Weekend at Vandy

I could not have asked for a better way to end the school year. It was pretty much the perfect weekend.

As far as healthy eating and working out, I did not do so great.  I did not get a chance to workout on Friday or Saturday and my healthy eating was a bit iffy at times.  But, on Sunday, I got back on track. 

This weekend, we had the most incredible weather.  80 degrees and sunny all weekend.  I was DYING to go running outside.  Not running is actually harder than I expected it to be.  Normally I don't like running on the treadmill, but even seeing people running on the treadmill at the gym gets me jealous. I think that I may break my “no running April” this upcoming weekend if we still have good weather.  One last Nashville run is necessary to end my freshman year. 

This weekend was a pretty big music festival at Vanderbilt called Rites of Spring.  Naturally it was a huge party weekend here also.  It was not really my scene, per say, so I decided not to get a ticket. Maybe I missed out on a typical Vandy experience- but hey, at least I can remember all of my weekend.

Friday night my friends Catey, Allie, and I went to the baseball game… technically.  We stayed for about half an inning before we left to go get dinner.  Why did we even go?  The free t-shirts!  Then we went to Moe’s for dinner. I had nachos.  SO DELICIOUS. I hadn’t had good nachos like that in a while. 

After dinner, we went to downtown Nashville, what we like to call Honky Tonk Row. My friend Daniel came with us also.  We started out by doing karaoke at a place called Lonnie’s. Now normally, I am one to watch and sing along from my own seat.  But I’m tired of wondering if I will regret not doing things when I look back in the future, so I decided to sing.  My friend Daniel and I sang “Something Like That” by Tim McGraw.  Such a classic country song, right?  Perfect for Nashville. Perfect for welcoming summer.  

After Lonnie’s, we went to a line dancing place that is also downtown.  I know line-dancing sounds lame and so incredibly southern.  But it is honestly so much fun.  They have live music and people teaching different line dances for each song.  The best part though was when there was no one teaching a dance.  The band was just playing one of their songs and Daniel started dancing.  I started copying what he was doing to poke some fun at him. Catey and Allie started doing it also.  But then, the entire dance floor started doing the dance also.  It was SO SO SO much fun.  So, hey, maybe I can count line dancing as my workout for Friday. 

Saturday morning I had to wake up early to help with an admitted students day for Vanderbilt.  I served on a student panel to talk about life at Vandy and also got to talk with different prospective students.  The Dean of Peabody College organized the day, which is the college that my major is in.  Because there were only 7 students on the panel, I got to talk with the Dean a lot during the day.  It was nice to be able to get to know her better.

I loved being able to talk about Vandy.  One of the coolest parts was at the end when a prospective elementary education student and her mom came up to me specifically to ask some questions.  The daughter is really interested in doing marching band and does not want to be involved in greek life, which is pretty much my exact description as a student at Vandy.  After I talked with them for a bit, the mom said that she is a lot less worried about sending her daughter to Vanderbilt after hearing how well I am doing.  I had that great of an effect on a complete stranger that I only talked to for about 5 minutes. How great is that? I left with a smile on my face.

On Saturday night, I had no big plans.  I took a nap after helping with the admitted students event.  Then I had dinner on campus with Allie and Jordan.  Allie left after dinner, but Jordan and I stayed outside and enjoyed the wonderful weather.  We talked about how quick this year went by for the both of us and reminisced a bit on all that has happened in the 9 months that we have been here.  I still cannot believe that it is almost over.  I went to bed super early on Saturday night.  Lame, I know. 

Sunday was wonderful.  I worked out in the morning, and then did some work.  Sunday was also puppy play day! The university organized for an animal shelter to bring some dogs on campus for students to play with as a stress reliever. I met some cute furry friends.

 

90 pounds of pure dog

Our favorite dog, Kylie

After the dogs, my friends Allie, Courtney, and I went to the Commons Carnival.  This was basically a big end of the year celebration for the freshmen students.  Vanderbilt is a go big or go home kind of place.  With that being said, you can imagine how great this carnival was.  Food, dunking tank, free shirts, funnel cakes, bouncy houses, and so much more.  Jordan let me put a pie in his face AND dunk him in the dunking tank.  This may or may not have been one of the best parts of the carnival. 

 

We also got Winnie the Pooh balloons. 

On Sunday night, I had a Spanish presentation to finish up and I could not focus in my room, so I went to the library.  I went to this study room in the back of the library where I used to study with some friends at the beginning of the school year.  I had not been there in such a long time.  It really made think back to all that has happened this past year some more.  Luckily, I left the library with a smile on my face also. 

Keep a look out for a post on Passover as a college student and a post looking back at my year at Vanderbilt!