Hey guys! Just a reminder that housing for next year is coming up pretty soon. If you are not sure what you’re doing next year, or need to figure things out with your current roommate, get on that! All upperclassmen (everyone that’s not a freshman is considered an upperclassman at Loyola) get rooms decided by a lottery system. Tours of both the downtown and Lakeshore locations will be available both Tuesday and Thursday of this week. If you go to all of the sessions, you have a chance of getting a higher lottery number!!
If you’re struggling to find a roommate, keep calm! Remember that there are always a bunch of options. If you’re an incoming freshman and looking for a roommate, it may be in your best interest to go random! Otherwise, you can always post on your class’s Facebook page with some information about yourself and explaining your current situation! A lot of people find roommates that way, and it’s always a good way to put a face to the name. Otherwise, you can just go for random and fill out a small survey about your personal interests and preferences.
Just remember, be honest with your roommates and yourself, and good luck!
Here’s a secret – this is really a list of common pet-peeves among admission counselors. Most of us really love our jobs and really love assisting you through your college search/decision process, but those of you who do the following will definitely make us loves our jobs that much more.
Research ahead of time. Most of the questions we get are easily answered by spending 30 seconds our our website or Google.
Ask the questions that actually matter to you. Don’t ask what the most popular major is at Loyola. Instead ask about experiential learning opportunities or about class offerings for a major (or majors) that you are actually interested in. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if our most popular major is Biology if you are interested in Business or History, those are great majors too. Skip the generic question and ask what you really want to know about.
Ask questions yourself instead of having your parents or counselors call or email on your behalf. This is your college search and decision process, not theirs!
Learn how to write a professional email. It should have a greeting, a body, and a signature. Your email address should also be appropriate. All text in your email should have proper spelling and grammar (don’t forget your punctuation).
Don’t send generic emails to multiple schools at once. This makes us question your interest in our respective schools, so take a few extra minutes to send us individual emails.
Spell Check. And double check that you have spelled the school’s name and the counselor’s name correctly.
Make appointments with us. Show up on time. Show up prepared. We love meeting with you but if you show up 25 minutes late and don’t have any questions, you won’t get the most out of this appointment and we’ll be scrambling to give you a ton of information in a short amount of time.
Remember that we are human beings. If we don’t respond to your email or voicemail within minutes, don’t panic, don’t send us 10 more emails. We’re busy trying to make sure we provide you all with the best support but that takes time, so be patient.
Even if you have already made some of these mistakes, it’s not too late to change! We’re quick to forgive and we’ll be pleasantly surprised by seeing any one of these changes made in your communications with us.
Almost all of the books I love to read are fiction-based. These types of books open up my imagination and take me away from reality. Especially with fictional books, characters are given unique personalities and the story plot can be fun, mystical, and suspenseful. I enjoy this very much because I get to visualize the story as I read along.
Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling) I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan! Despite the series actually containing 7 books in all, I decided to combine all the books together here. I love the way J.K Rowling develops each distinct character and creates a sense of endless, mystical fantasy that keeps readers reading. Her style of writing is phenomenal as it is easy to read and follow along; anyone who is capable of reading can understand the story. The morals of the stories are so pure and full of heart. All in all, the Harry Potter novels are good books I highly recommend to read or even reread!
The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Brain Selznick) This has been a favorite book of mine since grade school because of the novel’s art and the style in which the book was made. When people say that pictures mean more than 1,000 words, this novel says it all. More than half of the book is composed of full-page illustrations that help the reader visualize the story the way the author wants them to see it. The story is heartbreaking, heartwarming, and so engaging to read. Those who have seen the wonderful movie version of this novel know I what mean by this.
Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) Steinbeck never fails to disappoint us through his stories. Grapes of Wrath is a longer read than most of his other books, but it takes us into the time of the American Depression and Recession through a particular man and his family. The readers will be able to experience what it was like to live at that time and realize all the difficulties and struggles people had to face. Steinbeck’s diction is well suited for the time period and his format (splitting the story up by section) is quite different and interesting.
The Canterbury Tales (Geoffery Chaucer) There are many short stories of different wacky, funny, sickening, and lovely characters; some stories will really make you laugh! The animations of the stories (claymation videos on YouTube) are fantastic to watch after you read the stories. Despite the text to be written in Middle English, I think readers can still read and understand the text just fine.
Never A City So Real (Alex Kotlowitz) This is a novel I read with my friends from DePaul University from a class pertaining to Chicago History. This novel is all about Chicago and is written to point out many hotspots of Chicago (20-30 years ago). There is much emphasis on the urban lifestyle, different neighborhoods with different cultures, famous restaurants (like Manny’s), notorious gangs, and more. After reading this book, you will definitely be more aware of Chicago’s past history and see the city in a more interesting way!
So today, I want to share with you all some great news! A good friend and Loyola Alumni just provided me with some information that might be helpful to some. As we are almost graduating, Yay!, some of us are not sure what will happen after Loyola. I know some do, and that is GREAT! But to those who are looking into graduate school, I want to inform you with this option.
There have been so many times when someone would tell me that I should’ve become teacher. I am always tutoring, but I have never thought about it as a career. I shared these thoughts with this friend because I knew that she was pursuing a career in teaching. She explained to me that she is in a two year program in which you receive a Masters in Education and teach as Full-time teacher (including all of the benefits).
She absolutely loves teaching and says that she cannot see herself doing anything less. She graduated as a Biology major and she teaches the sciences as well as English as a second language. She teaches in an elementary school in Chicago and she absolutely loves it! She mentioned that she hesitated in taking this opportunity, but it came so easy to her. People are always saying that teachers make peanuts, but this is not entirely true. She is doing fairly well and after she has her masters she will be very qualified for a great job! It’s also a plus that she is bilingual and she will be receiving her ESL certification as well!
Also, many of her loans will be forgiven because she is a teacher teaching a very needed subject. I recommend this opportunity to you because I, myself, am looking to find more information about it. It is a great back up plan, and if you find out it is not for you than at least you know that teaching is not for you; what best way to find out while getting paid, right? I was so excited that I decided to share with you all this opportunity! I hope this helped some of you out there. 🙂
In an attempt to keep a continuous theme for this week’s blog posts flowing, I’d like to offer up a nice alternative to the dining hall food! While there are many really, really delicious restaurants around us (reviews to come, I’ll never pass up an offer to try new restaurants) it’s no secret that they can be a bit pricey. But what do you do when you’re craving food that isn’t offered in the dining halls, and don’t want to spend $8 on a plate of chicken fried rice?
You make it.
Or, if that’s not your thing, you make some other dish that you’re craving. At Loyola’s lakeshore campus, near the Granville stop on the red line, there is an Aldi’s. Say what you want about the chain, but their prices cater to college students’ budgets. I go shopping there once every one and a half weeks, and for staples like bread, chips/snack items and treats like guacamole and super delicious greek yogurt popsicles the prices are completely right. While they very from week to week and I cannot give you a set price for the products, I can tell you that my last trip cost me $18 for 13 items.
The water tower campus is only a few blocks away from Trader Joe’s. While their prices tend to run a little higher, there are certain items that I will buy there and not at Aldi’s. They feature a larger and (most of the time) healthier, cleaner selection.
So, here’s a list of things to buy at each grocery store, respectively.
Aldi’s:
(Loaf) Bread
Premade guacamole (seriously, this is the best price for the amount you get that I’ve ever seen.)
Regular/general flavored ice cream
Microwaveable frozen meals
Instant pasta or rice, all you have to do is add water and microwave it
Yogurt
Cheese sticks/snacks
Chips/pretzels/crackers
Pop
Toiletries
Frozen fruit
Trader Joe’s:
Fresh fruit
Mochi
White cheddar popcorn
Meat (whether raw or precooked)
Hummus
Sparkling Water
Wanting fresh ‘homemade’ food isn’t always the easiest things while you live in a dorm. While you have to make some sacrifices, you can have a healthy meal in your own room with little to no effort.
Side Note: Aldi’s accepts only debit or cash. Trader Joe’s accepts major credit cards, debit, and cash.
Over the past decade, internet technology has drastically changed our society, from the way we express ourselves as individuals, to the way we interact and communicate with each other. The genesis and proliferation of myriad social media websites, a number of which are still up and coming, has simultaneously brought us closer together and driven us apart. Facebook and Instagram have become integral parts of our lives. Yet, these social-virtual platforms raise several alarming factors. Primarily, this rule-free zone allows a user to interact with other users, whose true intent and real reaction to your posted content can easily remain undisclosed, while bearing minimal personal responsibility for the outcome of his/her actions.
So the next time you are about to post something, whether it be a picture of your scrumptious dinner or an exciting status update, take an extra thirty seconds to think it through, and give yourself a chance to reconsider before clicking SEND, by stopping to ask yourself a couple of critical questions pertaining to privacy:
Who can see the post? One rule of thumb that I like to follow is this: personal and private information that I wouldn’t share with extended family, colleagues, or even strangers, probably doesn’t belong on the internet. Even the private posts restricted to only ‘friends’ can potentially be accessed by unexpected audiences. Although it may be exhilarating to share a picture of your recently acquired college I.D, the card contains pieces of critical information, such as your address, that most likely shouldn’t be publicly disclosed. Resist the urge.
Knowing that, once something is posted, it can never be permanently deleted, do you still want it out there, in perpetuity? A snapshot of the nearly entire internet is taken every 6-14 months, using “automated crawlers.” If you find that unbelievable, check out The Wayback Machine (https://archive.org/about/faqs.php#The_Wayback_Machine). The Internet Archive Wayback Machine began in 1996, right around the time current high school seniors were born. As of December 1, 2014 it contains almost 9 petabytes of data and is currently growing at a rate of ~20 terabytes per week. To put that in perspective, its digital footprint now outsizes the amount of text contained in the Library of Congress. Humbling, isn’t it? Therefore, while you yourself may not be able to access a post that you have deleted, it is important to remember that it never disappears from cached cyber-archives. That’s why halting for a few seconds to think-before-you-tweet will ensure that, in five or ten years, you will not end up regretting that someone else still has access to the post.
At the end of the day, when sharing something online, keep in mind that the internet makes it all too easy for your information to be viewed by others, so take some time to consider the long-term factors before posting. Not thinking about it beforehand could come back and bite you later.
Pictures Speak More than Words: My 1st 12 Days Abroad
The view of the Colosseum from the Roman Forum.The Roman Forum.
The view from Villa Farnese.A fresco on the ceiling of Villa Farnese.
The making of buffalo mozzarella at the buffalo farm we visited.The buffalos of the mozzarella farm.The view from atop the hill of Agropoli.The sunrise from our hotel balcony on the Almalfi Coast.The Abbey of Monte Cassino.The chapel at the Abbey of Monte Cassino.Leaving The Abbey of Monte Cassino.
Simply Fantastic Smoothies and Food at Joy Yee Noodle
Hi again everyone! Hope the weekend is going well. This weekend so far has been really relaxing. It has been filled with spending time with friends, sleeping in late, and delicious food. Today I went to a new restaurant to try something different. It is called Joy Yee Noodle and it is located near the University of Illinois Chicago’s campus.
Joy Yee Noodle has more than one location in Chicago, but the one I went to is located at 1335 S. Halsted St, Chicago IL, 60608. I went with a friend who had been there before, but this was my first time trying their delicious Pan Asian food. I hear this place can get pretty crowded with university students, but when we went there was no wait and many open tables, most likely because it was 2pm and was a late lunch, early dinner time. The restaurant is pretty open and airy, with geometric iron chairs to sit on and plenty of lighting. The menu is HUGE! Pages upon pages of delicious food entrées. They also include pictures with their most popular items so you know what the food looks like.
Joy Yee Noodle is known for their smoothies, and I quickly learned why. They have about a page and a half of just smoothie options for you to try, both consisting of Chinese fruits, and American fruits. They have the option for you to create your own smoothie, add ice cream to it, add tapioca balls to create bubble tea, or just choose something already fixed from the menu. They also have these amazing things called popping balls which can be added to your smoothie. They are about the size of tapioca balls, but are filled with juice so as soon as you sip one up, they burst in your mouth! I ordered a watermelon smoothie with lychee popping balls, and it was like fireworks were going off in my mouth. Incredibly delicious! My friend ordered a strawberry banana smoothie with mango popping balls and his was just as amazing. They also come in a crazy 12oz beer glass! So a large portion of delicious smoothie was just around 4 dollars each! For our actual food dishes, I ordered a beef pho and my friend ordered chicken fried rice and teriyaki chicken. All were excellent. Did I mention the portions are HUGE as well! They give you a gallon, a GALLON of pho for around 9 dollars. Enough for two more meals. Living on a college budget, I am not complaining.
The service was excellent. Everyone seemed willing to help and give recommendations. Plus, the food comes out super quickly. No waiting at all. I would totally recommend this place to my friends and I will definitely be back for more. It is also just a great place to grab a quick smoothie and light appetizer to just catch up with friends. I left full, and I am still full!
It is always fantastic to stay active within your community by doing extracurricular activities. They keep your day productive and you get to have many amazing experiences within the club (activities and events) and be able to meet new people.
At Loyola, I am part of two clubs/groups: AMSA (American Medical Student Association) and VASA (Vietnamese American Student Association). Both of the these clubs are fantastic because they define who I am and who I want to be; they help me understand and enjoy the things I love the most. In AMSA, I get to hear speakers from all different types of backgrounds tell their story on how they became a doctor, MCAT test prep representatives help me prepare for the rigorous exam, and ultimately I am able to obtain a better idea of how to be successful in my medical future. In VASA, I learn more about my culture through eating delicious (and FREE!) Vietnamese food, celebrating Viet holidays, and seeing student performances that originate from Vietnam.
Outside of Loyola, I volunteer at my local hospital every other Friday. Starting this summer, I plan to take summer classes at Loyola to ease my workload for the school year. Also, I plan to take cello lessons at a music school as well as apply to volunteer my time at Rush University Medical Center. Although it sounds like a lot, I know that this is my prime time to do this as I currently have the motivation to stay productive and participate in extracurricular things that I truly love to do.
Everyone loves having days off, right? Last Monday we had a day off in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day and I wanted to make sure I made the most of my day off. A few of my friends came up with the wonderful idea of visiting one of Chicago’s famous museums! Being from out of town and never having visited the any of the museums, I thought this was a great way to spend our day off. That morning, three friends and I headed off to the Museum of Science and Industry.
Once we got to the museum, I was amazed at how large the museum really was! There were exhibits on almost everything you could think of in the science and industry fields such as farming, genetics and DNA, cloning, aviation, space, and mining. Many of these exhibits were hands-on, with experiments for visitors to try themselves. The DNA exhibit even had a chick-hatching demonstration! The aviation area had airplanes that visitors could walk into, which was pretty cool to see. The museum also featured trains, a large-scale model of Chicago, an elaborately decorated fairy castle, and a giant air tornado. The exhibits were all really cool to see.
One of my favorite exhibits, however, was on World War II German U-Boats. The exhibit began with a walkthrough of World War II and the many stages and different forms of war craft used in the war. At the end of the walkthrough we came to a large showroom that housed an actual German U-Boat! It was huge and absolutely amazing to see! We learned that the showroom actually had to be built around the submarine due to the sheer size and mass of it! The exhibit also had torpedoes that would have been used on the submarine when in actual use during the war. This exhibit was by far my favorite, and I loved walking around it!
All in all, we made the most out of our day off by taking the opportunity to do something fun yet still educational. Chicago is home to many world-famous museums that are basically located in our backyard! I can’t wait to visit the other museums!
