I fell in love with Paris. It was AMAZING. Even though it was probably my busiest weekend trip, I am so glad that we saw everything that we did. We were able to see a lot of Paris in a short amount of time. We went to the Louvre Museum and spent about 5 or 6 hours just staring at the artwork and the historical artifacts that it contained. I was incredibly disappointed in how small the Mona Lisa was though! I thought it was a lot bigger than it really was! It was TINY! My favorite piece throughout the museum was the statue called “Nike.” It was absolutely beautiful! We stumbled upon the Ancient Egyptian part of the museum and saw several sarcophagi along with a mummy that has been perfectly preserved for centuries. It was incredible to see all of these ancient artifacts! We also saw the cathedral of Notre Dame while we were in Paris. The stained glass windows were so beautiful! It was one of the most beautiful churches that I have ever seen.

The next day we decided that we wanted to go see Versailles. We walked around this huge palace and marveled at all of King Louis XIV’s treasures. I had never seen something with this much gold! It was a huge palace and we were overwhelmed by the crowds of people. The Hall of Mirrors was stunning! I had always seen pictures of it, but it was breathtaking to see it in person! We also climbed the Arc de Triomphe and saw an amazing view of the whole city. After the Arc de Triomphe, we decided to head over to the Moulin Rouge area and then over to the Sacré Cœur Basilica. Moulin Rouge was an interesting part of Paris… It’s definitely not a part of town that I would want to spend a particularly long period of time in, especially at night. But Sacré Cœur was really fascinating to see! Though, there were a lot of street vendors that would come up to bother us as we were walking up the steps. That night, we went to a typical French restaurant and I had my first and last taste of escargot. It was disgusting. The taste was not that bad, but the texture was revolting. Never again will I eat escargot. Never. After dinner, we wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower at night because we had heard that it “sparkled.” The first 5 minutes of every hour, the lights on the Eiffel Tower would sparkle. I have to say, it was one of my favorite parts of the whole trip to Paris. It was so cool!!

The next day, we waited in line for about an hour to climb up the Eiffel Tower. While we were waiting in line, me and my friend wanted to reenact the baguette fighting scene from Passport to Paris with MaryKate and Ashley Olsen. We had bought baguettes that morning and had a baguette sword fight in front of the Eiffel Tower and took pictures. Even though there were several French people giving us dirty looks and laughing, it is an experience that I will never forget!

Mona Lisa

Nike

Versailles Hall of Mirrors

Baguettes!

Mummy in the Louvre

escargot

Sparkling!

View From the Top of the Eiffel Tower

Ciao!
Savannah
Class of 2013

In a week and four days, I’ll officially be done with my freshman year here at Gonzaga!

It’s a very strange feeling, knowing that I’ll be done with my first year of college. It’s been an interesting ride, from meeting people from totally different backgrounds to an interesting class schedule to having the freedom to use my time in a way I see fit.

However, despite the sadness that comes along with the end of a school year, I’m super excited for the summer. I’ll be remaining on campus and working, so I get to experience Spokane during the summer! I stay on campus as part of a student staff, so if you visit during the summer you might spot me around campus!

I’ll be living in Welch Hall this fall with one of my very good friends, so I’m looking forward to that as well! I was also elected an officer for La Raza Latina, so I’ll be investing time in that. My classes are also getting me pumped for the fall, and I’ll be taking the following:

  • Psychology 101
  • Math 121
  • Religion 124
  • English 201
  • Music Theory III
  • Theory III Ear Training
  • a choir of some sort (I’m planning on auditioning for the University Choir)
  • Applied Voice (private lessons)
  • Applied Piano (private lessons)

I’m going to be one busy sophomore!

Anyway, it’s been great blogging for y’all and giving you guys a taste of what it’s like to be a Gonzaga student. I hope you enjoyed reading my entries, and I’ll leave y’all with this track. Good luck with your college endeavors!

Heather, Class of 2015
English and Music Education double-major

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So, it has definitely been a while since my last post….. my bad! I’ve been really busy this semester mostly with the Hawai`i-Pacific Islanders Club and BRIDGE.

For this post, I wanted to focus on a preorientation program known as BRIDGE. For those of you who don’t know about BRIDGE, it stands for Building Relationships In Diverse Gonzaga Environments. What this program does is it helps students get adjusted to the campus and helps them with finding classrooms, buying books, getting their ID cards, and moving in early. (Keep in mind this could be you! GREAT Benefits!) Normally, this happens the week before orientation and, let me just say, magic happens during this week.

Every year, students come from all over the place and form this bond with each other that is comparable to the bond of a family. When I participated in BRIDGE, I remember meeting so many people in such a short amount of time and thinking that I would soon forget about them as I transitioned into the Gonzaga Community. However, this year, all three of my roommates did BRIDGE with me and my best friend was a BRIDGE participant. In the past year, he has been a big support for me especially since we are both so far away from home.

A typical BRIDGE week would include tons of ice breakers, an ice cream social, a dance, some community service, tours of Gonzaga and Spokane, buying books and finding your id, skit making, having fun! and sooo much more. I am lucky enough to be a coordinator for the program this year, so if you have any questions about BRIDGE, feel free to send them my way!

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Here is a video from my BRIDGE year!!

Ruben ’14
Accounting and Human Resource Management

 

The shortest and yet longest weekend trip of my life was the weekend me and my friend Krissy went to Munich, Germany. The reason why it was the shortest weekend trip was because we only really got 1 full day in Munich to explore the city. But, the reason why it was the longest trip of my life was because of our horrible planning. We booked our flight with the cheap airline called “RyanAir.” Our flight flew into the Frankfurt Hahn airport, when our hostel was in Munich, Germany. We knew we would have to take a bus or a train to Munich, but the moment we got into Frankfurt, we realized we flew into one of the smallest airports we have ever seen. It was smaller than Spokane’s airport! So trying to figure out how to get to Munich was interesting. A factor that worked in our favor was that Germans are some of the nicest people on the planet and are willing to go out of their way to help anyone who looks lost. We found a bus, and took the first one we saw into the main Frankfurt airport. Once we got there, we had to take a train from the Main Frankfurt train station into Munich. Our hostel was right around the block from the Munich train station. By the time we got to our hostel, it was around midnight. So we decided to stay in and get a good night’s sleep so we could explore the city the next day.

The next day, we walked around Munich and visited one of their most famous breweries and beer halls, The Augustiner. We had a typical German meal and our first German beer. People don’t lie when they say that Germans like to drink. We saw some men drinking beers at 9:30 AM and they weren’t homeless! It was very weird to see! Even though we had a blast in Germany, and wish we could go back, our journey back to Florence was absolutely HORRIBLE! We had to take a train at around 2 am from Munich to the Main Frankfurt airport, and then catch a bus from the airport back the Frankfurt Hahn airport. So all in all, we pulled an all nighter just travelling… The bus ride back to the Frankfurt Hahn airport was one of the worst experiences of my life. Somebody got sick on the bus, and had puked. We had to sit on the bus for 2 hours while smelling that horrible smell. But we finally got there, and had a few hours until our flight left. So we ended up sleeping on the floor of the Frankfurt Hahn airport.

Even though we were horrible at planning this weekend trip, I will never forget it. It is a memory that I will always remember because looking back on it now, we can only laugh at ourselves. Studying abroad has taught me so much. This trip taught me that sometimes, things don’t go according to plan, but you just have to go with the flow. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do. But hey, that is just fine with me! :]

Ciao!
Savannah

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”My first German beer!” />

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Most beautiful Park I have ever seen! ” />

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”YUM!” /><img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Germans Love the Zags too!” />

Even though I was extremely sad to hear about the shipwreck by Giglio Island off the coast of Italy, I was still extremely curious as to how it had happened. I wanted to learn how such a huge ship had crashed into an island. I wanted to know what happened and I really wanted to see it with my own eyes. So me and a few friends decided to make a day trip out to Giglio Island to check out the shipwreck and visit a new part of Italy. To our surprise, it was quite a hectic trip trying to get from Florence to this little island! First we had to take a train to a city called Grosetto, then another train to a city called Orbetello, and then a ferry ride to Giglio Island. Orbetello was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! The buildings were all a different color and they were all right along the shoreline. The ferry ride made all of us a little bit nauseous, but it was completely worth it once we saw the ship in sight. It was unbelievable! It was HUGE!! I was actually very surprised because the ship was practically on the shoreline of Giglio Island. We were able to get pretty close to the ship and we took a ton of pictures! Even though Giglio Island was struck such a tragic accident, I would love to go back there sometime in the summer. It was beautiful!

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Giglio Island! ” />

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”The Ship” />

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”So Pretty! ” />

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Orbetello! ” />

Ciao for Now!
Savannah

So far my “almost” first year of college has been quite the ride. First semester wasn’t too challenging because I was taking a lot of 2 credit classes and was 2 credit short of the maximum credit a student can take before paying for extra credits. My second semester, well, let’s just say it has been the opposite! This semester I am taking a total of 18 credits and on top of that, I am involved with Bomb Squad and the Student Dance Choreography Concert which will take place next weekend. This does not lighten my workload at all. So, coming into second semester with the classes I had first semester did not help me at all. 🙁 I’ve found myself spending more time on homework and studying than I did first semester. I guess I “slacked” too much first semester and it bled onto second semester. So my lesson for the semester is, DON’T SLACK AND STUDY UNTIL YOU FULLY UNDERSTAND THE TOPIC! ^_^

The classes I am taking this semester are:
-Survey of Western Civilization
-Hebrew Bible
-Philosophy 201- Human Nature
-Intro to Statistics
-Intro to Literature
-Intro to sociology

VENICE!!! Definitely the most unique city I have ever been to! It was so cool! I always had seen Venice in movies and TV shows and stuff, but seeing it in person made me fall in love with it even more! It literally is a city that can only be travelled through with a boat! There are basically a bunch of little islands and you have to take the “city boat” to transport from one little island to the next. Once you get on an island, there are streets like a normal city. It is so cool! We also went to Venice for their famous Carnivale festival! So much fun! It was basically like an Italian Mardi Gras! All of the Venetians spend a huge amount of money getting their costumes together just for Carnivale and then they wear them for hours and pose for the tourists. It is literally like they are celebrities, and the tourists are the paparazzi! All of the tourists also tend to wear masks too! I wore my mask for a few minutes until i realized how annoying they were to wear for long periods of time! When we got to Venice, we took a city boat to San Marco Square, the most famous square in Venice. We walked around for a while and shopped in the little stores on the streets. And I definitely had to buy some more masks! I had to buy a mask in Venice! Venice is a magical place, and I definitely hope to go back someday!!!!

Venice!

BEAUTIFUL!

some Venetian costumes!

Gondolas!

MASKS!!

Coming to Gonzaga I was an Undeclared major. I didn’t know what I wanted to study, what classes I had to take to be on track, and every time someone asked me “What are you majoring in?” I always responded “Right now I don’t know what I am majoring in, I am just taking core classes.” Of course there were freshmen who knew what they were majoring in and some even had their four years at Gonzaga all planned out, which made me freak out even more! I felt like I was wasting time and as if I was falling behind on my studies. I went to the counseling office to take the Meyers Briggs test, talked to my advisor, and basically tried everything to see if I could figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I talked to upperclassmen and the advice they all gave me was “Don’t worry; it will all fall in to place. You will find what it is you are passionate about by just taking the classes you enjoy the most.” After stressing about it and trying to figure out what I was going to do within the next four years, I decided to follow their advice. Freshmen year I took some of Gonzaga’s core classes (religion, philosophy, an art class, etc) that way I would explore the various classes and also fulfill some of the classes that are required by the school in order to graduate. It was towards the beginning of sophomore year that I noticed what classes I enjoyed the most and started looking at the majors that coincided with those classes. I first declared a double-major with a minor, then flipped one of the major as a minor and the minor as a major; I basically moved them around more than ten times. I just couldn’t make up my mind and continued to change my four year plan.
I remember the first time I walked in to my Academic Advisor’s office with my four year plan and she asked me for my major, so I said “You see I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of months now and I think I want to triple major… I am not saying it is going to happen but I will the attempt to do so” I immediately took out my four year plan and placed it in front of her. She was quite impressed with my planning and although she thought it would be too much for me to complete within four years, she continued to say “well you definitely have it all planned out now it’s a matter of putting these steps into action, but remember that you can always turn one of these in to a minor so don’t pressure yourself.” I agreed to take it one step at a time and see how it would all turn out. Truth of a matter was I loved every single one of them that I just couldn’t give it up. I am currently a Junior (with senior standing –due to my credits), this past semester I completed my comprehensive exam for my Spanish major, and now have two more classes to complete my International studies degree and will focus my senior year in completing my art portfolio. Not to mention that I am currently studying abroad in Italy where I am taking my last core classes! Woo! Now that I think about how I started and where I am now, I cant believe they were right.. I was able to choose my major based on the classes I enjoyed the most. But hey I am not saying “get all crazy and triple major” but the moral of my story is to explore your classes’ freshmen year! Even though taking core classes were not my favorite I must say they helped me choose my major and actually see what it was that I enjoyed taking and what I didn’t. In case you were wondering about my triple major I did take some summer classes and never really took below 18 credits each semester. I think next year might be the first time I will be taking 16 or less!

Remember:
-Just because you come in as undeclared doesn’t mean that you are already behind
-One of the reasons why I chose GU was because it had over 70 academic majors, I knew (or at least hoped) that out of the 75 I at least had to like one.
-Once you declare a major take the time to create your four year plan (this helps a lot especially when class registration comes along, you will already know what you need to take!)
-If you are thinking of studying abroad or are at least considering it, remember to look in to the program that you are interested in and writing down the classes that they are offering the semester you are thinking of going abroad.
-Degree worksheets are a HUGE help! They can be found online and they basically outline all the classes that are required for each major.

Ciao from Firenze!
Here are some pictures of Florence (:

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Elizabeth Class of ’13
International Studies of Latin America, Art & Spanish
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So…. I took a cooking class….in Italy…. SO MUCH FUN! I love cooking at home, so I jumped at the chance when I heard there was a cooking class I could sign up for! It was so much fun to have Italian chefs teach us their ways, and how they cook real Italian food. They taught us how to make stuffed zucchini, pesto lasagna, and tiramisu. SOOO DELICIOUS! We even made our own pasta and used the pasta roller to roll it out. It was such a great experience and I will never forget it! I really want to go back so they can teach me how to make pizza and gelato!!! Hopefully I will have enough time!!!

<img src=”Photobucket” alt=”My group!” /><img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Us with the Chefs!” /><img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Stuffed Zucchini” /><img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Pesto Lasagna” /><img src=”Photobucket” alt=”Tiramisu!” />

Ciao for now!
Savannah :]
Class of 2013
Criminal Justice Major

On Saturday, March 31st, La Raza Latina held their annual Festival. My friends came to see me perform, and they brought some of their friends along. Among them was Chris Gormley, a freshman Honors student. I’ve talked to him a few times before.

The next day, April 1st, I found out that Chris passed away from hypothermia, the result of a kayaking accident. He had turned 18 barely a week before his death.

I was in complete shock, and I’m still in shock.

Like Father Clancy said in his homily for Chris’s memorial service on Tuesday, April 3rd, “it’s not right for young people to mourn the loss of one of their own.”

This was especially hard for me to handle, because someone I knew passed away during my freshman year in high school. His death anniversary was on Monday, April 2nd. It felt like a replay of that time during my freshman year.

Chris’s untimely death was an intense blow to the freshman class here at Gonzaga, in particular the freshman Honors students and their friends, me included.

The way students and faculty came together to support each other during this difficult time was astounding and comforting to see.

I haven’t seen so much sadness among my fellow students since the assembly I attended in my school gym in 2008. However, to see such a large group of people bond together was amazing.

It’s difficult to handle the loss of someone in my own age group, someone I interacted with on occasion. I didn’t know him well, but I knew he was a good guy, a great friend to many, and an interesting person to talk to.

Te extrañaremos, Chris. No te vamos a olvidar. (He was a Spanish major. It means “We will miss you, Chris. We won’t forget you.”)

Until next time.

Heather, Class of 2015
English and Music Education double-major

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(We sang this song at the end of Chris’s memorial service while a classmate played the ukulele.)

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