Fall Semester Update

Well, yet again another school year has begun. Except this year it's the last time, maybe ever! I'm trying not to think about that too much.

Convocation is a very senior-y event where
we wear our graduation gowns and attend
a ceremony

As always, it's been an interesting blend of exhausting and exhilarating. Every year moving in and getting all my stuff to my dorm is a process. Overall move-in went well though, being a senior and having friends is great! One friend picked me up from the airport and dropped me off at my dorm, which is a big deal; in the past I've paid $20-30 for a ride or lugged all my stuff on trains and buses. Not fun. Then a few days later another friend with a car helped me retrieve some of my stuff from across campus. (Thanks Ashley and Katie!)

I still feel a little unorganized and strange about being back at Wellesley, and I'm having a bit of trouble getting back into being responsible with my homework. I had forgotten how busy my life is at Wellesley. I wasn't really involved in any extra-curriculars while I was abroad at Trinity, and my classes took up much less time. I'm hoping that soon I can have a better grasp of what's going on and start holding myself more accountable to get things done in a timely manner!

One thing that I have been doing pretty well at so far is getting up earlier. I have ALWAYS wished I were a morning person, and I've finally decided it's time to try and get into that habit. It wasn't so bad over the summer having to be at work at 8 every morning, so I don't know why its always so hard during the school year. So far I'm doing pretty well at getting up early enough to have a leisurely breakfast and time to get ready before class. Not every day, of course, but just establishing what I want to be my new normal has been helpful. I'm hoping to keep that up as I get busier, it really does make for a more pleasant start to the day.

So, an update on my majors and my classes for the fall! I don't know if anybody's necessarily interested in this, but I'm going to share anyway.

I am officially a Computer Science major, and have been since my sophomore year. I've known that I wanted to do that for a long time, and I intend to make that my career when I graduate. However, I decided last spring to declare a Classical Civilizations major also! (Classical Civilizations at Wellesley basically consists of an ancient language, in my case Latin, and Greek and Roman history courses.) It has been an interesting journey to making that decision, if you're curious feel free to ask me about it :) Hurray for Liberal Arts colleges!

And finally, my classes for this semester. As you can imagine, it's a very interesting and diverse group! For my Computer Science major I'm taking two required courses: Algorithms, and Languages and Automata (it's not really worth me explaining them any more than that...) For my Classical Civ major I am taking an advanced Latin class (it's called Roman Poems and Poetry Books) and a course on the Archaeology of the Biblical World. That one is actually a religion class, but since the Classics department is relatively small they are great at accepting credit from other departments. Both of those classes are very interesting, but also labor intensive for me. While technically I suppose I'm a humanities major now, I still don't consider myself a humanities person. I feel more at home among problem sets and lectures than papers, readings, and discussions. For I think the first time ever, all the classes I am taking this semester count towards my majors, so I feel good about that!

I guess I can't really consider it the beginning of the semester anymore after 3 weeks of classes, but I'm still getting into the swing of things and the summer weather doesn't help it feel like fall! There's a lot I'm looking forward to this year, and a lot I'm dreading, but I'm excited to see where the journey takes me.

Summer Update

As always this time of year, my time at home is dwindling much too quickly. Tomorrow is the last day of my internship, which is a little bittersweet. I would by lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it being over, but I've also had a great experience there this summer. And plus, my internship ending means my summer is about to end. This has been a pretty great summer!

Mini golf with my mom

Our company picnic at the Saint's Game - we
broke the Guinness world record for the largest
ever pillow fight!

Book shopping with Kelly

I have about a week and a half between the end of my internship and leaving for school, and I am very grateful for that. My parents and I are going to be gone for nearly a week camping though, so I am realizing more and more that I am running out of time at home. I've already been trying to set things aside little by little to take back with me to school. Making decisions about packing for an entire year is always difficult and time consuming for me, so it helps to do it a little bit at a time. Pack jewelry one day, bedding another day, etc. I leave for school early in the morning on August 25th. (My classes don't start until August 31, but I have training for my on campus job so I get to move in a few days early.)

Another exciting update - I finally got my drivers license this week! That might not seem too exciting for somebody about to turn 21 years old, but it is what it is. The last few years I've just never gotten around to it, I didn't have plans to get a car so I didn't figure I needed my license. Also, with school expenses and studying abroad paying insurance seemed like it might be difficult. I finally decided this summer was the time, and thankfully I passed my test the first try (despite trying to drive with my parking brake on once, oops!) It's a big weight off my shoulders just to have it over with, next summer presumably I'll be getting a job and needing a car at some point (weird...)

Through my time abroad, and having this summer internship while I've been home, I have become more excited about being done with school and entering "normal" life. Getting a job, a car, eventually my own place to live. I've always been a homebody and I've always loved school, so I've never necessarily looked forward to being done with it. I'm starting to accept and even get excited about moving on to the next phase of my life. It's kind of nice for me to look towards the future and genuinely feel excited about those things, at least to some extent (job searching, on the other hand, still doesn't sound fun).

I'm just feeling pretty optimistic in general these days. I'm excited about going back to school (it's been about 9 months since I've been at Wellesley!) but also excited thinking about what might come next. My main complaint is that I wish there were more hours in a day - I've been very excited about lots of craft projects and organization lately, but I haven't had nearly as much time as I would like to work on them. Among other things, I've wanted to try braiding this t-shirt rug for a while now, and luckily I found a bunch of old shirts around my house to use! I thought it would be perfect for my dorm room, if I can ever manage to finish it...

I know my excitement will probably be dampened somewhat when I get back to school and start getting homework assignments and having to apply for jobs and everything. But for now I'll just enjoy being excited about the possibilities that the future holds, and getting to spend some more time with family and friends before I leave for school.

Day Trip: Giant's Causeway

One of these months I'll stop posting about my time in Ireland. But, that time has not yet come! You'll have to bear with me for a while yet trying to finish all the posts that I have planned :)

As I talked about in this post, in Ireland I got a lot better at doing things on my own. My final day trip in Ireland was to Giant's Causeway, and I ended up going alone because all of my friends had either been there already or weren't available. I went on a lot of bus trips similar to this one in Ireland, Scotland and England. They were always great, because they bring you to places where you wouldn't otherwise have visited (and you don't have to figure out transportation yourself). On the other hand, they can be frustrating because they are often more expensive than transporting yourself and you have no say in how long you spend at each location. On this particular trip I wished we had more time at a couple of the main sights. I am still a fan of bus tours in general, though, and Ireland is a great place to do day trips due to its relatively small size. I was able to see many parts of the country that I never would have made it to on my own, without having to spend money on hostels. I wanted to share about this particular trip as an example. (If I can remember what happened, that is! It's been awhile. Good thing I take an excessive amount of pictures.)

Giant's Causeway was one of the main sites that I wanted to visit the whole time that I was in Ireland. It's a natural volcanic rock formation in Northern Ireland where there are hundreds of hexagonal rock pillars. The bus tour that I chose went to The Dark Hedges, The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, Giant's Causeway, Dunluce Castle, and Belfast. Here is the story of my day in pictures!

Stop 1:
The day started with a short stop at The Dark Hedges, a dramatic tree-lined road (recently famous for being a filming location for Game of Thrones, that's kind of a theme in Northern Ireland! The main studio is in Belfast). These pictures really don't do it justice, you should look up other pictures of The Dark Hedges in County Antrim, it's especially beautiful once the leaves come in. The trees were originally planted along the road leading to a big mansion to impress visitors.

One theme of travelling by myself is lots and lots of selfies! I don't always feel like asking somebody else to take a picture of me at every location.

Stop 2:
Our next stop was right on the coast to see something called the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge. The Irish coastline is stunning!

Here is the rope bridge itself. Unfortunately it was too windy that day, so we weren't allowed to cross the bridge (when I saw how much it was bouncing up and down, I was actually okay with that). The bridge was built to give fishermen easy access to the little island. Apparently there's good fishing over there?

Stop 3:
Finally we arrived at the main attraction of the day, Giant's Causeway. This is the start of the path that went down to the site. I could've taken a bus, but decided to walk. There were beautiful views along the way, too!

In May, Northern Ireland is covered in gorse, these yellow shrubs. They were all over the place, and I loved the contrast between the yellow flowers and the green and blue of the fields and water. This is still walking down the path to the site.

Giant's Causeway was one of my favorite places that I saw in Ireland, I'm so glad that I made time to go. It's not as big or as grand as some places, like the Cliffs of Moher, but its such an unusual formation that its even more surreal. It felt like a big playground to me.

Obviously, there were quite a few other people there!

More selfies! And yes, it was cold enough in May to require the hat and scarf. The weather was actually quite miserable that day.

It looks completely manmade! All these rocks were shaped naturally.

Especially when I'm by myself, I like to get a little more creative with my pictures. These are my trusty tennis shoes that I wore for all my travelling (and promptly had to throw away when I got home!)

And, of course, Jet. He was my companion through most of my travels.

Stop 4:

Too soon, we moved on from Giant's Causeway and continued on our journey. This isn't a great picture, but we quickly stopped by Dunluce Castle, a castle ruin right by the water. It has an interesting history. Due to its location at the edge of a cliff, one night part of the kitchen fell into the water, killing many of the servants. (Lesson: don't build your castle on the edge of a cliff that might erode.)

Stop 5:
At the end of the day we stopped in Belfast for about an hour. I wasn't really in the mood for much exploring after a long day, and it was still rainy and cold. So, I stopped by a souvenir shop and a bookshop and got some hot tea. This is the town hall that we parked next to, it was about the only site I saw there.

Another picture of town hall from inside the bus, this kind of sums up the day! Very wet.

I hope these posts aren't getting old or repetitive. I'm still enjoying reminiscing on my travels, so I'm going to continue for now! More to come soon.

Book Review: Knitting Block by Block

Occasionally you guys get random book reviews from me, and that is mostly for selfish reasons (just being honest!) I found this great website called Blogging for Books a while ago where I can request review copies of books for free in exchange for posting a review on my blog. (If you have a blog and like books, I highly recommend trying it. And if you don't have a blog and like books, make a blog!) Anyway, just a reminder about why you're getting this post from me! So I can get another free book :)

I like knitting, and lately I've been wanting to learn how to knit more complicated objects and do more patterns. When I saw this book I thought it would be perfect. The concept is that there are tons of patterns for knitting squares, and then there are instructions for items that can be made from the squares. It simplifies more complex projects because mostly you're just knitting squares, and it makes projects more customizable because the book contains TONS of different patterns for blocks.

Ultimately I was a little bit disappointed by this book. To be honest, I haven't made anything from it, so maybe my opinion isn't totally valid (I have looked through the book quite a lot, just haven't had time this summer to knit much!). I love the concept, but I thought it would be more of a book for beginners, because it talks about this simple way to make things. There are a few patterns that I definitely want to try, but I'm a pretty new knitter. Most of the patterns in this book are a bit too advanced for me, and a lot of them I just don't really like the pattern enough to devote time to trying them.

Again, its a cool and different concept, and the book is beautifully presented and illustrated. But almost all of the patterns I want to try I need to find help and basic instructions somewhere else for me to be able to do them. This is a good book for patterns, but not the  best for comprehensive instructions or reference. If you're a fairly experienced knitter interested in learning a new method though, I definitely would recommend trying this out! And there definitely is something here for beginners too, but it'll be a bit more difficult to figure everything out.


Disclaimer: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Journal Entry: Camping

Over Independence Day, my parents and I went camping. My dad grew up a couple hours north of Minneapolis, in a tiny little town called Duquette. We still own some land up there and have a trailer set up where we hunt and camp as often as we can.

We sometimes find wild raspberries or
strawberries.

I keep a journal, and somehow being up there in the woods always brings out my poetic side. One morning before breakfast I wrote this in my journal. I've never shared a part of my personal journal before, so this is a little scary. But I loved this when I re-read it later, so I hope you enjoy it too.

Context: campfire donuts are deep fried bread dough
covered in cinnamon sugar. One of my favorite things
we make!

I was too tired to write last night. I hardly got any reading done even, I started a new book and I just haven't gotten far enough into it for it to hold my attention while I'm tired.

I don't know what time it is. Probably earlier than I normally get up when I don't have to get up for anything. It's still cool enough that the fire is pleasant to sit by, we're trying to prepare the fire to cook oil for campfire donuts. Patience.

Pale sun is just peeking through the clouds and trees, casting the shadow of my hand on the page. It also starts to warm me, though barely. There is a constant cool breeze moving the air, although I would hardly notice it if not for the sound in the trees and the plume of smoke. Occasionally the wind strengthens, and I am warned by a roaring from afar which slowly comes near, until I am surrounded by swaying and rustling, noise and movement. It's like I'm on a ship, only the waves are above.

It smells clean. It smells of moist dirt, wood, a pure morning breeze. It smells of fire, of comforting warmth, of rich, woody smoke.

I see a ball, each tree dressed to dance to the music of the wind. The slender birch and popple in their grey and white, especially eager at any hint of a note. They join the wind, giving it the movement and sound that I love.

My stomach is growling, waiting for the oil to get hot!

The oaks and maples, and other trees I don't know, are calmer and steadier. They don't sway so much nor move their branches and leaves so much. But when the strong waves of music come, rustling in the distance warning us of their approach, they dance at their arrival.

Banoffee Pie Recipe

One food that I discovered in Ireland was Banoffee pie. It's pretty simple - a graham cracker crust (or if we were actually in Ireland, a crust made with digestive biscuits), toffee, bananas, and whipped cream. I've been wanting to make something from my time abroad and this seemed like it would be simple enough! (As it turned out I made quite a large mistake, which you'll see in a bit...)

I used this recipe, with just a couple adjustments. As I said, digestive biscuits aren't very readily available here, so I just substituted it with a graham cracker crust. The rest of the ingredients are very easy to get here, but since it's a UK recipe the measurements may look a little unfamiliar. I'll rewrite the ingredients list here:

1 graham cracker crust

Toffee:
100g (about 1 stick) butter
100g (about 1/2 cup) brown sugar
397g (one can) condensed milk (not sweetened!)

Toppings:
4 small bananas
whipped cream
grated chocolate (I didn't actually include this)

You can get more detailed instructions at the link above, so I'm just going to share my process through pictures. I might not have taken a picture of every single step, sometimes its hard to remember to do that while you're cooking and trying not to burn anything!


These are the ingredients I used for the graham cracker crust. It's much easier with a box of prepared crumbs instead of having to crush them yourself, and the box has a recipe right on it for the crust. All you need is the crumbs, sugar, and butter.

Here's the assembled crust. Since the pie isn't baked after the toffee is put in, I baked the crust a few minutes by itself (again, the crust recipe should tell you how to do this).

Next comes the toffee making process. It starts by melting butter in a pan. 

Now, here comes the big mistake that I made. The recipe calls for "Carnation condensed milk". In my mind, that translated to sweetened condensed milk, which made sense to me for making a toffee (plus most other recipes for banoffee pie do call for sweetened condensed milk). But, the recipe actually just called for condensed milk. The toffee ended up much sweeter and thicker than it was supposed to be. So, here's a warning for you: don't use sweetened condensed milk! We still ate the whole pie, but I'll definitely be trying it again and following the recipe a bit more closely.

(Note: my dad liked this really sweet version, but he was outvoted by the rest of the family!)

The toffee boils for a couple minutes on the stove to caramelize and thicken.

After the toffee is finished, it goes right into the baked crust to cool off. The pie is meant to be eaten cold. We decided not to put the bananas on right away, because they tend to get brown when they sit in the fridge like that.

Before eating, add sliced bananas and plenty of whipped cream!

Realizations

I promise I have big plans for this blog. I have so many posts that I want to write, many of which are already in progress, but somehow other things have just seemed more exciting than writing blog posts lately. I just wanted to let you know, I haven't been neglecting the blog as much as it might appear! It's amazing how much less time I have on my hands now that I'm working full time.

Yes, I have a full time job! I just started my fourth week as an intern at Emergent Networks in Edina, MN. It is an IT company, which is actually a bit out of my comfort zone. As a computer science major, thus far I have focused mostly on software development and programming. That may be nonsense to some people, but just take my word for it that there is a big difference between solving a IT problem (like why somebody isn't receiving emails) and writing code (like creating a game or developing a website). It has been a good experience, although the schedule was a bit difficult to adjust to at first. Going from 0 hours of work to 8-5 every day is a big change.

I've been home from Ireland for well over a month at this point. I already updated you about my first few weeks, lots of sleeping and doing nothing, and also organizing my room. Since I've been back, I have continued to think about my experiences abroad and what's different now that I'm home. In the process I have been realizing a few things about myself, about the way I function and the feelings I have about Ireland.

I have been realizing since coming home that I need time alone. I'm getting more used to my new schedule and living arrangements, but it was hard right after I got home and it became even harder when I started working full time. I made great friends in Ireland, but I just didn't know as many people there as I do here. I shared an apartment, but my roommate wasn't around a lot of the time. I spent a lot of time in my room, which was completely my own space where I could expect for the most part to be totally undisturbed. In Dublin when I ran errands and went grocery shopping and stuff, I was usually alone. I hung out with my new friends while I was abroad, but I just got used to going out and doing things alone. I'm getting better at not getting frustrated when I don't have time to myself, but I still greatly cherish the time that I do have.

I've also been noticing that I am missing Ireland more and more as time passes. I don't want to say I'm "homesick" for Ireland, because I think I'll always consider Minneapolis home. But I keep going places and leaving a part of my heart behind, and the best way I can think to describe the feeling is homesickness. Ireland is one of those places. I don't regret going in any way, but there is a new ache in my heart that I never felt before. It will get duller as time passes, but I know it will never leave. And I don't want it to, because this feeling means that I found a place that is truly special. I think I'm musing on this so much now because one of my best friends in the world is currently spending a few weeks in Ireland. I was already there for five months, so I have no logical reason to be jealous of her. But I am jealous. I can't wait to talk to her and see her pictures, but I know it will also be painful to see them from somebody else's point of view as I sit here at home.

I have realized that I miss the simplicity I had in Ireland: I just didn't have as many possessions there. I always had enough food in the kitchen, but I usually bought it in small quantities and had specific plans for all of it. I really enjoyed making a menu, buying the food for those specific meals, and then using all of it. While it's nice to have a much larger variety of food and snacks and main pantry staples (like spices!) at home, I do miss the simplicity of having a plan for everything. With other things, like clothes and books, I just can't believe how much I own. That doesn't necessarily mean I want to get rid of things that I have here, but it does make me more mindful. I am very proud that, for the first time in a long time, I have gone through all my stuff packed away in boxes and everything has a place in my room. I actually have access to all of it! I'll have to do some more crafts and things this summer, since I actually have access to all of my craft supplies which have been packed away at home. Just this past weekend I got out an old embroidery project that I had started a while ago (probably a few years ago by now), and I have really been enjoying working on that.

I'm realizing that it's getting easier for me to casually talk about Ireland. That might sound strange, but at first being home just seemed so overwhelmingly  familiar that I didn't talk about Ireland much. It seemed so hard to explain this huge experience that I had, five months of my life. It was easier simply not to try; there was just too much to say, so sometimes I said nothing at all. But please, ask me about it! I do like talking about it, especially when you ask something specific that I can talk about.

I am learning new things about myself even now from the time that I spent away. I suppose this is part of why we travel and seek new experiences: to give ourselves new challenges and learn from them. It's hard and painful at times; getting used to new surroundings is hard for me. But I am becoming increasingly convinced that it is important to travel, to try new things and to make ourselves uncomfortable sometimes. Total comfort and complacency isn't the way to grow, even though it's, well, comfortable. Okay, I'll stop rambling now, but I hope these thoughts encourage you to try something new that scares you a little bit. What's the worst that can happen?