Tag: Halloween

Loyolacapella Gets Halloweird

Loyolacapella Gets Halloweird

If you’ve never been in to a cappella music before, Loyola might just change your mind. With four a cappella groups on campus this school is no stranger to crazy talented students singing without any musical instruments whatsoever. I must admit that I’m pretty biased for Loyolacapella, as one of my roommates is a member. But once you get here you’ll want to give each of these groups a listen because they all bring something unique to the aca-table.

This past Friday was Loyolacapella’s first concert of the year, their annual Halloweird show. Definitely an ideal way to get in the mood for the upcoming holiday–candy, costumes, and a little bit of spooky music, but mostly just another great performance.

The night opened with a performance by another Loyola gem, The Folkin’ Jesuits. This group of five campus Jesuits is an insanely fun and talented group that bring a unique and folk-y twist on popular songs. This time around they even added a few rap verses to their jams–crowd-pleasers for sure.

I loved Loyolacapella’s set list for the show, my favorites being: “Superstition”, “Wildest Dreams”, “Elastic Heart”, and their Halloween version of “Uptown Funk”.  Just as good as the singing itself was definitely the costumes. Each member of the group put on their best Halloween attire. There was a few classics, i.e. a werewolf, a cowboy, and a few zombies. While a few others stepped up the creativity to “Harry the potter” (Harry Potter attire, accessorized by a potted plant), Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, “Lumber Jill”, and an Elaine Benes (Seinfeld character) look-a-like.

This group never fails to impress me, from their costuming to their ability to need nothing besides their vocal chords to sound just as good as the real thing. You could say I’m a fan. And I already can’t wait for their next show.

Midnight Organ Blast

Midnight Organ Blast

There is a stage somewhere around junior high to high school where it isn’t socially acceptable to get excited for Halloween. Thankfully, college is a time where this tradition is ignited and dressing up is something encouraged among the student body. I had the pleasure of having a Superman, ninja turtle and vampire in class. Since the day was on the busier side of studying and reading, I spent most of the evening being productive and getting work done.

Later that night, my friends and I had plans to meet up for a Halloween special, the Midnight Organ Blast. The event was held in the Madonna Della Strada chapel and featured the Director of liturgical music, Steve Betancourt. He played several Halloween-themed songs in celebration of the spooky season. I appreciated getting to spend time in the beautiful chapel as well as get into the Halloween spirit with friends even in the midst of a busy school day.

Loyola Organ Concert Series

Halloween Numero Dos

Halloween Numero Dos

Happy Halloween!! Or late Halloween that is 🙂

I had a great Halloween! I was bummed because on Wednesday I had to stay in the library and prepare for a presentation I had today and was unable to dress up and partake in any Halloween festivities. I did get to celebrate last weekend though!

I dressed up both Friday and Saturday. Friday, as I mentioned in my last post, I was Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. On Saturday I dressed up as my roommate Mary Whitmore. Mary is a Loyola Cross Country runner so I wore an old jersey and put on some running shoes. I chose this outfit because on Saturday the Cross Country team had their conference meet and kicked butt! (More on their meet to come).

Check out our pictures, we had so much fun!

Me as a Loyola Cross Country runner and my roommate as an angel.
Our Peter Pan crew! From left to right: Back: Shadow, Peter Pan, Wendy, Tiger Lily (me), Front: Lost Boy, Captan Hook
Fright Fest

Fright Fest

As my friends and I walked through the Centennial Forum Student Union (CSFU), we noticed a poster offering students tickets to the 2012 Six Flag’s Fright Fest. I walk through the CSFU countless times a day, usually in a rush and not paying any attention to all of the advertisements. Loyola often receives discounted student tickets to various events around the city.

It was the last night of Fright Fest, which meant that Six Flags would be closing soon for the winter. We got the tickets for $20, which included admission and transportation via school bus to Gurnee, Il.

We bundled up, had breakfast and met up around 9 a.m. to catch the bus. The weather was beautiful and we were ready for a fun filled day at Six Flags. It’s always nice to get off of campus for a day every once in a while.

The park was decked out with headstones, pumpkins and other various scary decorations. There were also designated “scare zones” where employees in costumes jumped out at guests. There was even a 10 minute long “Haunted Trail” that included zombies following you through a forest of electronic skeletons moving around in the bushes.

Aside from the Fright Fest events, we made the most of the array of rides and roller coasters. Because of the long lines, we were forced to pick the Raging Bull, Batman and Superman over the other coasters. We developed a system of reserving spots in line and taking turns to get food, go to the bathroom and do whatever else we needed to make the time go by faster.

Of course, we also ate way too much. Hot chocolate was a favorite of the day, along with Johnny Rockets hot dogs, Six Flag’s nachos and funnel cakes.

By the time the busses were ready to leave, we were beat, had sore feet and runny noses. After sleeping the whole way home, we finally arrived back at Loyola. I took a warm shower and got right to bed.

Saying I slept good that night would be an understatement, but it was a good sleep – the kind you get after a full, successful day. I attribute the day as one of my favorite this semester and I will definitely pay closer attention to the off-campus events in the future.

Halloween Numero Uno

Halloween Numero Uno

So as you all know Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year. That means there are two weekends to celebrate it! Tonight is the first night and boy are my roommates and I excited!

We are doing a group costume and being the characters from Peter Pan! I am Tiger Lily, the Indian princess. My roommate (below) is a lost boy. We also have Wendy, Captain Hook, Peter and best of all, his shadow. One of my friends is wearing a black morph suit and going to follow Peter around all night and act like his shadow!

We are getting ready now and super excited! I’ll upload more pictures of our whole group next week!

My roommate Kelly preparing her Lost Boy costume.
Some of my accessories for Tiger Lily!
Peter Pan's shadow! Awesome costume!
Halloweekend Begins

Halloweekend Begins

These past few weeks have been busy for me, as they have been for everyone else. Midterms have been coming and going, but they’ve been like that for over a month. My schedule has calmed down now on the school front, and the waters should be relatively calm until Finals.

First order of business I want to cover- Registration for Spring semester is rapidly approaching. For those of you worried about it, like me, I suggest you start stocking up your class shopping cart on Locus now. I have already planned a schedule for myself, and I can only hope that everything goes as planned. I’m going to try to take 21 hours, and right now I’m quite nervous.

Along with seven classes, I hope to find an internship for myself. The seventh class that I want to take is BSAD 351 in the Business department, which requires an internship during the semester. So far, I have found several internships to apply to on RamblerLink and internships.com. Anyone looking for internships should check these two sites out, especially RamblerLink, our school’s job and internship website.

Like I said, my schedule has slowed down now that Midterms are basically over. I have two tests left leading up to finals, and just several more papers before semester’s end. Up until now, I have survived, and in my opinion, successfully. Knock on wood that I keep it up.

In less than one week, it’ll be Halloween, which means that (for me at least) this weekend is Halloween weekend! Though dressing up in a costume isn’t a big concern of mine, I am really looking forward to going to Fright Fest tomorrow. Even though I’m not going with Loyola, a friend of mine told me that the Loyola trip to Fright Fest is also tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to running into some of my friends.

The last time I went to Fright Fest was in high school, junior year, which means that it’s been four years since my last trip. Back then, I only went on several rides and walked around with friends. This year, I want to go to the Haunted House and see the other Halloween-themed events they have set up. I also can’t wait to see the character costumes they’ll have. Here’s a picture of one from “back in the day”:

I doubt they’ve changed much, but I’ll post a new picture of one of the coolest costumes from this year in my next post. Happy Halloween weekend everyone! Stay warm, stay safe, stay fun.

Back To Classes

Back To Classes

Fall break has come to an end, but the Halloween season is just beginning. On Monday, I carved my first pumpkin. He’s not the best, but he’s not the worst, but you guys can judge that:

(We tried to make him look half happy and half evil. I don’t think it really worked.)

Along with pumpkin carving, I also got a massage from Elements Therapeutic Massage out in Bloomingdale (they have several locations). It was a 55-minute session that helped me relieve some stress. The best thing that came out of this massage were the tips I got for relieving my tension headaches, which at this time of year are pretty common for college students. I’m definitely going to use my new found advice daily and I recommend that people check out this place.

The day was wrapped up with a big self-prepared dinner, and let me mention that using the entire stove-top while cooking leaves a lot of room for disaster. Somehow we miraculously managed to not burn, break or ruin anything, but the kitchen was filled with tension and preparing food for almost an hour.

This dinner was not for any special occasion, though I’ll continue to joke that it was for the Canadian Thanksgiving. For those who didn’t know, Monday was Turkey Day for Canadians and for people like me who used that as a reason to make a feast. For those of you who did know, you either broke out the pots and pans and joined the cooking party, or you are jealously waiting for the American Thanksgiving, which is still a month and a half away.

I started writing this blog yesterday as a break from doing my homework. This week may only be a half-week, but that doesn’t make it any easier. Thursday, I have my first Social Statistics test, followed by my first Management test on Friday.

Grades are starting to trickle in, so I’m slowly getting an idea of where I stand in my classes, and though I’m doing well, I want to step it up a notch to do even better. This semester has not been an easy one and tempers are getting hotter as the weather gets colder, but two things to be happy about are that the leaves on the trees look beautiful, and in two weeks, we’ll be halfway through the semester. Let’s keep on trucking.

PS: I started re-watching the Vampire Diaries from the beginning which reminds me to tell everyone what an awesome show it is. And Season 4 premieres this Thursday at 7PM. That’s all. 🙂

Boredom= Hilarious YouTube find

Boredom= Hilarious YouTube find

So the other day I was doing a little facebook creeping and found something my friend put on my other friends wall.  I highly suggest you all watch this… it’s too cute and so hilarious!!!  Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for coming up with this clever idea.  My personal favorite kids in the video are the two boys at the end.. the one seems way too smart for his age.  Here’s the video:

I told my kids I ate all their Halloween candy