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Now what gets college students attention? Free stuff. From  free pens, t-shirts, food, and visa gift cards, students lined up to try to score some new stuff. Every semester, the University of North Texas holds a housing fair for all the students. This semester it was held on Wednesday October 5th at the library mall. A handful of student living apartment complexes took this chance to inform college students more about their complex. Personally, this was the first housing fair that i have been to, even though i have been at UNT for two years. Before anyone can get stuff from the apartment complexes, they must fill out and information sheet with all their contact information, and are handed apartment floor plans, rates, specials etc.

The housing fair is a great opportunity for students to get informed on what options they have for living the following school year. Most importantly, freshmen living on dorms get a chance in advance to see what their options are. Or if someone is not happy at the place they are living at the moment. During my time there, I had the chance to talk to a first time volunteer student about the event. Even though she is a freshman living in a dorm, she already has some options on her mind on what to do the following year.

I also had the opportunity to talk to a UNT student who lives and works for Uptown apartments.

.  He’s clearly very proud of showing that he lives in Uptown and describes several perks about living at student housing, and how convenient it all is.

While talking to other students at the housing fair, they described to me that they do feel that some of the complexes are a little overpriced and out of their money range. Since most of the apartment complexes do roommate matching, living in a four bedroom is the most affordable option for some students.

Overall,the housing fair was a great experience. It was a nice atmosphere, volunteers were friendly and organized, I got to see some housing options for next year, and of course I got several free t-shirts.

Denton, Texas the home of two great universities, the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University.  In Denton, you see some students walking, riding their bikes, or riding on the bus trying to get to their destinations. Although there is a great number of students who commute to Denton from all over the DFW area several times a week, if not every day. More than 80% of Texas Woman’s enrolled students commute to campus. The construction on I-35 has emphasize the traffic these students face on the daily, and will not get better any time soon.

Lesley Rojas, a junior majoring in accounting who commutes to TWU from Plano. ”It is tough and stressful especially since there is always traffic, but I have no other choice but to do this. You got to do what you got to do to get an education and succeed. The rough road conditions on some part of 35 have made some minor damage to my car, but that is basically my only way to get to school” Rojas explained. She does wish she could afford to live in Denton as it would be more convenient.

Ashley Adams a UNT sophomore who commutes from Garland. “Luckily I don’t come to school every day, only Mondays and Wednesdays. I really do not mind the commute that I do, as I know how much money I am saving from not paying rent or living on campus”, Ashley explained. She also explained how she does have friends that let her stay with them, just in case her schedule gets hectic on the days that she is Denton. “ I do add a lot of miles to my car driving back and forward, this year alone I have added more than 2,000 miles to my car” she adds.

The 35Express project extends approximately 30 miles, through eight cities and two counties, from US 380 in Denton County to I-635 in Dallas County. The Design-Build project is expected to relieve traffic congestion in one of the most heavily traveled corridors in the North Texas region. This project has been going on for several years, and will not be completed anytime soon. The proposed $4.8 billion project would rebuild the entire 28 mile corridor and provide managed lanes with dynamic pricing. Approximately $1.1 billion in funding has been identified for the project.

To learn more about this project click here.

Resources: www.35express.org

http://www.twu.edu/commuter/I-35construction.asp

 

 

 

 

 

1. The love for my dog. I knew I loved my dog more than life itself. It was not until this past year that I realized how much he actually meant to me. I was so used to coming home from a stressful day at school or work, and he was there for me to vent to. I got to admit, that he is the reason why I go home so often.
2.  I can actually cook. My mom taught me how to cook at a young age. She always wanted me to know how to cook meals, so when I get married I will know how to cook for my husband. I thank her so much for that now. I don’t have the struggle of having live off of ramen or frozen food every night. I surprised myself with some of the delicious meals I made. Of course the hardest part, is the clean up after.
3. Clean Freak.  I used to hate some Sunday mornings when I just wanted to sleep in and my mom spent the whole morning cleaning. Although now, I can understand. I was luckily blessed with roommates that never wash their dishes or the kitchen. I cannot stand living in a filthy apartment, but I am also nobody’s maid. I clean my bathroom and dishes all the time, and TRY to ignore my roommates’ mess.
4. Who my true friends are. You never realize who your true friends are until you move away, and realize who keeps in touch with you. I realized I just hanged out with some people because I saw them at all the parties or ran into them at the store. Now that I have moved from my hometown, I see who really wants to keep in touch with me.
5. The love for my nephews. I have two nephews, a three year and a four year old. When I was back home I used to dread having to baby sit them. I love them to death, but I can only take about two hours with them and then I am done. Now I see them only about three times a month, and when I do I want to spend as much time as I can with them. Now, I think I am the one who annoys them.
6. Work. When I was back home and attended school part-time I worked all the time. I used to hate having to do both things, but I dealt with it. So when I moved to Denton, I thought it was going to be amazing only having to attend school. The first weeks were great, i got to relax after school and not worry about much. After some time, it did start to get slightly boring. I was so used to always rushing everywhere, and constantly doing something. I can’t believed I missed working, especially my pay checks. Lets just say I actually am glad I’m going to be working all summer.
7. My Money management. Since I didn’t have a job all year, I had to change my spending habits. I couldn’t splurge on unnecessary things, and I had to think twice about my buys. To be honest, this wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. I had self control on shopping ( I did almost give up sometimes) and only bought the necessities. Am I glad that Denton has several thrift shops with great prices.
8. I can share a bathroom. I’ve always had a bathroom to myself my whole life. Having to move to a place where I share one with somebody else was something I truly dreaded. I know it is not that big of a deal, but it’s just something that I am used to. I have to thank my roommate for being awesome at keeping the restroom clean, and not leaving her junk everywhere.
9. I-35. Before moving to Denton I always heard the delightful stories of I-35, and I had the pleasure to experience them this year. Personally, I don’t really like driving at. I hate road rage and the Texas heat hitting you. I always say if I had enough money, I would hire a personal driver to take me everywhere. I give props to the commuters who have to go through that struggle everyday.
10. My true-self. At the beginning of the year I kind of had an idea of who I was, I was unsure how to describe myself to people. Most of, if not all of my friends don’t listen to the music that I do, or dress the way I do. I wouldn’t exactly call it critique, but when I dressed with a rock/ edgy twist, they would always say something. When I moved to Denton, I saw how many people have similar taste to myself, and that gave me a boost to my confidence. I now wear and listen to anything that I want to. Thanks Denton.

This past weekend I had the chance to go to Edgefest 26 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco. For those who don’t know what Edgesfest is, it is an alternative/ rock  music festival brought by 102.1 The Edge, held every spring bringing some of the most known bands to Dallas. This year was my first year attending this festival as three of my favorite bands were going to be there, The 1975, The Struts, and Cage The Elephant.

I arrived to the stadium at noon, right away my friend and I rushed to the main stage to get a great view for The Struts who were going to come on at one. If anyone says that Rock is dead, they have obviously never listened to The Struts before. The energy that they bring to the stage is insane, and their crowd involvement made me feel as if I was back in the 80’s. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of when they were playing, as I am those type of people who like to enjoy the live moment instead of living it behind a phone screen.

My friend and I were planning on looking around after The Struts played, but the crowd kept coming and coming, and we were definitely not going to lose our spots for when The 1975 came up. Since there was a second stage at the other side of the field, when one band finished in one stage another one started in another. The next band that played onthe main stage was Foals followed by Chvrches, Silversun Pickups, and Bastille.

Finally at 8:35 The 1975 came out an put on a rockin’ show. I had been wanting to see them for over two years and I finally had the chance to. Singing my favorite song at the top of my lungs was a feeling that i cannot explain. It felt as if all my worries and problems were gone and the music was my therapy. After they finished their set, 20 minutes later Cage The Elephant closed the show.

By the end of the night I had been standing for over 10 hours, with nothing to eat or drink. My feet were exhausted and I had sweated like no other. However, seeing my favorite bands perform made all of it worth it. It’s definitely an experience I will never forget, and I will certainly be at next years Edgefest.

 

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to go to wrestling’s biggest event, Wrestlemania. This year Wrestlemania 32 was hosted at AT&T stadium in Arlington. The event started at six, with gates opening at 3:30, lets just say gates should’ve opened at noon. My brothers,my nephew, some of our friends, and I arrived to the stadium around one, thinking we were going to be few of the early birds. Was I definitely wrong about that, the entrance lines were insane. To elevate things, the stadium opened the gates about a half hour late. By the time we all got in got our food and went to our seats, the pre- show had already started, and I had unfortunately had missed the Total Divas fight.

On to the show, it was amazing! things kicked off with The Leauge of Nations vs. New Day. I have never seen so many grown men screaming and singing at their top of their lungs, along to New Day’s intro song. After the Leauge of Nations unfortunately defeated New Day, my favorite part of Wrestlemania occurred. Legends Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley, and of  course Stone Cold Steve Austin came out to show basically, who’s boss.

Growing up with two brothers and a dad who love wrestling, I didn’t have much options on what to watch Monday nights. Seeing these stars live made me have a childhood flashback. Seeing my two older brothers see their hero’s in person was a feeling I can’t explain.

Perhaps one of the most random things that occurred that night for me was seeing Shaquielle O’Neal come out to compete in one of the matches, he is one of the last people I expected to be there.

At the end of the night I was extremely exhausted, but it was well worth it. It felt amazing being one of the over 100,000 people to attend this historic event, and break the record of the most people attended.

 

Click here to see all the nights winners.

Finally after years of speculation, Leo has won his Oscar in 2016. Although in the meantime that it took him to win an Oscar, the internet did what it does best, make fun of him. A twitter account called, “has Leo won an Oscar” (@LeoAndHisOscar) created in 2014, mocked Leo for not winning an Oscar for two years. In my opinion, it takes great dedication to maintain a parody account for such  a long time. Throughout this time, the account  simply tweeted “no”, until February 28th the account tweeted “yes”.

Looking at this twitter account through an ethical approach, personally I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. It was making fun of Leonardo DiCaprio for not having an Oscar, but when he received one the account delivered that information. For plagiarism, this account does not provide false statements or comments so it cannot be accused of it. Same goes for morality, even though the account is mocking DiCaprio, it is providing information that is true and is doing nothing bad. I would not consider this account to have a problem with copyright/ fair use. It is obvious that this is not DiCaprio’s official account, and it is not copying his tweets and making them their own.

Thump, thump, thump, a noise I hear everyday coming from my upstairs neighbor. There is not a single day that I do not hear, what seems to me a herd of cows above me. I do sometimes think part of me is a cranky 86 year old lady living in a 21 year old’s body. The constant noises of the apartment gate shutting, people walking on the sidewalk, the stairs, and especially my lovely upstairs neighbor I nicknamed Bigfoot.  I have never lived in an apartment until the beginning of the school year. I did not mind what floor I lived on, but my roommate convinced me to go for the first floor. Oh man, lets just say I will never be living on the first floor ever again.

I knew I would be able to hear my neighbors walking upstairs several times, although I literally hear him 24/7. I have observed that whenever I wake up, he wakes up right after. Since my restroom has a fan that turns on automatically when you turn the light on, it makes noise that I know he can definitely hear. I’ am so fortunate that he lives in the room directly above mine, so I get to hear him when he jumps put of bed (literally). When my alarm goes off I lay in bed for about ten minutes until I get up, shockingly it is quite. I get up go to the restroom, and as soon as I walk out thump, thump; I have woken the beast.

The same goes from when I get home from school. I do not hear any noise, but as soon as I go to the restroom it begins. It is as if I am his entertainment and loves to annoy me. I honestly do not even think he goes to school or work, because he is ALWAYS home or we just magically have the exact same schedule. Not joking, as I am typing this it sounds as if he keeps on pulling drawers from the floor for 10 minutes.

One night I was coming home and I realized his window was open. Of course, me being nosy and curious I wanted to put a face to the king of noises. He was just sitting down on the computer in his desk.

” He seems like a nice studious guy, he can’t be that loud”, my roommate commented. Nope, he fools everyone with his innocent appearance, but he cannot fool me.

The thing is, I know he can hear himself prancing around, so clearly he knows I can hear him as well. I know he does not have a bowling alley, a jump house, and a basketball court in his room. My question is, what does he do? Lets just say, I’m so thankful I’ an going to be living on the third floor next year.

Everyone’s Upstairs Neighbors

After, my cleaning and wisdom teeth removal, I went on to get two fillings done. Isabelle my dental student, wanted to start off with the biggest filling first since it is more time consuming. She did all the test to see if the nerve was still alive, and all of them were passed. When she srtarted the procedure, she discovered that the nerve was actually dead (even though test were done), and I had to get a root canal. Isabelle tried her best to simplify everything and make it less complicated, but my tooth was just not cooperating. At that moment she told me that, that was the most stressed out she has been in her life. Oh man did I feel bad, but all I was thinking about was how much more I had to pay for this.

The entire procedure took three visits to complete, as root canals take quite a while to do. While I was waiting for some x-ray results to come in, i went to the restroom in the waiting area where my three year old nephew and dad were waiting for me. As I could not take anything off, I went with this purple latex sheet in my mouth. As I was going to say hi to my nephew, he hid behind my dad because apperantely I “look like Halloween”, that not helping my self-esteem.

 

But fianlly after countless visits, I got my procedures done. Ever since I was a little girl I dreaded going to the dentist, and I still do. Getting all of these things done in a matter of weeks was handful for me. I probably went through a ball of EOS lip balm this whole time since my lips were chapped after every visit. All in all, I am glad I got everything finally done, especially at the Texas A&M Baylor University College of Dentistry. If I would of gotten all of this done elswhere I would of spent tripple the amount that I paid. Next dental procedure on my list Invisalign, hope that goes well.

 

 

 

It is not unusual for people to get deep cleanings, root canals, wisdom teeth removal, and fillings in their life time. Although when all of these procedures occur within less than two months, it can get quite hectic. That is my preposterous miserable situation. I had been putting all my dental work off due to the fact that everything I needed done was insanely expensive. Until finally, a friend of my mom mentioned the Texas A&M University College of Dentistry. Basically, it is a dentist where you can get every procedure done, but it is done by dental undergraduates or graduates. I was kind of iffy going there at first, since I did not completely trust a non-professional to do all my dental worth. But knowing they had done a great job with my moms friend I decided to go for it. Let me tell you, they are amazing! A visit does take longer than a normal dentist, but it is something that does not bother me.

First, you are given a screening to make sure you are suitable for one of their dental students. Once you are in, you are given an explanation and an estimate of how much everything is going to be, this being the main reason I chose to go there. After that, you are assigned a student, and the work begins.

The first thing I got done was a deep (deep) clean. After I felt as if I had a new set of teeth, as they cleaned every single part of my teeth, including inside my gums ( boy was that painful). The noise the little tooth cleaner makes is the noise of pure torture. It sounds as if there are aliens trying to communicate with me in a secret code, while intentionally hurting me.  Following my interaction with the extraterrestrials,  I had my wisdom teeth taken out.

 

Going in that morning was probably one of the most nervous moments in my life. My dad took me that day as obviously I could not drive back home, and I was so unsure of how I was going to react to the anesthesia. I did not want to say something I was not suppose to, embarrass myself or think that I was Kylie Jenner as one girl did. I went in sat on the chair, they put the drugs in, and within two minutes I was asleep.

After about an hour the procedure was done, and I woke up with my face feeling like marshmallows. As I got up from the chair and walked out, I was thinking to myself, “Marisela please don’t fall, please don’t fall”. While walking to my car I did feel a tad crazy and delusional. Since it was nine in the morning I just wanted to relax and nap in the car while my dad drove home. However, my dad is those type of drivers that love to take the long way everywhere, while I am those drivers that try to find a short cut to everywhere. He kept on making wrong turns making the drive back longer, and I kept on trying to tell him the way, with a swollen mouth full of that dental tissue. This made my relaxing, chill mood change in literally two blocks away from the dentist, and I felt normal.

I was kind of upset I did not get to have a silly story of when I got my wisdom teeth removed, or ask ” is this real life?”, but thankfully it all went well and I no longer have pain and accidentally bite my cheeks.