Don’t put bottles of liquid into your suitcase unless they’re inside some kind of bag. This is what greeted me when I opened my suitcase after coming back from San Antonio:

That is my hair conditioner. It coated the inside of the suitcase, my hair dryer, my ipod wire, my camera wire, virtually the most important things in my suitcase. My clothes got off scot-free. Thank goodness my laptop was in my carry on!

In my last blog, I told you about the National Collegiate Honors Council. In this one, I’m going to tell you about San Antonio (as you can tell by the title…). Although we were there for the conference, we got to do some sightseeing, too. Two of the sights we saw were the Riverwalk and the Alamo.

The Riverwalk is one of the main attractions. It’s 13 miles (I think) of manmade river that runs through downtown San Antonio. Along both sides are numerous restaurants, bars, and a few shops for tourists. We went on one of the Riverboat tours, and the guide gives some of the history of the river. There were ducks everywhere along the river, especially near restaurants that give out chips and salsa. I fed the ducks so many times. One of them even ate out of my hand.

 

The Alamo is also in the heart of the city.  There are only two buildings left, one that houses a gift shop, the old mission, and another one, but I don’t remember what it was for. There was a lot of information about the history of the Alamo, including the people who died there (like Davy Crockett). The area was very well kept. There was a well in the back, old cannons, numerous flags that represent the countries of those who fought for the Alamo, and one really big tree with branches that grew to the ground. I wanted to climb it, but I thought the Alamo officials walking around would disapprove.

 Oh, I forgot to mention the Rivercenter mall. Of course we three girls went to the local mall…and dragged poor Dr. Villa along with us. The mall wrapped around the river, which was really pretty cool. Instead of one long strip, it was three floors shaped in a horseshoe. It was pretty exciting, because there were stores we had never seen before. Ivana and Timea especially enjoyed the cowboy store. Dr. Villa and I were hardpressed to get them two leave the mall. We were worried we might have to drag them out.

 

The only problem with San Antonio is that there isn’t any vegetarian food! They had barbecue, Mexican, Italian, Tex-Mex, etc., but there I could barely find anything to eat. At some places, even the salads had meat in them, and I had to ask for no chicken. Dr. Villa said he ate at one restaurant with a vegetarian menu, but that his food wasn’t very tasty, so he didn’t recommend going back.

On Sunday, our flight left at 7:00 in the morning, so we all woke up at 4, left the hotel at 5 and got to the airport where we decided to eat breakfast. Except Timea. Who wanted a cheeseburger. At 6:00 in the morning. She had to make due with a sausage egg sandwich; no one serves cheeseburgers that early in the morning.

Overall, the trip was really fun, and beneficial in terms of a learning experience. I think we were all less than eager to come back….all our homework was here waiting for us…

I was in San Antonio, Texas, from the 21st to the 26, Tuesday thru Sunday of this week, for the National Collegiate Honors Council. The conference invites honors students and administrators from all over the country to attend to learn how to make honors programs better and more innovative. The President and Vice President, Ivana and Timea respectively, also attended, along with Dr. Villa, the honors advisor.

 

I was accepted to the Poetry Master Class, where I was able to share my poetry with two other girls. We made comments on how to improve each other’s poetry. It was really useful to get someone else’s opinion, a peer’s opinion. There were also master classes for drama, film, and music. Near the end of the conference, there was a showcase where many of us, including me, presented our work to other members of the conference.

 

In addition to the classes, there were many (and I stress many) sessions for improving honors programs. Some of the ones we attended included how to make a good newsletter, how to get published in the NCHC journals, using a S.W.O.T. Analysis to improve honors, Students in Honors, Fundraising for Honors, and Small College Honors Issues. Ivana and Timea attended so many of them and took pages and pages of notes. They’re really enthusiastic about improving our honors program, and just need the participation of the students to make it work. I believe our next honors meeting is Monday, November 3. Dr. Villa will be sending out an email as a reminder. It would be great if all of our honors students could attend!

Last night, Martina McBride (she’s a country singer, in case you’ve never heard of her) performed in West Palm Beach and Jess and I went to her concert!! Jess bought the tickets (both my Christmas and my birthday gifts) and we got to sit in front of the front row! It was so amazing. The Warren Brothers and Jason Michael Carroll opened for her, and both performed really well, but nothing compared to Martina herself. I never realized she was so little! She has the biggest voice and can hold a note forever, but she is absolutely tiny. She received three standing ovations, and everyone could see how absolutely flattered she was by it. Jess and I both have a little bitty signed guitar pick. Here are some pictures, so you can see how close we were:

He moved around too much for me to get a really good picture!

 

 Thank you Jess!!!!

While I was waiting for things to get busy again, I didn’t realize they would get this busy! As for free time, it doesn’t exist. I’m working 43 hours this week! Barnes and Noble has been very generous with my hours, and I just increased my hours in the library. But don’t worry, this won’t be happening often. I just put in my two weeks at Barnes and Noble….

Why? Good question. I love Barnes and Noble; I love working there. However, I just landed an internship with the Palm Beach Poetry Festival that will be taking up a lot of my time. At first, I thought I could do two jobs and the internship (not to mention school), but when Laura, my liaison, emailed me my duties yesterday, I realized that it just won’t be possible. And I refuse to give up the internship. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity that will give me the chance to work with two published poets, Gerald Stern and Anne Marie Macari. My friend Christina, who graduated last year, has done the same thing, and I know, as much work as it is, that it is so worth it. So I sacrificed Barnes and Noble, but I definitely gained a lot more. Plus, maybe since I don’t work there anymore, I can actually hang out and look at books (if I can find some free time). You just can’t browse the way you want to when you work somewhere.

In other news….I’m attending the National Collegiate Honors Council in San Antonio, Texas, October 21-26. I have been accepted to a Poetry Masters Class, where I will get to work on my poetry with a few other students. I’m excited about that, too. The conference will also host many (many!) little workshops about how to improve honors programs. The President and Vice President of the Honors Colloquium, as well as Dr. Villa, will be attending with me. I keep hearing that San Antonio is beautiful, so I can’t wait to see it.

So I will try not to leave such huge gaps between blogs again, but you can see why it happened! Besides, I’ll have plenty to blog about!