My new love affair is with this incredibly spirited week here at Penn State. This week comes only once a year and it is full of participation, commitment, and just plain fun!! During this week all of the greek organizations are put into teams  of three or four sororities or fraternities and use the whole week to participate in events to compete against each other! During the day the activities can range from a Greek pageant to a date auction to a soccer match or dodgeball game! Throughout the week each team accumulates spirit points and at the end of the week the team with the most spirit points wins!! During the nights each team goes out to a party that is themed differently every day! The themes can range from messy social like cake party or foam party to greek toga theme or anything that will allow us to dress fancy! Every night of the week each goes to one of the frat houses and celebrates!

This year the theme for greek week is the Hunger Games! So every team is actually part of a district and the last surviving team (team with most points) will win the week!! This week is full of spirit and enthusiasm for our greek organizations and for our amazing school!! Although I couldn’t really participate in it this year because of a horrible cold that came in the worst time possible, I am super excited to be able to experience it fully next year, since this is a yearly tradition that we love to keep alive!!

My new love affair is with the restaurant pita pit! This restaurant is exactly what is sounds like! It is a place to make your own pitas! You first decide if you want white or wheat pita (i usually get the wheat to make healthier). Then, you pick the type of meat that you would like: chicken, steak, turkey, the choices are pretty much endless. You can even get a vegetarian one if you decide you don’t want any protein in yours! After that, you decide on all of the sides that you would like to put inside of your pita and any sauces that you want as well. They have pretty much anything you can imagine to put inside of a pita. Personally, lettuce, tomatoes, guacamole and honey mustard is the perfect combination of yummy goodness, inside of the wheat pita with the steak!!!

Before I came to Penn State, I had never tried this restaurant! You really don’t know what you are missing until you have it! My sister, who is a junior here at Penn State, took me on a lunch date and decided to take me to that specific restaurant! I am still thanking her to this day for introducing me to my favorite restaurant!

The best part about this restaurant is that it really is directed towards college students! It is not very expensive and they have deals every week that make it even cheaper! They know exactly how to get the college students attention by sending emails about their promotions! I really do encourage everyone to try this restaurant at least once! and since you are going to be out there for Pita Pit, you might as well accompany your pita with the tea shop around the corner! Tea Time is unlike any other tea!! It has millions of different flavor combinations and the best part is the bubba that they add!! Bubba is like little, gummy balls of flavor that go inside the tea to make it test so much better, and no to mention how fun it is to eat!

So, go eat some pita pit, and have some tea to make it the best college meal you have had in a while!

For this post I wanted to talk about my new love affair with the series Divergent. I had recently never even heard of this series until I went with my roommate this past sunday to the movie theater. We had no idea what we were going to watch, but after skimming through a few trailers of the movies playing in the theater we settled on Divergent. At first I was pretty skeptical about the movie, I’m nor such abig fan of movies that are not very realistic. But all of my opinions changed when the movie started and I was completely hooked when the movie ended. So hooked that when I got home I decided to start reading the books. There are three books in the series and each about 400-500 pages long. As of now i am on the third book, finish book number two in just one day. I am so captivated by this story that I cannot seem to pull away from these books. But I am even more excited for the next two movies to come out.

This movie has the perfect amount of drama,action, comedy and romance. It is truly one of my new favorite movies. Some even say that it is as good as the catching fire. I definitely encourage everyone to watch this movie, but even more I encourage you to read the books because they are so captivating and the perfect excuse for a fun read.

For those of you who have never even heard of this series I’ve attached the trailer to it here so you can experience a little bit of the action for yourselves.  So grab a friend and take a break from classes and studies to enjoy a fun, dramatic movie with some popcorn and some soda.

Let me know what you think of the movie!!

For this post I though I would write about my love affair with the post spring break diet! Everyone knows that in the months and weeks leading up to spring break most girls are starving themselves and heading to the gym twice a day. Your portions become the size of bird food and your workouts are as intense as the football teams. Spring break is known as the week in the year where people go to the beach, pool, etc. Of course girls work their hardest to get into shape for this season. However, it is so amusing to me that people push themselves and change their eating and working out habits all for this one week out of the year! I can’t really judge these girls because I often find myself being one of these girls. However, that is not the most amusing part. The minute that spring break is over everyone goes back to eating like they haven’t eating in years and most often forget what a gym is. The pizza line in the commons gets long again, and the poor salad station is deserted. This is the time when everyone is once again enjoying the cookies in west commons and indulging themselves with the ice cream from the creamery.

Well I decided that this year it was going to be different for me. No way did we work so hard in the weeks before spring break to get be in shape to just throw it all away now that the break is over. Luckily, my roommate is studying nutrition and is going to help me maintain a healthy diet while still being able to enjoy the delicacies of the commons, but without throwing away all of the hard work put into spring break bodies. Every day she comes back with a new tip that she learned in class. Now some of them sound really silly, but in the end they really do make sense. So far she has come up with:

1. Eat slowly that way you get full faster with less food

2. DO NOT eat anything that has trans fat

3.Exercise at least 3 times a week

4. Eat protein to keep you full longer

I am hoping that she comes back with more tips learned in class and this diet is successful. As for the gym, I discovered that the white building has really great classes that range from zumba, aerobics, kickboxing, abs, etc. Everyone should really try them and continue to make healthy choices.

For this post, I decided to talk about my love affair with my country of birth, Venezuela. I was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela until the age of 9. When I moved to the United States I was introduced to a whole new culture with new experiences. Although I have completely embraced the American culture today, I have never forgotten where I came from.

Venezuela is a beautiful country full of delicious food, fascinating people, and amazing sightseeing. Or at least it used to be. The major reason for why my family and I had to move all those years ago was due to the insecurity that was arising for the every day life. We became accustomed to taking different routes to school every day in order to avoid kidnappers learning our routes, not staying out past eight, and staying away from certain parts of the city. My parents wanted something better for me and for my sisters. However, since I have left Venezuela the situation has escalated from bad to worse with increased kidnappings, homicides and violence as a whole. The change of regime one year ago has made the situation in Venezuela unbearable for the people still living in the country. Speaking as someone who still has family in the country, the people of Venezuela and I am praying for a change in the government that will better the standards of living and safety of the people in the country.

The regime in power now has oppressed its people and continues to violate the simple human rights of freedom of speech and more. Several television channels have been blocked off from the people leaving the people of Venezuela blind to everyday news. On February 12, the students of Venezuela began to go out to protest to the streets for their rights. There have been many deaths due to this, and the desperate people of Venezuela are hoping to reach out to the international community for help through social media such as facebook, twitter, and youtube. My best friend’s sister, who is a communications major and also a Venezuelan living in the United States, made a documentary of the situation of Venezuela in an attempt to inform the international community of the treacheries that are occurring in the country today. This video was posted on youtube and has gone viral since. It is such an accurate description of the situation, and does a fantastic job of describing the daily struggles of the people of Venezuela. I have linked the video here, and encourage everyone to watch it! It is always important to stay informed on what is going on in other countries because without knowing it we may be able to help. 

I know that I already wrote a post about this amazing dance marathon last week! But that was before I had actually attended the event! This past weekend was easily one of the best weekends of my entire life. It was an unforgettable experience and one that I hope I can be a part of for the next three years! Seeing the kids faces as they entered the bjc and danced on the dance floor was incredible! The feeling that I got knowing that all of the people in the bjc were there supporting those children and not to mention that dancers that worked so hard all weekend was amazing!

I loved the fact that literally anybody can participate in this even one way or another! There is so many committees that anyone can join in order to support this incredible cause. The OPP and R&R are just two examples of the great ways to get involved. This committees work all weekend long to make sure that THON runs smoothly, and that is so admirable. I participate in THON with my sorority kappa kappa gamma, and we are partnered with a fraternity delta chi. We all wore the same shirts supporting our two beautiful THON children and also put on silly things such as tutus and headbands and sparkles to fit the mood! We always had people in the stands and were sure to support our dancers all night long. Personally, I stayed there for a full 40 hours and by the end I could not feel my feet at all, but it was all worth it when family hour came on and everyone began to hug each other and hold each other as the tears fell from our faces. This is the closest I have felt to my sorority. Hearing all of the stories really made me understand why we THON and do what we do!

When they finally revealed the final amount of money everyone screamed and cried! It was such an amazing moment that brought everyone together! At that exact moment I was so proud to be part of a school that holds so much value in a charity like THON!

So now I am totally and completely FTK, how was your THON experience??

WE DANCE IN TWO!! It is only fair that I contribute one of my love affairs to the most amazing student led charity in the world, THON! I know that if I am anything, I am FTK!!! THON is such an amazing event that the amazing students of this university started and continue to do every year! The fact that such a huge amount of money is raised is such an amazement to me! The students dedication to the cause is so inspiring and I feel so blessed that I get to participate and be a part of such a great experience!

When deciding where I wanted to go to school, THON played a huge role in my decision to chose Penn State. Although this is a great school academically, there are a lot of schools that are great academically. THON really made Penn State stand out for me! The fact that students work all year long to raise so much money for this cause was astonishing. I had never seen such big commitment before, and I think that it accurately portrays the type of people that attend a Penn State. It is a community of caring, conscious, and selfless individuals that I would be both proud and lucky to be a part of.

I am so excited for my first THON experience this weekend! I cannot wait to spend 48 hours on my feet, dancing, singing and cheering on for a cure. Cheering on the kids that are there, and the families that rely on us for support! I encourage everyone to come out to the BJC center and experience this exceptional event for themselves. And if you are one of the people who worked endlessly this year in support of this cause, then I admire you so much! FTK forever !

So this may sound very redundant but in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day, I fall more and more in love with it. Now, I do not have a boyfriend, so the actual day of Valentine’s is a bit depressing for me. But I do not just focus on the one day of Valentines, instead I like to focus on people’s attitudes the weeks leading up to the actual day! Boyfriends and girlfriends both become more loving and caring all of a sudden. It is a very interesting thing to watch with all of your friends that have boyfriends and girlfriends. Likewise, their attitudes as a whole change. It is really like their is love in the air!! The stores and streets are all decorated with Valentine’s decorations, all pink and red with hearts. Everywhere you look, there is something red!

There are many stories that explain the history of Valentine’s day itself, lots of different theories on the origin of this date. I recently read a few that I thought were worth sharing. A popular theory is one that dates back to the Roman Empire when the empire was under the reign of Claudius II in 270 A.D. It was wartime in the empire at the time, and this ruthless ruler wanted all of his soldiers to be completely focused on the war. He believed that single soldiers were better soldiers, therefore he would not let men in the kingdom marry. A bishop, named Valentine, disagreed with the ruthless ruler and went against his wishes by performing secret wedding ceremonies for men and women in the empire. When Valentine was caught for going against the ruler Claudius he was executed for his crimes on February 14, but before he was executed, he wrote a love note to the jailor’s daughter and signed it “From your Valentine.” and from there the Valentines tradition began on every fourteenth of February.

Although that is the most popular Valentine Day story, there are also many more interesting theories on how Valentines Day came to be. But, no matter how the day came to be, it is a day of love and appreciation for your loved ones and one that I look forward to every year! Whether you spend it with a special someone going out to dinner and sharing a box of chocolate, or whether you spend it with your best friend eating a bucket of ice cream and watching movies, it is a day to look forward to! What will you do this year?

Since we are starting off a new semester, I thought I would discuss my new love affair with the spring semester. New classes, new teachers (for the most part) and new class buddies to fill your days. It is always exciting to start something new and meet new people. New classes give us the opportunity to continue to challenge our minds and advance our academic goals. This semester I am not only very content about all of the “new” in my life, but I am also incredibly happy with the schedule that I ended up with. Throughout all of your years in college, students are always trying to come up with “the perfect schedule.” This the schedule that will allow you to wake up relatively late for classes, but also finish early enough to be able to do other things in the afternoon. This semester I am so happy to report that I have a very pleasing schedule. Most days I do not start classes until 11 in the morning and finish at around 3. This is the best time during the day to have classes, in my opinion. This schedule has given me the opportunity to sleep well, have enough time for school work, and get involved in other activities on campus. This is definitely something to be excited about since THON is only 24 days away!!

Of course, there is also a down time to the spring semester. I have to say that I definitely do not enjoy the freezing, cold weather that we are enduring in State College. I hate having to wear four different layers of shirts, and three layers of pants just to stay warm, and we cant forget about the gloves, hat and parka that are all requirements to bare the walk to class. This weather is just discouraging and honestly somewhat depressing. Once your classes end for the day and you get into your cozy building, it is almost impossible to leave again. The gym has become a distant memory and taking a stroll downtown for some fresh air has become impossible. Even going out on the weekends has become a dreadful experience. Who would chose to walk around downtown to get to your friend’s apartment in the windy weather, when you can stay in your room, under your covers watching a movie? The desire to be out and about has disappeared with the sunny and warm weather of the fall semester.

For my last passion blog I have decided to write about my love affair with blog posting. Before this class I had never blogged before, or even used a blog. It was all extremely new to me. At the beginning I was not sure I was going to like posting blogs about what I was thinking and my opinions. I thought “this is just going to be busy work.” But after just a few weeks of posting I was hooked. Blog posting is a great way to express your opinions and get them out to the world. It gives you an opportunity to truly express your feelings about a specific topic without any judgements from anybody else. There is such a huge range of topics that can be discussed in a blog post, but that is not even the best part.

The best part of blogging is the discussion that your posts and your opinions can start. Blogging is considered rhetoric because it can spark conversation and discussion in your actual post, but it can also spark up conversation when people take your post and your opinions to a get together or reunion with friends. Your opinions will spread and eventually stimulate productive conversation about a specific topic that is interesting to you. Eventually even being able to change someone’s mind.

Blogging has the power to change minds and make people take action. This power can be used for both good and evil. A dedicated blogger can make his/her loyal readers change their minds about a controversial issue or take action towards changing something controversial. This power can however, also be used for evil. Blogging is something that everybody should try at some point in their life. You never know when something you never thought you would be good at turns out to be your favorite thing to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays.