Half Sour Pickles.

Hi.

This is Abby and Katie. 

Who's Katie? You might be wondering. Or, which Katie. (Abby's note: I know a lot of Katie's, which is a good thing. In fact, Katie (the one pictured below) had me check how many were in my phone as of this post. There are 12. 10 of them I chat with regularly. True story. Katie says "not surprised"). 

THIS KATIE: 

This is us in high school. We were on a field trip at the St. Louis Science Center. Yep. We're still goofy. 

So, we've been hanging out in Connecticut all week :) Here is a photo chronicle of our trip. 

Our adventures began with a trip to Salem, Massachusetts on Thursday afternoon. It took us FOREVER to reach Salem, which should have been around a 2-hour drive, but there was lots of traffic. However, the upside, was that we found really cheap gas for Abby's car, on a much diverted route in a foiled attempt to avoid said traffic. Here are some pictures of Salem :) We went on a guided evening tour! 

Katie is fairly convinced we saw some supernatural activity. She just likes this picture ;) And hey, there's no  reason it should have colored streaks. It was dark outside! *cough* 

 

On Friday, Abby was supposed to have an outdoor concert, but due to the extreme heat it was cancelled, so we went shopping...more like an excursion in the air conditioning. We found some absolutely, amazing delicious coconut chips at Trader Joe's. The bag is almost gone, which is totally unfortunate. In fact, we're eating them now. 

...now the bag is gone. 

Anyway, then it did cool down, so we spent the evening at a nearby lake.

The next day we adventured to Niantic, CT. Niantic is home to a yearly celebration called 'Celebrate East Lyme," which featured fireworks in the evening. We're not sure what the festival was really about, but there was lots of street food, and to Katie's dismay, we did not see any ticks (get it...Lyme?...Lyme Disease?...). We went up early and explored a place called the Book Barn. It was seriously book heaven. The picture doesn't do it justice...it went on for multiple buildings. 

Oh look, here we are again! Waiting for fireworks! 

On Sunday, we went to Abby's favorite Sunday hangout: the Farmer's Market (mentioned in various other posts), and saw Monster's University. The two of us agree, Pixar has done it again! So cute. 

Anyway, these were our smoothies from the Market! Abby's was the green one (pineapple, mango, coconut and it turned green with added kale) Katie's was the tan one ("Almond Joy" almonds, bananas, coconut, and cacao)

On Monday, Abby went to work. BUT when she came home, we went to the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford. It has a handful of famous people buried there, including Katharine Hepburn, J.P. Morgan, Samuel Colt and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. The Cemetery is expansive and had some beautiful headstones. This one was our favorite, mostly because it was somewhat very odd. 

It's the plot of Mark Howard, who was, according to our self-guided tour booklet, a "prominent figure in the insurance industry." Descriptive, right? 

Abby's been telling Katie to come visit her all year, and her wish came true! We spent copious amounts of time watching Season 2 of How I Met Your Mother, eating delicious things including homemade kale chips, pesto, gluten-free cheese and garlic biscuits (a delicious success!) and enjoying some good old Abby-Katie company. Or maybe it's Katie-Abby. 

Whatever. 

It was great!

Abby's New England Bucket List. Checked off Niantic and Salem!
(Why yes, those are Abby's bunny salt and pepper shakers hanging out on the list). There are many more adventures left -- and many adventures aren't on the list since they were completed before the list was compiled in June -- but there's another year left in New England to make it happen!

P.S. Wondering what "Half Sour Pickles" means? Us, too. Just kidding. We had dinner at a place that served "half sour pickles" which for some reason we found very amusing and fascinating. We'll let you look them up yourself. 

Summering in Storrs

Hi blog friends!

Here's a recap through pictures of what I've been up to!  All year I've said that New England doesn't feel like home...but after exploring so much of the area and getting to know the community where I live, I'm re-thinking that statement. Hmm..

3 weeks left of summer until Assistant Residence Hall Director life starts again. Here's to cramming in more adventures!

Visited Providence 3 times...and I will be there again this weekend. 

Went to Waterfire (also in Providence!)

This is a beautiful lake 2 miles from my home. 

 Rolled down a giant hill with my friend Pat. 

Spent 48 glorious hours in Illinois for my mom's birthday! 

 Also found this gem while I was there: 

 Spent a day adventuring in Boston, and found this awesome frog in Boston Commons. 

Spent a day in Newport, RI, touring the mansions. This a view from the famous Cliff Walk. 

Visited Fort Griswold, a revolutionary war site. Climbed the 134-foot memorial. 

Went on the USS Nautilus, the first US Submarine to reach the North Pole. 

And, made some homemade granola bars. Delicious! 

New England Summer!

I spent the first two weeks of "summer" (summer = anything post-semester) wondering why I'd decided to stick around New England. The majority of my close friends adventured to far away places for internship opportunities, or graduated and are moving for their jobs. My roommate moved, and I found myself wandering around the apartment not knowing what to do with my kitchen, now foreign without her kitchen appliances, or the empty bookshelves in our my hallway. Right before my roommate moved, I found out I'll be moving sometime in late July anyway, so now I have no incentive to re-decorate or fill those shelves...I'm not a fan of this in-between world that I seem to suddenly exist in.

Thankfully, work picks up this week. I've been working with the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, serving as an Academic Advisor for first-year and transfer students who come through orientation. Basically, I spend an hour of one-on-one time with each student and advise them on which classes to take in their major, which general education requirements and competencies they need to meet, and by the time we're finished meeting, the student is registered for their first semester! Coming out of a year in ResLife, my first few advising sessions felt like I was shorting a student, as I'm used to working with the same student on a fairly continuous basis. I attribute the awkwardness to knowing that their advising session was a "one and done" type of meeting; I already had one student who was, for lack of better terms, sad and confused that I wouldn't be his permanent advisor (I found that somewhat hilarious as I literally serve as a guide to walk students through the registration system and course catalog, but hey, he liked me, I guess).  So far, I like it, though!

To be clear, because I've already been asked to clarify a few times, I'm also continuing to work at the Asian American Cultural Center this summer (hurray!), and since I'm living in ResLife housing, I have some special projects that I'm working on this summer to cover my apartment/rent.

As anticipated, I LOVE HAVING EVENINGS FREE! It's been wonderful to have time to either take to myself or to spend with friends. I definitely needed a break from the evening work world, and it's nice to break from academics (though I keep finding myself reading more journal articles and books on my own...).

To illustrate my new-found appreciation for New England in the summer, here's a collection of pictures from the weekend, taken by my friend Allison Hopkins. You can find more of her beautiful photography here.

On Friday, I went to a Greek Festival in Hartford, on Saturday I went to the beach, and today I went to my favorite Farmer's Market, followed by kayaking.

 

Imperfection Takes Courage.

It does. This year, well, this year was about embracing all of it. 

As always, there is a sense of optimism and accomplishment that comes at this time of year. I’m proud of the academic work that I’ve produced this year, and I’m actually beginning to feel optimistic about next year. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, so in an effort to better explain, here goes: 

This year wore me out, to my core. I know graduate school is a "learning process" but it was at the expense of me. I couldn't find a single place where I could be myself. I fell into the oh-so familiar trap of assimilating. I told myself that it was the socialization process, though I knew, even then, that it was pretty much bullshit. 

In the Fall, the bright, shiny newness of graduate school wore off by October, as expected. But from there, it was a swift downward spiral into stress and frustration. I enjoyed my students and the coursework, but there were other obstacles within the program design and strategy that just didn’t jive with me as a person. I tried to advocate for myself (and for the most part I believe that I did what I could) but I kept running into the same walls. By April when I was still running into those walls, my resolve was so thin that I began to seriously reconsider what I was doing in Student Affairs.

For the third consecutive year, I fought with my health. From April/May 2012 until late October, I felt pretty great. Then I started the fighting the battle again, and it’s been so hit and miss. I’ve tried lots of new things this year and some days I remember remarking that this was the best I’d felt in years. Other days, it was the worst I’d felt in years. I think things are improving, but I’m ever-skeptical of what obstacle will pop up next.

At the end of the day, though, I have soldiered on, as always. I held my resolve (barely) and I managed to continue to have conviction about why I entered this field, and why I was choosing to stay in it. However, that particular resolve didn’t help when the “fit” factor just wasn’t there.

Luckily a few things did fall into place. I chose to work in the Asian American Cultural center (AsACC, pronounced “A-Sac”) as part of my coursework for practicum, which is basically a 3-credit internship. The people and students that I met were open and engaging, and they welcomed me for exactly just who I am. To say that AsACC is what I needed is a vast understatement.

In the past two weeks, I’ve put things in line in an intentional effort to try to improve my experience here. I designed and have been approved for an independent study as my elective in the fall relating to how students understand ethnic studies, I’ve decided to return to AsACC for my second practicum, I’ve been reassigned to a new area in my assistantship (this is a good thing!), and I just joined a community band for the summer that rehearses once a week.

This semester became about recognizing that I'd lost myself...for what felt like the millionth time...and trying, desperately, to make myself feel whole again. Part of putting myself back together was actually about making myself whole in ways that I had no idea that I’d ever not been. In the words of one of my professors, I “dug a little deeper." I’m ending on a high note, with optimism that the next year will be different in an encouraging and better way.

:) 

I'm not sure what this summer will bring; my roommate moved out today (booo. so sad), and I've been told that I'll be moving off campus prior to the start of the school year due to a housing crunch. That's a soapbox rant for another day. But somewhere in-between that, I've started my summer job (not enough experience to yet judge what I think of it), and a few friends are lined up to come visit! It's finally time to explore New England and start to appreciate the region of the country that I do live in. 

Made it. 

Halfway to my master's degree, and intent on finishing.

Finished with coursework for this semester... I feel like this:

(the second minion from the left-- that's the one I feel like, right when he starts singing at 8 seconds in. Look at that elation! Then, the end describes my semester perfectly. Glad it's over!)

Time to close some halls. Send the students home. Going to enjoy SPRING! 

You know what's fun about having a blog? When your friends who blog have birthdays, you can write posts about them!

You can find my friend Monica's blog HERE!

Her birthday is tomorrow (well, by all accounts it's already her birthday, since she lives across the ocean), so here goes a post!

Monica and I have been friends since we were five (we met in Kindergarten). We attended school together from Kindergarten through 12th grade! Magically, we're still super close friends and now that she lives in Wales, I dream about being able to go visit and I also dream about showing her all the things I love about New England. In fact, I think for both of us, this is the first time we've lived somewhere that we've never gotten to see where the other lives. Crazy.

That aside, technology is awesome and we catch each other on Skype and via text message. I'm a pretty horrible text-corresponder. I forget about my phone and see things people have sent me hours and sometimes days after the fact, and I'm almost never 100% engaged in a text conversation. In fact, when I went to text Monica to wish her a Happy Birthday, I discovered a text she sent me two days ago. Typical. With Monica living abroad, one of the hardest habits I've needed to break has been the instinct to pick up my phone and call her whenever. Today, I literally picked up my phone and got as far as looking at my "favorites" list, only to realize that she's not on it...this doesn't happen all the time, but it happens occasionally....and it makes me wish for our wonderful adventures, and more moments like this picture:

Yes, we're upside down. Yes, there is snow on the ground (it was March). No, it wasn't that cold. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MONICA! 

Secretly on Your Side...

This song has long been on the "I-just-need-to-remind-myself-that-I'm-going-to-make-it" playlist.

With my Assessment Presentation looming within the week, I thought it was time for a reminder. The end is in sight!