Author Palina Pavarha

It's the smell of a new morning. It's the taste of energy. It's the color of a long, sleepless night scared away by the sound of the alarm clock. The sound of this word, if you say it very slowly as if you have just awaken, makes your lips curve into a small smile.

The first thing Michelle Holmberg '08 does in the morning, and the last thing she does at night, is log into her Facebook account to ensure that she is completely up to date on all the latest happenings. Although the popularity of social networking Web sites such as Facebook and Myspace has skyrocketed, the effects on the social and academic lives of college students like Holmberg may not be known for years.

Looking at the coins in her hand, Mihoshi Tanida '10 took one, examined it closely and then put in on the counter. She did the same with the second one. And the third. The line behind her was getting restless. The shop assistant asked her what was wrong with the coins.

The truth is whatever large event takes place on campus, FUSA has something to do with it. You know -- the students in bright red shirts or sweatshirts with something like "Fairfield University Student Association" on them. Maybe you even saw them a couple of times, running around campus, looking very busy and "Stag-positive," smiling mysteriously at you and giving you the look that says "we know something that you don't" -- those are the FUSA members.

I'll do that… just later. Not today. Maybe not even tomorrow. In a day or two. Or three. As I sat before my computer, staring blankly at the screen, I answered my unimportant e-mails, cleaned my already tidy room, and thought to myself that studying for my midterms can wait.

Fairfield's Religious Studies Department is hosting the first Ramadan iftaar (a meal served at the end of the day during Ramadan that breaks the day's fast).

It was hard to believe that this was the first time they played together. The lead guitarist said their sound was similar to Santana in the jam rock genre. Judging from the applause, the audience seemed to enjoy jam rock, though not as much as free pizza. Welcome to the fall 2006 version of Fairfield's Battle of the Bands - a competition between local bands playing their own instruments that took place at "The Levee" this Saturday.

Fall is here - you can hear it in the whisper of the wind; you can feel it in the air getting cooler everyday; you can see it in the colors of the leaves falling from trees and you can spot it in the color of the clothes people begin to dress in. Every season people tend to rotate the color of the clothes they choose to wear.

Here I am, my first time in the U.S.; the birth place of Ralph Lauren, Sue Wong and Tommy Hilfiger; the sacred grounds of New York Fashion Week, motherland of jeans, T-shirts and urban style. No wonder the dominating question in the letters from my friends in Belarus and Russia is, "so what do they wear there, over the Atlantic Ocean?" It is hard to answer this question simply, so I did a comparison between what students wear for classes in my country and here.