Appalachian State University students share surprising and embarrassing moments from their recent fall break.

Transcript

Dave Blanks: Hey folks, what's up? My name's Dave Blanks from University Communications and I'm back again with a Dave By The Bell. On this edition of Dave By The Bell, the students are smack dab in the middle of final examinations. They're walking around being stressed out, potentially. Maybe they're super prepared, possibly they are not super prepared. They're in final exams now, but they also just came from the holiday break, Thanksgiving. Many of them celebrated, so that means that they were in close proximity to their family and sometimes when you hang out with your family, maybe something embarrassing could occur, something surprising might occur. So we're looking for surprises or potentially embarrassing things that happened, because those are fun stories.

Katie Hines: I'm Katie Hines, so my brother is a really big stickler on everything and he saw my grandma pour a glass of wine and he said, "How many is that?"

Dave Blanks: Oh my gosh.

Katie Hines: He's only nine.

Dave Blanks: What?

Katie Hines: He's a major rule follower.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, a real rule follower. What do you think he's going to do when he grows up?

Katie Hines: He wants to be a lawyer, it makes a lot of sense.

Dave Blanks: What's his name? Can you say his name?

Katie Hines: His name is Henry.

Dave Blanks: Okay, how long has Henry been such a rule follower?

Katie Hines: Always. He's always been like that. We're used to it, but we can break the smallest rule and it will not get by him.

Dave Blanks: He's going to be like a hall monitor.

Katie Hines: Oh yeah, he is at his school.

Dave Blanks: Wow.

Katie Hines: Yeah, he's on the safety patrol.

Dave Blanks: I kind of respect that. He knows what he wants and he's doing it.

Katie Hines: He does know what he wants. He's very set on everything.

Dave Blanks: How did your grandma handle it?

Katie Hines: We just laugh because we're used to it by now, it's like-

Dave Blanks: Oh, Henry.

Katie Hines: It's, whatever at this point.

Avery Pope: I'm Avery Pope. Yeah, my cousin was kind of being weird and rude to everyone.

Dave Blanks: Okay, rude cousin?

Avery Pope: So we cut it short.

Dave Blanks: So that was unexpected.

Avery Pope: Yes, that was unexpected.

Dave Blanks: All right, maybe he was having an off day.

Avery Pope: Yeah, he just got a dog, the dog is really cute.

Dave Blanks: Well then the dog should improve his mood.

Avery Pope: Yeah, it didn't.

Dave Blanks: It's a big responsibility too. Maybe it's keeping him up at night. Is it a puppy?

Avery Pope: It is.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, maybe that's it, he's cracking under the pressure. Puppy pressure.

Avery Pope: Oh yeah.

Dave Blanks: Thanks Avery.

Avery Pope: Of course.

Alex Lipovan: I'm Alex Lipovan. I choked.

Dave Blanks: What?

Alex Lipovan: I choked on my food.

Dave Blanks: You did?

Alex Lipovan: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: What was it you were eating?

Alex Lipovan: It was mashed potatoes.

Dave Blanks: How did you do that?

Alex Lipovan: I know, I think I was talking and then eating at the same time and just-

Dave Blanks: How bad was it?

Alex Lipovan: I was tearing up.

Dave Blanks: Oh man, that's pretty bad.

Alex Lipovan: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: Did anybody try to help you?

Alex Lipovan: No.

Dave Blanks: What did they do?

Alex Lipovan: They just kind of sat there and watched.

Dave Blanks: At least they didn't laugh.

Alex Lipovan: I got lucky it was mashed potatoes.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, for real. I've never choked on mashed potatoes.

Alex Lipovan: Yeah, I don't know how it happened.

Dave Blanks: I figured you would say it's some kind of bone, or something like that.

Alex Lipovan: No.

Dave Blanks: Turkey bone.

Alex Lipovan: No.

Dave Blanks: No, taters.

Alex Lipovan: Yeah, taters.

Seth Douglas: My name is Seth Douglas. Well, most of my family's from Maryland, so we had a crab bake instead of a turkey dinner.

Dave Blanks: That sounds awesome.

Seth Douglas: And my grandfather made a very big mess under the table.

Dave Blanks: How did he do that?

Seth Douglas: Well, we were breaking the crabs and so most people were keeping it on the table, like grown adults. But I went to my grandfather's side of the table and I found it like what you'd expect like a little kid having.

Dave Blanks: Did you call him out?

Seth Douglas: Oh yeah, we called him out the whole entire rest of the vacation.

Dave Blanks: Did he continue this kind of behavior throughout the rest of the vacation?

Seth Douglas: Oh yeah, he's an ornery old man.

Dave Blanks: Wow, he sounds like a character. So what's your grandpa's name?

Seth Douglas: His name is Captain Dave.

Dave Blanks: Captain Dave. Was he actually a captain?

Seth Douglas: Yeah, he was a captain in the coast guard.

Dave Blanks: Cool. Captain Dave. Here's to you.

Eliza King: I'm Eliza King. No, my family's pretty embarrassing all the time.

Dave Blanks: So you were totally not surprised by any of the embarrassing stuff that happened.

Eliza King: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: All right, gotcha.

Hope Frohock: I'm Hope Frohock. I don't know, I guess ... We went to my sister's house for Thanksgiving. It was their first time hosting it.

Dave Blanks: Oh, is she a new homeowner or something?

Hope Frohock: Yeah, they just got a new house.

Dave Blanks: Okay, do they have any kids, or just the two of them?

Hope Frohock: Yeah, they have three kids.

Dave Blanks: Three kids?

Hope Frohock: Yeah, so pretty wild.

Dave Blanks: So, they were always there, but it was at somebody else's house.

Hope Frohock: Yeah, yeah.

Dave Blanks: Okay, how did they do?

Hope Frohock: It was interesting.

Dave Blanks: Okay, what was different?

Hope Frohock: It was just a little more chaotic since usually my mom is the one who sets up. So it was just all over the place.

Dave Blanks: But mom was there?

Hope Frohock: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: How did she enjoy it? What was she like? "Not so easy, is it?"

Hope Frohock: Yeah, exactly, yeah.

Allison Eller: I'm Alison Eller. I don't know if anyone else does this, but we have the little poppers where you pop it open and you have the little colored crowns.

Dave Blanks: Yeah.

Allison Eller: So we all had colored crowns on and we're playing with our toys at the Thanksgiving table and I thought that might be a little odd.

Dave Blanks: So what was your toy?

Allison Eller: Oh, I had a little kaleidoscope.

Dave Blanks: Oh sweet.

Allison Eller: Yeah, it was cool.

Dylan Coleman: I'm Dylan Coleman. I don't know, I was at the Thanksgiving dinner table and we were going around saying things we're thankful for. Of course, I'm a college student and I haven't seen my family for almost a semester-ish. So they're asking me college questions and just expecting very profound answers and immaculate experiences that I don't have yet. But yes, I just kind of told them vaguely of like how my semester's going. I don't know, I guess they were expecting something huge.

Dave Blanks: How long have you been here?

Dylan Coleman: I've been here for a semester, I'm a freshman, yeah.

Dave Blanks: That's it? Yeah.

Dylan Coleman: Yeah.

Dave Blanks: Yeah, what do they expect?

Dylan Coleman: Exactly, so yeah.

Dave Blanks: It'll get profound, I'm sure.

Dave Blanks: Or maybe not.

Dylan Coleman: Yeah, maybe not.

Mario Espinoza: I'm Mario Espinoza. I was with my girlfriend's family. They live in Valdez, which is close to where we live.

Dave Blanks: Valdez, yeah, right? What's your girlfriend's name?

Mario Espinoza: Shea.

Dave Blanks: When you were hanging out with Shea's family, did anything unexpected, maybe embarrassing happen?

Mario Espinoza: Absolutely.

Dave Blanks: What? Oh, great. Do tell.

Mario Espinoza: She has this cute little nephew named Lan and I love-

Dave Blanks: Lan?

Mario Espinoza: L-A-N, Lan. I love playing with him. He's only six years old, but I just accidentally pushed him. He fell back and hit his head on the couch.

Dave Blanks: No, ow.

Mario Espinoza: I was like, "I am so sorry." It was terrible.

Dave Blanks: Oh, did anybody witness it?

Mario Espinoza: No one else did, so I could just play it off. I was like, "Oh, he hit himself." You know?

Dave Blanks: "Lan, I don't know, he just fell over."

Mario Espinoza: No, but I was very apologetic.

Dave Blanks: Is he okay?

Mario Espinoza: He's totally fine.

Dave Blanks: Well, thank goodness for that. Poor Lan.

Mario Espinoza: Yeah.

Grace Le: I'm Grace Le.

Dave Blanks: So Grace, did you go home for Thanksgiving?

Grace Le: Yes I did.

Dave Blanks: Okay, cool. Did you hang out with your family?

Grace Le: All the time.

Dave Blanks: Constantly, right? No escape.

Grace Le: No.

Dave Blanks: So did anything unexpected or potentially embarrassing happen?

Grace Le: Yeah, so Saturday I went to Concord Mills, it's like a mall. My sister lost her phone, so I was running around the whole place, trying to find it and then I ran into a kid, like the kid fell.

Dave Blanks: How old was he?

Grace Le: I don't know but the kid was probably around like toddler, I guess. I don't know.

Dave Blanks: You smashed into a toddler?

Grace Le: I felt so bad and then I was like, "I'm so sorry." And then the mom looked and then I just ran. I was like, "I can't, I can't do this!"

Dave Blanks: You didn't help him up or anything? You just, "Run away."

Grace Le: Yeah, because if I'd helped, I feel like the mom would've been like, "I can't believe ran over him."

Dave Blanks: Oh yeah. So did you find your sister's phone?

Grace Le: Yeah, we did.

Dave Blanks: Thank goodness. I hope that kid's okay.

Grace Le: Let's hope so too.

Dave Blanks: I hope the cops don't catch up with you.

Grace Le: I'm going home.

Dave Blanks: Get out of here.

Dave Blanks: I was looking for fun answers and I did get some fun answers. Thanks App State students. Hopefully you out there listening got sort of a vibe for what it's like as an App State student when you go home. Was that what the mission was? I don't know. I think that's what we accomplished. Either way, I'm Dave Blanks and this has been Dave By The Bell.

Dave Blanks: You can listen to Dave By The Bell, wherever you get your podcasts like Stitcher or iTunes and on a Spotify. Yeah, so check us out. Search for Dave By The Bell. Tell a friend, write a review. I would be very thankful and if I saw you and you told me that you wrote me a review, I would give you a solid, super cool high five. Thanks very much to Pete Montaldi who handles our web stuff along with Derek Wycoff, also on the web team and Alex Waterworth, thanks to Chase Reynolds for additional photography. Thanks to you listener, for your time. Have a fantastic day and I will talk to you next time.

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About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.