Dorm Life: End of the semester and holidays here

Well, fellow students, Christmas break is just around the corner. These three short weeks will close the semester… my first semester of college. Before I know it, I will be on a plane flying back to my house in Nampa. Seemingly in the blink of an eye, I’ll be sitting in my living room, with the aroma of my mom’s homemade snicker doodle cookies wafting through my house. Maybe then I will finally allow myself to sink into the comforting-relief of a whole month free from school, as I blankly doze off while gazing at the flickering bulbs our fake tree.
Downtown Coeur d’Alene, on the other hand, does not have a single bulb out of whack. In fact, their lights twinkle with that little magic something you felt inside each year as Christmas approaches. Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way.
“I know right! I love the lights downtown! The view is way better if you go around the marina so you can see the lights up close,” exclaimed Liz Grisez.
Liz Grisez is sort of your average eighteen-year-old girl next door who conversation comes naturally with. Liz is majoring in Photography and  is from Kingston, Washington, a town across the water from Seattle that she claims is full of inconsiderate people who rarely ever stop to say “please” or “thank you” and glare at you when you make eye contact with them in the grocery store.
Grisez is thankful she is living here at NIC for this reason and for the freedom she gets living six hours away from her family, no longer needing to ask her parents when she wants to go somewhere.
She did not always feel this way though. She confessed how weird it was going from a place where she has a lot of friends, then coming here to Coeur d’Alene where she knew absolutely no one.
“Well you’re kind of alone but everyone is alone so it isn’t too hard to make friends and I’m having a lot of with the whole college experience,” said Grisez.
She is also fed up with the laundry situation, with having to gather quarters. She chuckled when she said, “the Dollar Store has become my new favorite store.”
Grisez said there isn’t much to do in CDA, so for fun she usually just spends time with her roommate or goes on late night runs to Sonic.
She really likes the different events the dorm hosts. Though she said the “Pamper Party” was a snore. They just painted nails and watched a movie but that night the dorm was having their annual Holiday Extravaganza and Grizes asked me if I’d go with her.
We made ornaments, decorated cookies, and drank hot chocolate. It was a swell way to celebrate the holiday season here and to my surprise, I made a new friend along the way.