Matt Clevinger blogs about Finals Week

Finals week for me isn't very stressful. Actually the only problem I have is the fact that I procrastinate and should always study more. It is not hard in Lincoln to find a quiet spot to study. There are two study lounges on our floor and not to mention the library down stairs. Our rooms aren't too bad either with the 24 hour quiet hours and my roommate not being there too much of the time.

Megan Dowler blogs about Finals Week

FINALS!!! Every college students' nightmare. The stress of the tests and the anticipation of Winter break. I am not too stressed about finals week because i have my friends and family to help me. I have at lease one person I know who is taking the same class as I am. Therefore, I have someone to help me study. I am able study in my room because my roommate is usually at her boyfriends dorm. I sometimes find it difficult to study in my room but I am able to force myself by saying I can't do anything until I study for at least another hour. It usually works.

Ashley Myers blogs about Finals Week

I lucked out with finals week because I only have to take one finally, but still I am stressed. My favorite place to study is in my room by myself. I always have to have music playing and it is the only way I can focus. My suitemates who are older than me do not understand how important finals week is. I think that I am going to have to find a new place to study!!!

Sydney Finelli blogs about Finals Week

My favorite places to study have to be my room and the library. Studying takes a lot of patience and focus and I feel like I can get that at both of these places. My roommate is very respectful when I'm studying in our room and the library is always quiet. The worst place would have to be the dorms common rooms. People always walking by and talking, even some people watch television in there too. I need a clean, quiet environment to help me stay calm and focused. Both places haven't failed me yet, so I will continue to study in both!

Megan Dowler blogs about Break

Thanksgiving Break. Some people dread going home while others look forward to it. I, personally, was excited to go home. I hadn't been home for a little over a month and i missed my family. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Everyone coming together to celebrate everything that we're thankful for. My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the Christmas craft, a tradition in my family. Every year, after Thanksgiving dinner, we have a Christmas craft, provided by my Aunt Denetta. This years craft was decorating gingerbread houses. It was my favorite craft to date. We also had a Wii bowling tournament, which my sister won. I got knocked out in the first round.

Ashley Myers blogs about Break

My roommate and I have kept a countdown on our mirror for the past month. We both were so excited to go home and sleep in our own bed and get some real food. It is pathetic but i have been thinking of thanksgiving dinner for weeks. I guess I am just so tired of brew and gold and the cafeteria food. I was happy to spend some time with my family and was excited to see my great Dane puppy!

Sydney Finelli blogs about Break

During Thanksgiving break I will be taking a lot of time to just sit back and relax! I can’t wait to see my family and friends, being away for three months definitely makes you miss your loved ones. I’ve felt a little homesick, but I only think that’s because I know how close I am to going home for a little. Overall, I rarely feel homesick; I like the feeling of being independent. Good food and a real shower and bed will probably make me want to stay home though! I plan on spending a lot of time with my parents and sister just catching up. I will love being home, but a week will be enough for me I know I will want to come back to Morgantown.

Matt Clevinger blogs about Dorm Life

In my opinion, the dorm life isn't too bad. I mean it isn't the worst but it's not the greatest. You do meet new people and what not but the rules are somewhat stupid.... After 9 pm, you have to swipe your student ID just to get in the door and you have to swipe when you get to the front desk. Not only that but you can't just have a friend over. You have to sign them in and get them a visitors pass and they have to have that and you have be with them for them to get back in if they leave. You can sign in a member of the opposite sex but they are technically supposed to be out of your room by midnight, which is also stupid. I could see if your roommate had a problem but besides that, it's really stupid. I know it's for safety but still.

Megan Dowler blogs about Dorm Life

Dorm life. One of the first things you think of when you think about college. Unfortunately living in a dorm is not all it's cracked up to be. There are quiet hours and visitation hours. Sometimes it feels like your trapped. The floor meetings are also a big pain. Most of the time they tell us things that we already know so i feel like it's a waist of my time. But there are some good things about living in a dorm. Every two weeks they clean your bathroom, every ones worst nightmare. Also the dorms are within walking distance of a PRT station which makes getting where you need to be a simple task. Also every Sunday there is a shopping shuttle that goes to the mall and the town centre, very convenient.

Ashley Meyers blogs about Dorm Life

I am really glad that I am in Lincoln Hall. I feel that Lincoln Hall is the nicest dorm, but there are still problems. The only problem I have about dorm life here is the extreme heat. They said that we would have a/c and I was really excited for that, but they did not mention that it would not work and be 80 degrees in our rooms. Besides the heat, 2nd floor in lincoln is amazing. I have met great friends, and enjoy hanging with everyone.

Sydney Finelli blogs about Dorm Life

After living in a dorm for a couple of months, I definitely have changed my mind about them. When coming to school, I was dreading living in such a small space with people I barely knew, but after the first week I came to really like it. After getting all situated and settled in, I agreed that it wasn’t as bad as people make it out to be. I came to love my roommate and learned to be more organized than I ever was. It’s a really fun environment and has allowed me to make many friends and surround myself with different people. Dorm life has given me utilities right inside my building to make school work easier and adjusting to college life easier as well. There are a few downsides unfortunately, like all the rules we have even though we are adults. The guest and noise rules can become sort of a nuisance, but I’ve learned to deal with them. Also space is a little bit of an issue, but if you get along with your roommate it can be solved very easily. I think it all depends on how well you can adjust to a new way of living, and I definitely think dorm life isn’t terrible at all.

Matt Clevinger blogs about the Rec Center

When at the REC I like to either shoot basketball or lift some weights. It just depends really. If me and some friends are bored, we'll go shoot some ball and what not, but if i'm bored or angry, I'll go lift some weights to pass some time and blow off some steam. Ping pong isn't too bad to play if bored also.

Megan Dowler blogs about the Rec Center

The Red Center, one of my favorite places to go. My favorite part of the Rec Center has to be the whirl pool. It is the most fun I've ever had swimming. It's a nice workout to try to swim against the current. It takes a lot out of you. My favorite part is to spend fifteen to twenty minutes in the whirl pool and then spend some time in the hot tub. I'm not really one to work out but spending some time in the whirl pool is a work out and it's fun.

Ashley Meyers blogs about her Friends

My favorite place to be is my dorm room with my roommate and our friend meghan (who we recently had to add to our door decs). When ever the three of us are together we are always laughing and always have a good time. When I went home for Thanksgiving I really missed them and realized how great of friends I have here. When I am with them, all my troubles are gone and they are the only two people who cheer me up when I'm down. Where ever my friends are will always be my favorite place.

Sydney Finelli Blogs about the Rec Center

I think that the Student Recreation Center here at WVU is one of the best things they have to offer. I go there regularly to work out and to swim. My favorite part of the rec center is that its hours are flexible with all student schedules and that the equipment there is new and in abundance so many students can use them all at the same time. The indoor pool and hot tubs are definitely a plus as well. I love to go there after a long day and just get a good work out and swim in to relax and blow off a little steam. I like to run on the treadmills and work with the free weights right before I leave. I believe that without the student rec center, many students would spend their time doing unhealthy things. The rec center is by far one of the best buildings on campus and definitely gets the most usage. I love it and all it has to offer like club sports and fitness classes. I would recommend going there, even if it’s just for a short time, to blow off some steam after a long day!

WVU Football by Megan Dowler

Football. When we think of college sports this is the first thing that comes to mind. Every college student should attend at least one home football game. This completes the college experience. Now, football is not my thing. I'm not much of a sports fanatic but i thoroughly enjoyed going to a WVU football game. The roar of the crowd as one side yells LET"S GO!!!!! and the other side yells MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!! The smell of hot dogs and popcorn is very predominant throughout the stadium. The sight WVU marching band as they form a giant outline of West Virginia and spell out WVU while playing catchy tunes. Granted its much more exciting when your team is winning but either way football games are much more fun when you're at the actual stadium and not just at home watching the game on TV.

WVU Football by Ashley Meyers

Got to love that West Virginia school spirit. Football games in Morgantown are always crazy, but we all love them. I love how this town bleeds blue and gold. You go to the games and look in the crowds and see the dyed hair, painted faces, and a sea of blue and gold. I am sure most of you have also seen the "Mohawk Kid". He actually lives on my floor and I say hi to him everytime I see him at the games. He normally keeps track how many people ask for pictures with him and he often loses track after 110. He is just one of the many factors that makes this town a true football town, and i love it.

WVU Football Game by Sydney Finelli

My first WVU football game was like nothing I've ever experienced before. From the crazy tailgates to the even crazier fans, I had the time of my life! The loud constant loudness of cheering fans, and the view from the top of the student section, made me an even bigger fan of my school. It's almost a feeling of unity among a diverse group of people, all of us cheering for the Mountaineers. I learned things like the "third down noise" and kick off chant, and now of course, I'm a pro! Blue and Gold is all you can see throughout the stadium, and if you weren't wearing it, you were getting hollered at. There is never a dull moment while in the Milan Puskar Stadium, and us fans wouldn't have it any other way at a home football game.

Thanksgiving Break by Heather Rozmus

I'm soooo excited about seeing my friends at Thanksgiving! I miss them so much, I'm one of the farthest away from home (except the kids in California and Colorado) and they've all seen each other at least once since we all left for school. As much as I love all my new friends from college, they just don't compare to my friends from home. There really are no people on earth like people from Greenwich. We are a whole different breed of outrageous.I'm excited to see my dog as well. I miss my dog probably more than anything from home. Every time I see a dog here I get a little sad and miss my dog a little more. He's going to go crazy when I walk in the door, I can't wait. But one thing I'm really, really not excited for is my sister abusing me and my car. "Heather...can you drive me and six of my friends to my other friend's house who lives twenty minutes away so we can all get ready, then pick us up in two hours and drive us to this party on the other side of town? Oh, and maybe drive each of us to our own houses after the party's over?" Wonderful.

Dorm Life by Heather Rozmus

I'm sort of biased about dorm life, living in the nicest dorm on campus and all. Lincoln is absolutely NOTHING like living in Towers. I have not only matching mahogany bedframe, dresser, and desk, but also my own toilette, shower, and sink. Both my room mate and one of my suite mates live at their boyfriends houses most of the time, so I basically have my own room as well. Ah, living the good life. I've come to appreciate my dorm life here at WVU every time I go to any of my friends rooms. The only thing I miss about home is the kitchen. I'm used to coming home and making myself a real meal, not Ramen. I'm so sick of Ramen. I could use some real scrambled eggs and bacon, the key word being real (a.k.a not Evansdale Cafe scrambled eggs and bacon). But other than the lack of a good meal every once in a while, I really can't complain about my dorm. My friends dorms are much, MUCH worse than mine. I can't even imagine having to share a bathroom with a whole floor of girls!!!! Ahhhhh! That sounds terrifying. Or living on an all boys floor in towers?!? A bunch of my friends live on an all boys floor in Arnold Hall downtown, and it smells....so bad. It smells like hockey and feet. It's appalling, I can only be down there for a couple of minutes before I start to gag. Visting friends makes me never want to complain about my dorm again.

Resturaunt Blog by Megan Dowler

Ruby and Ketchy's is a very small restaurant near Cheat Lake. But it is also one of my favorite restaurants in Morgantown. It is a family owned business and has a very warm and welcoming feel. I always get their grilled cheese and french fries. It reminds me of when my grandma used to make me grilled cheese and french fries for lunch when I went to her house while my mom was at work. It gives me a very warm and homey feeling. Although it's true that Ruby and Ketchy's doesn't have as many choices as a Garfield's or an Applebees but the quality is ten times better. I would eat Ruby and Ketchy's everyday if I could. It is definitely my favorite restaurant ever.

Resturaunt blog by Sydney Finelli

There are many restaurants in Morgantown, but my all time favorite is the Boston Beanery. I go all of the time with my friends, and have the same thing everytime I go. I went over the past weekend and got my favorite meal, grilled cheese and french fries! The atmosphere is lively and fun, there is always a decent amount of people there enjoying food and drinks. I went during a NFL football game and it was such a fun environment to be in at the time. The staff is very friendly and well trained. I always enjoy eating there, never gets old!

Food Blog by Sydney Finelli

When I first arrived at WVU, going to the dining hall to eat my everyday meals was a new, exciting task. The food at first was great, almost like eating a little bit healthier version of your favorite fast foods every day. It was such a new experience, the dining halls. It felt like eating in a restaurant with all of your friends. But, I swear it didn’t take even two weeks for my friends and me to get sick and tired of the dining hall food. The food leaves with you with a sort of sick feeling after a while, like something you can’t even stomach anymore. I personally can’t eat the hot meals served at any of the dining halls on campus more than three times a week, everything just blends together and tastes the exact same. One meal I can stomach is a sandwich and soup from Brew and Gold, they have a variety to choose from, and you can never go wrong with a cold cut sandwich. Boreman and Summit have good sandwich options too, that’s what I’ve been aiming to eat lately, and I haven’t been getting sick and tired of them. Overall, I’m not thrilled with the food choices we have here, but I do understand it could be much worse. Some of the menus at the halls are overdone, and not providing us students with what we really want. I usually eat a microwavable meal in my room like two times a week in order to break up the cycle of continuously eating at the halls, and it’s been working! It’s let me enjoy the meals at the dining halls just a little bit more.
The first photo is from Towers dining hall and it was awful
The second photo is from Brew and Gold, where I frequently eat

Adventure by Heather Rozmus

My favorite part about the Rec Center would definitely have to be the rock wall. I had only gone rock climbing once before I came to WVU, but now that I have a wall within a couple yards of my dorm I go all the time. I haven't gotten my belaying certification yet, which you can get in the Rec Center, but a couple of my friends have theirs so I don't really need it yet. When it gets nicer out after the winter, I really want to get my own harness and shoes and go climbing at Cooper's Rock. A bunch of the regulars that I see at the rock wall have told me about it and I'm really excited to go! I would have gone already, but I don't want to be over-zealous and go outdoors rock climbing after only doing it indoors for two months. Hopefully I don't get hurt!!

Heather Rozmus blogs about her new life in college

The transition from being big, bad seniors who run the school to becoming scared, wee freshman again is hard to handle. We've all done it from elementary school to middle school to high school, but college is a completely different story. Being thrown out of our element, our home, the place we feel most comfortable, is a scary experience in and of itself. Not to mention we're all on our own for the first time in our lives. No teachers are going to chase after us for work, or yell at us for missing class. The only thing keeping us from failing out of school is ourselves. Never before has this kind of responsibility been put on our shoulders. We are the scared little freshman, trying not to gain the pesky freshman 15 and working to figure out who we are and what this place means to us. There's so much we have to learn, not only from our classes, but from within ourselves. In high school it was easy to just go with the flow and be whoever everyone else had thought you were your whole entire life. But now that we're here, away from all that, those little bubbles we used to live in, we have a chance to reinvent ourselves. We can be who ever we want to be, and that's the most comforting part about this place. No one expects us to be anything we're not. It might take a while to figure out just who exactly we are, but that we can do on our own time, when we're ready.

Matt Clevinger blogs about his new life in college

I feel that the differences between high school and college are more free time, you're not in a school for 8 hours straight, bored to death, but you have classes and usually free time in between. There are also many, many new faces and experiences to have.

Megan Dowler blogs about her new life in college

High school is a time for someone to find who they really are. When you're in high school you're still treated like a child. There are strict rules that must be followed. There are classes that are no bigger than maybe 30 students and most of the students are in the same grade as you. In high school, every teacher takes attendance and keeps reminding their students of upcoming assignments and tests. they also review for those tests and help the students prepare for those tests. In college, you are treated as an adult. You are in classes that can have up to 400+ students who are in any grade, there are seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen in one single class. You are expected to know when assignments are due and when tests are to be taken. It is also your responsibility to study and prepare for those tests. You no longer have your parents to make sure that you do your work and go to class. College may not be for everyone but if you can get through it, you'll be better off in the long run.

Ashley Meyers blogs about her new life at college

I grew up right outside Philadelphia in a school with a graduating class that varies from 500 to 1000. Everyone warned me that i would be too overwhelmed coming to WVU but i absolutely love it. I feel my high school really prepared me for college and i feel like i have less work here. College definitely teaches you how to be independent and a much needed reality check occurs once your parents drive away. High school got old seeing the same people everyday, I really like that no matter where you go you meet someone new here. Also i love what time classes start in college. My high school started at 7:20 and it was torture waking up every morning. College is definitely a whole lot better than high school and i love it.

Sydney Finelli blogs about her new life at college

In my first five weeks of being in college, I have seen and experienced many differences from high school. I haven't really thought of one to be harder than the other, just extremely different. Being at a huge university like this one has shown me what it's like to do a lot of things alone. The first week not knowing anyone pushed me out into the real world for the first time. Getting to and from and finding my way around by myself has really showed me a true difference from high school. I grew up in a school district with one high school where everyone knows everyone, and here, I knew absolutely no one and still made out okay. Therefore, independence has been such a large part in distinguishing the differences between college and high school, and it's been the part I have enjoyed the most. Some things I don't care for that much is the dorms and the food in the dorms. I miss coming home from high school and being able to make myself anything I wanted to eat and then later served a home cooked meal. Simple things like showering and sleeping have become such a process, which when I was in high school living at home would never be an issue. Sleep deprivation has been a big negative factor about college. My roommate wakes up much earlier than me and always wakes me up, I miss sleeping alone and not being affected by someone else's noisy actions. Overall, high school and college are two very different worlds and way of lives. I find myself liking college a lot more though, I find the classes easier and life in general much more fun and less stressed.

Heather Rozmus blogs about dorm food

Ah, yes. The dreaded dorm food, how we love to hate and have to love you. From the omelets (made with real eggs!!!) to the cardboard-like pizza to the "deli-made" sandwiches, school food will just never be as good as a home cooked meal. The bland and textureless stuff we like to call food is just a filler until we finally reach THANKSGIVING! When we can at last eat something that doesn't smell like wet dog. The hamburger/hotdog section isn't as bad as the carb loaded pasta and pizza side. Where can one even get a healthy meal in this place? I mean have you seen the salad bar? It's seriously lacking. They don't even have mushrooms. And the lettuce looks like it's been sitting out for days.Then there's the munchie food us college kids hoard in our rooms, the chips and salsa and cookies and oreos and easy mac's and ramen, soooodddiiiuuuummm. Yummy. But as much as I hate on it, I love the college life. I love undersleeping and eating dog food seven days a week! I just can't get enough of it.

Matt Clevinger blogs about dorm food

The dorm food isn't too bad. I mean you have many different cafes to choose from, which include five "all you can eat" buffet style cafes and many different chooses that you can get a filling meal from. Besides the cafes, you also have many different fast food and sit in restaurants to choose from. My favorite food would have to be from Sandwich U and it's called a "Fat Bitch." My least favorite would have to be "Ramen Noodles," because it's not that they aren't good but just the fact that they are over eaten.

Megan Dowler blogs about dorm food.

Dorm food. Every college student's nightmare. You always hear horror stories about the burnt, soggy, and uneatable dorm food. Although some of these stories may be true, dorm food isn't as bad as some people make it out to be. I have had some rather delicious meals at Arnold Hall's dining room. My favorite was the tomato soup and grilled cheese. The tomato soup was red and creamy and the grilled cheese was perfectly browned and the cheese was melted perfectly, it tasted just like my mom's tomato soup and grilled cheese. It gave me a really warm homey feeling. Another food that is extremely delicious is mashed potatoes. Arnold Hall's mashed potatoes are to die for. They are creamy and buttery. My worst food experience was at Tower's Dining Hall. I had gotten a piece of cheese pizza as i usually do but when i bite into the slice there was something different about it but i couldn't figure it out. It looked like an ordinary piece of pizza but then i flipped the slice over and saw a soggy brown bottom. I had completely lost my appetite. The bottom was indescribable, it was one of the nastiest things I had ever seen. Dorm food has its ups and downs but overall the food isn't as bad as many say.

Ashley Meyers Blogs about Dorm Food

I really haven't tried any other places besides towers because it is easy getting there. It is rare to find good food a towers unless you get the pizza right when it comes out of the oven. They finally have a station where you can order sandwiches and have them grilled. It is probably the best thing that they have there because they are made to order and you can have it whatever way you like. One thing that i found really gross was their spinach rice casserole. I honestly do not know what is in that, but it did make me sick later that night. Its hard to have an opinion on tower food because some things are good and others make you sick.

Email me!

Dear Students,

I won't see you all until the fifth week of the semester, but if you have any questions, feel free to email me. My email address is on the syllbus, and it will be passed out during the first week of classes.

Welcome Students

Welcome Students! This is the blog for posting creative content from Lincoln Hall's Universty 194Y class. Feel free to share this link with parents and friends. Throughout the semester, students will upload blog posts and pictures to eCampus, and I will periodically choose posts and upload them here for all to see.