Relay For Life

Family and friends, so as you might of read from my previous blog entries, Relay for Life is a cause that has become very close to my heart ever since Grandpa passed away of cancer in 2000. With another family member recently diagnosed with another form of the disease, there is no time but the present to help find a cure. If you find it at all possible to make a donation, from even the smallest amount to the largest, it would mean a lot to not only myself, but it will make a direct impact on our fight against this disease. I've included a direct link that you can click and donate directly to my effort of raising $100 for this year's Relay. Thank you all for your support. My Personal Page

Croghan Bologna and Sumo Suits

A friend approached me the other day and asked, "So what do you like to do in your free time?" to which I thought long and hard about and finally responded, "I don't remember."

Now that's not to say that I never find myself with any free time, but the rush and busyness of mid-semester is definitely now upon us. I did find the time, however, to travel home to Watertown this past weekend to show Tori the sights and sounds that Watertown has to offer. It seemed as though the most exciting place we ventured was the Cheese Store out on Route 3, where we found some amazing fresh cheese curd that we feasted on until we lactositized ourselves and felt sick. I still can't look at cheese today. We also picked up some Croghan Bologna for Tori's roommate Stacey, who has fallen in love with the delectably seasoned sausage ever since I brought her some over Winter Break. Getting back to the excitement of Watertown, it was a Saturday afternoon and it looked like a ghost town! You never realize while you're living there that seemingly NO business is open on a Saturday. The Paddock Arcade was bare as bones, with no business except the Paddock Club being open at 4PM on a Saturday. Public Square did not fare much better, as we could only find our way into a few select stores that were open. Come on Watertown, we wonder why businesses around Public Square are having trouble staying afloat...

Anyhow, it was nice to relax and be home with the entire extended family even for a day.

Sunday welcomed the newest APO service project to fruition, Knitting for Need! This project is a knitting project that brings together many of the fraternity brothers to knit scarves for children of local refugee families. For the first week, we had a great turnout of over 25 brothers. In fact, so many people came that we ran out of knitting needles. We have applied for a Youth Service Grant to cover most of the costs of buying the knitting needles and the thick yarn, but we will not hear back from the National office to notify us if we received the grant until March 2nd. In the meantime, I was left trying to decide whether to start the project early and gamble that we might receive the grant and be reimbursed for the initial supplies or whether to wait. This project is one that requires quite a long time, to allow for brothers to finish scarves that can take over 10 hours to knit. Starting it early is a gamble, but it's something that I felt needed to be done. I'll be sure to post at a later date the outcome.

In other news, Relay for Life work is going amazing. Myself and another person, Sara, are co-chairs for the Advocacy Committee at Relay for Life, a position that has generally taken a more passive approach to spreading the word about education and advocacy. Pamphlets are handed out, posters are made, and at the end of the Relay event no one remembers the information that was presented, or even if an advocacy table was there. I want to change that. Sara and I are taking a much more active campaign this year, with everything from a well-publicized Bone Marrow Drive to having an actual damaged lung on exhibit and show the effects of smoking to even a hopeful sumo suit fighting arena where people can "Fight Back" against cancer. I'll be sure to have more on that as the date nears, although I can already feel it creeping up faster than I can plan. March 28th. Mark it on your calendars.

Finally, today marked an important day pertaining to the second part of this blog's name: To Strasbourg. I sent in my application today for the abroad program and will be sure to update when I hear back as to the status of that and hopefully my acceptance into the program.

Au revoir et salut,
Justin

Long Overdue

Have you ever thought about, and then realized, that there just aren't enough hours in the day? Well I certainly have and thus you will find my excuse for not posting a blog every Sunday night like I so duly promised. Even now, as I catch a few minutes to update this, I am pressed for time because of my fraternity's inductions tonight. We're welcoming 70 new pledges to the fraternity, who will undergo 8 or so weeks of the pledging process, where they are required to do 17 hours of community service, attend fellowship events, and interview fellow pledges and brothers. Joining this fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, was one of the best decisions I have made since coming to Syracuse. It has provided me the opportunity not only to meet hundreds of new people I would not have otherwise had the chance to befriend, but it's an incredible outlet to do community service and other activities that I really love to do. Further, my position of Vice President of Service has me planning service events and coordinating logistical information for the brotherhood, introducing me to people within the campus administration and allowing me to work on my organizational skills, something I readily admit has not been my strongest points in the past.

I apologize if so far this sounds like a cover letter, I've just recently been engrossed with future planning of internships for this summer. I have set my sights on working in Albany, although the economy may intercede. I'm hoping to work in an economic policy research position (a plentiful internship, I know) or a political office down there to gain incredible insight into what I may want to do after graduating.

These past couple of days have been really exciting too as I plan out my next semester. While it's not completely official (I still have to fill out the application, blah) I have full intention on traveling to Strasbourg, France next semester. Smack dab in the middle of Western Europe, Strasbourg is a ten minute bike ride to Germany (the border is completely free and open because both countries are members of the EU) and 2 hours from Paris. It's a small town (in consideration to the other aboard programs) but I think it will fit me perfectly, as I'm well accustomed to that small town feel in Watertown and even Syracuse. Hoping/crossing my fingers/praying that some type of internship might be able to happen, as Strasbourg is home to the Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights, and many SU students in the past have been placed in one of those two organizations.

I'm definitely still something of an idealist when it comes to the summer internship and my abroad experience. Naive, pie-in-the-sky sophomore who thinks everything is going to work out just as planned. We'll see. Until next time.

Au revoir et salut,
Justin