I wish I was artistic. I admire those who can draw, paint, sculpt, whatever. I can’t. When my friends and i were in Two Bros a few weeks ago for a birthday, we saw an advertisement for a painting event there in September. I looked it up. It is $40. We decided to instead have our own event.

So yesterday, after work, Lea and I went to Ben Franklin in town and went a little overboard on paint. Then we went on (separate) runs, made dinner, and regrouped at her house. Another friend, Zara, joined us. Two other guys were at the house (hi Ian!). Given the heat, we decided to go swimming in Dunmore before painting.

twinning with my best friend #twin

a family portrait

It turns out, Lea and Zara can actually paint. I still can’t. At least I tried??? This is going to be a new tradition for the school year so maybe I will eventually improve.

It was a bust. Six Flags Great Escape in Queensbury, NY really dropped the ball. The one ride we went on was great, but everything afterwards went downhill. As we moved towards our second ride (a water rapids ride to combat the heat) we were told that there was lightening in the area and that we were not allowed to board the boat. We also witnessed 2 people throw up. That is about 200% the amount of people I usually see throw up. I’d say the worst part of the day, other than watching 2 people vomit and only getting to ride one ride, was this mist fan they had in one of the lines. Normally a fan that blew cool mist was great, especially if you’re standing in line for a long time when it’s hot and sunny. However after the storm warning it was no longer hot and sunny. The mist fan was just making us cold and wet. After several attempts to redeem the day, we decided to just head home instead. I think maybe the hype around six flags jinxed us.

trying to make the day better with milkshakes

Pro tip: always check the weather. 10% chance of rain means it will rain.

If you’re anything like me, you understand the difficulty that comes with deciding whether to go sweet (pancakes, waffles) or savory (eggs, bacon) when you go out for breakfast. No matter the occasion, it is without a doubt going to be a hard choice for me to make. Kendall and I went out to the diner in town with two other friends of ours (shout out to Francesca, an Admissions intern last summer) for breakfast yesterday. As I perused the menu, I realized that I truly couldn’t make a choice between pancakes or eggs…so I didn’t. I don’t know why I hadn’t this stroke of genius in the past, but I chose not one but two dishes for my meal. While I had never had eggs benedict in the past, I ordered half an order of eggs florentine (tomato and spinach instead of ham bc veggie) and it was amazing. I also ordered a child-size belgian waffle, despite not being under 12 years old. No need to ask for fruit on the side either, because it surprised me with fresh strawberries AND bananas. I was delighted. And very, very full.

After finishing every bite on both of my plates, we walked back to campus, uphill, in the heat. In perfect conjunction with the weather (unlike Saturday…), we had planned on going to Lake Dunmore for a swim that afternoon, where I still found room in my stomach for pita chips and hummus. Even though I’ll start working with ResLife and Orientation in just 2 short weeks ~*~so excited~*~, I’m really enjoying this whole end-of-summer 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.

and we are worse than ever. After a long haitus from Marquis trivia, Colin and I returned with the addition of Daria. Unfortunately for Daria this was probably the worst we’ve ever done at any round of trivia. BUT THAT’S OKAY. Everyone takes time to build up momentum and we just haven’t had the time to get better yet. We’ll always have next week and the week after that to improve. The highlight of last night’s trivia may have been when we were in third place for a total of one round!! I am dealing with my competitive streak in a healthy manner as you can tell. There are some days for losing and some days for winning. Hopefully next thursday will be my day for winning.

It’s not a competition unless I win. (too much?)

Call me crazy, but this morning I woke up at four am to go for a five mile run and watch the Perseids Meteor Shower. I took the TAM (Trail Around Middlebury) loop through the Organic Farm, where I paused to watch the shooting stars. It was amazing to see the bright lights streak across the sky. It was incredibly still, and the only noises came from crickets, frogs, and the occasional bird call.  Mist rose off of the fields and as the sky lightened I ran through the woods and headed to a walkway that overlooks Otter Creek.

I would upload a photo, but it doesn’t capture the moment properly. I would much rather keep the memory in my head than try to capture it in a photo. I suppose that you are going to have to believe me when I say that it was beautiful. Everything. The shooting stars, morning sunrise, the light reflecting off the creek, and the steps of Mead Chapel where I ended my run.

August is always a difficult month for me. What I have been thankful for, however, is the support that continually comes from my friends and community. Middlebury has an incredible community here and I feel loved and supported. I honestly couldn’t have chosen a better way to spend my summer!

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!!!!!!

One of my favorite television shows of all time is Firefly. I love the dialog, characters, and plot. It’s based in the future and features a mixture of Chinese and English, cowboys, Star Wars, and thrilling adventures! Unfortunately, it only lasted one season.

The short run-time meant that not many people were able to watch and appreciate it. Last night, I decided to have an impromptu movie night with friends. We used the movie theater in Axinn (yes, we have a movie theater!) and brought our own snacks. None of my friends had ever seen the show, and they were really excited about it!

We are going to watch the restof the episodes throughout this coming week. If you have time, I would recommend that you take a break, put your feet up, and watch Firefly.

I know everyone mentions how ~gorgeous~ Vermont is in their posts, but I felt those sentiments pretty strongly yesterday. I went on two different hikes: one in Ripton in the afternoon, and then a classic sunset hike on Snake Mountain at night. Before I visited Middlebury for the first time, I had spent a long weekend in Ripton on the Bread Loaf Campus. Ever since then I have described Bread Loaf as my favorite place on Earth, which rings fairly true to this day. This week, my Chinese professor invited his students who are on campus for the summer to visit his house, so four of us did just that yesterday afternoon. The catch was that we could only speak Chinese, which felt to me a little bit like seeing the world through the eyes of a kid. As the four of us walked around in awe, we began trying to name animals and fruits in the best Chinese we could come up with (that’s a lot of new vocabulary). Lucky for us, Mu Laoshi was prepared, and printed sheets with animals, tree species, bugs, and other hiking vocab in Chinese that we could utilize on our walk. His house was gorgeous, and had a huge flower garden occupied by many hummingbirds, grape vines, and blueberry bushes. His wife is a painter and showed us her art studio in a barn adjacent to the house too. After our brief tour of the place, we went to a cross-country skiing trail head, the trail itself being overgrown with plants and obstructed by felled trees. (It was awesome.) The best part, though, was arriving at an opening in the middle of the woods, where Mu told us there used to be water five years prior. As we continued walking, we stopped every now and again when he would point out the names of wild plants and flowers; his knowledge of them is really impressive. As I climbed a small, grass-covered hill, I realized what I was actually standing on was a beaver dam. We could see where the water had been relocated, and I saw some of the largest beaver dams I had ever seen. While absolutely gorgeous, it was interesting how quiet and devoid of animals the space was. Not a single beaver was spotted. We did, however, meet salamanders, a toad, a blue jay, and giant artist’s fungus. When we got back, we ate blueberries off the bush and drank Chinese tea. Being around so many of my classmates who are in the Chinese Summer Language Schools this year certainly makes me very hopeful and excited for next year, when hopefully I’ll be doing the same!

A weekend of firsts!

So I did many things this weekend but two important ones were visiting both a J Crew and a Vineyard Vines stores for the first time. Just kidding I did much more important things than go to the Manchester outlets and visit those stores (though they were overwhelming). I spent the entirety of Sunday in Dorset at my friend Hope’s house. We had a great lunch together sitting by the pool, followed by shopping at the outlets where I had frozen hot chocolate (!!). After returning to her house we spent the rest of our time swimming (her pool is the perfect temperature) and had a great dinner of pizza, which is always a crowd favorite. Driving back to Middlebury was an adventure because we took a wrong turn but didn’t have service so we couldn’t use the GPS and sort of had to wing it.

Seeing as I am writing this blog post right now you know that I made it back.

While Sunday was a fun day (haha puns), Saturday was bittersweet. I dropped Carmina, my summer roommate, off at the train station so she can begin her semester abroad. I’m happy and excited for her, but also a little sad because I won’t see her for an entire year. (Maybe a lot sad).

Overall it was an eventful weekend, I’d have to say.