Making Islands

I get by with a little help from my friends

Recently the weather has been beautiful here in Massachussetts… the sun has been out, and with it, Clarkies have migrated to all the available green spaces. The campus is starting look cheery and summery and its just lovely. There have been some good events in the past week or so - hanging out in the sunshine on the grass behind Wright, having dinner outside, going to Elizabeth’s Counterpoints concert. I’m starting to really not want to leave Clark - I feel like there’s a lot here that I’m going to miss.

Of course, what I’ll miss most is WAFFLES! my friends, who are absolutely some of the coolest people I know. I may only have known these guys for a year, but I can honestly say, given the amount of crap they’ve put up with me, and the amount of support I’ve needed this year, I feel really close to them, and like I’ve (hopefully) made some friends for life.

As proof of their amazingness, just look at what they gave me tonight (I’m getting a little tear-y eyed just looking over these!):

Front of my awesome new t-shirt that Aleksandra, Dania, Elizabeth and Rachel got for me!

Back of the t-shirt!

Card! AWWW DUCKIE!

Inside the card <3

I’m gonna do a overview and thinky thoughts post on my year abroad experience at the end of this week (once all my work for finals is done) but I just had to share tonight how amazing these people I are, and how grateful I am to have them in my life (soppy, I know!).

Start spreading the word…

Once upon a time there were two girls. One girl had big hair, a big smile and loved drama. The other girl had a passion for books, pandas and romantic comedies, not neccessarily in that order. Now, these two girls were smooshing happily ever after, in Trixy Palace, watching endless Grey’s Anatomy and romcoms until the silly book loving girl decided to go and do a year abroad in America.

Now you may have thought that this would put an end to all their smooshy times, but no! The magical skype fairy sustained them for a time… until… The big haired drama girl came over and they decided to hit NEW YORK!

Kathryn arrived on Monday. After a pretty stenuous trip to pick her up from the airport (the bus service I wanted wasn’t running!) we had a pretty stress free return trip to Clark, where we had dinner and an early night after Kat’s long day. On Tuesday I gave Kathryn the “tour”, and then because it was lovely and warm we hung out on the green with people before lunch. I then unfortunately had to go to class but in the evening we drank wine and watched when Harry Met Sally (as well as catching up with all the goss along the way!).

Wednesday we were up bright and early and after a cheeky waffle courtesy of Clark Dining Services we were on our way to New York City, via Boston. On arrival at South Station we had a small panic because we realised the case we had brought (the one Kathryn had been travelling with) was bigger than the regulations set by Amtrak. Prepared to used confused looks and British accents to pave the way, we boarded the train at around 11.15 and found that we had to have the (rather large) holdall under our feet - not too bad as we were travelling business class!

The journey took around 4 hours and when we arrived in New York City it was a beautiful, warm afternoon. We wandered the couple of blocks from Penn Station to our hotel, the Chelsea Star, located on W 30th at 8th Avenue. Although it didn’t look like much from the outside, inside the hotel was really cute. The walls were painted yellow with stars on them, there was metal flooring and doors - it all felt a bit space age. The staff were really friendly and (best of all) Kathryn and I had secured a nice clean double room with bathroom in midtown manhattan without breaking our budget.

After dumping our stuff we went out for a stroll. After a quick bite to eat in an obliging deli, we wandered up past Times Sq, and then onto 5th Ave, where we proceeded to do some shopping! Of course, given our budgets, it was mostly window shopping! A particular highlight was watching a woman parade a little dog in a pink dimante jumper get up round Saks - she was the living embodiment of a cliche! After some more shopping we stopped in a little cafe off 5th Ave for drinks, before wandering back to the hotel.

By this time it was quite late, and once we’d got ready to go out a lot of restaurants had stopped serving. We found, however, a little bar close to the hotel that did food and we settled down to drinks and nosh, soaking up the atmosphere of being out in New York City!

On Thursday our intentions were good but due to trying to arrange theatre tickets we didn’t manage to leave the hotel until around 10. Given this, by the time we’d *bought* tickets for the statue of liberty the queue to actually go and see it was ridiculous - we decided we would come back and try again on Friday. We then wandered up from Battery Park, to Wall St and the site of the World Trade Center. Near to the site was a clothing store that Kathryn had been told we had to go to called Century 21: its a discount designer place and there can be some amazing finds there. Kathryn bought a beautiful white trench coat and a dress, and I got a dress. After spending a good hour or so shopping there, we went for lunch, before picking up tickets for Chicago that evening. We then spent the afternoon stretched out on the grass in central park, lapping up the sun and the new york AWESOMENESS.

So, as I said, in the evening me and Kat went to go see the musical Chicago. I’ve always really enjoyed the film of this musical, but the stage version was amazing. The sets were really simple and stripped down, and the performances were ace. After the show we went for a (very expensive, but delicious) meal, before heading back to our hotel, completely exhausted.

On Friday we managed to be out of our hotel by 9 am. Nevertheless, there were still queues when we reached Battery Park but today we just had to stick it out! It was my second time seeing the statue, but she’s still pretty impressive! It was also pretty funny- there were sailors visiting the statue who looked like they’d stepped right out of ‘On the Town’… unfortunately we didn’t get them to dance/ sing for us

After the statue we wandered for a bit around Greenwich Village before I needed to go back and rest in the hotel (unfortunately I started coming down with a cold whilst we were in New York). After a rejuvinating nap, we headed out once more for dinner and a trip to the top of the Empire state building. The views from the empire state building were truly spectacular - my photos don’t do it justice at all. It was a way to get a completely different sense of the city - especially its size.

On Saturday morning we had hoped to go to MOMA but it didn’t open - too late for us ladies with a 1pm train to catch! So instead we went back to Central Park again - ate pretzels and churrios, lazed in the sunshine etc and I caught up with some much neglected reading.

This was my third time in New York and I have to say, with every visit I love it more. It makes me feel at home and alive and ENERGETIC. So despite the disappointment of getting sick whilst I was there, I loved being back in the city again, seeing new things, feeling even more familiar with others… just enjoying the buzz.

So after the trip to new york we had the long journey back to clark (around 7 hours this way, as we were on a much slower - and cheaper- regional train), where we hung out with my friends for the evening. On Sunday we had hoped to make it into Boston but by this time my cold was so bad (voice was completely gone by sunday) that all I was up to was a day of Grey’s Anatomy and You’ve Got Mail - which I hope Kathryn thought was ok!

And then on Monday it was time for Kathryn to go! Its funny, I don’t know if people realise how much I appreciate the efforts they’ve made for me this year, so I want to say just now: many many thanks to Kathryn for a wonderful week (and a wonderful year of skype convos to keep me going!). And lots of love to the rest of you too, who have been supportive little stars

And now, given my aforementioned cold (voice on the slow return) and looming work deadlines, I’m gonna go tuck myself up in bed with a book…

Gala, Gala After Party, Spree Day

Well, I did say last entry that I had a busy time ahead! Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past few days

Gala and the After Party

Gala took place on Friday night. Basically, every year the International Students Association puts on a huge show in which it tries to represent as many of the different cultures here at Clark as possible. It is a massive deal here at Clark, even in Worcester more generally: apparently loads of people from the surrounding colleges and even just ordinary residences come along to enjoy the show. It was held in the Kneller Athletic Centre, where the basketball court had been converted so that there was a huge stage, and a ridiculously large amount of seating (I think capacity was 1500). Aleksandra was part of the planning committee for Spree Day and she had told us that in previous years people had starting queuing at 3 even though the doors didn’t open til 6.30! Because of the appalling weather on friday however we didn’t need to queue that early, although we were in line by 5.30.

The show itself was amazing (if loooong - almost 4 hours!). There was a real mix, from amateur groups of friends to some of Clark’s dance groups. But overall the standard was really high, and we definitely had a lot of fun. And then the next day was the Gala after party, which was held in the Caff. Now given that Clark doesn’t really do dances/ club nights (oh how I miss thee, LCR… i’ll never complain about your sticky floor and crappy decor again!) this was really good. They’d set up a raised dancefloor, had glow sticks, big screens with pictures etc. And with a little hope from my poland spring (haha) I had a really good time.

Spree Day

For over a hundred years, spree day has been a tradition at Clark. Basically, one day in the spring, the adminstration agrees to let Clark students have a well deserved day off. The student organisers of Spree day agree a date with the administration and keep it secret for as long as possible. In the mean time, they organise all kind of shennanigans to take place: inflatables, a band etc

So anyway, the night before Spree Day, me, Rachel and Elizabeth stayed over with Aleksandra and Dania. We had a lot of fun, messing around and watching Mulan (quality movie!). We went to bed around 3 am. We had been told that usually on Spree Day seniors come and wake everyone up at 7.30 but sadly this was not true - however Rachel did a good job of getting us all up at 8.30. Unfortunately because the weather was so bad all the entertainment had been moved in doors, but we still managed to have a good time. After breakfast we went and played on the inflatables - my favourite was the LASER TAG (see upper left hand pic!) although they also had a mechanical bull (not something I tried, I must confess, but see top right for Elizabeth giving it as good as it got), a bouncy castle (bottom right) and various other games. After we were all bounced out, me, rachel and maddy went to watch an episode of castle in the wright hall lounge where we made a kind of double bed out of the sofas - it was bliss, until we had to get up. Then we had our complimentary lunch, before heading off to see the band, Guster (bottom left). I only knew a couple of the songs by this band but I REALLY enjoyed the concert - they had such great energy, were really friendly with the crowd and played a pretty long set, all things considered.

However by the time the band finished playing (around 4.30) we were all pretty exhausted so we went to go and take naps and chill by ourselves for a bit. However, the fun was not completely over yet as after dinner Rachel, Elizabeth and I watched Star Wars (Episode IV). It was the first time for me and Elizabeth and I really enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would - it also made Chrislefer very happy to hear I enjoyed it.

So anyway, spree day has probably been one of my favourite things about Clark. Its so good to just get away from everything for a day and just play, I think its a great tradition to kill the stress.

Of course… come wednesday it was back to the grindstone!

beep beep

‘Ello! It is time for more sparodic musings, courtesy of moi.

Last week I had Chris over (see fig. 1 above :P) It was pretty awesome: we spent the weekend in boston, and then mosied (moseyed?) over onto Worcester come monday so I could go to classes. We didn’t do much in Boston, per se, but we did go to Harvard Sq and Fanueil Hall/ Quincy Market, so I hope Chris got at least a bit of a feel for it.

Actually last week was pretty good all in all. On Friday Elizabeth was in the chorus of Fame, so we went to go see that, which was pretty awesome (the dancing was near professional standard) and then after we watched a movie (The Namesake - good, but the book is better!) with ice cream. YUM.

As ever I am stupidly busy - as it is getting towards the end of term I have a mountain of papers to write. It will be interesting to see whether they get done or not heh. And as well as work I have a fair amount in store: International Gala this friday, Gala after party saturday, Spree day on tuesday, Kathryn’s visit, mine rachel and Aleksandra’s suprise birthday party… It is all GO.

It’s really kind of funny: I’ve just started feeling really kind of ok here. You know, comfortable, settled, still harried and having too much work, but settled. And now I’m about to leave. I mean at least it means I should have a good few last weeks, but it is really sod’s law isn’t it. At some point I’m going to do a long meaningful post about my year abroad experience, but not tonight. Tonight, I’m gonna write a response paper, munch painkillers (my jaw hurts!) and then watch an episode of prison break (for class, honest!).

More soon, I hopes!

Spring Break in the Capital

Oh dear. It has been a very long time. Half the semester has gone by without me updating. My only excuse was that my dissertation was literally slaughtering me… very very stressful indeed. I got that handed in just before spring break and the relief was… great but short lived when I realised how much work I have for this half of the semester. Ah well, so life goes eh?

Anyway… on to Spring Break and my trip to Washington!

So what did we get up to? Here are some of the highlights:

- Visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History

- Walked past the White House and the Capitol Building

- Visited: the Washinton Monumnet, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Monument, The FDR Monument and the Jefferson Monument: all in one walk… our feet were very tired afterwards!

- Went to the spectacular Union Station

- Went shopping in Pentagon City

- Went to the ZOO! to visit THE PANDAS (two full grown and a babba panda!)

- Went to the cinema twice: once to see Milk and the other to see Slumdog Millionaire.

- A brief glimpse of the Air and Space Museum.

Overall I was pretty impressed with D.C - its a really beautiful city, with an impressive skyline of monuments. It is very classical in style, and in the centre has beautiful wide pavements, making walking a pleasure. It also had a pretty awesome metro system that made getting around (when the feet were tired!) very easy. Another unexpected pleasure was that all the museums and sites associated with the Smithsonian (a LARGE range, including both museums we went to and the zoo) were completely free.

Of course one of my top excursions was to the Zoo - it was definitely panda heaven for me. The grounds the pandas had were extensive, and there were wonderful viewing facilities meaning that this was probably the closest I have ever got to a panda. It was wonderful - they are so beautiful, and fascinating to watch. I could probably spend a whole day sat watching them with a great big dopey smile on my face! The zoo in general was very pleasant too, all the animals seemed to have large enclosures, and it felt like there was a very positive ethos for the zoo.

Another favourite visit of mine was to the Museum of American History (history geek, yeah?). In particular one exhibit stood out: it was called ‘Within These Walls’ and what they had done was transported a house from Massachussetts (as it happens!) and then created an exhibition about 5 of the families who had lived there across two centuries, from slave owners to abolotionists, from turn of the century immigrants to a WWII family. Through these stories of inhabitants of one house you actually got a sense of the broad sweep of American history in microcosm - quite an impressive feat!

So after a very enjoyable but busy week in D.C I arrived back at Clark last night- to a mountain of work! Sadly I feel like I need a break just to recover from all I got through in Washington…!