Reblogged from: Voices - Wesleyan Student Blogs. (Go to the original post…)

HI! This is the first time today I have gotten a chance to breathe. Drop/Add is kicking my butt. Which is probably why every time I try to write drop/add in my emails to my professors it comes out drop/ass. Roar.

But before I get to school stuff, I forgot to mention my other most amazing part of my break! For second Christmas with my Dad, we went to see my grandparents and spent 2 deliciously amazing days in front of their fireplace playing Pickup Stix and trying to figure out my Grandpas's old hand-made wooden puzzles which are almost impossible to fit together. Then, my sister, dad, brother and I  (and the dog) made our way to New Jersey (of all places) to the Pine Barrens, where we planned to stay in a little cabin with no heat….. (see after jump for how we survived)

We drove through a teeny little town; the kind where you would know all your neighbors and people have horses roaming in their front yards and the liquor store and antique shop are right next to each other. We drove down a long, winding, hidden entranceway and came upon the small little cabin. It was 50 degrees in there when we arrived and FREEZING. My dad immediately got to work on two blazing fires, and then we decked it out with Christmas lights and celebrated as the thermostat rose. My dog was in heaven romping around outside, and we all put on 7 layers of clothing and huddled together to cook dinner and make smores. The next morning, we suited up  ()and went down to the small dock and the canoe shed and decided to canoe upstream. I was in the stern, which means that I had to do the steering and correcting, which I am awful at, and my brother was very nice about my lack of capabilities and the fact that he was getting poked in the face with large branches as I ran us into trees. It was beautiful out though.

Anyway, that trip was amazing, and the rest of break was filled with days where I basically lived at my friends houses and we almost never left each other's sides except to pee and really not even then. But soon everyone left me and it was time to get home to Wes.

So now I'm here!! Reunited!! A few things have changed.

a. I re-organized my room. My friend Kate and I were some of the first people here, and we walked into town one morning to Mainstreet Market. One of the funky stores was going out of business and everything was on sale, so I decided to buy some lanterns to spruce up my room. (We decided against It's Only Natural for lunch—too expensive and vegany—and ended up getting delicious crepes and wraps at a different café-type restaurant in the market.)

I want to post this now and I am in Albritton but later I will add some pictures…

b. My friend Olivia moved from Clark Four to the Butts! It has been semi-sad, because she is so far away now, and semi-awesome, since her new room looks really cool and is so fun to hang out in.

c. My roommate Cherkira is gone for six days and it is just me and Hannah in the room, which is  sad and kind of cool. Living with two other people can be tough sometimes, and it is interesting to see what a double would be like!! But I am definitely missing Cherkira.

d. There seem to be WAY more people at this school now…it's like a little ridiculous… the gym is always wicked crowded. Yesterday Tanaya and Daniel and I did exercises from an Iphone in the Clark 4 lounge because there were no machines free. I mean it might have a lot to do with the fact that there are a million freshman (myself included) already. Or maybe its people that were abroad first semester. Who knows.

US ON OUR FIRST NIGHT BACK

THAI GARDENS (sorry guys I know this is not a flattering picture but I am lacking media for these posts)

Anyway, I am trying to get myself more involved this semester in all the cool stuff Wesleyan has to offer. Now that I am more settled in and adjusted to college life I want to fill my time more! I am starting by writing for the Argus- I went to one of the meetings and when they asked for a volunteer I decided to just go for it and raised my hand. I am setting up interviews with people from the Let's Get Ready tutoring group, and have already met today with the first tutor. I have never conducted an interview before, and it was kind of exciting, and it was really nice to meet people I wouldn't necessarily meet. It will be interesting to see if I can conduct four interviews, write the article, read 300 pages, write a reading response, go to two new classes, and get all the text books I need all by the end of this week…. I am gonna be busybusybusy!

But what else is new

Tags: ahhh, busy, friends, Kate Gilpin '15, new semester, reblogged, thai gardens, voices blog