Equestrian Blog

Wednesday we started at the Field Museum of Natural History and I just LOVE that type of museum! There is just so much to learn and it seems like never enough time to learn it, especially for us that morning. We only had two and a half hours at the museum and the recommended time is a whole day, so to say the least, we did some speed-learning. One of the special exhibits that was going on while we were there was called the “horse” and it was about the domestication of the horse and its role within different civilizations throughout history.                     

Me being the horse person that I am,  as well as three other people on the trip, I paid the extra fee to see the exhibit and it was definitely worth it. We spent about an hour of our two and a half hours on just that exhibit, so when we were through we made a quick decision on what else we wanted to see and all, but ran through three or four more exhibits. These included the mummy exhibit,the dinosaur exhibit, and the gem exhibit. OH! And we must not forget the time we spent looking at Sue,the giant T-rex that greets visitors from the far end of the front hall. We may not have learned as much as we would have if we had taken our time on these, but at least we got to see more of them. 

                                                                                                                         (Me and Sue) 

When our short trip at the museum was done, we headed across town to a nice little cafe known for their pastries. There, we enjoyed a nice but crowded lunch of sandwiches, wraps, and some scrumptious pastries.

Our next stop was the Bohemian Cemetery. Unfortunately, it was a ways away, including traffic, and by the time we got there, they had closed for the day. We still got to drive around the perimeter of it, though, and it was the largest cemetery I have ever seen. Chicago is a big city, though, so I guess they have a lot of dead people - I am sorry; I know that is really morbid.

Anyways, after our drive-by-tour, we continued on our journey to this really neat little shop called Renegade Handmade. I think it is associated with the Renegade 

(Renegade Handmade )

Dinner was on our own Wednesday night, so me and my roomies hit the streets

 once more in an attempt to find some food. We didn't really know where we were going so we just wondered the blocks around the hotel until we found somewhere that looked good. The winning location was B&B Diner. It was a quaint hometown, dinner-style restaurant that offered a variety of foods. The service was great and the food delicious. We were all very pleasedwith our investigation skills in finding such a lovely place to eat. The rest of our evening was spent making an adventure of our walk back to the hotel.

                                                                           (Heaven and I in front of the Chicago Theater)

Apparently we did a whole lot on this trip because these blogs to tell you about it are a lot longer then I thought they would be. So, I am going to leave you here for today. The rest of the story will be finished, though, in part 3. After that, I will be a little less long winded; I promise. :)

I have always loved big cities, the feeling of becoming invisible in the crowd, following the flow of people. I don't think I would ever like to live in a big city, at least not for any great length of time, but I do enjoy visiting. It had been awhile since I got my last “big city” fix but that was taken care of last week...

For Spring Break this year, I joined nine other members of the Judson College Art Club for a road trip to Chicago. The ten of us, our Art professor Mr. Adams, and his wife all loaded up in one of the schools twelve passenger vans and headed for the Windy City. It was a tight, twelve hour drive ( fourteen including, stops for food and such.) with twelve people plus luggage in that van. I am convinced that twelve passenger vans just aren’t meant for twelve fullsized 

 humans and their stuff. Regardless of the lack of leg room, we made it to Chicago Monday night with everyone and everything we left Judson with that morning. Upon arrival at our hotel, we quickly unloaded, settled into our rooms ( they weren't much less crowded then the van - we had five people per room) and hit the streets to start our week's adventure with some dinner.

And an adventure it was.

We decided to make the most of our few days in Chicago and so we started with eating Indian food. A few members of the group, including the Adams', had eaten Indian before and had their favorite dishes, but most of us had no idea what was on the menu. Alabama doesn't have Indian cuisine on every corner. It was kind of late when we made it to the restaurant and they were about to close, so our dining decisions had to be made quickly. Despite the necessity of a quick dish selection, I rather enjoyed my meal - a little spicier then I am used to, but good.

Tuesday the fun was just beginning. We started our morning by walking the two or

Our next stop was lunch. We had met up with one of Mr. Adam's friends, who currently lives in Chicago, before we left the museum and he and his roommate took us to a nice Irish pub where we enjoyed some delicious Chicago-style deep dish pizza. The restaurant was located back close to our hotel, so instead of walking that far again we took our first ride of the trip on the subway. Some of the girls had never been on the subway before and were rather surprised when the train lurched forward, causing them to almost lose their balance.

We spent our afternoon at Navy Pier, one of Chicago's must sees. The pier includes a giant Ferris wheel from which passengers can view the city scape with a bird's eye view. We of course had to take a ride. The pier also has a few other attractions that are seasonal, and were therefore not open, shopping, and a stained glass museum. We left the pier in time for part of our group to make it to the theater to see the Blue Man Group and the rest of us headed to the hotel for a rest before dinner.

Once we had had our power break, a group of us took to wondering the streets in search of some picture perfect night skylines. It was a nice time to get to see the city in a different light. These nightly walks became almost routine and we most often found ourselves at a Walgreens at some point during the walk. There seemed to be one every few blocks and by this time at night, everything else was surprisingly closed. It was generally around nine o'clock and we expected the big city to be open late.  I guess we were relying too much on the Hollywood portrayal of large city life. The Walgreens was nice though and often had souvenirs, t-shirts and such so that we were able to get some of our shopping done.

* ok, this blog is a little long, I know, but I don't want you to miss the experience. Check back in a few days for the second part of the trip.*

 I don't remember if I have ever written much about being a member of the Art Club here at Judson College, but it is one of my many extracurricular activities. This is my second year as an Art Club member and I was actually elected to serve as the treasurer for this year.

I have always had a love for art, or I guess more accurately, being creative, so I was really excited when theArt Club became more active on campus last year. It has been a great experience, having exposure to different types of art and techniques, getting to know and hang out with some really awesome Judson Girls that I probably wouldn't have known very well otherwise, and having the opportunity to serve Judson College through the club.

Some of the things we have gotten to do on campus for the school are: print t-shirts for other clubs and organizations, and make prints with prospective students during events like preview days and scholarship days. We also have a number of other opportunities coming up in the future. Unfortunately, I don'tremember what they all are. One of them that I do remember though is the upcoming scholarship day on February 19! Rather then making screen prints with the prospective students like we have in the past, we are planning on demonstrating another type of art that is created by the students here at Judson. Exactly what we are going to do is a secret, to only be reveled on scholarship day. So, if you are not already signed up,  you should consider visiting our gorgeous campus and checking out not only what the Art Club has to offer, but what the other clubs and the rest of the school has to offer to the students of Judson College.

Like I have said, the Art Club is pretty active here on campus, but we have started something this semester to help us be more active in our community...

One of the new areas of study offered here at Judson is graphic design, and it is something that a number of us, including myself, are involved in. So, the project that we have undertaken is to develop and maintain a website that promotes the city of marion and the businesses that are located here. The website will be a central hub, so to speak, that provides viewers with core information about our community, what it has to offer, and what is currently going on. Our goal for this website is to attract interest and business to this area.

The website is still under construction, but it is live so you should stop by and check it out at www.marionmatters.com . And don't forget to keep checking back to see the progress!

I think this has been the most interesting weekend of the year! 

It started off on Friday when I got to meet some really awesome Judson prospective students. Three girls that are looking at coming to Judson next year came to campus for scholarship day, and because of how far away they lived, they came up Friday afternoon. Since I am now a Judson Ambassador, they stayed with me.  It was my first time having prospectives stay with me and, let me tell you, I learned real quick that my room was not designed for four people to live in... There were mattresses on the floor from one side of the room to the other and in order to get to the door, closet, or bathroom you had to climb over one of the mattresses. It was all cool, though. The three girls came together so they all knew each other, wanted to stay together and  thought it was rather funny that I had such a small room.  Despite the tight space, they  were all very impressed with The Judson and I am hoping to see them next year. 

Friday evening, after everyone got settled in, we went to a bonfire on campus hosted by Student Life. I have been to at least one other held on campus last year, but this one defiantly came out on top.  Everyone was just having a good time socializing with each other and getting to know the prospectives that were already on campus and, eventually, we had a little bit of party time. We may not be able to sing or dance, but we had fun anyways. 

Saturday was Scholarship Day and my duties as an Ambassador had me up bright and early. I was in Jewett by 7:45 a.m. to have my picture taken and then greet arriving students, welcome them to campus and answer any questions they might have.  Once everyone was registered, they moved on to the first event on their itinerary and I went to get ready to head to the barn for our demonstration. 

Our demonstration this time was Christmas themed and all of the riding classes performed a routine. It was great.  I don't think I have ever seen people decorate themselves and horses like Christmas in this way ever before. There was garland  and bows everywhere! 

When the demonstration was over I got to hang out with my dad and step sisters who came up to watch me ride.  It was the first time they have seen me ride since I have been at Judson. We went out and had dinner(ish) ---it was only 3 in the afternoon---. After dad headed home  I hung out with my JC friends in the dorm lobby. After everyone else had dinner we went and saw the play that the drama department was putting on, Eldela Lizard and Pekena. It was cute, but I was glad it was kind of short because I got to watch the second half of the Bama game with my other JC friends. 

When the game was over we all realized we were hungry so we made a quick trip to Hardee's and then sat in the parking lot and ate while a couple of the people in our group provided the entertainment, dancing and singing to the music playing in the car. 

Today, I got up around 11 and then went to T-town with some of the girls that I have become friends with this year. We went out to eat and then headed to the University of Alabama's quad where they were having a quidditch tournament. Yeah, thats right quidditch, like the game they play in the Harry Potter movies! All of the players ran around the field on broom sticks and they had a person dressed in all yellow to be the Snitch.  The Snitch could run all over campus and the Seeker had to chase them all over campus.  It was amazing.  

Then we went to kick a soccer ball around with friends of the girls I was with. Ok... I SAT and watched the rest of THEM play soccer.  It is not my fault that I have friends that are soccer players and that I am in no way athletic. I can ride a horse and that is about the extent of my athletic ability. 

We are now back at Judson, well, we have been here for about  2 hours, and are working on homework and getting ready for another week.  

The best part of the weekend was simply that I was able to hang out with friends, get to know some of my friends better, and make some new friends.