well i can't pass up this opportunity - since its for the southside where this Irish girl is proudly from.

I saw the news yesterday and got so excited because its just one other thing to consider for a post-graduate option in this horrible economy. Plus the fact, people deserve to see what the real southside of Chicago is like, not like the Jersey Shore where only one of those single cast members is actually from the state of New Jersey. Those are fake portrayals of the Jersey Shore life and I don't wany anyone getting a fake idea of real Southside life. So what happened when I heard of this fabulous news? I tried out of course! In less than 24 hours I put together a few pictures of my life as a southside girl and gave a brief bio of myself as a true Chicago SouthSide Irish Woman. here it is:::

 

As a real Chicago southsider, I am proud to say that I do not obsess with dressing up and tanning and working out. I live the real southside life and proudly drink as an Irish girl in her early twenties wanting to have fun with life.

My name is Siobhan Ryan. I'm currently in my last semester of college and prepared to graduate with a Bachelors in Art. I was raised on the South Side of Chicago in a truly Irish family with many Irish traditions. My siblings' names are Mavourneen, Deirdre, Conor, and Liam. I am 21 years old and enjoy the real Western Avenue as much as anyone else does but enjoy it the right way as an Irish woman.

My sister and I both worked at Village Video.

The attitudes of Jersey Shore are not like what I experienced when I visited my boyfriend, a true native. It's true that they don't pump their own gas, but they don't pump fists. They love being outside with family and friends.

As a very-near-future college graduate I have considered many options for my future, including doing a year or more of service. I have been active in Habitat for Humanity for three proud years now and would love to broaden my experience with dedicating service to others.

The only tattoos I've ever considered getting are a Celtic Cross I designed on my back or a shamrock on my ankle with my sisters.

How about getting some more background of my life? My entire family has lived the Chicago life and we can truly represent the Chicago culture, especially the southside. We consist of the Ryans, the Conways, the Maloneys, and the O'Sheas. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day the right way wearing as much green as possible and drinking as much green beer as possible, starting in the morning. We eat true Irish soda bread and Corn Beef and Cabbage. My father used to work for Beverly Bank and Mt. Carmel. Him and my brothers are each alum of Mt. Carmel. My mother worked for McAuley and each of us kids have been to St. Barnabas and Sutherland. We are true Irish Catholics. I've marched with St. Rita in the st. patty's day parade. I've watched the 4th of July fireworks from Beverly Park before celebrating my birthday the next day.

I love running in to old classmates on Western Ave, even family members who only live a block away. My sister is marrying an O'Shea who grew up only a block away from us at 103rd and Western and my cousins only live further down that same block.

I have long dark hair and blue eyes. I'm tall with size 6 feet. I'm not skinny but I'm healthy. I don't run but I love to run around with kids.

A friend of my father is the owner of a bar, Rosie O'Boyle, and had interviewed my boyfriend asking every question that is essential to the Chicago SouthSide lifestyle. Unfortunately he's Italian but he's got the right head on his shoulders.

So why should I be on this show? What makes me different than any southsider? I'm real. But I'm unique. I don't bring attention to myself by dolling myself up every night and drinking my life away. Rather, I take the initiative to have relationships with my friends and family and I'm not afraid to take on a challenge and make the next big step in my life.

I'm not perfect.(and neither is this audition material) I make mistakes. But I learn from them.

 

 

 

so for any of you that have not experienced Chicago life, I hope this was beneficial to you. If and when this new show reality show comes out I hope it DOES show the REAL southside life and doesn't mislead you to think we're really like the jersey shore cast. but of course you can't really experience it until you visist for yourself!

so my capstone this week had an interesting activity that i've taken on a few times since being an art student at the mount. Natalie Goldberg is an author who is known for her book 'Writing Down the Bones'. the concept that my teacher tonight had taken from her book is to pick a piece of art or information to think about and then write. there are rules however: you cannot lift your pen off of the paper (this means you cannot pause between ideas). and you cannot scratch out errors (this includes punctuation, spelling, run-on sentences, etc.) you have to continue to write for the length of time set. and you can't be afraid to get a little off topic because that could be when the best ideas come spilling out.

in class today then, i decided to focus on a photo i've shared in this blog in the past, of my favorite place in the world - the buckingham fountain in downtown chicago.

this is what i wrote in class today:

beauty in this world is defined by love and devotion. eac person has a story to share in which a sense of pride is expressed for their own lives. this place expresses beauty in family history and a sense of what home really brings to the individual. this place shares memories of monumental pride as well as pride of kinship and love. as a member of this place you bring individuality, hope inspriation, and above all, love and pride. pride of successsing form its original keepers so the children of our future can grow to love it as well and spread the memories on forever as they continue to devleop their own with their love and commitment as the developers created their own stories in to every inch of dedication for the future audience to admire for centuries and with hopefulness of an eternity of a civil difference. my love for this monumental moment grows s my love for it is dhsred with my hopefull soon to be forever spouse. my love for him will then forever be enbedded in this place as it holds our combined memories of the day we become/became one. my love then will grow with beauty for an inspriational future.

that's a mouthful --> i know!

to give a little background on some of the information in this piece. the reasons why this picture is of my favorite place in the entire world is because it is right by the lake michigan bike path that i have also grown up on with my family - also! because my great grandfather was a plumber for this magnificent fountain when it was originally built and my grandmother was on his shoulders as a little girl on the day that it opened.

also, it has been my dream for years now that i get proposed to at that fountain and i would love for this place to be just as important to my kids as it is to me with the memories i have held there and plan to share.

i am so excited about Friday! me and one of my besties are heading out to chicago for the weekend and i can't wait! this is my first time heading home since my 21st birthday in the first week of july. this is megan's second time heading out to the fabulous city so its going to be a really fun weekend. i'm anxious to see my friends too! i haven't seen them since i was home and practically my whole family too! friday night we're planning on heading out to western avenue which is one of the best-known bar scenes in the chicago area. i love that it is only a few blocks from my house so we won't be calling any taxis either. i'm assuming we'll be going to in to the city during the day saturday so megan can get her city shopping in! saturday night we'll be munching on the amazing chicago style deep dish pizza and enjoying some refreshments out on the deck with some good friends and family with a great brunch the following morning before megan and i head back to the nati. i usually only go home 2 or 3 times a semester so its always exciting be home!

which is why i'm excited that i'll also be heading home for halloween weekend! two of my friends (twins) are turning 21 on halloween and so we'll be celebrating the best way possible. i've actually already been working on tshirts for the group going out together. the picture i've picked out is pretty awesome for the night!

check it out!!

so yea i worked 44 hours a week plus took 5 weeks of a history class. but what else did i do?

i brought brian with me to chicago for the first time during memorial day weekend! it was actually a really big surprise to everyone at home. nobody knew that i was coming in, let alone that they'd be meeting brian that weekend. he'd never been to my hometown before so i was really excited that we'd be able to do that together! the better trip though was going to his hometown!

i went to new jersey and new york for the first time EVER!!! i was so excited!!! brian goes back to his original home town every summer with his family and so i hardly saw him after memorial day weekend, except for when i got to visit him! his parents arranged the flights for me so i could fly for the first time by myself to visit him for 6 days. we spent a lot of time at the beach and experiencing what east coast life is like. i even got to see ellis island, the statue of liberty, times square, ground zero, the empire state building, and more! the best yet, though, was just to see brian. i had missed him so much and it was so fun to just spend that time with him in his home town. he even almost taught me how to surf but i got a really bad case of the nerves. i ended up promising myself by the end of the trip that i would force myself to learn the next time i'm out on the ocean with him!

i also was able to make a trip to chicago for my birthday in early july! peggy and christy came with me on the megabus to spend another 6 days in chicago to celebrate my 21st birthday. we had so much fun, spending time downtown walking around the amazing city, plus visiting with my friends and family. i was finally legal to enjoy the amazing bar scene on infamous western avenue in my neighborhood of beverly. it was some of the best fun i've ever had because some of my closest friends and family were all enjoying each others company in a good irish manner!

my trips were generally pretty short but were without a doubt a lot of fun! i was just so excited to spend the time i did with everyone everywhere.

to add on to it all, my dad just visited me at school this weekend for the first time in a couple years so i was really very excited to spend that time with him. and i'll be heading back to chicago again next month to visit with some friends and family again with a couple more of my cincinnati friends! i'm so excited!!!!

One big aspect about my life as being a student at MSJ is the fact that I am from Chicago, born and raised. Many people ask me ?WHY? Cincinnati, why the Mount, why Delhi, why Ohio??

Well my reasoning is this: I wanted to find a small school, far from home, in somewhat of a big city, with an interior design program, marching band, and learning disability. Also my mother had thought I should look in to a Catholic college. Well this is one of few schools I found on google that was applied to each of those entries.

I grew up in a very big family -> just on my mom's side i have 1 aunt and 4 uncles, I am youngest of five, one of 14 grand kids, plus there are 6 grand kids. so I am used to big numbers, also having gone to a grade school with 75 students in my graduating class. i had gone to a small high school and realized, i like small numbers, so I decided i REALLY wanted to go to a small college. I wanted to travel far away because I knew I would go home every weekend otherwise and i didn't want to do that because then i would not truly get the best dorming experience. my brother, conor, had traveled 5 hours away from home as well and it seemed like he got a great experience traveling far from home. i also knew i really wanted to stay in a city! i had looked in to other great colleges that were in smaller towns but they didn't grab me the way city life does. i needed a busy town atmosphere. i love to walk fast (coming from a chicago girl as my friends would know) and so that definitely came in to key! ever since i was a kid i've always loved decorating and organizing and arranging furniture and i was a biiiiiig fan of the interior design shows on TLC so i built up this amazing dream of being an interior designer. unfortunately it didn't work out the way i had planned when i came out here to school but then an even better dream came up as an art therapist. which you will have to check back for another blog about how that is going . for the past 4 years of my life i have fallen in love with colorguard. for any of you who have been to the football games in the last two years you have seen 2 or more girls performing with the band at half time or prepping any tailgaitors. well that was the colorguard. when i first chose the school i knew that even though they were only a marching band that i would somehow get a colorguard in that picture! one year in to my career at the Mount me and my co-captain were able to re-create the colorguard and just one year later were able to duble in size! this again is another focus area that will be blogged about later so keep reading . another big part of my life is the improvement in my ability to work around my learning disability. I have a slight form of dyslexia, reading comprehension issues, as well as a form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). this improvement is all thanks to Project Excel, which is one of the BIGGEST reasons that i chose this school. each tutor that i have worked with has been more than amazing in helping me with my classes, time management, and well EVERYTHING! its truly been incredible!

 But why would i leave Chicago for that? because while Chicago really is the best city for me, it doesn't have the Mount!!!

 thanks again for reading and keep checking out my page for updates

 

SOME OF MY PHOTOGRAPHY OF MY TWO FAVORITE CITIES:

 

Buckingham Fountain - my favorite place in the entire world!

Lake Michigan - The best summer feeling is riding my bike along this lake!

Millenium Park - This is one of the several parts of Millenium Park. I love the architecture!

 

A couple views of the Ohio River from Eden Park

The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in Cincinnati - Eden Park.

Hey readers! I first wanted to welcome you to my blogs and thank you so much for reading! This past week or so has been pretty busy! It started out with last Sunday (9/14/08) when the city of Cincinnati had a major blackout. I was at a cornmaze with the Campus Activities Board in the early afternoon but for a very short period of time due to the rediculously strong winds.

On our way back to the college, we realized more of how crazy the wind really got! We returned to the Mount and discovered the power had been out since 1:30. Due to this blackout, a lot of creativity was driven out of me and my fellow dormers. It seemed that no matter where in the dorms I walked I found someone playing a board game, card game, using the game tables in west or whatnot. It was so cool to see how everyone interacted with each other outside of AIM, e-mail, and facebook! I woke up Tuesday morning to flashing lights on my roommate's alarm clock - power was back on! the rest of the day (with internet being up) i was catching up on homework and e-mails and of course facebook! those past 2 days certainly were a good vacation though! So later that week, after classes are caught up, i was heading my way out to chicago, exactly one month later since i left home! i took a 6 hour ride on the megabus to see my family for one weekend. i'm just so thankful for the megabus system because i was able to get a roundtrip ticket between here and chicago for only $45 and was able to see my grandpa for his 95th birthday! it was a good way to end the crazy week!

 

thanks for reading and stay tuned for next week!

the corn maze - look how windy!!!

the goats at the cornfields! they were hiding from the wind :( poor guys! but we got to feed them!

it was so windy that it got my roommate's shirt dirty!

this is when the wind was just starting!

Well what a busy and exciting weekend!!

            This weekend I went up to Indianapolis and Chicago with my Modern Art class.  We loaded up the twelve passenger College of Mount St. Joseph vans and headed up to the windy city.  We first stopped at the Indianapolis Art Museum and stayed there from 11am-4pm.  And let me tell you that was not enough time to look at everything that they had.  It was also a gorgeous facility with 3 floors of nothing but wonderful artwork and tempting giftshops.  A really neat exhibit that was at the Indianapolis Museum was a fashion exhibit.  It was really interesting to see how the styles of clothing have progressed and how some styles mimic each other.  From Indianapolis we headed to Chicago.  We arrived at about 7:15pm and everyone got settled.  We then had free time for the rest of the evening.  My friends and I decided to get dressed up and go out to dinner.  After walking, walking and more walking we decided to go to Rosebuds, at least I think that is the name.  It was an expensive Italian restaurant, we sat outside and ate, and it was such a wonderful time.  The next morning we headed to the Chicago Institute of Art.  That was really an enjoyable time seeing such famous paintings by Monet and so many others.  The really awesome part about the trip is that when I was looking at the art I knew who a lot of the artists were before I even read their names.  Our Modern Art teacher Shawnee has taught us well.  If you ever get a chance to take an art history course at MSJ try to get Shawnee as your teacher, she really makes learning so enjoyable and understandable.  Well I should finish up my homework…talk to you later.