Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Everybody Chillin' at the Holiday Inn

Due to Berkeley's HUGE surge in enrollment this quarter, the dorms were unexpectedly overbooked! All the dorm rooms are full so...where did the rest of the students go? They're living at the Holiday Inn! Pretty nuts, huh? I've talked to a few kids living at the hotel and they're said its fine. There's a shuttle that takes them to and from school so transportation isn't a problem.

Imagine living in a Holiday Inn? Man, that sounds like fun.

The whole Holiday Inn situation reminds me of a song. Hmm. (Click here to find out which song.) Haha.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Hello to the new and the old!

Hello everybody! I'm on my first break of my first day of school. I just felt like writing in here really quickly and updating everyone on things.

Here's the first shocker of the day. The entire front parking lot was full by 9am! If that's not a sign of how desperately we need the new parking lot in the back, then I don't know what is! Luckily, I took the shuttle bus this morning. :-) So, if you really don't want to deal with the parking and you live pretty close to the Paterson Train Station, take the shuttle. Its free, its quick and it's ALWAYS on time.

Along with the full parking lot came a full campus. Summer semester was kind of slow around here. There were maybe 4 or 5 people in the quad during the day. This afternoon, the quad was FULL of familiar faces and freshmen trying to find their way around. Im so glad to see old friends who left for summer break. I've also met a couple of freshmen and transfer students. So far, everyone seems to be pretty cool.

There's tons more to write about but right now, I have to get ready for my Humanities class.

Hope everyone's first day went well also!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Free Bus/Train/Lightrail Week!

In case you didn't know, college students get to ride NJTransit free this week! All you have to do is print out this little coupon right there. (http://www.njtransit.com/images/student_coupon.jpg) This coupon, combined with your student ID, is your ticket to ride the bus, train and lightrail for free! I've been using this little ditty since Monday! I've gone to the city and back a few times without paying the usual $8 commute price! I'm planning to visit some friends at NJCU tomorrow and I'm pretty psyched I won't have to pay a thing to get there!

With all the money I'm saving this week, I'm planning on buying my mom a nice present for her birthday. For me, one day's worth of commuting for me is about $10 dollars. So, five days times 10 bucks is enough to buy her a dress and jewlery at TJMaxx or something!

I suggest you take advantage of this.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Hey Kid! Wanna Trade?

I received an email asking me for my list of books that are for trade/sale.

These are the books I have. I am willing to trade or sell.
  • ACT101 Principles of Accounting, Volume 1: Chapters 1-13
  • BUS231 Anderson's Business Law 20th ed. (hardcover! Berkeley only sells the looseleaf version)
  • CIS203 New Perspective on MS Access 2003 Comprehensive
  • CIS120 Microsoft Office Excel 2003: Complete Coursecard Ed.
  • ENG103 Shakespeare (for Prof. Costa's class)
  • ENG101 A Writer's Resource 2nd ed.
  • ENG101 The Prentice Hall Reader 8th ed.
  • MGT345 Management of Information Systems 10th ed.

There are a couple more but they're in the trunk of my car. See? I told you I had a ton of books. If you're interested in trading or buying any of these, contact me by email (vanessa-gomez@mymail.berkeleycollege.edu) with the title "Blogger Books" or look for me around campus.

Here is the list of books I need for next quarter in case you're down to trade.

  • ENG111 Public Speaking An Audience Centered Approach
  • HUM341 Communication in History
  • MAT211 Algebra for Berkeley College Students (Custom Berkeley Edition)
  • SOC201 Macroeconomics: A Contemporary Introduction 7th ed.

Remember that in order to get first dibs on used books at the Berkeley Bookstore, get there ASAP. Early bird gets the book.

Monday, September 17, 2007

3.7 GPA Heck Yes!

I can't believe I managed to keep my GPA up during summer! I felt that I did horrible this quarter. There was a whole lot more distraction during the summer than I thought! But hey, I managed to keep up with school and do well!

I just finished checking my GPA just now. I forgot that all the final grades were in. They've been posted since last week. It just slipped my mind.

So, its the first day of my post-summer vacation and its going great. Most of my friends are in school right now so I'm spending my free time catching up on sleep. Also, the weather is great! 75 and sunny all week!

I'm actually gonna keep updating during break because even though there are no classes in session, I still do a lot of school stuff like book shopping/swapping, re-organizing my life to fit school/work/family/friends.

Hope everyone else's break is going great!

Friday, September 14, 2007

A Big Sigh of Relief

I was so caught up with finals and papers last week that I didn't get a chance to update! Well, I just got out of work so might as well update before I head out and enjoy my first Friday of break. :-)

Last week and the week before, I slept maybe 3 hours a night writing papers. I left all the major and very looooong final papers until last minute thinking I could do it easily. Well...I was wrong. I could have easily handed in mediocre papers with only the minimum amount of pages but I promised myself in the beginning of the quarter that I would bust out some great essays. So, most of my weeknights were spent writing and re-writing and re-writing and re-writing. I'm not even kidding when I say I slept 3 hours a night for two weeks. My veins were pumping 50% blood and 50% Starbucks coffee.

One thing that kinda stinks is that I didn't have time to sell my books back at the Berkeley Bookstore. Its the easiest way to get money for new books. The problem was that I have a kajillion book that are really heavy. I has planning on bringing a few one day and the rest on another day but again, no time. So, I'm planning on hanging up flyers where school starts up again. I have a lot of books from my first quarter classes so hoepfully, I can help out a few freshmen with getting the books they need to cheap. I even put up a bulletin on Facebook so I can sell my books back. Check out the list if you're in need of some books. Like a said, I have TONS of them.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Earl Grey Makes the Sleepiness Go Away

Last night I decided to pull an all-nighter so I can start wrapping up all my final papers. Most of them are due this week. Right now, I'm in the ASC Center finishing up some assignments for Management. I decided to take a break and update everyone on some stuff going down in Berkeley in the coming weeks.

Next week is Final Exam week. If you haven't checked out the schedule for Finals, I suggest checking it out and asking your professor about them. Finals are MAJOR since this quarter was short.

Also, one of my favorite activities in Berkeley is happening next week. Buy Back Time! I get to sell all my old books and buy my new ones for the next quarter. I don't know why but getting rid of old books makes me happy. Haha.

Man, I think I'm going to head over to the Caf and get something extreme caffinated. I had an Earl Grey tea this morning before class. Its starting to wear off. Hopefully, the fridge is stacked with Jolt cola. :-) Mm-hmm! Extra Caffiene!