Even the Sun Sets in Paradise

Hey everyone! This will be my last post in my summer series here on American Amanda! Next, I will begin to write all about school and the college application process.

Since summer is coming to a close, last weekend my friends and I all traveled to a nearby vacation spot for a fun girls weekend! We traveled to Palm Springs, which is a few hours inland from where I live. Since it is in the desert, the temperature was around 105 degrees Fahrenheit, or 40.5 degrees Celsius. Talk about your heat wave! Since it was so hot, we spent most of the time near the pool. Don't forget your lemonade smoothies to keep cool! It was fun to be able to have a mini-vacation without being far from home.

Lots of people are going on vacations now before summer ends. Some are traveling far places, like sea cruises to Canada or trips to Europe. Most people, though, are staying close to home and traveling to places like Palm Springs, Lake Havasu in Arizona, or Lake Tahoe in Nevada. Since the weather is so hot, its important to be near water! Happy tripping!

How are you spending your last few weeks of summer? And if you are already in school, what was your favorite summer memory? Let me know in the comments!


xoxo

Cruising for Colleges

Hey everyone! This summer is a great time to start looking at colleges that you want to apply to. Since there is no school, summer is a great time to travel around the country to look at perspective colleges. This week I spent on the East Coast looking at Georgetown, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke. Those are four universities that I am interested in and wanted to see in person. And I am very glad that I did! They are all very unique universities that offer different things to their students. Some fit me, and others did not. But I would have never known if I did not visit the school.
There are many advantages that come out of visiting the school. Although you can learn about the school online and look at pictures, you never get the true atmosphere and environment of the school until you visit it in person. You can meet with an admissions officer to get an information session about the school and go on a tour of campus with a student. Having these tools available to you helps to learn about the school in cool and interesting ways. Duke Universities has a lemur forrest while a building in the University of Pennsylvania was used as the mansion in the TV show Adams Family. That's something you would never read about on the website!
Most importantly, being on campus helps you visualize if you can imagine yourself at this school. The first part of the application process is figuring out which schools to apply to!
Even if you cannot travel to visit schools, there are many options offered online now like virtual tours and discussions rooms. Don't worry, with enough research, you will find the school perfect for you!

What schools are you interested in applying to? Where have you visited recently? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo

Networking Olympians

Hey everyone! With the Olympic Games well under way, people all over the world are cheering for their countries. In the current day and age, the fastest way to get any information out about the details of each event is through social networking. It is the perfect way to keep track of what is happening and celebrate with your friends after. When Michael Phelps made his 19th gold medal win, he became the record holder for the most all time gold medals. But that was not the only record broken: there was an all time record of 37000 tweets right when he won the race. Talk about keeping your friends up to date!

On Facebook, the talk meter for Phelps reached 5.6 million fans, making him the most talked about athlete worldwide. Gavy Douglas's performance had 29000 tweets, coming close to the record breaking Phelps amount. Even President Obama tweeted Phelps after his 19th medal win saying he made his country proud.

How do you keep up to date with the Olympics? How do you celebrate your team's victories? Let me know in the comments!

xoxo