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.

Yes, I was as humored at the name “Bread Loaf” as you too, reader, when I first heard of it. However–I do attribute that laughter and curiosity to my being a Middlebury student in the first place. What I am referring to is the Middlebury College Bread Loaf School of English, whose campus is located in Ripton, VT and surrounded by the thousand-acre Bread Loaf wilderness, i.e. super scenic and gorgeous. It has been, for a long time, one of my favorite places ever, as I actually mentioned in my last blog post. I attended the BL Young Writers Conference in 2012 (#tbt) for poetry, and it was the greatest. weekend. ever. Also, I concluded the visit with a tour of the College, and coming off of the high of the conference made me fall in love with the place and never want to leave. So here I am.

I could write 4000 blog posts about that weekend, and the place in general, but I won’t bore you. What I’m here to say now is that I’m back in the very same library where I attended the first ever Bread Loaf poetry workshop, and it’s truly nostalgic. Yes yes, call me a poetry nerd; it’s a most applicable title. The reason I’m here now is: 1.) to write a poem, duh & 2.) to attend a reading. It is currently the 90th run of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the oldest writers conference in the country, and there are readings and lectures open to the public. I feel immensely inspired just existing in this space, and will be back soon with updates on the event.

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.

A friend of mine turned 21 last weekend. To celebrate, we hiked Camel’s Hump, watched the sunset, and ate homemade double layer marshmellow and chocolate chip brownie cake with rasberry jelly and homemade icing (we called this cake the monster).

The view from Camel’s Hump was absolutely spectacular. I would rate the hike a ten out of ten. I love being here over the summer. The weather is amazing and I have the opportunity to explore all the beautiful places in Vermont! If you are visiting Midd, go for a hike or explore the surrounding area. Trust me. You won’t be dissapointed.

From the photos you can tell that we were definitely repping our Middlebury swag. My friend (the one who was celebrating his birthday) invited two of his high school friends who currently go to Williams, and we all felt that the need to represent our school. Plus, anything with Middlebury written on it has to be cool! Right?

Speaking of hikes, there are some really nice ones right here at Middlebury College. The Trail Around Middlebury (TAM) has a lot of nice places to walk, and last night after dinner another friend of mine and I walked out past the Organic Farm and did a loop back up to the college. We watched the sunset (I guess that I really like watching the sunset!), talked about life, made flower crowns, and then decided to make homemade chocolate cake for no reason. The decision to take a hike and then make cake was excellent, but very spontaneous.

It feels like the summer is flying by. There’s so much to see and do that I’m not sure I can get everything on my bucket list checked off. Oh well. I can try! I’m also not sure if I already said this or not, but I really don’t want summer to end…

So like I said in my Taylor Swift post on monday, I actually did do other activities while I was on vacation. The Sunday following the concert I flew home to Florida for the week to spend some time with my family and take a large amount of naps. Let me lay out my week at home for you:

Sunday

I got home at about 10:30pm still on a Taylor Swift high and then made my poor family re-live the entire concert through my eyes before knocking out.

Monday

I went to the DMV (fun stuff I know) and then took a nap. My mom made the best dinner ever and then we had cookies.

Tuesday

All I wanted to do was go to the pool and be in the sun, but it was raining so I watched Criminal Minds instead.

Wednesday

My mom had the rest of the week off from Wednesday on (YAY) but left the house for THE ENTIRE DAY and then NAPPED when she was home. She really wanted to hang out with me. Just kidding my mom loves me and hung out with me that night.

Thursday

This is where my vacation goes from me doing nothing to me doing EVERYTHING. I went and got my nails done, which were messed up 3 times before I got it together. I dyed the ends of my mom’s hair purple (I can’t believe she let me do that) and I taught my grandmother how to order properly at Chipotle.

Friday

So my cousin who I hadn’t seen in a year was coming down and we were picking her up from the airport, while at the same time JJ my mom’s husband was picking up his 10 year old daughter. Then all of the sudden there were 7 people in my house.

Saturday

My family was going to have a big barbecue in Tampa with another chunk of my family, totaling 12 people in a house that usually holds 3. Factoring how loud we are normally, JJ’s daughter and my cousin’s boyfriend were definitely not prepared for the ruckus that the Arthur family created. We had a fitness contest, including pullups (the two cops in my family won obviously), we had a dance party, there were TWO babies, my uncle and cousin were hand cuffed together at one point, I tried on a bulletproof vest, we played heads up, and I even taught my uncle how to Instagram. We also took the ultimate family selfie.

As you can see my week just gets progressively more absurd and more active, especially considering that I started out with a series of naps and television marathons, but welcome to my family!