345 Coffee Shop: Open for Business

It seems as if I have opened my very own little coffee shop out of my dorm room. Now, I do not drink coffee. I've tried it a few times but am unable to stomach the taste. I've had good and bad responses from this. The good: 'That's great, that way you can't get addicted to it and there's more for me!' and the bad: 'What? You don't like coffee? How do you survive?' As to how my little coffee shop came to be, that's another story.

For my birthday, my parents wanted to give me a true princess gift: something that was absolutely unnecessary yet would be a convenience. Enter Keurig Coffee Maker. The fancy Keurig machines are sweeping offices across the nation--and college dorm rooms-- to provide quick and easy access to coffee at the click of inserting a K-cup and the push of the brew button.

As I sit here typing and drinking my English Breakfast Tea, I can tell you that the machine does not only make coffee but makes all sorts of hot drinks. All you need is the specific K-cup for the drink you want. They are all available online and most are spectacular. My Keurig was bought knowing that I would only be drinking hot chocolate (dark, milk, and white) and tea hence the 'princess gift'. Now, note that I am not complaing. I absolutely love my Keurig coffeemaker!

However, when I opened the box for the Keurig, there were six boxes worth of sample K-cups and guess what? All of them were caffeinated coffee! From the purchase of a second Keurig machine made by my brother and I for my parent's anniversary, I have their sample boxes since my Dad only drinks decaf and my mother, tea. So here I sit, the fanciest contraption currently out on the market on my shelf and over sixty K-cups for coffee. What do I do? Share with my fellow dorm-mates, of course!

I made the offer to all my friends and to the freshmen living in my section that if they want coffee in the mornings that I have 8:30am classes MWF and would be glad to supply them if they brought their own mugs. All I do is write "Coffee's hot!" on my white board. As such, I have three regular coffee drinkers who stop by at different times during the day to get something hot to drink. Slowly but surely, my stockpile of undrinkable (to my eyes) coffee is being drunk by people who enjoy it. I can't believe it has worked out so wonderfully! Once I run out of coffee, I'll give the girls the website to order more of their favorite and tell them that they can store their K-cups under my futon and can have coffee whenever they want!

Got to love my Pdub girls! I know I'll be refilling the water a lot come winter time. Bring it on, South Bend! I have Keurig on my side!

Back Home Under the Dome

I'm all settled in back at Notre Dame and having a blast doing First Year Orientation or, as we like to call it, Frosh-O. We have eighty-seven new freshmen in Pasquerilla West and they are all awesome! Frosh-O is probably one of the best events that Notre Dame has and I have absolutely loved being on staff for it.

The first day of Frosh-O consisted of moving all the girls in. All of the 'Wild, Wild Pasquerilla West's' Sheriffs had sore arms from lugging so many boxes up the stairs. Luckily, I was able to consistently get elevator duty although another staffer and I were beasts putting up modular furniture on the second floor. The parents were surprised at our hidden strength. I told them our enthusiasm for the new freshmen was putting strength into our limbs and making us superwomen. I do love hyperboles.

Last Friday night was the night for sisterhood. We started at an 8pm meeting with our sections and doing some fun activities. Since PW's theme this year is the 'Wild, Wild Pasquerilla West' they painted burlap sacks with their roommates. Once they dry, the girls can use them as room flags or door mats! I was actually kind of jealous. I want a fancy doormat! While they were painting away, I learned most of my section's girls' names. As I am naturally inept when it comes to remembering names, I was thrilled when I got 90% of them right.

Slowly but surely, I'm getting more and more names down and loving being back under the dome.

Peace, love, Dub!

Has it already been a year?

Lo and behold, the cliche has proved itself true. Freshman year flew by faster than I could blink! Finals, packing, and saying goodbye has consumed my life this week! The frantic exchanging of skype names as a car is honking in the PW circle as well as tearful long goodbyes between close friends fill the halls. I am torn: as excited as I am to go home and see my family and friends, I am not ready to leave my home under the Dome. But, on the bright side, I'm only a freshman (a sophomore now!) so I've still got three more years left at Notre Dame.

This summer is going to be super busy for me. I've got plenty of things to keep me going! After a week or two of time to sleep and leave my room only for food, I am going to be shadowing my primary care physician who I have been seeing ever since I moved to Memphis. I can't wait to learn about her practice!

The most exciting thing that I'll be doing this summer is traveling to Rajasthan, India to teach students up to the 12th grade US History and English pronunciation. Essentially, I'm going there to expose them to American culture and be a poster child! I am so thrilled! I already have my flights planned out and I'll be starting my application for my visa once I finish this post. There is internet at the school so I will continue to post throughout my trip. The posts that I write while in India will also appear on The Hub. Keep an eye out for those!

With that, I have some more packing to do before my parents arrive in a few minutes to pick me up! The pictures of the Dome in the spring were taken by a friend of mine named Matt McCurdy. Kudos to him on his excellent photography! God bless and safe travels to everyone who is headed home from school or traveling elsewhere!

Tunnels under Notre Dame

Ever wonder why it looks like a random patch of grass has been plowed of snow during the winter on campus? That pathway across North Quad, or the one between Flanner and Grace? All those spots around campus are actually tunnels! Students on campus have an opportunity to take a tour of these tunnels and two sections in PW did just that. Read on for some of the interesting facts you never knew about the tunnel system under Notre Dame!

First and foremost, the tunnels under campus are HOT! Walking through the tunnels felt like a sauna, although it wouldn't quite fit the 'purifying' aspect of a true sauna. These tunnels are filled with pipes and more pipes carrying water and steam throughout campus. They were never meant for students to use to go to class during winter. They maintain an average of one hundred degrees fahrenheit no matter the weather outside. Imagine walking into that with all of your winter gear on. No thank you!

On campus, our air conditioning is a bit different than most places. Usually, air is cooled and then blown out of the conditioner to provide, you guessed it, cool air. However, at ND, the plant chills large amounts of water which are pumped to campus (not through the tunnels). The chilled water is funneled through a radiator-like system and air is blown through the bars to provide cool air. Now you would think that the powerplant uses more steam and energy to heat us up during the cold South Bend winters but actually, it goes through more steam in the summer to provide cooling!

Last year, around November, there was an electrical fire inside the tunnels near the LaFortune student center with no known cause. LaFun was closed for nearly two days and smelled like smoke for weeks! They were forced to leave the doors to the building open to try and air it out so it was definitely a few cold weeks to study in LaFortune that year!

If you are a senior at our Lady's university, going on the tunnel tour sponsored by the staff at the power plant is more beneficial than for the common student. Only during the tour during Senior week, you are allowed to sign the tunnel walls at specific points along the tour. As we walked through the tunnels, once we got our minds off the heat, it was super cool to be able to see all of the seniors who had been here before us.

A little bit of trivia to finish us off: back in the 80's there was a man, a previous employee of the university utility staff, who really wanted to hear a Presidential speech that was occurring in the JACC. Having his handy-dandy key to the tunnels, he decided to traverse underground to the JACC so that he could listen. Little did he know, when he opened up the hatch to step into the JACC, the secret service men were waiting for him! Needless to say, he enjoyed the company of our wonderful secret service men until the President's plane was airborne.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed these fun facts about the tunnels under Notre Dame. High fives to all of the great workers who keep water flowing for our showers and heat for those cold winter nights.

New Directions

Well hello again! Yes, yes, I know it has been too long but I have returned! Who knew that having a Calculus and Organic Chemistry exam would drive one to blogging. Perhaps because blogging is a wonderful tool for procrastination? There are so many options for procrastination, even for blogging itself. But I digress.

You may notice some changes. You probably should have; they are just a teensie bit obvious. As I am officially a science major with a minor in anthropology, our title has been changed appropriately. Also, I felt like the previous background was a bit too...well, daisy-ish. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much of a springtime feel up in the cold midwest! Although in the past week, we've had some wonderful weather so my goal is to keep the background bright but a bit more sophisticated.

A new opportunity has come to my attention today, The Hub. It is similar to a self-sustaining blogosphere, but with a focus on academics and life at Notre Dame. There are posts about proper e-mail etiquette, student research, study abroad experiences and much more. I am in the process of writing up a post on how, as a freshman, I came to decide my major. Keep an eye out for that soon! And this time, I actually mean soon. I promise!

Also, as one of the new liturgical commissioners for my dorm, Pasquerilla West, the work has already begun! We've got plans to beautify our bush in front of the dorm - I promise it has liturgical significance! - as well as start holding Divine Mercy Chaplets every week.

What do you think a good dorm liturgical event would be?

With that, I'm off to go beat procrastination with a stick and try and get some homework done. In laymen's terms, I'm going to dinner.

Long Time No....See?

There are lots of things to talk about today! It has been a busy few weeks! However, before I go into recap mode, the top news of the hour: as a sophomore, I got a single room for next year! How amazing is that? My would-be roommate was also able to hop up onto my room pick number and get the last single. The both of us are sad that we won't be rooming together, yet we are thrilled to have singles! I think I've just about exhausted my exclamation point quota for the post. Yay!!!! There we go, all better now.

Now, I'll attempt to focus...keyword: attempt. By now all of the midterms for this semester are through; I had my last one, calculus, on Tuesday. While I could be happier with my results, they turned out well enough. There is room for improvement that I plan to jump on!

Spring break was last week and it was wonderful. You would think that a week of time to chill would serve as an excellent prerequisite for a blog post, but surprisingly it didn't. A magnificent excess of quality television that lasted until 6am one night was particularly spectacular, though it did have repercussions for my sleep patterns. You notice I say quality television? Just to be clear -- I didn't spend time watching paid programming; Hulu was a good friend of mine last week.

I hate to leave you hanging but I'll have another post up soon with the rest of the news from your very own melodramatic double major. I just don't seem to be able to focus as I am still inwardly 'squee'-ing over my room for next year!