TODAY is the very dreadful last day of summer vacation.

It is weird to say that I am now officially a sophomore and honestly I am also a little bit nervous. Not doing any school work for about four months makes me a little VERY concerned about my mental preparedness for starting classes tomorrow. Although, I have this feeling that this year is going to be a very good year because I am now more involved on campus activities. Also, I’m kind of a big deal (according to the mug I found at a cute store in town), so I think I can handle a second year in rural Vermont.

Even though I will no longer be a Summer Intern here at the office, I will still be working here throughout the year as an Admissions Student Assistant. So the Emma Willard House will be one of my stops three times a week this year. I’m looking forward to see what this year will be like, and as of now it looks like it’s off to a good start!

Now Here’s a pretty picture of the sign in our waiting room.

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.

A summer intern’s work is never really finished. That is, not until we help the Dean of Admissions himself with a daunting task.

Greg Buckles is a very stylish person who likes to make sure his office is impeccable in all aspects. He often graces us with presence when descends from his lofty office on the second and the experience is always welcomed.

Yesterday was a fun time getting to help Greg keep his office up to current fashion code. The phone in his office is black but the original cord attaching the phone to the  base was a light shade of brown. So I located a black cord and aided him in installing it. I’m proud to write that he said I was “handier than a pocket on a shirt.”

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.

Last weekend, the Woodchuck Cidery had their second annual music festival, Ciderstock. Four bands performed all day. There was also food, drinks (for those over 21), and lawn games! My friends and I had a great time.

We got up close for New Politics and Cage the Elephant.

I hate being squished. So I enjoyed the concert but by halfway through Cage the Elephant I  had to go because there were way too many people trying to get up front. At the end of the concert there were beautiful fireworks.

Then, in the craziest turn of events I ended up backstage and got to hang out with the guys of Cage the Elephant. 10/10 would recommend. They were very friendly. By the end I was sooooo tired.

Also at some point over last week I touched some sort of plant that I am allergic to. It’s not poison  ivy but I still look diseased & everything itches. (1/10 would NOT recommend.)

Anyone that knows me would be able to tell you about my love of socks. I’ve got socks with whales, sailboats, robots, flowers, stripes, and singing penguins. For anyone familiar with ‘The Magic School Bus’ my eventual goal is to have socks for every situation and event just like Ms. Frizzle. Aiding me on my journey is the ever-wonderful Sox Market in Burlington.

This fantastic store on Church Street has socks of every kind for women, men, children, and people of all ages. I like to say that socks aren’t for any specific group of people, unless the size is off. So over the years I’ve acquired crew socks, knee socks, and thigh highs as well. All with varying patterns and designs.

Recently I ventured to the market and bought some socks with cats holding umbrellas, and a pair with glasses too. It has become one of my favorite places to go in Vermont now.

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.

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!

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!

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.