Last night I was treated to two amazing, beautiful, breathtaking sights. One was a cookie skillet- a famous dessert in the Middlebury area that can be found and devoured at Mister Ups. I went there for dinner last night and of course my table couldn’t leave without treating ourselves to this scrumptious treat. It is literally a cookie in a skillet for crying out loud. On top of that, they serve it with ice cream and whipped cream. Look at it! It is warm and amazing and should be enjoyed by all at some point in our lives.

The second beautiful sight was shortly after the cookie skillet was served, enjoyed and cleared up. Right after we payed the check and walked through the door outside we saw the most amazing sunset I’ve seen in my life. I know this, and my high recommendation of dessert, seem extreme but they both were beyond belief. My excitement and good mood over the cookie skillet maybe helped my impression of the view, but as I took to social media about an hour later, I saw at least 10 middkids all exclaiming the same thing and posting pictures of their views of the sunset. Clearly this was one for the books (or at least the internet).

The only problem now is that I can’t decide which was better. Luckily for me, I plan on having a lot more cookie skillets and Midd sunsets in my future.

So I just checked and 77.78% of my entries have been about food. I actually expected that number to be higher and I am a little disappointed. Thankfully, once I post this, that number will skyrocket to an even 80% (fun mental math puzzle if you’re interested: figure out what number blog post this is). To get that number up though, it seems I will have to mention a fun food experience somewhere soon.

This plan also works well for me because, besides working and decorating my new room (almost done… probably… who knows… pinterest may inspire me yet again) this week has been a little dull. Unlike normal weeks at Midd, when people are always distracting me from work with fun ideas like “come cliff jumping with me at the quarry” or “do you want to go to Bristol and get ice cream”, this week has been slim on fun adventures that I can share with the blog-o-sphere. That is because most of my friends are either still enjoying their summer vacations or are training to be Middview (freshman orientation) leaders. This training entails going to a camp called Common Ground and basically having a week to play games, sleep outside, and eat delicious local food. I’m not jealous, it’s fine, it sounds boring anyways.

To convince myself of this fact (and incorporate a fun food outing into my post) I actually got my family to come spend labor day in VT and have dinner with me tonight. We are meeting in Brandon, a town about 20 minutes from Middlebury, to go to one of our favorite restaurants, Cafe Provence. Middlebury actually has a ton of amazing restaurants to choose from but it’s also neat check out the surrounding area for great finds like Cafe Provence. I have been there before so I know it will be delicious but maybe next week I will update you all on exactly what I chose (and get my percentage up to 82%)!

Look at those homemade omelets!!!

The view from Snake Mountain is beautiful!

Sometimes it’s nice to take a break, enjoy the weather, and spend time with friends. The summer is a great time for internships, jobs, and experiences, but it’s also wonderful to relax.

I feel like I am supposed to be the contrite child…

I took the week off of work, enjoyed the weather, and decompressed. In the morning I would volunteer at the Organic Farm, and in the evening I would cook meals with friends. We shopped for groceries (for some reason the cashier wouldn’t let my friend scan me…) and made meals that ranged from sushi to poulet yassa (a Senegalese dish). It was nice to wake up, go for a run, make breakfast, and explore Vermont.

Organic Farm

Over the weekend I had a friend visit and we hiked to the top of Snake Mountain which afforded us a gorgeous view of the valley. We also went to our first concert: Ciderstock! You can read all about on the blog, but it was amazing. During one of the songs two of my friends put me on their shoulders and I got to see the entire crowd.

This is my last week in the office and it has been a wonderful summer. I’ll post my final entry later this week. Have a wonderful day, and I hope that the rest of your summer is as amazing as mine has been.

So after having a week full of pitiful dinners, with the worst being wednesday night when I had string cheese and oreos, getting free pizza was life-changing. 20 people finished 10 pizzas in about 30 minutes? To say that the summer student employees left on campus were hungry is an understatement. I know that the trend of all of our most recent posts have been about the struggle of a closed dining hall, but I think this blog is a perfect demonstration of the phrase ” you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone”

I MISS THE DINING HALLS

I honestly can’t wait for even just one dining hall to reopen again. Even if it’s proctor. That would be a blessing.

I do have to say thank you to the admissions counselors who have been bringing in snacks to the office because they have made a huge difference in how my days have been going, simply with the small addition of food.

Only 10 days left until the dining halls open!!!

My dear friend Tabitha is currently house-sitting for another acquaintance of ours who was graciously willing to offer her kitchen for us students to use since the dining halls are currently closed. Therefore we decided to make carbonara!!

For anyone that doesnt know, a crispy type of pork product is added in with the pasta, which for some is either bacon or pancetta.

It became a center of discussion for the night as to whether REAL carbonara should have pancetta or if bacon was an acceptable substitute. The conversation raged on for hours like a Shakespearean tempest  even as we walked through porter field and watched the stars. Although it was all in good fun. A final consensus was never reached, however the pasta turned out great and no one went home hungry that night.

I know a lot of the other interns have already lamented or celebrated their experiences without the dining hall this past week, but here I am throwing, my hat in the ring. I thought things were going well for me, food-wise; I have been having yogurt with berries and granola for breakfast, pb&j’s for lunch and either cooking pasta or enjoying $3 tacos at Two Brothers for dinner.

This morning however, I got a little tired of yogurt and decided to make myself oatmeal. Also my berries had mold on them and I decided to it would be better to stay away from them. But, when I went into the bathroom to get water for my oatmeal there was a sign posted on the door that the water had been shut off in my dorm. Sometime between brushing my teeth and deciding I wanted oatmeal from breakfast, the construction crew that has been working outside of Stewart Hall this week had to turn off the water. Turns out it was only for an hour, but those 60 minutes drove right over the 20 minutes I had allotted myself for breakfast before work.

This left me walking dejectedly back to my room to scrounge up something else to eat. My spirits were lifted when I realized I could have a pb&j for breakfast on a bagel I had stolen from the dining hall the day it closed. The bagel had different plans. There was mold on my beautiful cinnamon raisin bagel. By this point though, I had my heart set on a pb&j and I looked to the loaf of bread I had (also stolen from the dining hall). It too was covered in mold. Long story short- I had yogurt for breakfast and almost felt like this behaving like an adult thing had defeated me. Then I remembered that tonight ResLife is getting us summer interns free pizza for dinner, and my yogurt suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad thing.

The dining halls are closed. Until August 30th or 31st. I enjoy cooking but have never actually had to fend for myself when it comes to food. So naturally, I went wild in the grocery store. And by wild I mean I made an excel spreadsheet of what I will eat and when. Then I bribed friends into taking me to the store (this whole no more car thing is a struggle).

slightly blurry picture of my pasta- I promise it was amazing

I’m  thrilled to cook, but there is one large problem : kitchens. My dorm has one kitchen, so does the other summer employee dorm. That’s not going to go well given the number of people here. My off campus friends do not know this but I will use their kitchens all week. I plan on reimbursing them with food. Last night I cooked in Weybridge house and fed my friend who works there and a girl who traveled all day. It was delicious (pasta with homemade sauce & lots of cheese). I think I might survive this week just fine.

On our last excursion to Burlington my roommate and I stopped by the L.L. Bean store for a while. I could feel my Middkid levels rising each second we remained in the store. I was a real Vermonter for that short period of time (minus the Subaru though).

Our main purpose for going there was for Malik, my roommate, to trade in his old boots for a new pair. While he was talking with the exchange clerk I began wandering around and made a discovery. I am happy to say that I am now the proud owner of my own Bean boot(s).

It may be in the form of a cookie but that still counts. Right? After he was done, Malik also found something quite nice.

Sadly, he wasn’t able to buy the bag that day. However, I’m sure that he’ll be dreaming about it for a while.

And who knows what’ll happen next on, ADVENTURES IN B-TOWN!!!!!!

I mentioned last week that this summer I am living in the same dorm as I did my freshman year, but I didn’t note that some good friends from my freshman hall are also there with me. Yesterday afternoon I was just about to settle in for my daily power nap when one of these very friends, Danielle, texted me about dinner plans. Apparently, the struggles of Tuesday had defeated her and she wanted to go out to one of our favorite restaurants in town–Sabai Sabai. I happily agreed and we convinced our other Stew5 mate, Ella, to come along. Add in the fact that our freshman hall went to Sabai Sabai for hall dinners on multiple occasions and it’s clear that we had ourselves an good, old-fashioned reunion.

Although Ella refused to pose in the restaurant so that I could share an image of this happy occasion, I’m sure you can imagine the delicious food and good company. The walk home in the rain was even manageable with all of our stomachs very full and content. This impromptu reunion dinner out was a great and unexpected way to spend a Tuesday night!

I had to settle for a selfie of the group, with food comas settling in, walking home slowly in the rain.

Kelsey and I often attend similar events, and she is often a better blogger than I am. In order to avoid covering the same material, I’m going to cover this past week and weekend like a high powered sports broadcaster.

After brainstorming for two hours and presenting at lest 50 alternatives to bowling, a few friends and I went to a mini golf course in the Vergennes area. Ian assigned food nicknames to everyone. I was Boston Cream Pie, while fellow star intern Kelsey was Philly Cheesesteak. The joke was funny for a few holes, but after hole 15 the game collapsed.

After a quick break at Sabai Sabai I rested back in my room before heading to 8 Bakery Lane for a friendly get together. It was Earth Wind and Fire themed, which really drew me in. Below is a picture from the event. Eliot carefully constructed a collage of 70’s soul for the event. The theme blouse he is wearing was remarkably see-through and purchased at Neat Repeats, a thrift store in town.

On Sunday, my brother and his girlfriend visited. They had been in Vermont for a few days, and had used me as a resource guide for things to do. I showed them around campus (I feel like a tour guide even on my off days) and forced them to bring me to The Lobby. It was a fun time for all.