Tap and Pats

Happy February everyone! What a busy weekend this has been on campus! Friday and Saturday was the Party of Our Lives thanks to the EC Tap Ensemble. The 90’s and 2000’s was the theme of our show this year complete with all of the Bop It, Pokémon, Tamagochi, references you lived through and of course the music you loved. There were the classic songs like Push It, Do You Believe In Life After Love, I’m Blue, We Like To Party, Come On Over, Disturbia, and much more. Here is a back stage picture of Jai Ho, the popular song of the hit film Slumdog Millionaire. Our costumes were authentic as they came from India courtesy of the family of one of our dancers.

It’s always so rewarding to see all of the hard work we put in since the beginning of the year come together. Just because the tap show is over does not mean the fun stops. We performed some the dances after our Saturday afternoon show at Relay for Life where the Party of Our Lives hit the beach! Over $15,000 was raised or the American Cancer Society! The fun of the weekend continued today with our dorm Super Bowl Party! While I was rooting for the advertisements, it was heated between all of the New Yorkers and Massachusetts natives. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to still be friends after the Giants took it all. For now though, it’s time for the premiere of The Voice before we have to return the projector :)

New Year, New Renovations

Happy 2012! 2011 flew by as did break and things at the college are going strong. We just completed our first week back to classes, clubs, and work here in the purple bubble. While break was pretty snowless, it’s beginning to look like winter! We had our first snowfall- a whole two or so inches but it’s a start!

The first weekend back on campus had a special treat. The Gold Keys on campus got a tour of Cowles Hall! It seems like it has been under construction for a while so it was neat to get an update on how things are going. On all of the tours that are given, we walk (backwards of course) past the purple scaffolding and talk about the history of the college. It was so weird to be on the other side of the fence and walk of the stairs of the entrance.

Our tour began on the first floor where there were some offices and two parlors with fireplaces, which is where Admissions used to be. There are some seminar rooms as well and bathrooms to match the purple and gold extravaganza ones in Meier Hall. In the middle of the first floor is the home of Remembrance Hall in honor of our first president, Augustus Cowles. There will be a statue to honor him that will be 9 feet tall and has the perfect home in the octagon. Next up was the Chapel and it is beautiful! All of the wood work, stained class, and details are spectacular. The first wedding is even on the books for this summer. For weddings and other events, there is a kitchen and a bridal dressing room. Down on the lower level is the home of the Cowles Bin, the hang out spot to many alumni. It will be neat to be there when it’s finished!

One of the most amazing parts of the tour was seeing a lot of the original brickwork still there. It’s nice that the construction workers and architects could preserve so much of Elmira’s honored history while still keeping the building safe and structurally sound, with purple steel beams of course. We hiked all over the building and even ventured up to the highest point in Elmira, the belvedere on Cowles, which is 85 feet above ground. That octagon has been there for what seems like forever. It was crazy to be inside of it! A while back the college community gathered and signed the last two beams to complete the belvedere. Well I can assure you that they made it there safely and the signatures can be seen. Here are some pictures of the construction!

The Most Wonderful Time of The Year!

Campus is quieting down as we near the end of finals week! I just have one more exam to go and then it is home sweet home for three long weeks. While it will be nice to be at home with my friends and family, it was hard to say goodbye to my friends here and roommate. It was the last time we were together in 2011! I know we will keep in touch often over break and come back ready for a crazy 2012. One of my favorite things about this time of year is the exchange of cards and goodies. Every year my roommate and I make our own holiday card to mail out to our friends and families. It was fun to make cocoa, put on Finding Nemo and get to writing!

It is easy to get into the holiday spirit here as lights and decorations everywhere surround us. The tree in the campus center with EC ornaments is still standing tall from Holiday Weekend, which was a few weekends ago. This year’s theme for Holiday Weekend was Take Me To The Moon. The graduating class gave their annual gift at Holiday Banquet. Their gift of a nutcracker was so unique and adorable! Who knew purple and gold nutcrackers existed?! It is always heartwarming to see our campus community come together for our Thanksgiving meal with friends and families. While it was a bit odd to hear carols instead of the usual college songs, it put everyone in the holiday spirit. Holiday Ball took us to the moon on Saturday with lights, stars, and moons galore. It was a great celebration to wrap up the term and the year. Have a holiday and an astonishing new year!

Holiday Season Has Arrived!

The holiday cheer that started with Thanksgiving Break has carried back to campus! Break was a lot of fun but still seemed so short even though we had a full week off. It was nice to get to see all of my friends from home and visit my High School through EC Ambassadors to talk to students about EC. Thanksgiving was yummy and nice to spend with my family. While it was nice to sleep, it was great to be reunited with my friends. I can’t believe we had so much to share with each other after only being apart for one week!

While we were away, campus was magically decorated with purple lights on several of the trees around campus, trees and wreathes in the offices, and lights in many dorm rooms. Best of all, the huge tree went up in the Dining Hall! I can’t wait to see how the graduating class decorates it for Holiday Banquet on Friday. I wonder what new ornaments will be on it this year…

Tonight, the holiday celebrations started early as Hillel hosted the annual Dreidel Social. It was nice to catch up with friends and take a break from all of the homework we have. We ate latkes or potato pancakes (with applesauce of course), sufganiyot or jelly doughnuts, hot cocoa. It was fun to play my friends in dreidel. And what Hanukkah celebration would be complete without a little Adam Sandler as we watched Eight Crazy Nights.

I know these next few weeks will just fly by but it still seems like there is a lot to be done before this term can come to a close. This weekend will be a great break from work with Holiday Banquet and Holiday Ball!

Hoops Hysteria, Theme Dinner, and Orchesis! Oh my!

This past Thrusday was an event filled day here on campus. The evening of fun started off with our Founder’s Day Theme Dinner! This is one of few events on campus where colors other than purple or gold prevail on campus. This term’s theme was the 80’s! To get everyone like totally stoked to the max, throughout the week in Mackenzie’s they were playing classic 80’s movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. For the event, all of the Dining Services workers were dressed to theme and even formed an air guitar band to perform for us. We got lots of 80’s swag, candy, and funny photos from the photo station as gifts. And what Theme Dinner isn’t complete without our treasured Cowles Hall as a cake! To keep with our theme we also had a Pac Man cake and cookies. It was like totally rad!

Our night then continued with the Orchesis show! The dances were amazing! There were a variety of dances performed from lyrical to tap to hip-hop. It was great to see some boys up there as well. It was nice and felt a bit odd to be attending the performance and not have to worry about the Encore requirement anymore. I can’t wait to see what other dances Orchesis has in store for next term’s show. It definitely got me excited for our EC Tap Ensemble show next term as well.

The final event of the evening was Hoops Hysteria! It was nice to see so many members of the college community come out for our pep rally to support our basketball and cheer leading teams! Everyone was very excited for the free shirts and the chance to win a TV, futon, iPod, and other awesome prizes.

The whole evening was a great way to start ending the week! Just one more week of classes until Thanksgiving break!

EC Service

We may be a small college but the service projects we are involved in are quite large. Student Alumni Council recently celebrated Autism Awareness day where we lit up the archway of Tompkins Hall, an upperclassman dorm, blue and decorated with streamers and balloons. It caught everyone’s attention, not just because it was a foreign color to our purple bubble. Our photo won “Best Use of Decorations” through the national Autism Speaks U contest!

Yesterday, with Circle K, the collegiate chapter of Kiwanis, I lead a group of students back to Owego, New York to take part in Make A Difference Day, the largest national day of service. Our club partnered with the Charles H. Bassett Youth Foundation, a local organization that aides youth giving back, to clean up the area and recognize the work of those that have given up their time to help the community recover from the tragic floods that hit a month and a half ago. We raked leaves, picked up trash, cleaned the historic community fountain, and set the food up for the day. It was nice to recognize the community members for their dedication with certificates and ice cream : ) It was amazing and inspiring to see the number of young people who have volunteered. There were college students like us, high school students, middle school students, and even elementary school students. It just shows how easy people of any age can get involved. Especially with the hard times Owego and many other areas are facing, it was refreshing to let the community know that their good deeds have not gone unnoticed.

Mocktails + Puppies = Midterms?!

This week the library has been packed with tired and stressed students anxiously waiting for the week of tests, papers, and quizzes to end so that it can be break! With all of the craziness of classes, there has been a lot of fun as well. Last night our dorm had a mocktail party where we enjoyed some alcohol free apple fizzles, sea breezes, and bay breezes. We played games to get to know the dorm better as well. It was neat to see what you have in common with people and to learn more about your friends. It was a nice break in between studying!

Tug, Benson, Mona, and Levi joined us tonight at the Library. They are all therapy dogs in the area and came to help everyone de-stress for the last night of midterm week. They were all so cute and friendly! It was such a nice and much welcome distraction from my Health Psychology paper. Who wouldn’t want to come play with puppies for a bit?! They definitely lightened the mood and re-energized everyone. It also encouraged everyone to get their work done so it will be that much sooner that we will be reunited with our own pets : )