Sorry for the long wait of a new blog! My Christmas was very exciting and great. I got to spend some great quality time with my family and some friends. At Christmas, we had dinner at my house and then we opened our gifts. I got many great gifts, some movies, clothes and a nice blanket.

My favorite gift was my Nintendo Wii. I can't wait to bring it up to my room in the residence hall at MAC and play it with some friends. I also received some games with it. The great thing about the Wii is that you can connect to the internet wirelessly, which will come in handy at Mount Aloysius because we are a 100% wireless campus. I can check news stories, weather conditions around the globe, and can download old Nintendo games. It also plays all of my GameCube games, so I can still play all of my old favorites as well.

In a week, I will be heading to Mississippi with a bunch of Mount Aloysius students and staff members. We are going to be rebuilding some of the damaged homes and neighborhoods that were hit by Hurricane Katrina. I am looking forward to sharing this event with all of you...My family and I are heading out to see a movie, so I will chat a little more later.

Until Next Time,

John

Posted by John Porter at 6:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am officially finished for the semester, so I am going to keep this short and sweet. In a few minutes, I am going to be leave MAC and be on my way home.

My finals and my final projects went well, so I am excited to review my grades. I will be able to check out my semester grades online on Monday. I have finished all of my packing, and Justin and I cleaned our entire suite, minus Owen's room. We have been keeping it clean for the entire semester, so it wasn't too bad. I am sure ready for a break, but I am going to miss all of my friends. Thankfully, I will get to see some of them over Christmas.

Some of my fellow Mounties and I are going to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi to volunteer in Camp Coast Care. They are a non-profit organization inviting people from across the country to help rebuild the Gulf from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. I am going to be down there for a week from December 30 to January 7. I am looking forward to helping in any way that I can. Jenna and Petey are coming along as well. Well, I have to get ready to go home for the break...think of us while we are traveling south!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

I'll see you all in a month...

John

Posted by John Porter at 7:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is always the most challenging week in college...It's Finals Week. It is a time filled with quiet, coffee, and getting down to business. After this is all done and over, I am going home for Christmas Break.

I have two final exams, two papers, a group presentation, and a reflection paper. My two exams are in my American National Government and History and Politics of the Far East classes. I am not worried about the American National Government test, but I am somewhat anxious about the Far East one. As long as I study hard, as I have all semester, I should do fine. My group presentation is in my Geography class. We have to present the Middle East Crisis from the perspective of the Americans. It sounds easy, but there is a lot of information to go through. We have to put together a twenty-five minute presentation. I have volunteered to put the whole thing together, so I have a little bit more work to do than the other members do. I also have a paper due on the progress that our group made during the semester.

One of my other papers is a research paper for my Dorothy Day class. I am going to talk about the importance of community in our world. I am even going to reference the Mount Aloysius College community, and how it makes a positive impact on the staff, professors, and students. My reflection paper is on my Journalism class. I am required to talk about how the class challenged me, and what I have learned from the process. I am looking forward to this paper. I really enjoyed that class.

Well, I am going to get some more work done before I head to my job in the Student Union. Hope to see you on campus soon!

John

Posted by John Porter at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So here is a recap of my weekend in Hershey-Part 2...

After waking up bright and early on Sunday, Justin, Jenna, Laura, and I headed to breakfast. The breakfast buffet was amazing. They had French toast, eggs, bacon, and much more. I thought the fruit bar was the greatest part of breakfast. After breakfast, we sat through the opening session for Sunday. They continued to give us more information about the history of Relay. I really learned a lot of information.

My two breakout sessions were on fundraising and survivorship. My first one, "Find the Booty," gave us plenty of fundraising ideas for the upcoming relay. I really liked the ideas with the rocks and the fundraiser where you duct tape a professor to the wall. My second session was "Treasures of Relay." This one was about cancer survivors, and ways you can include them in your Relay. I think all four of these sessions gave all of us new ideas for future Relay for Life events at Mount Aloysius College.

After our breakouts, we held our closing ceremony and had lunch. In my opinion, the lunch was the best meal while we were there. It was Mexican themed and they had an assortment of great foods from tacos, fajitas, salsa, and refried beans. After lunch was over, we said goodbye to all of our new friends and decided to head out, but first we had to stop in the Hershey store. The store had all things Hershey, stuffed animals, t-shirts, glasses, and an espresso shop. I couldn't resist buying some Christmas presents for my family.

After making our purchases, we left Hershey and made our way back to Good Ole' Cresson, PA. Now I have to get ready for some of my finals...

Later-

Posted by John Porter at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm back from an extremely busy weekend. I had a lot of fun, so let me recap the details...

After Justin got out of his history class, Laura, Jenna, Justin, and I headed to Jenna's house in Shellsburg, PA. It is a small town located near Bedford, PA. On the way, we stopped in Claysburg and had dinner at a local pizzeria. At Jenna's house we watched some TV and the recently released movie, Accepted. It was a great movie and we all shared many laughs. After watching them, we decided to head to bed.

On Saturday, we left Jenna's house at 8am. It was a nice drive and we eventually made it to Hershey around 10:30. When we got to the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, we were amazed by the sheer size and beauty of the hotel. After figuring out where we needed to go, we registered with some pirates...The theme was Pirates of the CUREabbean. We made our way back to the front desk to see if our rooms were ready. The room Justin and I were sharing was ready, but Jenna and Laura's was not. We decided to unload all of our bags in our room, and then we would move their stuff to their room later. The hotel room was amazing. They had two large, queen size beds, a fridge, and a TV, just to name a few things. Since this was Hershey, we each got a Hershey bar, and a bar of soap with chocolate mixed inside of it.

The event itself was amazing and exciting. We received our lunches inside of boxes, but we were delighted to find gourmet food inside. The sandwiches were great, but the water from New Zealand topped it all. I even brought one of them back to school for decoration. During the opening session, we were entertained by the dancing of "dead pirates." It was very amusing to watch their bodies jerk back and forth, as they made their way to the center of the room. Everyone introduced himself or herself and then we learned a little bit of history of the Relay For Life. After that, we all split up into our own breakout sessions. My first one was "Captain's Crew," or Team Development. My second one was "Walk the Plank," a session describing the leadership qualities involved in Relay. Both sessions were interesting and I learned a lot of information. Afterwards, we moved Jenna and Laura into their hotel room across the hall. Then we headed to dinner. The food was great, but I really liked the little bottles of Heinz ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. I had to take one back to show my little brother.

After dinner, we were all split up into groups for a scavenger hunt. Our team was the first one back to the main room with all of the puzzle pieces. As a prize, we won $5 to use at the Relay for Life store. I bought a T-shirt with my winnings. After the hunt, they held Aaarrgnival, which was a little carnival. They held a dance off, concert, and had games for all of us to play. It was awesome. Laura and Justin got their groove on as I took pictures. After busting a move, we all decided to call it a night, and we headed to our rooms. I took a shower and then jumped into the nice, soft bed. I don't think I have ever fallen asleep so quickly before.

Well, I need to get some reading done for tomorrow... I will finish my story a little later...

John

Posted by John Porter at 7:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It is December! I only have two more weeks remaining this semester. I am going to miss my friends, but I can hardly wait to go home for Christmas Break. Here is how the rest of my week went...

I had a busy day on Tuesday. I got my test back in my American National Government class. I got an A on it. I also had a Student Government Association meeting. We talked about starting a recycling program on campus. I feel that this is a great idea and important for our environment. We also talked about Christmas at Mount Aloysius College. It is an annual event that brings the entire campus community together. We celebrate Christmas, have refreshments, and Santa even visits! As a club, Children's Advocacy is going to bring crafts and snacks for the children to do. SGA is also serving mocktails and we are even having a chocolate fountain.

On Wednesday, I had two papers due. One was for my Dorothy Day class. I had to compare the values of the Catholic Worker Movement to the Sisters of Mercy. I was surprised with the amount of things I found that both groups shared. My other paper was for my Honors Class. I talked about the roles of fate, destiny, and prophecy in the Aeneid. We also started a new book for Honors, Paradise Lost. It was an interesting book talking about the war between Heaven and Hell.

On Thursday, my major research page paper was due. I turned it in, and I am now waiting for the results. We also had an overnight guest in our room. It was a prospective student and prospective Presidential Ambassador. He was from Hershey, PA and was excited to be staying with us. I hope he had a great time visiting and hanging out with us. We took him to the basketball game on campus. The girls and the guys team won! Both games were really exciting and fun to watch. After the game, we headed back to our residence hall, and we watched TV before heading to bed.

On Friday, our new friend made his way back home to Hershey. We are going to be going there tomorrow morning. Later tonight, after Justin gets out of class, Laura, Jenna, Justin, and I are heading to Jenna's house to stay the night.

Well, I need to get to my packing for this weekend. I hope everyone's December starts out on the right foot.

John

Posted by John Porter at 2:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)