End of the Year Christmas Shananigans

Merry Christmas from Suite 220!
From left to right, Jill, Adrianna, me, and Leah.

The first semester of my junior year is officially over! Here is a little recap of the last week of the semester:
Even though finals were the main priority, my suite mates and I found some down time to celebrate Christmas and do some last-minute bonding before we left each other.  Three of my suite mates (me included) will be traveling abroad next semester, so spending time with them and my friends was much needed since I will not be seeing them for about five months.  I will miss all of my friends at St. Mike's so much, but I am excited to be traveling to Florence, Italy.
I really bonded with my suite mates this semester, so leaving them was really difficult.  (I already miss them!)  One of my suite mates even began to unpack my things as I was packing up my room!  It was really weird to move back out of my room completely after I had just moved in a little more than four months before.  I also had to say good-bye to my friends who are currently seniors since they will be graduating right after I come back from Italy.  Though saying good-bye is always sad, Italy is definitely going to be an experience.  I will be leaving on January 11, so stay tuned for later posts about my Italian adventures!
In the meantime, here are some pictures from the end of the year!  If you have any questions about my life as a student at St. Mike's, feel free to email me (emurray@mail.smcvt.edu), tweet me (LittleLizzie33) or formspring me (lizmurray3).

The first snow on campus! 

Presents from my "suities"! 

My friend Tori on Church Street! 

Church Street at Christmastime! It's beautiful! 

From left, Jill, me and Riko on a winter outing to Church Street waiting for the bus! 

Where's the Snow?

One thing that everyone seems to say when I tell them I go to school in northern Vermont is, "Ah, so you get a lot of snow, huh?"  Usually that's pretty true, but this year, all we've gotten up here is flurries that don't stick!  Well, that's a lie.  It snowed during Thanksgiving break, but all the snow melted by the time everyone returned to St. Mike's.  It's December 6th now, and there still has been no snow aside from a few cases of flurries.
I have to say I'm a little bit disappointed in the Vermont weather right now.  Not that I mind not bundling up, but I love snow on campus right before Christmastime.  It gives a pretty unique mood to the campus.  Just this past Friday, it started snowing and as I walked past the quad, I heard someone playing Christmas music out their window.  People also build snowmen, snow forts, and other snow figures all over campus when it snows.  You can hear the laughing as students have snowball fights or just go out to play in the snow.  Church Street is a beautiful sight with snow, Christmas lights, the giant Christmas tree and the church at the end of the street.
Snow brings new life to campus upon its first appearance.  I am still waiting for that first big snowfall before I go home for Christmas.  With less than two weeks left on campus, we're running out of time.  Step it up, Mother Nature!

Taking winter adventures was one of the highlights of my freshman year on campus! 

Sharing Thanksgiving Traditions

   This Thanksgiving turned out to be very interesting as I brought my Japanese friend Rui home with me to experience the American holiday with a "typical" American family.  I believe that since the international students are here to learn from experiences, they should get as many different cultural experiences as possible.  It was also a really cool way for me to get to know Rui better and learn about her culture as well.
   The experience was definitely worth it, and I am really happy I got to share my family's traditions with her.  We did everything from make hand turkeys and make apple pie from scratch to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and have a home-cooked family Thanksgiving dinner.  She also got to meet some of my family members and friends at home, and I think that enriched the experience even more.  I was able to teach her about American culture as well as teach her some common phrases.  We were both saying "Hey man" and "thanks man" by the end of the weekend.  My friends taught her about Taco Bell and American fast food restaurants in general.  I was also able to learn some words in Japanese and about her family and school in Japan as well as about some of the different customs.
   I only described about a fifth of the whole experience, but I think every student should try to get to know the international students on campus.  It enriches their experience as well as improves their English, and the native speaking students can get a taste of another culture and learn about different customs and traditions.  It's a really interesting experience, and you can end up making a friend for life.  This was my favorite Thanksgiving yet.

We made hand turkeys! 

Rui with peeled apples while making apple pies.

A finished pie.

From left, my brother John, me, Rui, and my sister Katie.

Rui with my parents on our last night at home.

Rui and I played on photobooth! 

If you have any questions, feel free to email me (emurray@mail.smcvt.edu), tweet me (LittleLizzie33) or ask me a question on Formspring (lizmurray3).

Journalism is a Lifestyle, Not Just a Major

   So I thought I'd give a little update on what I've been up to lately in the journalism world (aka Bergeron).  Last Tuesday, our staff put out our 8th issue out of 9 total.  I can't believe it's almost over!  It was our best issue yet - and I'm not just saying that because I happened to have a front-page article.  We truly worked our butts off on this issue and produced a great product.
   The issue contained one of the biggest articles I've ever worked on/written.  It involved 8 interviews, a survey, and 17 pages of quotes (single-spaced).  I wrote it about studying abroad and some of the different aspects that accompany it - culture shock, drinking culture, making friends, and difficulty of classes.  It was very interesting to both write and report.  At one point, I was concerned for the accuracy of the story because I was not sure some of my sources were being completely truthful with me about some parts of their stories.  However, it worked out because the statistics were able to balance out what people said.  I ended up having a lot more information than I needed, so I had plenty to work with while I wrote.  The hardest part of writing my story was actually weaving all the different parts together.  I'm really proud of the way it came out and SO excited it landed on the front page!
   The issue as a whole was really well-balanced and the stories were expertly reported.  It was the best product we've produced so far.  I'm bringing about four copies home during Thanksgiving break to show... well, everyone!

Me with this week's issue of The Defender!

   Now, you may wonder what we Defender staffers do every Sunday before an issue is printed.  Everyone spends from 10 a.m. until about 5 p.m. in Bergeron laying out the paper, toning pictures, editing pages, listening to Pandora ambient music station and more.  Time flies by as each page is completed, looked over, edited, corrected on screen, and printed for the managing and executive editors to edit after everyone else has gone home.  The best part is we get Leonardo's pizza at 3 p.m.  We have a deal with Leonardo's that if we put an ad in our paper, we get free pizza.  By that time, everyone is usually done with the first drafts of his or her pages, and the pages are printed and edited while everyone eats pizza.   It's a very long, but worthwhile day.  I can't help but say Defender has become my life during this semester, which I don't think is necessarily a bad thing.  I genuinely love writing and reporting stories, and working on The Defender has increased this love tenfold.
   If you have any questions about working on The Defender or the journalism in general, please don't hesitate to contact me via email (emurray@mail.smcvt.edu), Twitter (@LittleLizzie33) or Formspring (lizmurray3).

To view this week's issue of The Defender online, click here.
To view an online PDF of this week's issue, click here.
  

The International Festival

Sorry for the lack of blog posts in the past few weeks! My schedule has been super busy and I've had projects galore.  One thing I did manage to go to on Saturday was the International Festival.  This festival is put on every year by the Applied Linguistics Department and the Diversity Coalition.  It's really awesome because you get to sample foods from different cultures (cooked by many international students) as well as watch performances by various student groups, like the Celtic Knights, and other multicultural groups from around Vermont.  It's a pretty well-attended event, as many professors bring their children and people from around the area as well as St. Michael's students all come to enjoy what is our own taste of the global world.  Below are some pictures from the festival.  I hope you enjoy them!!

My friend Mary Jo, of the Celtic Knights (the Irish Step Dancing group on campus) waits for her turn to perform.

Hard-shoe Irish steppers!

The line of food containers - so delicious!

An Indian dancer who performed at the festival.

A martial arts drumming group.  They had some really intense drumming.

One of the Akoma drummers at St. Michael's.

The Akoma drummers under the direction of Joss Price, a fine arts professor at St. Michael's. 

A woman takes a picture of a performer on her iPad.  Check out the technology!

Being on the Other Side

    About a week ago, I was interviewed by a USA Today reporter about my trip to New Hampshire with my Media and American Politics class.  As a reporter for The Defender this semester, I am used to being on the question-asking side of things.  It seems like the less-stressful position during the interview.  This time, it was my turn to be in the hot-seat.
    I had been interviewed before by my local newspaper, but this seemed so much more intimidating! I was really excited to be interviewed, but really nervous at the same time.  I know how annoying it is as a reporter to have a source who does not completely articulate his or her points.  I wanted to try to be as articulate as possible, something I have trouble with as it is often very difficult for me to think on my feet when answering a question in almost any situation.  I am the kind of person who likes to take a minute or two to formulate my answers before saying them out loud in an attempt to sound intelligent rather than like a bumbling idiot.  I am much more articulate when I write my answers.
    I spent a lot of time the night before and the morning of the interview trying to think of the questions the reporter might ask and the things I might say to answer those questions.  I seemed pretty well-prepared until the reporter actually called and started interviewing me.  A lot of questions I did not think of before the interview.  By the time the interview ended, I was not sure whether or not I had completely gotten my point across or if I actually gave the reporter usable quotes.  I actually apologized to the reporter after the fact explaining how little I actually am on that side of the interview.  He was very nice and understanding though, which gave me confidence that I may have done better than I thought.
    Whether I'm on the side of the questioner or the side of the interviewee, interviews are always a learning process.  I think being on both sides of the process helps reporters improve by giving them a better understanding of how to frame questions and what kinds of answers to look for.  This time, as well as the other times I've been interviewed, have been very beneficial to how I go about my interviews.
    To view the USA Today article, click here.
    If you have any questions, feel free to email me (emurray@mail.smcvt.edu), tweet me (LittleLizzie33) or ask me a question on formspring (lizmurray3).

More Coverage from the Debates!

Check it out! A clip from the Romney event our class attended even made it onto The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night! One of our classmates was the person who asked the question about the Wall Street protests!  There are also some SMC students standing in the background of the clip.
To view the video, click here. Enjoy!