The Results of my Trip Down Memory Lane: For The Kids!!!

I want to dedicate the beginning of this post to the amazing RebelTHON board that is currently pulling of the most incredible first year event at Ole Miss. This past summer I was approached by an Ole Miss alumni about starting a Dance Marathon at Ole Miss. The Dance Marathon movement has been spreading across the nation and targets Children Miracle Network Hospitals. It is a totally student run event that fundraises for a year and then celebrates the funds raised by having a 12-48 hour dance marathon. During this time, the participants pledge to STAND for the kids. That means that sitting will not be allowed!!!!! That being said, since it is a first year event, Ole Miss is having a 12 hour dance marathon this Friday! I could not be more excited for what Ole Miss is doing FTK (for the kids)!!!! We have been working since September and the community has been soooo helpful! We have caterers feeding over 400 people for 12 hours for FREE!!! We have sponsors, we have volunteers, we have donations, it is incredible!!!! I am soooo proud of the people that volunteered to be part of the board and start a tradition that many of them had never even heard of. I really couldn't use enough exclamation points, because my little Ole Miss family has really made me so proud!!!!!

It is soooo hard to be so far away and unable to help, so I have made it my goal to raise some funds for them from here! If you want to help, go to this website and donate:
http://www.helpmakemiracles.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&participantID=150927

Don't feel any pressure, I just thought I would share this incredible cause!

Now to the past day and a half!

It is still pretty cold in Potsdam and there is still snow on the ground, but it is NOT snowing!!! Whooooo!!!! After my busy day on Tuesday, I headed back to my dorm! On the bus I found three of the guys from my course (Czech, Brazilian, and Italian). I am soooo thrilled with what this course did for me. I find friendly happy faces everywhere and though I do admit I'm not seeing a lot of Germans, we ONLY speak GERMAN!!! Most of them speak fairly well so it has done wonders for my German!!!! We had a lovely quick conversation and then I returned to my dorm. I expected to fall asleep quickly, but as you all read in my previous post, that did not happen. Oh well...

Even though I had a late night, I still had to get up at 8 in order to make it to campus by 9 for the "breakfast" and info session. Again, a lot of familiar faces ready to talk about my move this past weekend, asking me if I still needed help, and all in German. I really love this group. After quickly realizing that it was all information I already had, I left to the "Cafeteria" in order to take a quick practice placement test for my German courses. That is where I met up with George and Alexandra, the other two Ole Miss students that will be studying here this semester. They arrived Tuesday!! I really can't imagine what it must be like trying to get everything done this week. I will try to help them however I can. We headed over together to the registration info session, and I picked out my classes, mostly! Later when I have them all finalized I will share them! Then..... I stayed for a dorm meeting and then I headed out to lunch at the Mensa with the other students from my German class. I really can't express how much I love it. We only speak German and we know each other, which means that during this info week I don't have to cling to English for comfort, instead, I get to practice. After lunch I went with two of the Dutch girls to the "sporthaus" where one of them signed up for boxing. After hearing about the class, Hannah (one of the Dutch girls) drove us to the main train station to pay our rent. She has her car (or her sister's car) because she is traveling the world for 6 months. Sooooo jealous.... It is unreal how short the distances are when one is not traveling by bus!!!! After quickly getting cash and paying my rent, I headed back (on the bus) to campus to meet up with Alexandra and George. I walked with them to the language center where we sign up for German classes, and took the bus with them heading back to the main train station.

There... I took my beloved S7 to Westkreuz where I met Colby. I thought I was helping him at IKEA last night, because he would need help moving today. Turns out that he did it all by himself on Tuesday!!!! Poor thing! He though I was too busy, which I was, but still!!!!!! We headed over to IKEA and shopped for a bit. I felt so bad, because I was soooo tired. It didn't hit me that I had only slept 4 hours until we were way into our shopping. Then... it was downhill from there. I didn't have cash and wasn't planning on buying anything, but I saw a run and Colby said he would pay for it. BUT... after we paid, we realized that it was WAY too expensive. So off we went to return it. There one has to get a number and went in line. Which we did... then colby got a ticket and had to go stand at a cash register to get the money back. 45 minutes later I was ready to pass out and we had our money back... well Colby did! hahah.

I rode back with him and the bags and then rode back to Potsdam. It was hard for me to keep my eyes open.... legitimately. But once I got to campus I used a bit of the internet to check in (and that means sitting outside in the cold and darkness). Then I rode home and tried to get my internet to work, which it didn't!!!! So I put in a movie and fell asleep. Love sleeping!!!!!!

Today, I woke up at 9 and am now on campus at the cafeteria! I have taken my placement test and now will go talk to the people and see which classes I need to take! I am pretty pumped to be getting so much done today. I know this post isn't that interesting, but I wanted to catch up the parentals on the whereabout of my life, since I legit live in a cave (since I have no internet)!!! The next one should be better!

Here are a few pictures from moving day that I hadn't included before!