Unfortunately the weekend is over, but it was a great weekend. Friday was the ASAC all-nighter, which is an annual event put on by our student activities council. Its an event from 10 pm to 3 am that is always a popular event. The theme this year was around the world in the night. There was massages, karate lessons, and a ton of food. There was also salsa dancing lessons- which was my favorite! Also P.O.S performed which was AMAZING!! his lyrics are awsome and he is a great performer. Saturday I worked at the coffee shop on campus- which I always enjoy. Sunday I did homework all day they went to two meetings. One meeting was for model United Nations, this year we are representing Panama, I am on the General Assembly PA committee- which is a great committee to be on!

The next two weeks are going to be vary busy with student organization work. Today was the student involvement fair, where all the different student groups on campus set up tables and talk to students about joining their group. I am currently putting alot of time into an event called Focus the Nation. This is an event being put on by over 1000 institutions all over the country educating people about global warming. Focus the Nation, on January 31st, is going to include many events. There will be teachins throughout the day, where professors will get together with their class and talk about global warming in their specific field.
I am in the committee that is planning the main speakers. For chapel Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer will be speaking, a vary passionate speaker. We are hosting alumni of Augsburg who are currently working in non profits or corporations in sectors that deal with the environment. During the evening we are hosting politicians for a panel discussion on policy action for the environment.
As it gets nearer I'm getting pretty excited!!

I always enjoy going to convocations at Augsburg, but today blew the others out of the water. The Martin Luther King convocation is always really good, but this year it was awsome. Ekueme Thelwell was the keynote speaker. The convocation started with step dancing- which was awsome! There was a soul band there that also played. Thelwell gave a great speech, he talked about if Martin Luther king was still alive issues in our society that he would speak against. He went of King's 'If I would of sneezed' speech, a speech he gave about what he would have missed in the world if he would of sneezed after getting stabbed which would have ended his life. My favorite moment was when his friend got up and started singing "This little light of mine" and the entire church was up singing and dancing- it was amazing!!
The student group I am president of, Coalition for Student Activism, recieved an award today called 'The Spirit of Martin Luther King Award'. We went to a nice lunch with Thelwell and also recieved a copy of his book. It was a really nice day!

My last semester at Augsburg started on Monday! I think its gonna be an awsome semester. I have a history class called The History of U.S Foreign Policy, my senior Keystone History class, Honors for international relations, and my internship at the Minnesota Historical Society. My history of U.S foreign policy class is monday, wednesday and friday so I've already had two classes. I am really excited for this class, my professor seems really passionate about U.S history and analyzing foreign policy.
Our homework for monday was reading five articles about analyzing foreign policy. Each article took a new approach in looking at foreign policy. All were convincing in offering an important way to analyze foreign policy. Two of the approaches written about were gender and bureaucratic approaches. The gender approach was interesting in looking at war and national security was a masculine and feminine issue.
For example, the author wrote about the United States' relations with Cuba and in 1899 President McKinley and other congressmen wrote about the need for the U.S to invade Cuba as its manly duty- to protect the weak feminine Cuba. The cartoons from this time properly portrayed this way of the United States acting in foreign policy. Today in class we had a great discussion about which approach we felt most convincing- great class!!

Christmas break has been vary relaxing. I've been able to catch up on my sleep. The last two weeks of school I was averaging between 3 to 4 hours a sleep a night. I slept for two days straight when I came home.
Christmas was wonderful- I spent alot of time with my family and friends and everyone in my family was able to make it to Christmas this year. I also went on a three day ski trip up north with my family. We stayed on Lake Vermillion, which is bordering Canada. It is vary beautiful up North! We did alot of cross country skiing and snowboarding- on the fourth day I could hardly walk! I am always surprised how different North minnesota is from south minnesota. I grew up in Southern minnesota and its vary flat and full of farm fields. Northern MN is full of beautiful trees and hills, I think i might like to live there someday. Although the small towns up there are cute, I could not live in a small town like that.
To ring in the New year I was able to see my friend I grew up with who now lives in Maine, which was nice.
I have also been reading a great book called, Neither Here nor There, by Bill Brison. Its a travel essay book about his travels in Europe. Its hilarious and makes me want to go back pack around Europe again!!