A Holiday Gift from Me to You

As grounds begins to light up with the spirit of the holidays I was putting some thought into what I could give you all for the holiday season. I figured it might be a little difficult to send you each a string of lights that get placed around the rotunda this time of year, or the amazing holiday specials at Para Coffee, and inviting you each to cookie decorating on the lawn seemed like it might be a little more than I could tackle. Instead, I want to give you guys insight into the best website to ever exist on the Internet...yes, I said EVER...and yes, I meant it. So here you go...

I want you to rip this sucker up like you're 5 years old and Santa not only brought you a puppy but also the Batman action figure that all your friends had and was the one thing you needed to be invited to eat with the cool kids at lunch.

Don't take this gift lightly, it is as special as your siblings, your parents, and grandparents combined. In fact, we might even be able to throw your great grandparents and aunts and uncles into that mix.

Are you ready? Do you think you're ready?

Here it is! Lou's List!

Before I explain the joy behind Lou's List I want to introduce you to the coal that has been left in your stockings. That coal is the Student Information System, otherwise known as SIS and proof that you did something wrong this year that lead to Santa leaving you one thing of coal. If you have applied to UVa already or plan on applying this year you know what I am talking about. SIS is the place that applicants go to confirm the completion of their application as well as to receive their admissions decision. You aren't done with SIS after your acceptance though, SIS will haunt you for the remainder of your time at UVa. SIS is used to register for classes, check grades, confirm exam schedules, and some other thing that I have yet to discover. I will let you figure out the pains of SIS on your own rather than spend another 8 paragraphs describing the difficulties to you.

So Santa left you this coal, does this mean that you did something so bad that you won't be getting any other presents this year? No, no it does not. Hitting your brother and pulling your sisters hair were made up by sharing your cookie with your sister when she was crying and helping that old lady load groceries into her Buick (let's be honest...like all old people who grocery shop have Buicks). These acts are rewarded with Lou's List.

Lou's List allows ease for of access to courses that are available for the upcoming semester as well as the current semester and semesters past. It informs you who is teaching the class, where the class will be held, what time the class is, how many people are enrolled, how long the waitlist is, etc, etc. What makes this better than SIS...well pretty much everything!

I'll let you guys go ahead and explore these two sites in order to understand the advantages of Lou's List over SIS. Happy Holidays!

A Walk to Class

There is nothing more beautiful than an autumn walk to class in Charlotteville. Whether it is from your dorm or apartment or even a sprint from a dining hall to the most remote building on grounds, there is nothing better than the colors on the trees, the crispness of the air, and the smell that invites you to take a deep breath and enjoy both the city and school you are apart of. 

I walk a gorgeous path everyday, I invite you to take the walk with me today!

This is right outside my house on Wertland Street. Wertland Street is a popular off grounds housing area for those who are 2nd-4th years. Just look at that tree! Even living in the city we still get the amazing colors of the country! 

Sorry this isn't the best picture but right down the street from my apartment is the Georgia O'Keeffe house. O'Keeffe used to spend summers in Charlottesville when she was a girl. So much history in this city! 

This is one of my favorite houses on the street. It's the football house. They keep their Christmas decorations up all year so if your ever in the mood for a little holiday spirit during the summer just drive down Wertland Street. 

A Corner. 

The Corner. 

The Corner has so many great shops and places to eat. Last year I would always head here whenever I was sick of dining hall food. Now that I'm not on a meal plan I eat at one of the many restaurants almost at least once a day. If you're visiting and not sure where you should stop for some classic Charlottesville cuisine just head to The Corner, there is no bad decision to be made when it comes The Corner. I'll give a shout out to Pigeon Hole on Elliewood, get their hashbrowns!

When you visit Charlottesville you HAVE (take note to the capitilized, bold, and underlined effects on the word have) to go to Bodo's. They have the best bagels you will ever eat. I don't think you've lived until you've had one of their bagels. It took all my will power not to stop their when I took this picture. 

Over on those steps were Navy women putting up the flags this morning. I later found out that was one of my friend's who is NROTC and she said she was so embarrassed that someone was taking a picture. 

TJ's Academical Village

One of The Lawn rooms. 4th years have the chance to live in these rooms, it is a true honor. From what I hear they don't have heat so that's why those logs are outside the room. 

The Rotunda!

There is always a lot going on at here at UVa. Today there were flags out in preparation for the last home football game against UNC on Thursday. Don't forget to watch on ESPN and support the Hoos!

Wilson Hall

Finally made it to lecture. 

Hey, hey, hey, it's Fat Albert! Just kidding, let me introduce myself. My name is Ashley Patterson and I'm a second year at the University. I feel like now is the time where I tell you guys my major (undecided), where I'm from (NoVa- Northern Virginia, for those of you who aren't from Va), why I decided to come here (umm...), and what my favorite thing about UVa is (the trees on the lawn during fall). However, I'm not the most exciting person in the world (unless I've been in Club Clem until 2 a.m, and then my friends would say I am one of the most entertaining people to be around) so I would rather tell you about all the exciting thing that I get to do everyday here at UVa. From heading up to Carter's Mountain for apple picking, to Puppies and Pumpkins on The Lawn, to Lighting of the Lawn, UVa is full of events that unite the students and faulty and create a bond and family among thousands of unique individuals. My goal is to provide you guys with at least one event each week and give you something to look forward to within the next few years. Feel free to comment with questions or find out about events that might be going on when you're visiting. 

Now that I told you about these amazing events and activties that happen I want to take you to a place not to far from UVa, in Albermarle County, called Carter's Mountain Orchard. Almost as much a tradition as streaking the lawn, apple picking has become a favorite fall tradition of many University students. Just this past weekend my friends and I took a break from the stress of midterms and headed up to the orchard. The whole ride there my friend kept telling us about the "amazing views" that we should expect, but we were distracts by J. Biebs on the radio. However, as soon as we got to the top of the Carter's Mountain we stopped in our tracks, speechless. The view was unimaginable. When you go to school here it is easy to become blind to the beauty that surronds you, but heading up the mountain changed that. We stopped and took a few pictures and then headed into the trees.

Now I don't know if any of you have been apple picking before, but it is a lot harder than it sounds. For some reason I was expecting to find apples the size of the ones at the grocery store but there were only baby apples. We searched and searched for the big ones, but we finally settled on the delicious selection of small fuji apples. Now here is a little secret about Carter's Mountain, most people don't go for apples (shh!) As we emerged from the orchard, we headed (more like casually jogged...okay, okay, we full on sprinted) to the food stand where we ordered apple cider, apple pie, and apple cider doughnuts. Let me say that again, APPLE CIDER DOUGHNUTS!! They are the most mouthwatering thing you'll ever taste, in fact, your mouth should be watering right now just thinking about them. These doughnuts only come around once a year so we enjoyed every bite knowing that next year we will be a year older and year closer to not being able to enjoy these moments of apples, doughnuts, and fall with our close friends.