Next up is Lizzie Orfaly.

Hola a todos!
I´m spending my Winter Term this year in Guadalajara, Mexico on a Oberlin-sponsored trip. I´m here with 20 other Obies for the month, taking classes at an institute (5 hours everyday!) and exploring the city. I´ve tried a bunch of popular local foods and drinks, and they´ve all been delicious. I´m living with a family near the school and I take the bus by myself everyday. My family is absolutely wonderful: I have a 3 year old brother Mario, who I play with all the time and a 13 and 20 year old sisters Diana and Pati. The parents are so friendly and helpful to the point that I really feel like I´m a part of the family. Although we haven´t had many language barriers, they are really patient with me if I don´t understand something.Also, I´m turning 20 while I´m here, and I´m excited to go out with friends and celebrate. We´ve traveled to Tlaquepaque (my new favorite word), Zopopan and soon we´re going to Ajijic, Tonala, and Chapala. Next weekend we have a weekend off to get hotel rooms at either Puerto Vallarta or Manzanilla. I´ve visited a bunch of museums and met a lot of interesting people. The culture here is so different, but everyone is so welcoming to our differences. I´m having a wonderful time, and honestly don´t want to leave anytime soon! I´d recommend this trip to anyone who wants to learn or better their Spanish and meet new, amazing people!
--Lizzie # 11

More Winter Term

Next is Chinwe Okona from Florida.

One of my favorite books is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The thing
I missed out most on in high school is reading for leisure, something
I really enjoyed when I was younger, because I just didn't have the
time. It turns out that Toni Morrison was born and raised in Lorain,
OH, just down the road from Oberlin. For winter term, I decided to try
and read all nine of Morrison's novels and blog about each one. I
aspire to be a neuroscience major, and feel that I won't have the
opportunity to take some of the literature classes that interest me at
Oberlin. With this project, I am able to read some books that I have
always hoped to read, as well as analyze them on my own terms. Check
out my blog for more insight on each of the novels:

http://chinweokona.blogspot.com

Chinwe

Winter Term #3

Laura Jessee a middle hitter from Virginia has today's installment.


For my winter term I am backpacking in Arizona with my friend Anna Hughes. We are visiting sights such as the Grand Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon. We are camping and living out of our backpacks. For credit we keep nature journals to record our surroundings and we identify at least one new species a day. Today we hiked to a waterfall and climbed/bouldered. My journal focuses on the differences between the Appalachian Mountains where I grew up and the mountains here in Arizona. We are working on our observational skills along with our survival skills!

Winter Term

Our second posting comes from Liz Wong our sophomore setter

This winter term I decided to take on the adventure of baking. I did not want to just bake anything but I wanted to bake cakes! I love watching those cake shows on food network (admit it, you do too), so I decided to attempt to do it myself. My first cake was a birthday cake theme. I made a two tier square cake and decorated it to look like presents stacked upon each other. It came out really well for my first try. I made it just in time for my Grandma's birthday. For my next cake, I thought I'd give fondant and gum paste a go. Let's just say gum paste should be left to the professionals. I missed a direction on the gum paste box and couldn't move my fingers for fifteen minutes. In fact, my hands and fingers would still be stuck together if Amanda had not come to save the day. Fondant is not an easy thing to work with either. Those professionals make it look like, well, cake! My second cake was a 'thank you' cake for the physical therapist office that has helped me recover from my ACL injury. The finished product looked great but the process was messy. Powdered sugar, eggshells, and various other baking goods were all over the counters and floors. I failed multiple times before my fondant came out nice and smooth. By my third cake I was done, making rookie mistakes, such as forgetting to frost my cake before putting the fondant on (according to common sense the fondant needs something to stick to…according to me, it doesn’t). Anyway, winter term has been messy, fun, and semi-relaxing. I have realized that baking cakes and decorating them are certainly not as easy as Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss make it look. I will definitely be leaving it to the professionals, mostly because my mom has banned me from the kitchen haha.

J-Term at Oberlin

The cool thing about being a student at Oberlin is you get the entire month of January off to do anything you want and you can usually get the school to fund it! Over the next couple weeks we are going to put up some of the fun things the OCVB team is doing. First, is Rosie Eck a first year student from Maryland. Rosie writes:
For winter term, I am in Sarasota, Florida, trying some new things. I am interning at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium with the graphic design department and staying with some friends from camp in their cooperative house of 8 housemates. Though the weather has lately been an un-Floridian 30 to 40 degrees, I have been loving exploring and experiencing the novelties of a very interesting place. On my 45-minute bike ride to and from work, I enjoy observing the beautiful Sarasota Bay and accompanying pelicans as well as the swanky shops of St. Armand's key compared to the poorer but infinitely more colorful neighborhoods nearer to my house. At work, I have been adjusting photos in various ways, helping design a poster, digitizing raw video film and updating the website. On my first day, I got to snap some pictures of a leatherback sea turtle that had just been brought to Mote's sea turtle hospital and rehabilitation center, which was a dream. It's such a huge, smooth, incredible creature. On the weekends, I have adventured to such places as the Bargain Barn, where the thrift store cast-offs go to be sold by the pound. Wait till you see my new cowboy boots. I have also been enjoying diverse musical experiences from the church down the street's low-key musical worship to a student punk rock concert packed into a space the size of a living room to the folksy banjo-ing of one of my housemates that I can hear right now. Hopefully, the weather will warm up soon, but regardless of the temperature, I'll keep picking the grapefruits regularly right off the tree.

Our Banquet

Hi Everyone!

This past week we had our OCVB end of season banquet tonight and it was wonderful! We started off at the Cheesecake Factory where we had great food and incredible deserts, while singing happy birthday to Laura. There was also an adventure to be had in taking a picture in front of the big Christmas tree at Crocker Park. After leaving Crocker Park we headed to Emily's (our adopted assistant coach) apartment for t-shirt exchanges and awards. The coaches gave a wonderful presentation of awards, with Best Team Player going to Lizzie, Most Improved Player going to Rosie, and MVP was a tie between Amanda and Tamm. Our t-shirt exchange was great, and our freshmen (as well as a few others) showed off their creativity in the homemade t-shirts they gave. We will miss the seniors, but we gave them a great send off. Congratulations Tamm and Rita!

Senior Interview

With the season over first year Rosie Eck and sophomore Liz Wong decided to interview our two seniors to get a little incite on their time here at Oberlin.