Saturday, April 18, 2009

STREET PAINTING!

Yesterday was STREET PAINTING! Last year it was cancelled. The street still got painted, but it wasn't the same because everybody just went to paint their square on their own time and there wasn't huge madness like there usually is. Street painting was supposed to be today but rain was in the forecast (and it did actually rain) so they moved it up to Friday.

I worked really hard designing and drawing APO's square and I'm really excited because it's AWESOME!!!

This year there was major construction over by the painted street. Everything was pretty much ripped up and redone. The street was relaid, but it was just a street. I'm glad it's painted again because the painted street is a big part of what makes Drake unique and I missed it.

PICS OF OUR AWESOME SQUARE!



Wednesday, April 15, 2009

MeaganSavage.net

So, here we are.

For one of my classes this semester we had to build a professional website for ourselves. Mine is pretty basic still. I'm still learning the ins and outs and all that jazz. For instance, I currently have no contact information on my site. That could be a problem. It has an intro page and a photo gallery and some of my writing samples posted so far.

It's pretty cool, I think. I'll keep updating it.

In the meantime, check it out

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Bill Bryson

Each semester, Drake brings someone awesome for the Bucksbaum Lecture. We've had people like Jane Goodall, Ben and Jerry, and Bob Costas. Next semester we'll have Maya Angelou. This semester we had BILL BRYSON!

Bill Bryson is one of my all-time favorite authors. He has written a bunch of funny travel books and his latest, "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," is a memoir about growing up in Des Moines in the 1950s.

I was kind of nervous about seeing him for real. I was afraid he'd be some sort of bitter old man who is sick of making speeches and talking to students, but I was pleasantly surprised. He was so... Bill Bryson-y. He has a half-British accent which comes from his 3ish decades in England.

Basically, it was amazing. He was one of the best speakers I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

What's even better is that he stuck around after the speech to sign copies of his books. I don't know how he did it; my hand would have fallen off.

Check out the pics I took!!!


I love him. He's amazing




Receiving his honorary doctorate

Friday, April 10, 2009

Apartment!

Lately I've kind of been stressing about my living situation for next year. Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus, but juniors and seniors are kind of on their own. Some upperclassmen can live on campus, and some are even required to depending on the kind of scholarship they have. I'm not in that group, so I'm on my own for housing.

Looking for an apartment was kind of scary. I suppose it wasn't super hard, but I just didn't know where to look or how to start or what to look for or consider. I had never done it before and I didn't know how. That was the scary part. I certainly wanted to live off campus, but it was hard to take the first step.

Drake has some off-campus housing available through Drake Realty. They have apartments and even some houses here and there for students to lease. I didn't go that route because I wanted something available May 1st (so I could work on moving during the last couple weeks of school). Drake Realty's prices also seemed a bit high compared to similar units owned by other companies.

After I decided to not go the Drake Realty direction, I started looking at those apartment finder magazines that they have in grocery stores. Just looking through them gave me a general idea of price range and standard amenities. I was looking for a 2 bedroom and those seem to run $575-650 in this area. So at least I had learned that much.

I bookmarked some promising ones and then asked a friend of mine if those parts of town were safe and decent to live in. He knows the area much better than I do and I'm glad I asked him. He vetoed the apartments in the questionable parts of town which was nice. At least I didn't have to worry about being in a shady neighborhood.

After spring break, my roommate and I started looking at apartments. I was kind of put off by the first one we saw. They showed us a model which kind of made me feel weird. I don't want to see a model that you fixed up really well and decorated nicely - I want to see the apartment I'd actually be living in. The building smelled like cigarette smoke and must and the management staff was kind of abrasive. The apartment itself was ok, but the bedrooms were tiny. I was disappointed because I wasn't excited. I was also by myself for this particular showing and that didn't help. I didn't know what to think about or look at or ask.

My roommate came along to see the next two apartments which were both much more exciting. They had all-new flooring and big bedrooms and lots of natural light. THAT'S what I was expecting the first time around. I wanted somewhere I could be excited about and see myself living - and these places had that.

After seeing those two, we decided on a place. We filled out the application and all that good stuff. Here's a tip - get a credit card. When you try to rent an apartment, it's helpful to have credit. Preferably good credit, at that. Just get a credit card and charge something small every month - a tank of gas, a refill of your prescription, anything along those lines. That will help get you used to using it and start building credit. Because my roommate doesn't have credit and neither of us have a rental history to speak of, my dad had to cosign our lease. It's not the end of the world, but hopefully after this apartment we'll be able to sign our own leases. I'm sure Dad will like that, too.

So we're both SUPER excited for our new place. We get to move in NEXT WEEK already. I'll still be living on campus officially, but it'll be nice to be able to move slowly over a few weeks than to do it all in a weekend.

Check out pics!






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