Excited for winter break!

      First of all the best part of winter break is no school. A hole month of relaxing and not worrying about homework is needed. During winter break I am planning on going on a ski vacation. My brothers and I are big skiers and try to get out west once a year. About two years ago we went to Jackson Hole Wyoming. The skiing was great and the experience was even better. We usually drive out to the mountains and plan on doing it again this winter. I do not know the final destination that we intend to go to because we usually just drive to where ever fresh snow is. I know its a little early to talk about winter break but I am super excited!

Weekend at home

      This weekend I had the chance to go home. Friday at about 2:30 I left Eau Claire and headed to my home town of Blaine Minnesota. It is about one hour and a half to home so not a terrible drive. That night I had dinner with my family and some other relatives. It was nice to see everybody. I also got to see my girlfriend which is always nice. Saturday morning I got up early and played golf at the course I grew up at. This brought back some very good memories. The rest of the weekend I kinda just chilled and did homework.
      I got back to school at about 10.pm. Sunday night. Most of my homework was done so I finished up a few things and got myself ready for the school week.

Next Year Housing

      Next year at Eau Claire, six other friends and I found a house to stay in. We knew that if we looked early we would find a better house. The house we chose is split into two parts. Each part has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Seven people are staying so one room will have two people in it. The location of this house is about 0.9 miles away from campus. All of us agreed that this was a reasonable distance away from school.
      Although this change is exciting, it will also come with some difficulties. First of all the food problem. I will be providing for myself and not just eating at the caf. Second the whole cleaning thing. The bathrooms and the kitchen will both be a pain. The good news is, we will have more freedom than ever before. I am excited to continue the college life here at UWEC next year!

More Connections

      I have notice many connections between my geography class and economics class. Many of the vocabulary words in each class are similar or the same. One example is gross domestic product (GDP). About a month ago, my economics professor assigned a project. We were told told to find national GDP and graph it. Just recently in geography we were assigned to look at the GDP certain countries. We were also told to make maps showing top exports for each country. Both of these classes are similar because when I learn something in one class it can relate to the other.

Sick of caf food

      This weekend I did not eat at the caf once! So instead for just about every meal I went out. Taco bell, taco johns, fazoli's, and culver's was where I was eating. It was nice to eat some different food but it also put a hit on my bank account. So knowing now the pros and cons, I think I will stick to eating at the caf!

Progress

      After a few test in each class I have noticed a gradual improvement in my work. At the beginning of college a really didn't know how to study or what to expect from my exams. In high school I really didn't have to study at all and still got mostly "As" on all my test. I quickly realized that college is totally different when it comes to test than high school was. My first exams went very poorly due to bad study habits. after I got the bad news I knew that a change was needed. for the next exam I promised myself I would be prepared. the work payed off and I see myself working harder in each class to better my future goals!

D2L online Module Desire2learn

      The second D2L module that I did was the Desire2learn module. First of all I had no idea that D2L stands for that. This module explained how to use the D2L page. I notice about half way through that this would have been a good Module to do before I started school. It explained all the difficult things that I had to figure out during my own time. For example I had trouble finding the assignments on D2L which can easily be found in the context link. I learned that all these modules are there for a reason. And would recommend incoming freshman next year to use these resources before they begin there education at UWEC.

First Geography Quiz

      Tomorrow I have my first geography quiz. So far I have had two big exams in my other classes. These test were for Math and Economics. The reason I am writing about this is because both those exams went very bad. My study habits were not good because I thought that I new all the content that was important. I was wrong!
      For this test I am going to study longer and harder. The study guide seams very helpful so my plan is to go through every question on the paper. If there is a term that I don't know I will look it up so I have a better understanding of the material.  My goal is obviously to get a "A" but I guess I would be satisfied with a "B" or higher. So my studying starts now!