Archive for May, 2009

The end is near…

May 18th, 2009 by emhest09

The end is 4 days away to be precise! Four days is all the separates me from my amazing undergrad career and the “real world” everyone has told me about. I am hoping this “real world” is even half as good as my time spent here, these four years will be hard to top!

The past week was the perfect mixture of relaxation and work, vacation and home, friends and family, a great way to lead up to Senior week! Last Sunday to Tuesday I went to Cape Cod and stayed with some of my friends there. We shopped at the Wellfleet flea market, frolicked in the FREEZING ocean (for about 3 seconds, we just stuck our toes in), journeyed to Provincetown and explored the multiple Yarmouths (we stayed in South Yarmouth, but saw Yarmouth, West Yarmouth and Yarmouth Port). The trip was a lot of fun, especially because I will be living in Yarmouth Port and teaching in Hyannis for the next two years! I got to show the high school I will be teaching at to a lot of my friends and even tried to find the house I will be living in! I can’t wait to start that new chapter in my life and though my mom warns me that first year teachers have no time for fun, it will still be nice to live in another part of the state for a while at least.

After my time at the Cape, I went home for the remainder of the week. It was so nice to be home, relaxing and spending time with the family. I also got to work at the library which was a lot of fun, very enjoyable and certainly profitable. I was glad I got to relax and do work that I love for those few days because this week will be a bit crazy! Senior Week started yesterday and my friends and I have created a fun schedule so we can squeeze every last second out of the time we have together. Fun events include a Senior reflection lunch, where I will be able to hear speeches from some of my friends, a trip to Culpeppers for brunch, going to hike around Purgatory Chasm, and maybe even filming a horror movie (don’t ask). Mixed in with those fun activities will certainly be some bitterweet goodbyes. I already aid goodbye to my underclassmen friends and today my boss Cathi from Religious Studies took me out for an amazing lunch. Graduation day will certainly be emotional, I honestly don’t know how I will handle it. You’ll find out soon though, don’t worry!

A bit too cold for a swim

A bit too cold for a swim

Future teachers!

Future teachers!

Flying a kite in P-town!

Flying a kite in P-town!

Spring Weekend and the End of Classes

May 10th, 2009 by emhest09

Spring has been in full swing the past few weeks, it is really amazing to see the flowers and beautiful trees blossom in so little time and I can’t remember a warmer end of April and tart of May! We definitely lucked out with the weather for Spring Weekend and it has been a great way to end my last year here. This was my first year not being directly involved with Spring Weekend; last year I was overseeing the committee who ran it, the year before I was running it myself and my freshman year I was shadowing the people who were running it in order to run it the next year. Needless to say I sat back and relaxed and was able to go to almost all of the events without running around trying to keep everything in order. Alexandra, Mary Beth and Emma, the girls in charge of Spring Weekend, did a fantastic job with “Springelodeon” and they brought together all of CAB to bring some great events and fun times to the campus. The Spring Weekend Kick-off began the weekend with a great food, a balloon man, trivia and tattoo artists (temporary of course) in Kimball. On Friday we had the big Spring Weekend Comedian (Judah Friedlander from the TV show 30 Rock this year) and after that was the Figure it Out Game Show where I had the pleasure of “slime-ing” a fellow student.

Saturday was by far my favorite day. First of all, it was actually HOT and the sun was shining all day long (resulting in my sunburn and about a million more freckles). My friends and I sat out by Easy Street on a blanket and watched the Easy Street Fair, which had cotton candy, free ice cream and decorate your own Frisbee. After that, I went to see my friend Lexie present her honors thesis which happened to be about my two favorite books Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. It was great seeing her speak and I am really happy I was able to support her, writing over 100 pages deserves a round of applause at the very least! That was it for academics that day though because after that I stayed at the Spring Weekend carnival for literally four hours. The carnival had all sorts of rides, inflatables, and games and I ate far too much fried dough. As the sun set, people started walking up to the Hart Lawn and at 9:00 when it was all dark, an amazing fireworks show began. It was honestly the best of all four years and I have to admit I got rather sentimental watching the fireworks on my last Spring Weekend ever. I think the point of Spring Weekend is to allow college students to relax, have fun and most importantly embrace their inner child. I think this years Nickelodeon theme, coupled with the fantastic weather, did just that.

The last part of Spring Weekend is concert day (if you go back a year in my blogs you can read all about it). The 6:30 AM wake up call and the 3:00AM bedtime are never fun but strangely the hard work and dedication is. The concert itself, featuring Lupe Fiasco, was out of this world, he is a phenomenal performer and the crowd loved the show. The volunteers were also great this year and it is always impressive to see an entire stage go up and be brought down all in one day. As a “Last Concert” tradition, Jimmy, Julie, CAB’s adviser Ben and I all went to the “Bully” Diner and ate breakfast…before going to bed around 4:30AM. College life is unique to say the least.

This past Thursday marked the end of my undergraduate career. All paper, exams, homework and quizzes are done…for now. It is hard to wrap my mind around it because I technically go back to school on June 3rd, though not at Holy Cross. Like I said in my last entry I will be taking classes at Providence College to get my Masters and I just recently found out that I will be teaching at Pope John Paul II high school in Hyannis for the next two years! It is so exciting to think about what the future has in store but obviously the next two weeks leading up to graduation will be bitter sweet.

I leave for Cape Cod tomorrow for a few days before heading home to work at the library for the ret of the week and then….Senior Week! Don’t worry, I’ll write a few more blogs before graduation but for now feel free to check out some Spring Weekend and concert pictures!

Picnic-ing on Easy Street!

View of the carnival

taking down the stage

taking down the stage

With Alexandra...obviously sad over the end of Spring Weekend!

With Alexandra...obviously sad over the end of Spring Weekend!