Thanksgiving Plans

In my entire college experience, I have not yet gone home to Maryland for Thanksgiving. My first year I stayed in Boston and had dinner with my aunts and uncle. My brother also came up to celebrate with us. My sophomore year I went to Florida to visit my dad's side of the family. That Thanksgiving was interesting because when I left Boston it was snowing and when I arrived in Florida it was 80 degrees. We had dinner outside on the patio next to the pool. Not quite a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Last year the semester ended so early that it seemed silly to go home for Thanksgiving and then come back a week later for winter break. So I went to Vermont with my aunt, uncle and his family. My uncle's dad used to be the executive chef for the Blair House (which is where international guests of the White House stay when they are on official visits to DC). He made us dinner which was absolutely incredible! It was very quaint-- we stayed in a friend's log cabin on a mountain with only a few surrounding houses and a general store down the street. We got to sit in the hot-tub while it was snowing outside around us. So amazing.

This is the first year that I am going to Maryland to have Thanksgiving dinner in my own house. It is going to be kind of strange though because my flight schedule is really weird this year. It was going to cost over $300 to bring me home from Wednesday through Sunday. So I am flying home Thursday morning (arriving around noon) and then flying back on Saturday morning at the crack of dawn. I suppose it will be nice to miss the crowds and the chaos that is Thanksgiving travel, but I feel really strange about flying home by myself on Thanksgiving. I always fly by myself-- at least 5 times a year I am on a plane alone. It is weird to me when I actually do travel with people. But it seems like it is going to be so lonely on Thanksgiving morning! I know that a lot of people travel on Thanksgiving day, but generally they have family or friends with them. I can't have mom's traditional homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, I won't be able to watch the parade, and I will be all by myself :(

But at least I should be thankful for the fact that I am blessed with a family who I love so much that I can go home to on the holidays. A lot of people don't have that. Maybe the travelling situation is not ideal, but I will be fine because I have so many things to be grateful for!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Thanksgiving Dinner with the Ambassadors

Kristin had all the Ambassadors over this weekend for "Not your average Thanksgiving dinner" at her apartment in the North End. We each were responsible for bringing a dish. We had baked ziti, sushi, salad, eggplant parm, mashed potatoes and garlic bread. I made a regular cheesecake and a pumpkin cheesecake (which was an experiment but it turned out deliciously). Chris made a cake and put all of our initials on it. There were only a few Ambassadors that couldn't make it. We all got dressed up and had dinner together and took lots of funny prom-like pictures. It was so much fun! Ambassador Love <3

Prior to Thanksgiving dinner, Delia and I went to the annual tree lighting ceremony in Faneuil Hall. Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox mascot was there as well as Santa. Apparently the tree at Faneuil hall is the tallest lit Christmas tree in New England!


The one below is my favorite! All (or most of) the Ambassador girls which now includes Andrew, naturally. He came to our Ambassador girl sleepover a few weeks ago and has been included in that group since :)

Playing catch up

It seems like I haven't blogged in forever! A lot has happened... well a lot and not a lot at the same time...

We had Open House on Saturday which was great! There is one day of the year that is guaranteed to rain from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm, and that is Open House day. I can't even remember a time that I was more wet, I haven't even ever been that wet in the shower! But it was one of those things where I decided in the beginning of the day that I was going to be wet and I was going to love it! And I do think Boston is magical in the rain, so I must admit that I did sincerely enjoy it to some degree. I was really surprised at the turnout and the general enthusiasm for the day. Although the weather could be described as dismal, prospective students and their families were excited to be on campus and to be learning about our programs. Usually people are miserable when they come for tours in the rain, but everyone was in a decent mood.

I was chosen to speak at the Welcomes-- first in the C. Walsh Theater and then in the Donahue Cafe. The theater seats between 300 and 400 people, so I can honestly say that has been my biggest audience to date. I was really nervous beforehand, but everything went really well. I was very proud of myself. As cheesy as it sounds, I enjoy reaching out to students by sharing my experience with them. When I was going through my college search, talking to other students about their experiences was the most important decision factor for me. It is nice to be able to do that for others.

Thanksgiving is next week which seems unreal. I am always saying this, but I cannot believe how quickly the semester has flown by. I went window shopping the other day with my friend and we stopped in this Christmas store. Although I am so not ready for the holiday season yet, I must admit that I got really excited! A further confession, I had an eggnog latte the other day. It wasn't even that cold out and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet, but I really wanted one. It was delicious and definitely gave me some holiday cheer. I know it is ridiculous that I base my feelings about the changing of seasons on Starbucks' seasonal beverages. But what can I say? There is nothing like a pumpkin spice latte in the fall or an eggnog latte in the winter or a flavored iced coffee in the summer... Yay! It's almost winter break :)

Halloween and Such

So I must admit that I'm fairly new at this whole blogging thing. I tried uploading these photos aligned left instead of center (the way I normally do it) and this post looks like a hot mess! And I'm not sure how to go about fixing it other than deleting all the pictures and starting from scratch. That seems like way too much effort... so I hope you enjoy the mess of pictures and I promise I will make it better next time!

I spent Halloween in Salem with my aunts. We did a corn maze the night before which was fun. I've never done one before. At first we thought it was too easy, but when we got royally lost I realized how creepy it is to be surrounded by dead stalks of corn at night with only one flashlight for five people. It is really nice that my aunts live in Salem because when we got tired of all the crazies on the street, we could go back to their apartment to hang out.

My costume this year was very lame-- I just wasn't feeling the excitement of dressing up this year. Although I'm from Maryland, I am through and through a Red Sox fan. For Halloween I wore a pink Orioles hat and my aunt's sweatshirt and went as an O's fan. I made a sign that said 2010 World Series Champs with the zeros in the 2010 the orange O's logo. Lame, but it was easy and cost me no money. It's funny because when I told my friends in Maryland what I was going to be, the reaction I mainly got was resentment that my costume was mocking. But when I told New Englanders that I was going to be an O's fan, pretty much none of them got it. Most of them didn't even realize I was talking about the Baltimore Orioles. It is so sad that Maryland sports are terrible-- one day they will triumph :) In the meantime, New Englanders will fail to understand the pain that MD goes through and I will continue to be a Red Sox and Celtics fan! Anyway, the best part of going to Salem is just looking at all the crazy costumes and decorations out there. People are so creative on Halloween, I love it!

On Tuesday the Program Council at Suffolk put on an event at the House of Blues on Landsdowne Street. Sean Kingston and Girl Talk performed just for Suffolk students. Tickets were only $15! It was a lot of fun. There were glow sticks and confetti and dancing. I didn't know who Girl Talk was prior to going to the concert. He is this insane DJ who started off mixing music and was shortly thereafter discovered in New York City. He was nuts! And he had some really awesome (and I mean hilarious) dance moves. It was a good time-- I saw a lot of ambassadors and my other friends there. I love going to these Suffolk events because there are so many people there who you know. It makes it all the more fun! I always love a good dance party :)

Wedding Weekend

My aunt got married this weekend in Brewster on the Cape. It was a small wedding-- just immediate family were invited. My parents, brother, two aunts and cousin all came up from Maryland for the weekend. And they all stayed in our apartment. It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but manageable. I went down to the Cape a day early with the happy couple to help decorate the house for the reception. It was actually my first trip ever to the Cape. It may have just been Brewster, but I was surprised at how much it was not like a beach town but more like suburban New England.

The wedding was at Paine's Creek beach on Sunday morning. We were so blessed with beautiful weather. It was windy which made it a bit chilly, but for late October on the Cape it was considerably warm and beautifully sunny. I was designated as the official photographer of the wedding since it was so small they didn't want to hire one. I used my old-fashioned 35 mm Nikon. These are a few of the shots that turned out really well.


The dogs were all invited to the wedding because it was on the beach. It did mean some chaos of barking, whining, and general dogs on the beach issues, but I think they enjoyed themselves :) Below are pictures of me with my youngest cousin Zac. He is young enough to be my nephew so I'm never really sure of how to refer to him. My uncle has taken to calling me his "Caunt" combining cousin and aunt, and of course pronouncing it the true Maryland way [Can't].

The other picture is all of the Smith cousins. On the left is my brother and on the right is my cousin, Gage. The funniest part of the picture is that they are both years younger, I'm wearing heels, and yet they are towering over me! I remember when people would tell me when I was a kid that my brother would be bigger than me one day. I never believed that was ever going to be possible. But a few years ago I had to start referring to him as my "younger brother" because people would laugh when I called him my "little brother."

My aunt and uncle that I live with made the cake. Isn't it incredible?! The cake itself was butter, butter and more butter. Delicious! Then they used homemade butter cream frosting and fondant and somehow got the flower to look like a gorgeous extension. My aunt is so sweet, she saved the extra frosting for me so I've been having a spoonful here and there the past few days. I love weddings!

Halfway there!

It's almost the end of October and this is the week for midterms, academic advising, and lots of project deadlines. I cannot believe that I've been in school for two months already. It seems like I just came back last week. Time flies when you're busy!

My sixth class, Management 200: Leadership and Social Responsibility ended on Friday. It was a one credit intensive that only met three times during the semester. The purpose of the course was to come up with a solution for a huge consulting project problem. It was a lot of work in a very short period of time. It feels like such a relief to have it finished! Not having to worry about that additional class has taken me from being absolutely overwhelmed to having a completely manageable workload. I had a total of four midterms this week. Two down and only two more to go! I've been telling myself since the begininng of the semester that if I can get through this week, it will be a miracle. And good news is, I'm halfway through the week, halfway through the semester and I still here! The rest of the semster should be a piece of cake :)

But no worries, I am still finding time to have a social life admist all this school work. Last weekend some of my friends from Maryland came up to visit. We went to Salem and did all sorts of Halloween activities. One of my aunts lives in Salem so I'm generally familiar with layout when walking around. I still managed to get us lost on our way from the Salem Common to the oldest candy store in the United States and the House of Seven Gables. Lost, shmost (is that how you would spell it? I'm not sure it's kinda more of a phonetic expression than a written one)-- anyway, it just added to my friends' experience of seeing historic Salem! We did a candlelit walking tour about ghosts, drank apple cider, got our palms read and did all the other fun things you do in Salem in October.

I've never had any sort of witchcraft reading done before, so getting my palm read was a first. Obviously I'm not a real believer in all of that stuff, but it was really interesting what the witch said to me. She told me that I have great influence over people when I speak (even if I don't know what I'm talking about), I have really high intellectual capabilities, and that I will be doing a lot of travelling in my future career. All of these things could be applied to anyone, but what was interesting was that she said I would go into Marketing. I didn't tell her that I'm a Marketing major. Kind of weird... perhaps even spooky! The funniest thing she told me was that I'm "restless as Hell." I found this so amusing because it's absolutely true. I love change and new adventures whenever possible. Again, I'm not convinced about palm reading and witchcraft, but it was fun nevertheless.

Next weekend my aunt is getting married on the Cape. I have a whole bunch of family coming into town for it. Should be a little chaotic but really fun. We have a total of ten people staying in our apartment with only one bathroom and it is a morning wedding. I'm so excited to see my family and my dog (my parents are bringing him up). I will have to write about the madness that ensues next week!