QU!

I am currently at Quinnipiac Univ. in Hamden, CT. It has been a great visit! One of the ELCs went here, so the people are really welcoming and understand a lot about my position and how hard it can be. When I arrived I got a cute care package from them and have been taken care of very well throughout this whole visit. The president made me a blanket! It has been great.

The weather has been pretty rainy, which hasn't been so fun after the great weather we have had for the past week or so.

Tomorrow I go to Princeton. I have two flights, which is really a two hour drive but will take around five hours flying. That's okay though, it will help me transition from one school to the next. I am looking forward to it! Also, they have gotten me a limo service to bring me to their campus since it is about an hour away from the airport. I am excited about that!

That's all for now, not too much to report!

Back to Work

So I just had an amazing time in Seattle! I had never been to the city and explored with my Mom and it was great!

The first full day we walked around and explored Pike's Place (the local market). It was really neat and there was fresh produce and fish everywhere. I also got to see the first Starbucks ever, which was really neat!

The second day we decided to just take off and head to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics. We went on a train, which took around three hours. The ride was really pretty and was all along the coast. Once we arrived, we found the Olympic village and walked around. It was so huge and really cool! We found the torch, which was also pretty awesome and exactly what I expected. Then we continued to walk around and found a place that was selling tickets to events. We ended up getting two tickets to the Women's Finals Hockey Game (Canada vs. US)!! It was so exciting and so unexpected! We began to walk to the stadium and it was a mad house, but so cool to be a part of. Once we got inside we realized our seats required an elevator to get to. As we boarded the elevator we noticed that it said Luxury Suite next to our number on the tickets. Turns out, we ended up in a Luxury Premiere Box that had around twenty people in it! It took up a quarter of the length of the rink and we had seats overlooking the end goalie area. It was an unobstructed view. Even crazier, they had free food and it was great! They had sushi and wonderful desserts... I couldn't believe our luck!

The US team ended up losing the game, which was too bad, but it was neat being in Canada when Canada won! Even more exciting, we were there for a gold medal event and they did the victory ceremony immediately following. I seriously couldn't believe we were there for all of that! We saw the ceremony, but had to leave right before the gave the gold medals to Canada. We got back to our train and headed back to Seattle. What a day!

The next day we got up and walked around Seattle. We headed to the space needle and went up. It was really neat to see the view from there, I had no idea Seattle was so diverse in it's landscape. Then we walked to Pioneer Village and had a great meal at the Metropolitan Grill. Finally, we headed back to Pike's Place (to get the best cheese ever made) and ended the day in the hotel.

It was a great trip and I am so glad it happened! Now it is back to the real world. I have two more visits before I am done with this round. I am feeling pretty exhausted, but also relaxed from a good vacation!

Off to Indy!

Today I left Walla Walla bright and early to head off to Indianapolis. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. Pacific Time and had my flight at 6:50 a.m. I am currently sitting in the Seattle airport waiting to board to go to Chicago and then on to Indianapolis this evening. It is a full day of traveling!

I had a great time at Whitman College and look forward to returning in April. It is currently dreary and raining outside (what I expected of Seattle) but the flight in was really neat. I was able to see Mt. Ranier in the distance it was very foggy everywhere, almost like a cauldron of boiling water fell onto the earth. It was really neat with the snowy mountains in the distance!

In Indianapolis I'll be seeing the other people I work with, which will be nice. We will be setting up everything for interviews and then on Sunday the candidates will all arrive. It is crazy to think that I was just doing this a year ago!

In Walla Walla!

After thirteen hours of traveling yesterday, I finally made it to Walla Walla, Washington. I am visiting Whitman College (1,300 students - a little smaller than OWU) and it is nice here. It is so warm (50 degrees) and not rainy, like I expected. Apparently the western side of the state rains but the eastern side isn't as rainy.

The chapter has a "section" of a dorm for the women to live in. The dorm feels like a bed and breakfast with rooms for the women. So it is really nice. I have my own room that conjoins with another chapter member, but I still have my privacy. It is pretty nice. Last night I went to bed so early, 10 p.m. here, while it was 1 a.m. EST so it was nice to just be able to go to sleep!

I have a lot of meetings today, but not as many as usual. This chapter is on the pilot program, which is a minimal officer structure. So instead of having 26 officers to meet with, I only have nine. There are still some committees I also have to meet with, but not as many as usual - so it is nice!

I am starting to feel more sick, which isn't fun. But it isn't horrible yet! Off to start the day...

I attached a picture of my time at Harvard. This is the building that I stayed in. The school rooms students by houses instead of by dorms, kind of like in Harry Potter. So every freshman writes down seven or so people she/he would like to live with and then they are given a spot in a house. There are twelve houses and every house has a dining hall, etc. so it is its own community within a community. I stayed in Lowell House, it was really pretty! I also attached a picture of the freshman's dining hall (the freshman live in the yard, they move into their house their sophomore year).

Rain Rain Rain

I am now in San Diego and got in late last night. I had a six hour flight on the way over and it was pretty crammed, so I was ready to get off the plane and start my visit! When I got out of the airport I looked up and there was lightning everywhere. It was pretty crazy. It has been raining ALL day long and it has even hailed a couple of times. It was hailing so hard at one point that someone outside screamed, "It's snowing!". Oh, California! The campus isn't prepared for this kind of whether and I was talking to someone today who said that their house is flooding because of it. She said that water was just coming through the walls because it was never made for this kind of weather, crazy!

My stay has been pretty great here so far, besides the rain. I am starting to get tired and feeling jet lagged. I have been in meetings since 9 a.m. and I have two more to go until I am done with my day. It feels good to be back on the road and feeling useful, even though I do miss New Hampshire!

More updates soon...

A new adventure

Well tomorrow I head out to San Diego for my first visit of the semester. I am very excited to start up again but it is all bittersweet that my full days of relaxation are over. However, I am only leaving for ten days and then I will be back again. Over the next week and a half I will go to: San Diego State University, Cornell University and then to Dallas, TX for a conference. After all of this I come home again! I am excited to begin again and have a smaller amount of visits than last semester.

I am all packed up and ready to go to sunny San Diego! It is nothing but snow here in NH! I will be sure to update my blog more this semester since I did not do a good job of it last semester.

That's all for now, more to come this week!

Colorado!

I am at Colorado College and I love it! If you look out a window you can see Pike's Peak in the distance. They just had a recent snowfall so the mountain is covered on top with snow. It looks like a landscape painting, it's just so beautiful! The people here are great too. I don't think I am every leaving Colorado! On Wednesday I am going to the Garden of the Gods and I am very excited about that.

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. Since my last blog I have been to: Auburn, Indianapolis, Iowa, New York City and some time in Los Angeles/Tucson. On the trip from LA to Tucson, Matt and I stopped in Palm Springs and it was so neat! We went up in an aerial tram and saw all of Palm Springs and beyond from the top of the mountains. It was so beautiful! I also went to a national forest in Tucson and saw the most beautiful sunset. The picture to the right is from that. I am still enjoying my time in this job. Sometimes it gets difficult and lonely, but for the most part I have had positive experiences and it's been great!

Next I go to Nebraska and then some time in Los Angeles again! I can't believe it's more than halfway through semester, this semester went so quickly!

Tomorrow I am going to the Garden of the Gods here in Colorado Springs before I head off to Nebraska. I don't ever want to leave Colorado!