Today I am thankful for festive foods! I know that seems kind of a silly thing for which to be thankful, but I am addicted to festive foods, mostly due to my sweet tooth. I made it my fall goal this year to have everything pumpkin that I could at least once, and in class today I compiled a list of all the new goodies from this year:

1. Pumpkin spice latte (Starbucks, Panera, Java City, Coffee Coffee, The Grateful Bean)
2. Pumpkin spice creme
3. Pumpkin spice coffee
4. Pumpkin coffee
5. Pumpkin chai
6. Pumpkin spice tea
7. Pumpkin pie soda
8. Pumpkin waffles
9. Pumpkin bread
10. Pumpkin coffee cake
11. Pumpkin spice silk
12. Pumpkin ice cream
13. Pumpkin pie ice cream
14. Pumpkin frozen yogurt
15. Pumpkin pie Pop-Tarts
16. Pumpkin spice cookies
17. Pumpkin donuts
18. Pumpkin cheesecake
19. Pumpkin muffie
20. Pumpkin pie crepe
21. Pumpkin spice cream cheese (Einstein's and Philadelphia)
22. Pumpkin bagel
23. Pumpkin soup
24. Pumpkin ale

Twenty-four things. Twenty four! And still counting! I still need to try that pumpkin eggnog and pumpkin pie schnapps ... I probably have a problem, but I don't care. It's something that makes the holiday season fun and distinctly fall. Not to mention my little sister is as much of a pumpkin nut as I, so it's a distinctly autumn food that has become over the years a family tradition. Holiday foods are one of the easiest ways to get me into the season 

Lately I've been trying to save money and drink more coffee from my apartment and not go to my campus' coffee place every other day. I love creamers, but I started to get tired of using the same one and decided to see how my coffee would taste with my light vanilla Silk and honey, which turned out to be REALLY good! So I'm curious; what do you put in your at-home coffee ?

I know these lists are pretty common, but I decided I would share some of what I feel are my more obscure things I wish people would have told me. I shared some of these to a friend this summer who is now in her second freshman semester, and she found my advice pretty helpful 

• If you know what you want your major to be, pick your school based on CLASSES first. You should ask upon every college tour for a course catalogue and make sure it has the classes you want to take. This is a huge reason why people transfer; they assume if they like the school and it has your major, it’s a perfect fit, when in reality, it’s all about the individual classes.
• For campus-residents, cafeteria quality should be one of your deciding factors for the school. Not your top, but definitely on the deciding factor list. It seems silly and shallow til you’re in your room only eating Easy Mac, cereal, Campbell’s, and Ramen because you can’t convince yourself it’s worth the walk to the cafeteria for gross food.
• When considering a school that is a distance from your house, consider not just the distance time, but consider it doubled because with weekend visits, it will feel like you just got to your house and you're coming all the way back to school again. This isn't a problem for everyone, but definitely something to keep in mind.
• Unless you take 18 credits a semester and take summer and winter classes, you will not graduate on time as a dual major. Unless maybe you overload (though most schools won’t let you overload with more than 21 credits) every semester.
• You will spend A LOT of time in the building dedicated to your major. If your major’s department isn’t big, it will feel a little bit like high school because you will see the same people repeatedly, which is a good thing for some people and a bad for others. For those where it’s a bad thing, clubs, Greek life, sports, choirs, ect. are a great way to keep yourself balanced.
• Commuters and campus-residents alike should invest in an umbrella and rainboots. Many think rainboots especially are an unnecessary purchase, but that’s until you accidentally step in a puddle trying to avoid colliding into someone and your entire shoe, sock, and pant leg is soaked and you don’t have time to go back home and change because it’s your back-to-back class day. They can also double up as snow boots. Do yourself a favor, and hit up Target.
• If you’re a really dressy person, invest in dressy sweat suits. You aren’t always going to want to dress up all the time, so this helps you still look great when you feel like being a bum.
• Amazon.com will have your text books cheaper than your school's bookstore. And buying books before the first day of class is pointless because each teacher values the class’s “required text” differently, and many will even drop a “required text.” And then you’ve just spent $50+ on a book you don’t need.
• The bookstore also is not guaranteed to take back your text book. Amazon.com almost always will, though, but even then you may not get a decent price for it.
• Find out who has Netflix asap because sometimes your hw will be to watch a movie on reserve in like 3 days and your class has 30 people.
• Buy stuff like meds, lotions, feminine products, office supplies ect. in bulk while you still have transportiation (and parent’s money for some) because the school store will have what you need overpriced with the brand you don’t want.
• Not every teacher will let you use your laptop in class.
• Everyone tells you to get shower shoes, which is true, but what they neglect to tell you is you should get a pair of house shoes too. You don’t know what’s on the dorm floors or how often or how in depth they are cleaned. Don’t take that chance on your feet.

So what other suggestions do we Xangans have to give to the future freshmen  ?