The last week of classes is nearly always characterized by high stress levels, way too many presentations, and (with any luck) a review session or two before finals. This semester, however, I was enrolled in LPAP 144 (Lifetime Physical Activity Program: Introduction to Country Western). Luckily, this class didn’t have a final… but I wasn’t exactly off the hook. If you’re familiar with Rice’s graduation requirements, you may know that every student must graduate with 1 LPAP credit hour…. which explains why someone as bad at dancing as me would be in this class. It was super fun, though, and during our last day (a Thursday night, to be exact) each student paired up to present their final dance. I had a friend in the class, so selecting a partner was easy. Choreographing a full dance routine…. not so much. Our teacher filmed each performance, so enjoy mine! Be nice 
Author Archives: Allison
Research Presentations
Last December a friend of mine told me about the National Conference of Undergraduate Research (NCUR), and encouraged me to apply with him. Although we had completed separate projects in different disciplines (he is an anthropology major and I am all about art history), our proposals were both accepted and we were invited to present at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in mid-April.
Interested in learning how I secured funding for the presentation? Or how I even conducted original research? Well, read on my dears!
It’s Snowing!
… but not in Texas.
Several weeks ago I found myself caught in a snowstorm. And, in true snowstorm style, I reheated pizza and climbed into bed to do some reading, carefully positioning myself so as to optimally view the weather outside my window. As you may have guessed (although I did tell you in the first line), I wasn’t in Houston. Nope. I was somewhere much cooler (appreciate the pun). Continue reading
A Day with Dinosaurs (and Butterflies)
About two weekends ago Houston experienced an amazing phenomenon: spring came in 
January! Since it was still early in the semester (meaning that no midterm reviews were on my mind!) my best friend and I decided to abandon Fondren and take full advantage of Rice’s “Beyond the Hedges” program. Undergraduate students at Rice receive steep discounts at local (as well as distant… I’m thinking of the Renaissance Festival last October that was nearly an hour and a half away from campus) venues, including museums, restaurants, stores, and carnivals. Tickets to the Houston Museum of Natural Science are completely free for Rice students, so we spent the day exploring the new paleontology hall and Cockrell Butterfly Center. Continue reading
The OC Life
Although I spent my first year living on campus at Lovett, I opted to move off-campus my sophomore year and am choosing to stay in my lovely apartment until graduation. While this does mean that I must wake up at least thirty minutes before each class so that I have time to park and walk across campus, it also means that I get all the benefits of living OC (off-campus)! I can cook and bake any time that I want, have a pool steps away from my door, and my windows actually open (yay!). My commute to Rice is less than 5 minutes, but I still prefer to brown bag my meals on my “heavy” class days in order to save time and gas.
Hello to a new semester!
Spring semester at Rice University has officially started! It technically began on Monday, but I’ve waited until the end of the week to write all about my first week of fun (and, at times, embarrassing) classes. Here’s what I am taking this term: an upper-level art history course that gives me credit for interning at Bayou Bend, a seminar art history course on European prints from 1400-1700, an anthropology course on early civilizations, another seminar art history course on Japanese art and architecture post-1945, and a country western dance class.
Rice Message Boards
Eager for more student perspectives regarding Rice’s campus life and culture? Be sure to head over to the Rice Message Boards, which may be found at https://rice.boards.edu.185r.net/. All of the bloggers are there, as well as other members (there are lots of us!) of Rice’s Student Admission Council. If you have any suggestions for message board topics, feel free to e-mail me at amc12@rice.edu. I really love talking to y’all, so don’t hesitate to contact me via e-mail or via the message boards.
Texas Renaissance Festival
You’ve heard it time after time: college kids are broke. Harsh, right? After all, Rice students aren’t necessarily broke; we just look for the best free events in Houston, and if what we are looking for isn’t free, we check the Rice Student Center for discounted tickets. At the beginning of October I learned that Rice had subsidized tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival. So, without exactly knowing when I would go, I bought one (and convinced friends to do so as well). Halloween weekend proved to be the ideal time to make the hour and a half drive out to Magnolia, Texas for the fair, and it was well worth it!