Student Snippets A Window Into The Daily Life & Thoughts of SLIS Students

Fun

The Summer Interlude

Well readers, I was right – my enthusiasm for school seems to be dutifully returning now that I’ve had a sufficient break. My online class, LIS456: Records Management, starts in a week and I am looking forward to it. As a bonus, the instructor put the entire course up on Moodle way ahead of time and encouraged us to start the readings and lectures early – if we so desired. I am very pleased that he did this and it makes a lot of sense for an online, asynchronous, self-directed class. Our professor has acknowledged that folks may have trips and other things going on during the summer and has given us the capability to manage our time and plan accordingly – increasing our chances for success in the course. Thank you, Professor Wood!  As it so happens, my family will be embarking on our first big trip of the summer the very week that class starts. I’ll be spending the first day of class at Hershey Park, PA. Woo hoo! I have mixed feelings…


Local Discoveries

I’m not going to lie, I’ve kind of failed on the planned adventuring. As I said last time in my post, I was planning on discovering more of Massachusetts on the weekends, and I was going to plan out my trips, and report back. I had a great adventure planned to write about, but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I initially planned to go into Boston and meet up with my sister (to see her for the first time in five months!) and I had a list of places to go, things to do, where to eat; however, I was unaware that first, the MBTA is doing construction on the Commuter Rail that I take on the weekends and that has messed with the schedule, and second, that Boston Calling was this past weekend, so I did not end up going to Boston.  However, I have made some discoveries about Massachusetts in my own neck of the woods. For example, the wildlife. So, as someone who is not from New England, I have had encounters with…


E-Readers, Tree Books, Libraries & Traveling

Currently I am in Manchester England.  The UK is a place I visit often as my husband is from England.  I was never much of the E-reader type.  I like to hold my books, collect them, smell them, all the things people like us in the LIS & Children’s Literature programs are all too familiar with.  I tried E-readers in the past and could never get behind them.  It didn’t feel real.  Even traveling back and forth from the UK I would lug Jonathan Frazen, Stephen King, or any of my 350+ pages of YA books across the pond.  My in-laws and husband would smile at my efforts and my diligence in my devotion to the book I was reading. (The idea behind Frazen was that if I brought a long enough book I wouldn’t have to bring several smaller books, logical right?) I did begin to utilize the public library system over here, which was a huge help and downsized the small personal library I brought with me everywhere.  Plus, it was interesting exploring…


Summer Travels

Greetings from Amarillo, Texas–home of the Big Texan 72 oz. Steak Challenge, truly epic thunderstorms, and according to a 2016 article by The Weather Channel, it’s the windiest city in America. Another fun fact? A-Town’s record wind speed clocked in at 84 mph back in 1949, and I would imagine the tornado passing by the instrumentation less than a mile away may have had something to do with that. Anyway, here I am hanging out with my younger brother, caffeinating with a coconut chai, and smack dab in the middle of my cross-country road trip. It’s hard to fathom that I was at home in Somerville just last Saturday. Since then I’ve been to California to watch one of my dearest friends tie the knot, flown to Texas to spend time with my family, and made a quick trip back to my hometown in Oklahoma to visit my Grams. Y’all. It has been the definition of a whirlwind. I’m zonked from traveling and switching up time zones, and I’m only at the halfway mark. This…


Summer is Here!

Within the past two to three weeks the weather has finally warmed up!  Today it was 85 degrees outside!  Can you believe it?!  I can barely believe that just a few short weeks ago I was wearing a parka.  Practically overnight all the trees have leafed out and everything is now so green.  It just suddenly appeared.  This is the weather I have been waiting for!  However, as I am writing this post, there is currently a tornado warning and it is pouring rain, so I guess I can’t have everything.  As I mentioned last time, I’m done with classes and I have a bit of a break before my next class starts on June 19, so I’m taking advantage of my time off to try and discover more of Massachusetts on the weekends, as I am kind of new to the area.  Also, once class starts, I still want to try and explore while the weather is nice.  A few months ago, I found the Massachusetts Office of Tourism and Travel’s website while working…


The Prettiest Afternoon

I went on a lovely little outing this past Saturday! I met a friend at Copley Square and we went to treat ourselves at L.A. Burdick’s, an amazing and decadent chocolatier that I highly suggest you try at least once in your life. After we had armed ourselves with drinking chocolate–yep, that’s a real thing–and pastries, we made our way over to the Public Garden and then strolled into the Beacon Hill neighborhood. The city was pulsing with activity, with everyone coming out to sunbathe and play and enjoy the general splendor of the afternoon. It. Was. Delightful.  Once we had finished up there, I was off to pick up a new library book…one of many that are piling up in my room now that the semester is over and I can genuinely read for pleasure…called The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. I recently joined a sci-fi feminist book club, which promises to be awesome on a whole lot of levels, and Le Guin’s book is next up in our queue.  I’ll…


First Semester: Complete!

As of 11:55 PM last night, my first semester at Simmons is over!  Not that I was counting the minutes or anything.  All of my lectures are done, readings completed, and my final project has been TURNED IN!  Even though this class was a lot of work, I loved every minute of it and learned so much.  As I said last week, I’m really proud of everything I’ve accomplished this semester, and now I have a break from schoolwork until mid-June, which is when my summer class starts.  Because I have had absolutely no free time whatsoever for the past few weeks until today because of school, stress, and personal life issues, I am a little bit relieved that I will be having a break from schoolwork, just for a little while.  As I will now be having free time, I plan on catching up on some reading.  I’ve really been slacking off-  I’m a voracious reader, and I usually try and read several books a month but I’ve been so busy lately I haven’t…


The Boston Marathon!

The Boston Marathon was yesterday and what a day for it! Being a new resident of the Northeast, I was not too keen on how big of a deal this was for the residents of Boston.  Of course, I have heard of the marathon, it is major, but being in the city to experience it first hand was a whole other thing.  Restaurants and bars offer free food and drinks to the runners, my local nail spa provided free manicures if you had a runner’s bib, and that’s what I noticed just walking down Beacon. I have the pleasure of living only steps away from Beacon Street (not too great for studying- those cowbells are loud!), one of the last major stretches to the finish line on Boylston. First, the weather.  Holy moly. I am not a runner, but I can imagine this wasn’t the most ideal condition for 26.2 miles of running.  What I understand is the streets are usually full of people cheering on the runners, but with yesterday’s conditions, there were still…


What I’m Reading Lately

I haven’t put together a proper book list in quite some time, and I figure this is one of the best places to post such a thing. I’ll tell you a little bit about some of the books I’ve read so far this year…I’m about halfway to my goal of 30, which is exciting…, what I’m in the middle of, and what’s waiting for me! Stalking God by Anjali Kumar- I just finished this one a couple of days ago, so it’s still pretty present with me. I came across Kumar in a TED talk she gave that about made my heart burst, and when I found out that she wrote about her experiences in greater detail in this book, I had to get my hands on it. Kumar’s journey, self-described as unorthodox, is full of ups and downs and fascinating turns as she hunts for big answers about the meaning of life and a spiritual home for her young daughter. I applaud her for her bravery and for sharing her beautiful insights about what…


An Apprehensive Baseball Fan

Baseball Season is upon on. Opening games were just last week! I was never one to really watch baseball on television (so long!), but I did enjoy watching the World Series last year (ASTROS!).  I do enjoy going to games because everything’s more fun in person in my opinion.  Plus, it’s a chance to drink beer and partake in the food I usually would not. Hello junk food! I learned a bit about the game by watching the World Series, which I mean, the most elementary fundamentals of the game. Enough to watch, cheer, understand, but still feed my always curious brain so I can ask ridiculous questions most baseball fans will roll their eyes at. I don’t care because it’s a learning opportunity. Right? I have a feeling that this year things will change for me as a baseball fan.  The Red Sox are literally just around the corner from us here at Simmons, and it’s across the street from my work, so I am expecting to be inundated with all things Sox this…


Edit This Category