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!