Some people get extremely stressed during finals week but for me it's always the best week of the year. The weather tends to be nice and I always have lots of free time since I tend to not need much time for studying. Our last day of classes was last Wednesday. Thursday was a study day which for me meant going to the beach, and making s'mores once it got dark. It was a great day! Friday I actually had a final so I spent the morning studying but as soon as I got done it was back to being outside then I went into Burlington for dinner.
Yesterday was Derby day here at SMC. Every year on the day of the Kentucky Derby everyone gets dressed up and goes out to the three's field for our own derby. People get picked as either a jockey or a horse. The horse basically gives the jockey a piggy back ride and they race around the field. It only lasts a few minutes but people get really into it and it's kind of nice to see everyone all dressed up. This year we decided to go to North Beach for a cookout afterwards. It was another great day.
Some of the group for the cookout.
I have two more finals but after that I'll be done with junior year. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by!
Last night was our spring concert. This year we had Macklemore which is the biggest act we have gotten in years. Needless to say everyone was really excited for the show and we've all been looking forward to it ever since it was announced. Sadly, my good friend and suit mate Sam was diagnosed with leukemia last week and has to stay in the hospital for a month for treatment. The doctors are fairly confident that he will pull though but it's still a really crappy situation. We all knew that Sam was looking forward to the concert so one of his best friends, Justin, said we should try and get Macklemore to visit Sam in the hospital. I thought it was a long shot but figured we could give it a try. I messaged my friend who is on the programming committee and in charge of the concert to explain the situation and he passed on the message to Macklemore and his people. On Monday we visited Sam and he mentioned the concert so another one of Sam's friends, Dana, decided to take the campaign to the next level. Dana's entire suite worked to get in direct contact with Macklemore. They ended up getting his fiancee's cell phone number and she said to call on the day of the show!
Yesterday Dana and Justin were told to come by the bus and pick up Macklemore to take him to the hospital. So Justin actually drove Macklemore around Burlington which I'm sure was a pretty epic experience in itself. They ended up surprising Sam and hanging out with him for about a half hour. Before yesterday I liked about five of Macklemore's songs but wasn't really a huge fan. Now he's one of my favorite people. Between visiting Sam and allowing Justin to drive him around so casually you can just tell that he's a great person.
Sam and Macklemore!
Sam is one of the best guys I know so that fact that he got to experience made my way more excited than the actual concert did. That being said the concert was a blast as well. There was so much energy and everyone was having a great time! He saved my favorite song, And We Danced, until the end and the entire crowd was just jumping around to it. The best part though was when he gave a shout out to Sam. I got chills and almost started crying.
This whole experience just reminds me how special of a place Saint Michael's is. Upon hearing about Sam everyone wanted to do something to help out. Macklemore's finance said that they got lots of emails and messages from people saying they should visit so they knew that he must be a special person. After the show people who barely even know Sam were posting on Twitter and Facebook to show their support and give get well messages. There is so much love on this campus!
Even off campus there is support for Sam. His picture was on the front page of Reddit last night and Macklemore even wrote a post saying why he visited Sam, which is really moving as well.
Many people see November and December as the holiday season but up here at Saint Mike's we have our own holiday season. It started last Tuesday with Free Cone Day. Every year Ben &Jerry's gives out free ice cream at all their scoop shops. I went into Burlington with Lisa in between classes on Tuesday and was able to get two free ice creams. We actually had enough time to get three but we both decided that two was enough. Some years the Ben & Jerry's truck even makes it's way to campus so that we don't have to go downtown.
This past Sunday was Earth Fest which kicks off Green Up's Earth Week. I had been planning for this event since January so it was really nice to see it all come together. Will Evans, who graduated from Saint Mike's performed and there was all kinds of local food that people could have for free. We had grass-fed burgers, ice cream and a bike that you could ride in order to blend up a smoothy. I was outside grilling the whole time but I heard that the event went really well.
Next Thursday is the spring concert. Macklemore is coming so it's bound to be a great show! After seeing his performance on the MTV Movie Awards on Sunday I got even more pumped for the show. He has so much energy and I'm sure he will make the crowd get pumped up.
The next day is the MLK Talent Show which is always a good time. People line up hours ahead of time in order to get good seats. Last year someone did an acoustic cover of Sexy and I Know It which was hilarious.
Then on Saturday we have the biggest holiday of the year, P-Day. I along with many others actually think that it's better than Christmas. It stands for Preparation Day and is a way for us to relax before finals. There are all kinds of inflatables, free food, a comedian, late knight breakfast and a trike race. I tend to wake up around 8:00 since I get too excited to sleep in. I'll be sure to do another post later on with pictures from some of these events.
After what felt like months of worrying about what I was going to do this coming summer I finally figured it out. I was offered and accepted a position working for the Harwich Conservation Trust. It's an unpaid internship but housing is provided and it will provide some necessary experience. I have to thank my awesome advisor Professor McCabe for helping me get this position. Whenever he finds a job or internship that he thinks would be of interest to Biology majors he sends out an email to everyone in order to let us know about it. It's thanks to him that I found out about two of the three internships I applied for. He also helped me figure out how to dress and how many positions to apply for (the answer is all that you can). He and the rest of the professors here really want to see you succeed and are more than happy to sit down and help you figure out the right path.
The dark red town is Harwich.
Although I had my sights set on being in Vermont for the summer, the more I think about living on Cape Cod, the more excited I get. The place that I will be living at is only five minutes away from the beach and I already know plenty of other people who will be down there this summer. Also, I only work four days a week so I will have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the weekends and possibly get a job so that I can save up some money.
So it may be near the end of March but this month has been the best by far for skiing this season. Thanks to the $30 season pass to Smugglers Notch that Saint Mike's gives us I've been getting out as often as possible. Before spring break I went on a weekday and the conditions were perfect and there were no lines. Yesterday the conditions were really good too. We got a lot of snow this past week so there was plenty of snow in the glades.
Smuggs has three different mountains
We are pretty lucky to be able to go skiing so often. The fact that the mountain is 45 minutes away and that we don't have to pay each time makes it really easy to just go for half days. Yesterday we didn't leave campus until 10:30 but we were still able to get in at least eight runs. The week before spring break we got in about six runs and I was still able to get back to campus well before my 3:00 class.
After this weekend I feel that I got in all the skiing I wanted to. Now I'm kind of hoping that the snow will melt so that I can go hiking soon.
This past week I got back from one of the best experiences of my life. I along with 11 other Saint Mike's students and staff went down to the Dominican Republic for a service trip. We left at 3:45 on Saturday morning which was a little rough but luckily we were able to sleep on the flights and three hour ride to Ocoa. Buy the time we got to where we were staying for the night it was time for dinner then we went to the park. It was quite an experience. There was music playing and people just hanging out. I've never seen a park so busy but I guess it's the place to be on a Friday and Saturday night.
The next morning we woke up, went to church, visited a senior center than made our way to the village we would be staying at for the week. We stayed in the village of Los Corozo which has 75 families and is about an hour outside of the city of Ocoa. The view from the village was great seeing as it is surrounded by mountains. We worked with Adesjo which is an organization that tries to maintain the rural way of live for people of the DR. Without them more people would end up moving to the slums in cities which would be much worse for them. Adesjo tries to help them become self sufficient by doing many different projects including educating adults, building aqueducts, and helping create irrigation systems. The main task though is building houses for needy families. The communities vote on which family gets the house which I think is pretty cool.
My best friend for the week, Daniel.
During our week there we bonded with the entire community and built most of a house. We ran out of supplies since they had to go to the capital in order to get more but the community will finish it for us. We had a lot of fun too. We danced to merengue most nights and played volleyball with the village. We tried playing the US vs Dominicans. It didn't go well. We also went on a hike which was really fun. There was even some rock climbing at the end.
One of the views from the hike
Hard at work painting the house
Before we knew if Friday came and it was time to leave. The village threw a party for us the night before which shows just how close we became. There were lots of tears when we were leaving and we all are determined to go back at some point to visit everyone. Before going home we spent one more night in Ocoa and went to a billiard hall which was a great last group bonding activity. We traveled all day Saturday and made it back to campus by 1am on Sunday. By midday I already was missing the sound of the roosters and donkeys and the wonderful meals that our cook made for us. It was an amazing week and i feel like I didn't do the week justice in this post. I highly recommend that you applis for the trip next year if you're interested in service!
And just like that we are half way done with the semester. Tomorrow I am leaving for a MOVE service trip to the Dominican Republic. We will be there for a week working in a small village to rebuild houses. The group consists of nine students, two staff leaders and one student leader. We have a great group and I'm sure we are going to have a great time. The group has been meeting every week all semester in order to prepare for the trip. We have also been doing a lot of fundraising and were able to raise over $10,000 which we are giving directly to the organizations that we are going to be working with.
The village that we are staying at does not have electricity or even running water so I wont be able to give any updates but look for a post once I get back. Have a great week!
