
to get behind the wheel while under the influence! 

Year 2: 2011 {Senior Week}

Every year, thousands of seniors travel to OC to spend a week goin' crazy with their friends as one last hurrah of High School before they all say goodbye and head their separate ways... Although my friends and I didn't do what typical seniors do by *partying it up*, we still had a great time just being us.

Who Was There: Besides almost every senior from our High School and other friends... the people that stayed in the condo were- Petra, Dani, Daniela, Jenny, and I.

What Did We Do: We spent every day on the beach, hit the board walk up a couple times, played mini golf, visited friends in Bethany, had breakfast at the Bayside Skillet, went shopping at the Outlets, and road the OC bus up and down Coastal Highway visiting friends and spending way to much money at Candy Kitchen. We also went to a ton of Play it Safe events like: mini golf, beach volleyball, and free water park passes!

I never really appreciated how amazing this week was. It was nice hopping on the bus and seeing a friend from High School. There was something wonderfully simple in knowing that almost all of our graduating class was in one area... one last time.

I'm so thankful to have such a great group of girls to help bring a fabulous end to my High School career. We all still keep in touch and make time to see each other every time we are home on break. It is crazy how vastly different all of our lives are. We all went in different directions for college and it is comforting to know I have friends in many different places.

Year 3: 2012

To almost re-live the memories of Dani, Daniela, Petra, Jenny and I's Senior Week in 2011, we went up for a short OC trip in May.

It was the same group of girls and we continued our tradition of being on the beach and exploring Coastal Highway in the evenings.

It was hard to coordinate all of our different schedules so we weren't all there at the same time... but the time that did overlap was awesome!

So, to continue the tradition next week most of us will be reuniting in OC for a quick beach week! 

The timing couldn't have been better since I'm leaving for Texas in less then two weeks but, 

I'm so beyond excited to spend my last days in Maryland with these great gals. 

Pray for safe travels!