Family Bonding, Famous Sisters, and Fleeing from Tornadoes: My Non-Working June Life

If you've read this blog at all in the past 6 weeks, you know that my entire life has been taken over by my position with Orientation at Bridgewater State University (it's just the nature of the orientation beast!) since mid-May. Yesterday, we concluded out 6th and final session and with the Orientation Leader banquet this afternoon, we are pretty much done with the program! There are a few things that I have to wrap up but soon I will be leaving BSU for good and moving to the next chapter of my SA journey! :) I'll be dedicating my next blog post completely to my experience with Orientation, but for now, here's a bit of what my life outside of work has been like!

Before our first session, way back at the beginning of the month, Brett and I went out with my new friend Kacie (who was another intern for the Orientation program) and her boyfriend, Matt! They're two awesome people and we had fun having a few drinks and chatting with them through the night (even though Kacie and I were basically falling asleep after a long week of prep for the first session)! In the morning, Brett and I stopped by our favorite ice cream spot in the area, Hanson Farm, and visited the new calf named Peach Blossom (she was born the day before my birthday!). It was the perfect way to relax before the craziness of sessions.

The weekend after the first session (June 13-14) was family time to the extreme. Saturday Brett and I spent time with his neice and nephew. We had so much fun playing with them (building blanket forts, playing video games, soccer, and Littlest Pet Shop!) and it was beautiful out so it was perfect! It's crazy to see how much little Sophia has grown up since the last time we saw her!

Sunday we traveled up to NH because my mom was racing in her very first triathlon! This has been something that she has been wanting to do forever and has been training so hard for, so I definitely wanted to go up and support her on one of my days off! The race was at a really cool YMCA camp in Merrimack and it was set up in a way where we could see her in all three legs! I also made her a sign to cheer her on. It was so cool to see her accomplish a goal that she had set for herself and worked so hard for. She's awesome! :)

There was a tepee at the camp, so we obviously had to take a picture.

Finisher!

Brett was awesome (duh) all through this month supporting my exhausted self, and his family was also being so supportive through my busy schedule. When I came home after session 3 (June 15-16), his mom brought home these AMAZING Italian cookies from the store and it was such an amazing treat to have after a long two days. YUM.

I'm sure you've all heard of the terrible shootings down in Charleston, and you've probably seen the image of the shooter below plastered all over the news. The crazy thing about this image is that my sister is the officer on the right (the suspect is being held at the jail she works at). Her face is now all over the news as a part of one of the most used images of this case. It's so weird to see her standing right next to the man that brought so much pain to so many people, but seeing this image is definitely a reminder of one of the biggest reasons she got into the field that she works in - to help prevent things like this from continuing to happen.

Last weekend was on the low-key end, which was something I certainly appreciated. I kicked up my feet and spent some time with Brett & friends on Friday night to unwind. Saturday I made the trip out to my new hometown to sign the lease for my new apartment and opened up a P.O. Box, so I can officially become a resident and start the next chapter of my life! Very exciting. :) When I returned to Brett's house we baked cookies and started reading the first book in the A Song of Ice & Fire series, because apparently we can't live too long without Game of Thrones in our lives in some capacity. 

Sunday was Father's Day and we had originally planned on driving back up to NH for Ribfest and to see my dad run a race, but he actually ended up being sick and since it was pouring out he didn't want to push his immune system any further. Though it was sad we didn't end up getting to see him on Father's Day, it was good to not have to drive anywhere and to spend a rainy morning in bed finally finishing the last episode of MadMen as well as polishing off the newest season of Orange is the New Black. Hooray for lazy Sundays!

On the second day of session 5 (June 23) we were greeted with a Tornado Warning in Massachusetts, which is always terrifying because we do not get tornadoes in this area and if we were to ever actually see a tornado we probably wouldn't know what to do and would likely get sucked up into the sky. Kacie, Katelyn (another girl who works in our office), and I decided to take shelter at our local bar and figured the best way to go out is with a $4 margarita in our hands (I mean, c'mon...). The storm was right on top of Bridgewater and though we were graced with a huge downpour, thunder and lightening, and the satellites getting knocked out, we did not see an actual tornado. It was pretty exciting though!

Wednesday I headed up to Mount Holyoke to meet with HR and finalize some fun paperwork items and spend some more time with my new colleagues! They took me out to a sushi lunch (YUM)  and showed me more of the Hogwarts-like campus that will be my new home away from home. They are such a kind and down to earth crew of people and I am very excited to start working there in a little over a week (so crazy)! Check out how happy I am to have my official MHC ID! :) 

And, as I mentioned, this past Thursday & Friday was our 6th and final session of orientation. I was getting a bit nostalgic as Kacie and I cruised around campus in the golf cart. It's really sad that these are my final days being part of the BSU community, but I'm happy that I've had so many amazing opportunities here. This institution has done amazing things for me and I will always remember BSU as being one of the most important stepping stones in my career. Ugh, just thinking of it now I'm getting all sappy! It's so bittersweet to be leaving, but I'm definitely looking forward to where my career will take me next!

"La Hache": Costa Maya & Last Day at Sea (Vacation 2015 - Part 6)

The final two days of our trip were spent in Costa Maya, Mexico and at sea. First stop was Costa Maya, which I was very excited about because that was the day we were going to see the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins! There were many opportunities throughout this trip to go see the ruins in the various locations we stopped at, but because this port had "Maya" right in the name, we thought it would be the best location to see them. The port itself was pretty cool. It was decorated in Mayan fashion, and there were performers all decked out in tribal clothing. One was even dressed up as an owl!

Our excursion took us about an hour away from the port to see the ruins, but our tour guide, Daniel (aka "Jaguar") was awesome and taught us all about Mayan culture and history on the way there. He was actually Mayan himself which was really interesting to discover, as I figured that the Maya were an ancient culture that did not exist today. It turns out there are still many people in Central America who speak the Mayan language and incorporate much of the Mayan culture into their daily lives!

It was SO COOL to see the Mayan ruins in person! It's always so interesting to see landmarks in person that you've only seen in books, and this was no exception. We only had about an hour at Chacchoben before the second part of our excursion, but it was really cool to learn more about the Mayans and the way they lived in ancient times.

(My camera died after this photo, so the rest of the Costa Maya photos are c/o my parents' camera!)

"We touched it!"

(Don't let my outfit fool you - it was HOT that day! I got fried on our excursion in Roatán and

was just trying to hide my poor sunburned arms from the sun.) 

Our next stop was at a private beach club which was the perfect conclusion to the day! We had chairs to lounge on, an open bar, and an all you can eat buffet for lunch packed with Mexican and Mayan foods. Mexican food is my favorite so I was basically a walking heart-eyes Emoji the whole time. Of course, I had to grab a margarita and about 40 pounds of guacamole. Ah. May. Zing. 

1. Check out dat sunburn. 2. Check out dat PLATE. 

That is the face of one happy gal. #takemeback

Chillin' at the beach was the *perfect* ending to a long week of adventuring. Our tour guide Daniel taught us a phrase - "la hache" (unsure if it's the correct spelling...) - which basically means "one more for the road", and he encouraged us all to fully embrace the meaning of it. When we were called back to the bus to head back to the ship, we all grabbed a drink called a Costa Maya (obviously) and hopped on the bus as soon as the clouds opened up and it started pouring. Great timing! Costa Maya was wonderful, and I would love to return!

The next day was our last day on the ship and our last day of our trip before travelling home. It was also Lindsey's birthday! We kicked off the day by participating in a virtual 5K (actually 3.14 miles because the date was 3/14 - Pi Day!) called the Wild Rumpus Run that Mom had signed us all up for. We decided to don our family vacation tees that Dad designed (and everyone was super jealous of) and completed our run on the lower deck. (We even ran into someone who saw our shirts and told us that he knew someone in Maine with our last name!)

I spent most of the day just relaxing and reading my book. (I wanted to really savor the time off before hopping back into the madness that is March-May in Student Affairs) I did make some time to go to a towel folding demonstration that they had on ship, though (I mean I really could not get enough of the towel animals that were left in our cabins, so why not?). The day was a true ~vacation~ and really allowed us all to squeeze every last drop out of our trip.

That night we celebrated Lindsey's birthday with dinner at the French restaurant on board which was AWESOME. (I had escargot! YAS.) We all had yummy desserts and gave Lindsey gifts to celebrate the big 2-7!

This trip was so much fun, and I'm so happy my parents decided to bring my sister and I along for the experience! I can't wait for my next opportunity to travel with my family in the future. We always have so much fun! :) Be sure to watch my last vacation vlog below, and check out the other posts from this series as well!


Previous Vacation 2015 Posts: New Orleans | At Sea | Cozumel | Belize City | Roatán

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As mentioned in my last post, Brittany and I did an entire photo shoot around the BSU campus on graduation day to comemorate the end of our grad school experience! We had an indoor evening ceremony which doesn't allow for too much photo opportunities aside from when we walk across the stage, and since Brittany and I had such a wonderful experience at BSU, we wanted to take some time before the ceremony to grab some shots of a few of out favorite spots! This post will, of course, be photo heavy, so click "Read more" to see all of them, and for a bonus surprise at the very end! :)

(Every time I saw "Degree Candidates Assemble" I wanted to channel my inner Ron Burgundy...)

Channeling My Inner-Ariel: Roatán (Vacation 2015 - Part 5)

We arrived in Roatán, Honduras on Thursday morning and were greeted with some bad news from back home. Our poor pup Mikey had been rushed to the Animal Hospital the night before and was in need of an emergency splenectomy. Grief of this news and the struggle to make outgoing calls in a foreign country made for an extremely stressful start to the day, but Mikey wound up getting through the surgery just fine and making a full recovery. Unfortunately my dad had to stay back from our excursion on this day so he could deal with the whole situation, but we were (and still are!) very happy that Mikey wound up being okay.

Roatán was probably the most beautiful port that we stopped in (in my opinion). I took so many pictures of the water and the landscape around us! I took the opportunity to take in the scenery and went on a short run on the top-deck running track to get a 360 degree view. After running and yoga-ing, I ate some breakfast and we ventured into the port to do a bit of shopping before our excursion.

Our excursion on this day was a catamaran trip to a local reef where we snorkeled for about an hour. We saw so many awesome fish and sea creatures, and we even saw a sea turtle! One of the guides said that he also saw a reef shark, but he didn't call it to anyone's attention until after it swam away. Probably for the best - I'm sure a lot of people would have panicked! It was a beautiful day (I got fried by the sun), and they fed us an awesome lunch after we got back in from snorkeling. Make sure to check out the vlog for all of the snorkeling footage. It really doesn't do the reef justice, but you'll at least get a small idea of what it was like!

We returned to the ship fairly early and decided to take advantage of our unscheduled time before dinner to relax and read on the pool deck (which, of course, is the best part of any vacation!). We closed out the evening attending Norwegian's White Hot Party, which is the signature dance party every Norwegian cruise throws. Everyone is decked out in all white, there's signature white drinks, and even the Cruise Director was walking around with angel wings on! It was really a cool sight and a wonderful way to end an awesome day.

Don't forget to check out the vlog of our day below, and stay tuned for the next post where I talk about our stay in Costa Maya, Mexico! (We're coming to the end of these posts... yikes!)

Previous Vacation 2015 Posts: New Orleans | At Sea | Cozumel | Belize City