Masquerade!
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, Cirque du Sunfest, college, dance, friends, Fun, Fun Times, mask ball, masquerade, southern utah, southern utah university, sunfest, suu, suu admissions, SUUSA, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »Last week SUU had their annual SUNFest. The theme this year was “Cirque du SUNFest,” a play on “cirque du Soleil,” which means “circus of the sun.”
Events during the week included a comedian; the Mr. SUU pageant; bingo with great prizes; a showing of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey; a carnival with fun bouncy inflatables, free food, carnival games, prizes, and live music; the Thunderbird Awards Ceremony; and a masquerade ball.
I love dancing. Any time I have an excuse to go dancing is a good time. Sometimes I’ll go to rather sketchy places if I know there’s going to be dancing. When I found out about the masquerade, you can imagine how excited I was to go.
I went with my dancing friend Ali (whenever there’s a dance beat, chances are you’ll see us together) and our outfits matched. Unintentionally.
Black and leopard. I’m not wearing any leopard, but I’m wearing gold which matched her accents.
At the dance (which was free!) I ate lots of cookies and fruits and vegetables, danced, sweated, and got some photos done in a photo booth.
You can see our love we have for dance depicted in this photo with vogue-ing and jazz hands. The other two are just… great.
I love the great activities and events SUUSA does.
Au revoir!
Fly, Peter, Fly! Fly!
Posted: April 19, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: Adventures, cedar city, Cedar City Airport, christmas break, college, collegebound, Flights, Fly, friends, Fun, Fun Times, memories, southern utah, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation, UT Leave a comment »Did you know Cedar City has an airport?
Cedar City Airport
Did you know they have flights to the Salt Lake International Airport every single day?
CLICK HERE for a link to Cedar’s webpage about their airport. You can view the regular flight times there.
Did you know that flights are pretty reasonably priced? I’m not saying to fly up north every single day, but perhaps for the occasional concert, event, or wild spontaneous weekend…it’s an option. So, let’s say you want to go to your nephew’s fourth birthday party in Salt Lake on Sunday night but you have to be to class at 10am on Monday morning. Why not just fly back? Or let’s say that you’re super homesick for your rich parents. Why not just have them fly in for lunch? (I recommend the Pastry Pub.) It could happen (for those of you that have rich parents). There are other scenarios I could paint, but let me just tell you, flying from Cedar City to Salt Lake is a pretty good deal. I went home this last weekend for that nephew scenario. Happy Birthday, Cooper….thanks for letting me come to your party.
The Cedar airport is a happy place where life moves a bit slower. When I showed up an hour early for my flight, the only employee I could find told me, “Oh, just take a seat by the fireplace and we’ll make an announcement when we’re ready to start the security screening and boarding processes for the flight.” That’s just how they roll there. I loved it. Here’s what some of my experience looked like.
Like I said, don’t necessarily plan on flying from Cedar to Salt Lake every day or every weekend, but if you ever get the chance, just know that it’s an option. And you never know, upon landing in Salt Lake, you might just run into some good friends off on a weekend adventure of their own.
Lookin’ good, Garret and Kyle!
The Salt Lake airport is pretty nice too, it’s just not quite what we’ve got here in Southern Utah. PS, getting through Salt Lake security screening on a Monday morning took longer than my entire 33 minute flight back to the land of SUU. Ain’t no thang.
My sister told me I was pretty cool for flying up North for the weekend, and honestly, I kinda felt cool. Walking into my class at 10am, nobody even knew that my flight had just arrived at 9:20 that morning. Always be aware of the adventures that are awaiting you…even in Cedar City, Utah.
Viva! Las Vegas
Posted: April 1, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, Bellagio, cedar city, Circus Circus, college, Dick's Last Resort, Dick's Restaurant, Excalibur, friends, Fun, Fun Times, Las Vegas, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, UT, utah, utah college, Utah High School Tour Leave a comment »Of all the places on earth, I have a deep connection to Cedar City.
It’s my home and I love it here.
However, it is nice to get away for a bit, especially when it’s your friend’s birthday!
Las Vegas, Nevada is only 175 miles away, or 2.5 hours driving time, according to GoogleMaps.
Ten of us friends went to Las Vegas to spend time together and celebrate Nick’s 21st birthday!
We stayed in Circus Circus. Friday night we were going to party like 1999 and decided to walk from Circus Circus along the Strip to Excalibur for dinner. I wanted to drive because I was pretty sure the distance was a lot further than anticipated, but, in the end, I was glad we walked because we became closer friends and had some pretty awesome things happen.
Awesome thing #1: While enjoying the wonderful 80° F weather on our walk, a gentleman had the top down in his convertible and was blasting music. And it was good music. So I said, “Thanks for the tunes!” and he pointed to me and sang to us as we walked by. That made my day 
Awesome thing #2: This black gentleman came up to us while we were taking photos and said we needed some color in the picture. It was great!
And then he took one of the whole group!
I love nice people
Back row LtoR: Martin, Abby, Nick, Jenni, Braden, Scott. Front row LtoR: Chris, me, Cadence, Adam!
Nick, the birthday boy, and Martin
Jenni snapped this gem of me watching the Bellagio water show. Apparently, I was quite amused.
We were walking to Excalibur to eat at Dick’s. It’s a restaurant where the servers are intentionally mean and swear at you and throw things at you and it’s quite the experience. They also make really inappropriate hats for you to wear. I, however, have a filter when it comes to posting things on the Internet so I will only be posting a photo of my hat, which was the only appropriate one made….
This is the only hat that I want photos of on the Internet. It says “Maybe if I cut my hair people would stop mistaking me for a 12 year old girl.” This is my “12 year old girl” pose.
After dinner and drinking lots of water (I don’t drink alcohol. Notice how the pitcher I’m drinking right out of is water? I was super thirsty), six of us went to a dance club and danced the night away! It was the most fun!
After a long night of walking, eating, laughing, dancing, and have the best time ever, Nick was tired so Martin carried him to our hotel room on his shoulders.
Lovely photo by Jenni of the moon over New York New York and the front of the Monte Carlo
Of all these people on the trip, there was only one that I didn’t know because of SUU. Every day it is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I have the best friends in the world.
Thank you, SUU, for giving me friendships that I will value forever.
FHE Talent Show
Posted: March 29, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: cedar city, college, FHE, friends, Fun, Fun Times, southern utah, Student Life, tbirdnation, UT Leave a comment »Gather a bunch of church people, ask them to share their talents, and I guarantee everyone will have a good time. This is just one more thing you could experience as a member of Tbirdnation. The pictures will tell you the rest of the story. Good times, eh?
The Hub
Posted: March 22, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: cedar city, college, Enoch, Food, friends, Fun, Fun Times, pizza, southern utah, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation, The Hub, UT 1 Comment »Part of enjoying college means enjoying the local community you’ve now become a part of. Cedar City is surrounded by cute little towns and communities that all have lots to offer. One of these towns is Enoch, just a little bit north of Cedar. One of the things Enoch can offer is “The Hub” which sells some of the best pizza I’ve ever had. (476 E Midvalley Rd). Not too long ago I went there with a large group of fun and energetic people I enjoy (we called this night “FHE”) to hang out, eat pizza, and enjoy the atmosphere at “The Hub.” The pizzas are named after streets in Enoch…I don’t know much about that, but I do know that it was delightful all the way around. And considering they’ve only been open since December 2012, you’re in for a brand new treat. Take some friends. Enjoy.
The Hub
15% off your order when you show a SUU student ID.
$2 off every pizza on Monday nights.
$.50 wings on Wednesdays.
The Hub Staff & Owners
Call 435-865-6623 for more information. Based on personal experience, I give a high recommendation!
Juniper Hall: The end
Posted: March 8, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: cedar city, college, Demolition, Freshman Life, friends, Fun Times, Juniper Hall, Roommates, southern utah, southern utah university, Student Life, suu, tbirdnation, University Housing, UT, utah, utah college Leave a comment »I never lived in the student housing complex known as Juniper Hall. But I know many people who did. People who lived in Juniper, LOVED Juniper. Last year there were some irreparable problems and they had to move everyone out mid-semester. Yesterday, a part of every former-Juniper-resident’s heart was torn into little pieces as SUU said goodbye to the building forever.
The good news is that there are still many wonderful residence halls on campus and hundreds (or thousands) of off-campus housing options. Someday there will be a Juniper Hall replacement. In the meantime, you have my permission to cry just a little bit. Or a lot. (Or cheer if you’re one of THOSE people.) All emotions are welcome when an era ends. Goodbye Juniper Hall…here’s to the future of SUU student housing.
Flat Stanley
Posted: March 1, 2013 Filed under: Experiential Education | Tags: Animal Ambassador's Club, cedar city, Centrum Arena, college, collegebound, Flat Stanley, friends, Fun, Fun Times, graduate school, kevin stein, Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics, southern utah, southern utah university, Student Life, suu, SUU Bookstore, tbirdnation, UT, utah Leave a comment »My oldest nephew’s first grade class is learning about maps, map-making, cities, towns, and all things of that sort. In order to help the class learn, they read a book called Flat Stanley. My awesome nephew has his own “Flat Stanley” and sent Stanley to visit SUU and Cedar City. After showing Flat Stanley around for a bit, I’m proud to report that he’s a proud member of Tbirdnation and he’s a little sad to be sent back to my nephew on Monday. Here are some pictures of what Flat Stanley did while he was here and some of the things you might want to see next time you’re around these parts.
Flat Stanley with the famous Sharwan Smith statue
Stanley was not so excited for this shot, though he LOVES the SUU Animal Ambassadors’ club!
Stanley was not so excited for this shot, though he LOVES the SUU Animal Ambassadors’ club!
With Dr. Stein’s “Communication and Pop Culture” graduate class
Flat Stanley met a Flat JFK while he was here when I showed him the Michael O. Leavitt Center for Politics
He really would have loved to attend a basketball game, but his stay was only long enough to see the empty Centrum Arena
The SUU bookstore sells t-shirts in ALMOST every size…they just need some flat ones now for the next time Stanley comes to visit.
Thanks for visiting SUU, Flat Stanley! We hope you enjoyed your stay and when it comes time for you to choose your college, please consider SUU!
Wakie Wakie, Eggs and Bakie
Posted: February 1, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City | Tags: cedar city, Fun, Fun Times, Nature, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, tbirdnation, UT, utah 1 Comment »Have you seen anything like this lately?
If you were in Cedar City last week, you might have seen this last Wednesday morning. The sunrise. It was just there…waiting for me when I woke up. Ahhhhhh. My picture was even featured on KSL News that night and on their photo-of -the-month page.
Cedar City Sunrise
And if you lived in Cedar City, perhaps as a student at SUU, or perhaps as a TbirdNation supporter, you might see things like this all the time.
Pretty cool, huh.
I bleed red
Posted: January 25, 2013 Filed under: Cedar City, Uncategorized | Tags: American Red Cross, Blood Donation, cedar city, Fun, Fun Times, Sharwan Smith Student Center, southern utah university, suu, SUU Nursing, tbirdnation, UT, utah Leave a comment »One of my favorite things about my glorious Tbirdnation is that being at SUU automatically presents me with lots of opportunities to give, take, share, learn, grow, expand, and learn what it is to be a contributing member of society. Last Friday when I walked into the Sharwan Smith Student Center, first thing I saw was a giant sign that said, “Here’s a great chance to give of yourself, help save lives, and learn and grow in some really awesome ways!” Okay, what it actually said was more like “Blood Drive Today” but I like to read between the lines.
The SUU Nursing program in conjunction with the American Red Cross hosted this blood drive last week. It is one of their routine events. You can find blood drives on campus pretty regularly which is great. Whether you’re a first-time donor or into your fourth gallon of donations (like, cough, cough…me) it’s an exciting experience to donate blood. I’ll send thanks out to lots of people: to the Nursing program, Red Cross, Tbirdnation, and SUU, all for helping me save lives and contribute to society right from the comfort of my very own student center.
Nursing Students greeted donors and guided us through the process
You must read this before donating blood!!
Don’t worry, I read all the instructional materials…
This was the phlebotomist that did my screening exam and drew my blood. She was very competent and professional.
One of my fellow donors last week; Look how happy she is to be saving lives!
Post-donation instructions. They come with cookies and juice, like all good instructions should.
My first time donating blood was as a student at Snow College many years ago and I’ve been a giver ever since. I’m a firm believer in sharing what you can to help those in need! It’s really nice that SUU provides opportunities like this to students, faculty, staff, and community members. Come on over to SUU and GIVE!
SUU on a mission
Posted: January 18, 2013 Filed under: Student Life | Tags: admissions, cedar city, christmas break, college, friends, Fun, Fun Times, Institute, LDS, Missionaries, southern utah, southern utah university, suu, suu admissions, tbirdnation, UT, utah Leave a comment »Southern Utah University is in Utah. You probably already knew this. Utah is full of Mormons AKA members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You probably knew that too. Of course not everyone in Utah, at SUU, or associated with Tbirdnation is LDS or religious, but many are. (SUU has a very active LDS Institute program and lots of great singles’ wards to attend!) In October of last year, the LDS church announced that those desiring to serve as full-time missionaries for the church could now do so at a younger ages. Men may now leave as early as age 18 (previously age 19) and women can go at age 19 or after (previously 21).
For lots of Tbirdnation fans, the change in missionary ages means nothing. That’s fine. However, this announcement in October has changed a lot of things for a lot of people at SUU. Many of those who were considering college are now considering FIRST a mission and THEN college. Or for some, that fast-track to graduation will be interrupted by a couple years for the mission-thing. This means less students at SUU for a little while (a couple years or s0) until the missionaries/returned missionary situation evens itself out. This could be good or bad depending on how you view change and which side of the table you’re sitting on. Regardless of how you feel about it, there are some very excited “Future Missionaries” roaming SUU’s campus.
Samantha and Ashleigh are both in the MTC right now. Heather goes in this March.
Over Christmas Break I was able to send of my dear friend Ashleigh (pictured above in the middle) on a mission to Sacramento California. She and I have known each other for almost five years. She left behind a place in SUU’s prestigious nursing program to answer another call. Another cute friend from SUU, Samantha (pictured above on the left), is headed to Houston Texas. Heather (above on the right) is a super cute girl I worked with her at SUU; she has her mission call to Nicaragua (?). These cute girls are putting their SUU-education on hold in favor of other learning experiences. I’m fully supportive!
The nice thing is that SUU will still be here when they get back. Tbirdnation isn’t going anywhere while they head off into the great unknown. If you are considering coming to Southern Utah University but you’re trying to figure out how to balance it with an LDS mission, have no fear. Many departments and programs on campus are willing to work with you, especially since the new age-change is affecting so many students. Lots of people are figuring out how to fit missions and education and “real life” in with all the other adventures of young adulthood.
Sister Missionaries in Philadelphia, Fall 2006
I speak from experience when I say missions and school are both great. I’ve done the mission thing (see that awesome picture above?) and I’m doing the school thing. I’ll never have regrets about either. So rock your mission, rock the SUU experience, and don’t worry about how it’ll all work out. It just will.
Eric
jillowhitaker
Kirk
Laurel
Jess
Nathan
Thor
Becky
