One Week ‘til England!

Look out world, here I come! Well, at least that’s what I want the world to think. Deep down, I’m not sure that’s how I feel quite yet! I have done things all month to prepare to finally go study abroad at Oxford, and now I have a week left in which to pull it all together! I hate being disorganized, but right now, that’s exactly what I feel! :(

I have read through lots and lots of information, from Stonehill, from IFSA-Butler (my study abroad provider), and Worcester College, and it is all starting to mush together into one confusing mess, as maybe you can see from this picture of my desk! I can’t remember anymore what was on the list of “What to Bring” and what was on the list for “What Not to Bring!” Part of me is still procrastinating a bit, not wanting my extremely long summer to be over, and the other part knows it’s time for me to get my act together.

I have all my clothes (I think) and toiletries and such laid out in my sister’s room (since she’s not there right now). I measured suitcases to see what I can definitely use as a carry-on and what to check. If I do a good job of packing, it would be nice if I only need to check one suitcase! We’ll see about that though. The next step is to pack what I have laid out and weigh my suitcases to see if I meet the maximum. I’ll probably need to re-pack because something is telling me that my luggage is going to be too heavy. I was getting too frustrated and just plain exhausted, so tomorrow I will attempt to pack it all and continue with my organizing.

Today I also finished reading King Lear, my fifth Shakespeare play for this summer. In addition to all my packing, I would still like to read a little bit more Shakespeare and catch up on all my current events so I’m prepared intellectually as well as physically packed for my trip.

Yes, I have one more week (I leave next Wednesday!), but I also have three more shifts at West End Creamery, and I am going to Stonehill overnight on Thursday in order to attend the Board of Trustees dinner. This weekend my sister is coming home from college for the first time, so I will also get to see her and spend time with the family altogether one last time. This week will surely fly by!

Don’t get me wrong though, I am SO excited! It still almost seems surreal, but things like receiving my plane ticket in the mail and purchasing pounds is waking me up to reality. I was so excited earlier today when I opened up the packages the pounds were in! This picture is of my pounds, plane ticket and information from Worcester. This semester abroad is going to challenge me academically, and I am excited to see what I can do and pursue subjects in my tutorials that I am interested in. I am also so excited for the personal growth that I am sure is on the way for me as I will be traveling on my own for the first time, experiencing new cultures, and living independently. I think what I am most excited about are my hopes to travel and sightsee around Europe! I can’t wait to see my Stonehill friends abroad and hopefully go on some exciting trips…well, at least as many trips as a semester at Oxford will allow!

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream!

Work, work, work, and more work. Over the past two and a half weeks, I have worked all but three days! For those of you who may not remember, I work at West End Creamery, a family owned and run ice cream and mini golf place.

This photo of the Creamery was taken on a fall morning before opening. It really is a picturesque location.

This picture shows a majority of our pretty golf course. I love the landscaping out there!

And yes, we are located on a farm...well sort of. The family who owns the Creamery used to run a dairy farm. Now we just have some animals in the barn customers can visit. Here's what remains of the farm as seen from the mini golf course.

As far as jobs go, it’s an enjoyable one to have. I love the people I work with, and that really makes working more fun. Here my sister Lindsay and coworker Allie are having a little fun petting our mascot cows. Since it is a job, it does sometimes get stressful and I get annoyed with something or someone, but it’s all in a day’s work. Since it is an ice cream place, we do get lots of nice customers so excited about getting some ice cream! I love handing an ice cream cone to an excited young boy or girl who thinks that that ice cream is just about the best thing in the world. We’re a small place, so it’s also nice to see our regulars come in for their exact same frappes and sundaes week after week.

We have some good times and laughs along the way at work as well. On busy nights it gets kind of crazy and messy in our kitchen, and there’s been a couple times when I have slipped on some water or a little bit of melted ice cream and gone down hard, which of course always ends in laughter. We make things pretty much however customers would like them, so we’ll put sprinkles in frappes, or hot fudge on the bottom of a sundae, or four or five toppings on one ice cream at once. Since it’s mostly girls who work at West End Creamery, we share our stories about boys. My boss tends to just tune out those stories most of the time, but sometimes he hears parts and can’t help but give us his thoughts, which is amusing. Sometimes after work we just need to unwind, and we occassionally have dance parties in the parking lot. On one particular night, my sister and friend Jess had made up a routine that they are showing off in this picture. All the pictures in this blog capture the way we work and also the spirit of West End. For the pictures, I have to thank my coworkers (shhh...I stole them from them off of Facebook). :)

Don't worry, we do actually scoop ice cream at West End too! Here we are showing off some of our scooping skills:

While I have been really busy with so many tiring days of work, I’m glad I’ve had something to keep me busy. I have felt a little bit like a floater these past few weeks, since I am still living at home and just waiting for my time to go abroad. I went up to Stonehill for a couple meetings and the first of four Transitions classes with my Orientation group. (The Transitions classes are meant to help the freshmen learn more about Stonehill and how to transition to college life. In addition, it is the perfect opportunity for the incoming students to continue the bonds that they had made at summer Orientation and to use their Peer Mentors as a resource as they settle in at Stonehill.) I was very happy to have the opportunity to see my freshmen together again and also to see friends in my time on campus. However, it only made me realize that I don’t really fit in at Stonehill right now because my friends there are already busy with classes and all, while I don’t have any of those commitments yet. I have also already heard and seen pictures from my friends who are abroad, which makes me jealous that they are already there and enjoying it and I’m sad that I’m missing out. On the other hand, it is making me really anxious and excited to just get over to England! I leave on October 1^st…I have less than two and a half weeks!

So what have I been doing to get ready? Anything and everything I can think of! I have bought the new clothes I needed, including a rain coat, applied for an absentee ballot, ordered more contacts, purchased some pounds to start out with, applied for a debit card, and renewed my license (since I will be turning 21 while in England). I’ve started to lay out my clothes that I will be bringing with me, but it is still a little too early to pack everything. That’s exactly what I will be doing over the next two weeks! I have also been talking to a couple friends from Stonehill who have gone to Oxford over the past two years and they have been answering lots of my questions and offering advice. In addition to packing, one of my tutors at Oxford asked me to read and see some Shakespeare before arriving at Oxford for my Shakespeare tutorial. So I have also been doing that reading. Although, I must admit that it has been difficult to work when I am still in my summer mode.

I’ll have more updates next week about how my packing is going!

Everyone is Moved-In Except ME!

When I walked into the cafeteria two weeks ago and was pulled in six different directions at once by old and new friends smiling or waving or standing in my way with their arms open waiting for a hug, I was once again why I love being at Stonehill. I was amidst the buzz and excitement of move-in weekend and Fall Orientation for incoming students. The freshmen arrived on Saturday, the upper classmen on Sunday, and with them they brought the life back to the sleeping campus. Well, at least all the upper classmen except me and the other students studying abroad that is! I was happy and excited to still be on campus before leaving though. I got to welcome back all of the freshmen in my Orientation group, and reunite with old friends who I haven’t seen all summer.

Before the freshmen moved in, I was on campus for a couple days of training and prepping for Fall Orientation. The campus was pretty quiet, although it was far from deserted. Fall athletes, RAs, Crossings Ministers, and the Orientation Team were all back on campus. Training was pretty low-key since everyone is gearing up for the year to start. So I had plenty of time to visit with friends already back on campus. For example, in these pictures, Orientation Team members were taking a break from training on the sunny steps of Donahue.

Fall Orientation is a lot more laid back with more time for incoming students to spend time in their residence halls, meet more friends, go to the bookstore, finish organizing their room, and get ready for classes. Yet there is still a whole lot of work to get done and fun things too during the first few days. We had presentations about sexual assault awareness, academic honesty, Community Standards, IT information, diversity, and residence hall meetings with RAs. My two favorite parts of Fall Orientation though are the trip into Boston and Into the Streets.

On Sunday, the entire Class of 2012, of 600+ students, took a trip by bus and T into Boston for the afternoon. The trip is meant to show students how to use our shuttle service and T in order to get into Boston on their own during the year. But it’s also really nice to have fun and bond with each other outside of Stonehill’s campus. This year, I went with a couple girls from my group, and one adopted from my friend’s group, to the Prudential Center, Copley Square, and Newberry Street. I had a great time walking around, mostly window shopping, and getting a bite to eat. The girls did help me pick out a new dress that I am itching to wear, and the best part was we made out with a free tea and iced coffee from Starbucks! This picture is of the girls I was with outside of the Boston Public Library.

My other favorite event is Into the Streets, which is our community service program and largest organization on campus. They plan an afternoon on Monday for all of us to go to out into the streets in Brockton, Easton, and the surrounding areas to offer our services to over 40 locations. We go to homeless shelters, food pantries, schools, nursing homes, and much more. Half of my group this year went to the YMCA to help with mowing lawns, painting, and cleaning, and I went with the other half to Trinity Catholic elementary school where we helped put easels together, set up desks, and move a whole lot of boxes. This is yet another great way to grow closer with new friends, and the locations we go to are always so appreciative of our help. It is nice to see that we can make a difference in just a couple of hours for so many people. Almost all Stonehill students then continue to volunteer through Into the Streets during their four years here.

Fall Orientation ends with Academic Convocation, which is essentially the opening ceremony for the school year. All the professors process in wearing their full regalia with alumni representatives and other speakers. We present an excellence in teaching award and this year we also began a new tradition of the senior class presenting a shovel to the president of the college, which traces our history back to the Ames family who owned the land on which Stonehill is founded prior to the Brothers of the Holy Cross. The Ames family made their wealth from making shovels, we even have a “shovel museum,” the Stonehill Industrial History Center, on campus!

The end of Orientation meant it was time for me to leave Stonehill again for the time being. I came home to an eleven straight days of work at West End Creamery, and a whole lot of anxiety setting in as I began to get more serious about preparing for England. But I’ll be sharing more about my preparations in future blogs. Before I could really start to focus on Oxford, my parents and I needed to get my sister moved in to college!

My little sister, Lindsay, is now attending Endicott College and is in the hospitality program. As of now, she would like to get into event planning. This is another great thing about the fact that I don’t leave until October 1 and that I am not in classes at Stonehill right now…I was able to help move her in! I’d like to think that I was helpful and was able to give Lindsay, and her new roommate Lauren some good advice about room set-up and organization. I was also excited to take the official first roommate picture of the two and their cute new room! But I think they could have done it on their own. I was really happy nonetheless to be able to be there! And I think out of my sister, my parents, and I, I was the one that wasn’t ready to leave at the end of the day! It was the first time I had been to Endicott and I really enjoyed it. It is a beautiful campus, and it is located right on the water! What could be better?

While I was there, I also ran into Meghan Fitzgerald. Meghan was the Admissions Counselor at Stonehill who met with me and read my application. This summer she decided to take a position at Endicott as an Admissions Counselor and the lacrosse coach. I was sad to hear that she was leaving Stonehill, but I am happy to report that she is settling in at Endicott and is doing well!