It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...April?

We were so close to not having a white Christmas here in Vermont. Thank goodness it snowed a few days before. It's still not much, but it's better than what we had which was...nothing. It was warm and kind of rainy. I think Vermont forgot it was December.

Because of the lack of snow for days upon days there really wasn't much as far as the whole skiing game goes. This lead to my multiple hour-hour and a half drives to Craftsbury to ski around a 1.5k loop. When all was said and done I skied for five hours in three days on that sucker. It got so old it's unreal.

Now that it's snowed we've got a few more options. Trapp's has around 15k, Sleepy has about 5k, Craftsbury has 10+k. There's talk of a storm coming (maybe? cross your fingers) tomorrow so perhaps this will be just what we need!

But enough of this ski talk! Based on my Twitter feed many of my classmates had wonderful Christmases, but are now ready to head back to our lovely SMC! I am one of many. I go back shortly after New Years for winter camp with Big Purple, so I'm a little luckier than most.

The Martell-Crawford/(Lary) Martell cousins on Christmas Eve
Eli, Evan (my brother), Cylas, Phoebe, me

That is my short and sweet life update. Life at home can be pretty boring. Mine especially since it's been consumed with driving to ski, which when going so far away can take pretty much your entire day. Once we hit New Years life will be going non-stop with skiing and I'll have no lack of Big Purple racing posts and pictures during the carnival season.

I hope everyone had the happiest of holidays and enjoys a fabulous New Year!

Phoebe, Uncle Pat, Aunt Becky, and I

Because St. Mike's is Awesome

Happy holidays!

 

Race Day

Gorgeous tracks on Saturday

This weekend was the first race weekend of the season. We haven't started the carnival season yet, but the  first Eastern Cup (the races put on by NENSA, the New England Nordic Ski Association) was this weekend. While there is absolutely no snow anywhere in the east, Craftsbury managed to pull together an phenomenal 1.4k race loop.

The first day consisted of a 1.4k classic sprint and a 3k classic prologue. Can't say I'm much of a sprinter, but it felt good to be in a solid set of tracks for the first time all season. The course was hard and fast and my lungs were absolutely burning. I didn't do as well as I hoped, but we've been doing a lot of long intervals, which isn't exactly too helpful for short distances. It's still early and it was good to get some starts in.

The fam after the classic races

My brother during the skate race today

The second day, today, was a ~5k skate race for women, ~10k for men. Again, it was hard, fast, and brutal. I worked hard and accomplished what I had hoped to, which was to ski more smoothly up the hills.

It's still very early in the season and I'm looking forward to a good winter break of training. Hopefully we'll get snow soon ANYWHERE in New England. I'm ready and willing to drive to snow wherever it falls. At the very least let's hope for a white Christmas!

Gabby and I being in love

why did you leave your previous school?

I left my last school because it just wasn't quite the right fit for me. I had some great friends and took some interesting classes, but it didn't really feel like the place I wanted to be at my whole college career. I definitely preferred SMC's education program and liked the idea of being close to Burlington rather than in the middle of nowhere like I had been for a year. I definitely miss some of the people I became close to during my year there, but we keep in touch and in the end I made the right decision. You just have to do what feels right for you no matter how scary it might seem to start over again.

Sorry this took so long! I thought I had responded already!

Ask me anything!

First Snow of the Season

Wednesday morning of Thanksgiving break I woke up to a solid amount of snow outside. I had expected a dusting, but actual coverage was really nice to see. I had two of my teammates, Sam and Gabby, with the fam for the week since they live too far to go home for just a few days and they were equally as excited.

Craftsbury Thanksgiving morning

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent at Craftsbury Nordic Center on actual snow. Thursday was almost as good as real, middle of the season skiing. They had a solid number of k's open so that we really didn't use the same trails twice. Friday morning brought some warmer temperatures and slightly less snow, but we were able to get solid intervals in during the morning and a good ski in during the afternoon. Members of the team trickled in one by one and we were back on campus Friday night.

Saturday afternoon

Saturday was a little more iffy as far as the conditions were concerned. We still managed to get two skis in but things were a liiiiiittle dicy by Saturday afternoon. It took some trudging through a little grass and water to get from certain trails to others. Anything for early season snow.

By the end of the weekend the snow was pretty much gone and a good portion of the team was back on campus. Six of us did a great 2 1/2 hour classic rollerski wearing t-shirts...in NOVEMBER. The weather is definitely unpredictable.

At this point it's 63 degrees on campus and overcast. It's not looking like the temps are dropping much below 40 degrees (if at all) for the next couple of days. The couple of days we had on snow only made us want more. Hopefully Vermont can figure itself out pretty soon and we'll get some snow that'll stick for a while.

Busy Busy Busy

This post is going to be just a quick little update. Things have been pretty busy, but it's the same old same old with classes and skiing and life in general.

This Friday was the Senior Pub Crawl in downtown Burlington. A lot of my friends played rugby and were pretty much dead to the world until the season ended last weekend. It was nice to be with all of my friends in one place at one time. It was also fun to be out with the entire senior class.

My ridiculous friends.

It was also the first time we got to take a house picture!

309.
me, Juliette, Maria, and Coligny

Yesterday (Sunday) morning we had a good ski workout bright and early. We drove out to the bottom of the Bolton Ski Resort access road and were dropped off. From there we rollerskied straight to the top. It was harder than I remember it being, but my time was also faster than it's ever been (as far as I can remember) so I'm pretty pleased.

With Thanksgiving coming up a lot of people are excited to head home. Considering I make it home fairly often I'm not quite as pumped, but two of my friends from the team who live too far away to make it home are joining the crazy Martell's for our Thanksgiving, which will definitely be a lot of fun. Break starts Tuesday and the ski team will be back on Friday to have a good weekend of training together.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Always in the Loop: SMC Emails

Every time I give a tour I realize how many times I say "they send an email to let you know what's going on/when the event will be/when open hours are/etc." It's true. At SMC you get the most excessive amount of emails. You get really good at figuring out what to delete right away and what to save to read later.

Out of curiosity I decided not to delete any emails for 24 hours. I had 25 unread emails and 3 emails sent directly to me that I had to open and read.

The 25 emails were the following (and more):

• The weekly SMC news letter
• Multiple emails from Career Development with job opportunities and dates for workshops
• An email from Green Up (the environmental club) with the date for their showing of "Addicted to Plastic"
• Intramural basketball and floor hockey info
• The times the SMC shuttle would be running back and forth from the women's hockey game
• The time/place of the next Philosophy Club meeting
• Information about the next Campus Ministry retreat
• A survey for The Defender, the school newspaper
• Info on MOVE (community service program) and the events for Hunger and Homelessness Week
• The weekly Weekend Events email about all things happening on and around campus this weekend

Basically, if you miss out on something here you must have forgotten the password to your email account. There's really no excuse for not knowing what's happening on campus. It's nice to know that I'm always going to be in the loop. The other great thing about so many emails is that there's no way not to find something you're interested in. Between sports, clubs, MOVE, and campus ministry there's always something for everyone!

The Crazy Life

Life at SMC has been so crazy busy. I'm working on a post, but just haven't had the time to put it all together! So instead here we are...

Things that make my life crazy:

Ski training.
Big Purple is nearly in full swing. The XC team has one more weekend and then we get to be all together.  We've had a few good weeks so far. Bounding intervals at Cochran's have been killer, but faster every time. Rollerski intervals in our favorite Colchester neighborhood have been about the same. It's nice to see times improving. This week we had some great core sessions, a double pole time trial, a 3000 time trial on the track with the boys XC team, and finally, a long classic ski. I've been sleeping well every night, that's for sure.

School work.
Mid-terms. Enough said. Spanish exams, math exams, and education unit plans. Yuck.

Lying on the new couch.

I'm sorry, but this couch is so comfy I just can't get up. 

Making time for friends.

Everyone is so busy that sometimes it's hard to find time to hang out. That's what the weekends are for. The weekend before last was FridayKnight Dry, which had lots of activities for SMC students to discourage drinking on campus. We competed in the gum drop competition...and then spent far too long working on our on creation that ended up being pretty impressive.

Eric hard at work.

6 Awesome Things From This Semester

Now that we've hit mid-terms it seems that we're reaching the middle of the semester. I can't quite wrap my head around the fact that it's my last fall semester EVER but every time I start trying to it just makes me sad, so I try to avoid it. My life has been pretty crazy lately and blogging kind of took a back seat last week. I promise I have something in mind for next week, but for now I figured I'd just make a list of my favorite things from the first half of the semester.

1. GED 588 - When planning my schedule for this semester I was two credits short of being a full time student. I ended up finding a graduate class in education called "Emerging Technology." Clearly, this would be an excellent class for me to take as a future teacher. I ended up being able to work things out so that I could take it for undergrad credits!

2. Living in the 3's - I've already discussed this, but I just love living here. There are so many people around all the time. Plus, a couple of weekends when it was really cold out we just pulled the couch up to the window to watch our friends in the rugby game. So toasty.

Watching the game with Liane's family.

3. Burlington (as usual) - As usual there are so many things to do in Burlington. I've gone out for birthday dinners with friends and random shopping trips just to spend all the money I don't have. There was also the Nor'Easter festival on the waterfront a couple of weeks ago, which was really fun to go hang out at. My roommate, Coligny, is a crazy climber and I got to go watch her try to get up the wall!

4. Learning to Cook - I've never really been one to cook for myself and I'm not about to pretend I'm fantastic at it, but I've come up with a few really amazing meals that I'm quite proud of. Panini with tomato, feta, and pesto? Yes, please.

Never could another meal be more delicious
than the Crunch Wrap Supreme Coligny's bf
made us. To die for.

5. Don Pedro's - I definitely have my favorite restaurants in the area, but it's always great to discover a new one. Don Pedro's recently opened on the Winooski Circle and my house has become obsessed. Imagine: 5 tacos for $5 and the most delicious margarita you've ever experienced. Heaven.

6. The Fort - We may live in a townhouse, but we're still children. We built a fort. It was awesome.

Things That Make Me Love St. Mike's

I was going through all of the old pictures I have on my phone and stumbled upon a few that really bring to mind the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words." In this case these pictures show exactly why I love St. Mike's without really having to say all too much. It's the random stuff that makes the school unique and why I wouldn't want to go anywhere else.

So here we go...I love St. Mike's because...

...this beach has been outside of Ryan hall for weeks...

...because Alliot has comment cards...and sometimes they're like this...

"To our *something something* staff,
I seest that thou art absent of oatmeal.
Get the hence if thou so pleaseth!!
Sir Groonfulfürd"

...because they actually sell these in our bookstore...

The sweatshirt not the dog...sadly.

...because this:

"Burger Sauce"

equals this:

Mayo + Mustard + Ketchup = Burger Sauce

...because we have snow sculpture contests and someone built a Pikachu...

... and because I love nerdy math jokes.

I don't know factorial...get it?

I just love this place.

Townhouse Living

Being a senior is a scary thing, but it's definitely a perk to be living in a townhouse. I absolutely love living in the 300's. I have so many friends close-by and some of my best friends live with me.

The living room

My townhouse has a living room and a kitchen downstairs and four single bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The biggest change between the townhouses and the suites are the kitchens. We have a full refrigerator and oven as well as all kind of appliances we brought from home.

Our teeny tiny kitchen

It's very different having to make every meal. It's actually not as bad as I expected. After years of dining halls it's weird not to have something prepared whenever I get hungry, but it's nice to make what I want when I want it. We also have 40 meals a semester at Alliot, though I'm proud to say that I haven't used any of them yet! I actually haven't been into Alliot itself in weeks, which is so weird.

As usual, it's been a busy week, but after killing a Spanish exam this morning I'm SO ready for the weekend!

So Much To Do At SMC

So far this school year has been incredibly busy. Classes, meetings, and practices fill up the schedule. Not to mention the attempts at socializing with people when everyone's schedule is just as crazy as mine. Not everyone participates in the same activities, but there's always something to do.

There are countless clubs and groups on campus, but I'll give you a general idea of just a few of the options...

Campus Ministry
Being a Catholic college there is a definite presence of campus ministry on campus. While this is not at all forced on any person (even as a Catholic school, only 61% of the student body identifies themselves as Catholic) it's a definite option for any person looking to make it a part of the SMC experience. There are actually a couple of ways to get involved as far as Campus Ministry is concerned.

VITA
@VITASMC is the student campus ministry group on campus. There are all kinds of options for getting involved such as serving in mass, being a choir member, LINK, and retreats. One of my roommates was involved last year and often came home with cookies, brownies, and, once, balloon animals. A couple of our bloggers, @DerekSMC being one of them, is a member.

MOVE
@MOVE_SMC is the volunteer organization on campus. It has its roots in Campus Ministry, but caters to all SMC students, Catholic or not. There are a number of student-run programs to get involved in such as Correctional Volleyball, After School Games, Senior Citizens, and A Cause for Paws. You can choose to only do something once or find a more long-term option like a mentoring program. Check out the MOVE site to see all of the programs offered. One of my old roommates and fellow bloggers, @carlymillen, just wrote a post about MOVE. Check it out HERE!

Campus Ministry/MOVE now has a blog, which can give an even better idea of the options and events. Definitely check it out for more info!

Founders Society
@SMCFounders is the student ambassador program. We have ties to both perspective students and SMC alumni. There's a monthly meeting and a number of ways to get involved including being a tour guide, blogger, doing Phone-a-Thons, and job fairs. I'm clearly a huge advocate for Founders as it's a way to express to others my love of SMC!

Wilderness Program
The Wilderness Program is huge at SMC. It offers activities like hiking, kayaking, climbing, and snowshoeing. All of the activities are student-lead, which means that if you end up loving the Wilderness Program all you have to do is attend training and you can lead adventures up Mount Mansfield or rafting! I have a lot of friends who are Wilderness Leaders including @bethsmc.

Ski/Snowboard Pass
In addition to all of this awesome outdoors-y stuff, the program offers incredible deals on seasons passes for the local mountains. The most insane of these deals is the $30 pass to Smuggler's Notch. I grew up skiing at Smuggs and couldn't imagine going anywhere else. It's a great mountain at an unbelievable price.


These programs are only four of the extracurricular opportunities offered at the lovely Saint Michael's College. The full list can be viewed HERE and contains everything from the Knitting Club to Rugby.

Back in Business

So I'm not sure what things I've been doing that have prevented me from writing a post for this amount of time. Life was crazy busy between the end of work at The Tyler Place and the last few days. I had two days between the time I finished work and the time I moved into my house on campus to start Orientation.

Reinhart and I on a windy cruise on Lake Champlain.

Orientation was completely awesome. The O-Leaders were on campus for three days before anyone else was here. We had days full of training and nights full of fun activities. Then came the First Years. The first morning was spent moving them in. For five and a half hours. I don't think I've ever been more tired. Did you know that almost every single FY lives on the fourth floor of some building or another? If that's not the case then somehow I was attracted only to the cars with tons of stuff heading to that floor.

This has to be my favorite picture of Group 31
during the scavenger hunt.

After the initial move-in we were with our groups for the rest of the weekend. My partner, Reinhart, and I had Group 31 and they were fantastic. We had the dance, scavenger hunt, hypnotist, fun for all, and not so fun things like the library orientation. It was exhausting, but I'm so glad that I was able to be an O-Leader during my time at SMC. We had a great group of people to spend a week with and it was so sad to see it come to an end after Connections on Sunday morning.

Since then I've been trying to get into the swing of things with classes. It took a bit of re-arranging, but I ended up with a great schedule. I'm taking Spanish, Astronomy, a math class, and, most excitingly, a graduate course in education called Emerging Technology.

It's been hard to get used to managing time and doing work, but I'm getting there. So far so good, anyway. Things are starting to get rolling for ski practices (so early!) so it'll get a bit busier, but it'll be nicer than having to go out and run by myself all the time. Hill workout today. Yuck.

I'll probably be writing a post about life in the 300's townhouses for next week so check back in! Ahhh I can't believe I'm a SENIOR!! So sad.

O-Leaders 2011 and Grace Kelly
Heroes of the Knight

Grand Point North Festival

This past weekend was the first ever Grand Point North music festival. Every year Grace Potter & the Nocturnals play a show during the Lake Champlain Maritime Festival. This year she put together a music festival within that, which had many new and local acts. I chose to go on Saturday since Chamberlin, a Vermont act that I've recently become obsessed with (check out this post for more), was playing. I was also excited to see that Fitz & the Tantrums would be playing that day as I recently fell in love with their song "Moneygrabber."

Long story short: it was an incredible day. We got there a little late after having an early dinner on Church St. and got there in time to see Rubblebucket and then walk around for a bit before Fitz & the Tantrums started. FATT were incredible. I would pay to see them as a headliner any day.

Immediately after FATT Chamberlin was playing on the side stage. We ran over in time to hear most of their set. After being obsessed with their album for a few months it was great to see them again and know all of their songs. They also played one or two new ones, which was awesome.

As soon as Chamberlin ended we ran over to the main stage and waited a few minutes for Grace to start. As usual she was absolutely amazing. My feet and back were killing me from standing all day, but it was totally worth it in the end. I'll definitely be hitting up Grand Point North again next summer.

Check out videos from the day below:

Top 6 Favorite Restaurants in Burlington

This summer I've written posts about my top favorite places in Burlington as well as my favorites on Church Street. On these lists I left out some of the most important places in Burlington. What is more important than food? There are many good places even off of this list, but these are my personal favorites that I tend to frequent more than the others.

1. Sweetwaters
Sweetwaters is right on Church Street just before the intersection with Main Street. It serves American style food and its menu has many burgers, steaks, great appetizers, and, my favorite, specialty salads. I pretty much only order one thing there, which is the Chicken Gorgonzola Salad. It's incredible. Check out the menu HERE.

2. Halvorson's Upstreet Cafe
Halvorson's is on the opposite end of Church Street from Sweetwaters, just before the intersection with Pearl Street. It serves American style food such as burgers and salads. My favorite is the burrito dish. It's super cheesy and super delicious.

3. Al's French Frys
Al's is an incredible restaurant. There's nothing quite like it. They have a very basic menu, but everything is absolutely delicious. My favorite is a double cheeseburger with some fries and a chocolate milk shake. Word of advice: ALWAYS get a milk shake. Always.

4. Vermont Pub and Brewery
The Vermont Pub and Brewery is your standard pub and brewery. They make an incredible shepherd's pie, a vegetarian lasagna, meatloaf, as well as burgers, soups, and salads. Check out the menu. It's not directly on Church Street, but is close by on College Street downtown.

5. Bove's
Bove's has to be one of the best Italian restaurants around. It's sauces are sold around the country in grocery stores. The menu, like Al's, is simple and straightforward, but delicious. Plus, it's not too pricey so you don't feel to guilty running to Burlington to grab dinner rather than eating at Alliot. Not to mention you can order out, which takes about 5 minutes to get after ordering. It's located just down the street from Church Street on Pearl Street.

6. Three Tomatoes Trattoria
Three Tomatoes is one of the best italian restaurant I've come across in the area. It's a little fancier than Bove's as far as the menu goes. Most of the ingredients are from local vendors, which I always love. They make many different types of pasta as well as wood fired pizzas that are incredible.

Last Few Weeks at TP

It's been a bit since my last update. Summer is coming to an end. It's gone by so unbelievably fast. In just two weeks I will be back at school getting ready to be an Orientation Leader for the class of 2015. I will also be a senior which 100% blows my mind to think about.  

I'm looking forward to living in the townhouses and cooking my own food. It gets a little repetitive eating the same exact meals on the same exact day every week. Besides Mexican Monday that is. Mexican Monday is the very best.

After quite some time with the younger groups I was with the Teens last week, which was awesome. It was a huge group of 25, but we had a great week. This week I'm with the Pre-Teens, which is almost as good. I do miss eating guest dinners every meal with the Teens though. Delicious.

Amy and I before staff semi-formal.

Of course I've made time to enjoy the last bit of times with friends from TP. The few months of summer seem so much longer when you spend every hour with people. It'll be really hard to leave even though I'm so excited to get back to my friends at school. Not everyone is coming back next summer. TP changes from year to year so it's always hard to see it come to an end. Until then I'll be loving every karaoke night and dance party. Plus, I'm only an hour away when at school. I may make a trip or two back after I leave...

Karaoke night last week.

Some girls after karaoke at The Slab.

With Michelle and Meghan at semi-formal.

Top 6 Favorites of Church Street

In my last post I listed my 4 favorite places in Burlington. Church Street was one of them. Church Street itself is full of shops and restaurants.  This is a list of my favorite parts of Church Street.

*Restaurants aren't included...they'll be covered in my next post.*

1. Burlington Town Center 
The Burlington Town Center is the mall in downtown Burlington. It has many entrances, one located on Church Street. It has many popular retailers such as Gap, American Eagle, and, my personal obsession, Ann Taylor Loft. Other shops such as Urban Outfitters and Banana Republic are located directly on Church Street.

2. Tradewinds
One of my favorite stores to wander around is Tradewinds. They have jewelry from all over the world as well as wood carvings and metal figures. Basically there's just a lot of really cool stuff to look at. And it smells nice as well.



3. Ben & Jerry's
I am a massive fan of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I actually had to keep a count of the number of pints I ate last semester to slow myself down. (9, by the way. I ate 9 pints. Gross. But delicious.) The scoop shop is a spot I frequent regularly. I tend to lean toward getting Chocolate Therapy since it's Scoop Shop Only meaning it can't be bought as a pint. So sad. So yummy. I also really like the Berry Berry Extraordinary Sorbet. Also, while we're on the topic of Ben & Jerry's, the factory in Waterbury offers tours. Check those out on the weekends...it's only a few exits down from SMC.

4. Zinnia
Like Tradewinds I love wandering around Zinnia. They have really nice jewelry with a prices ranging from very reasonable to fairly expensive.

5. Lake Champlain Chocolates
Lake Champlain Chocolates is a Vermont company whose factory is located on Pine Street in Burlington (like B&J there are factory tours offered.) They make all kinds of different chocolates and hot chocolate. Yum.

6. Street Acts
One of the cool parts of Church Street is that it's full of street performers. On nice days it's fun to sit on a bench and listen to a guitar/violin duet or watch this guy to the left do his act. He's hilarious and around all the time.

Quick Life Update

I've been blogging a bit recently, but haven't had the chance to post any pictures or fun facts from my summer. So here it is.

With Michelle in the fort we built with
the seniors. We were so proud.

I've been living up at Tyler Place for the summer, which has been so nice since it really limits the driving I have to do. I've worked with every age group except for teens and have been back in the Playhouse with the little ones this week. The summer is absolutely flying by. I only have five weeks left, which is sad. Not too sad though since I'm pretty pumped for orientation this year! Until then I'll be loving the TP lifestyle. I'll babysit a good amount but also leave some room for fun like Thursday night Dance Parties!

Lilly, Patricia, and I at Dance Party a few weeks ago.

It was also my birthday on June 18, which was a really fun day. I was home with the family for a little while and had a Ben & Jerry's ice cream cake. Yum. Then I headed to Burlington where I spent the night with Coligny and Maria, who I'll be living with this coming year at SMC.



Keep checking in for more posts. Next Friday I'll be putting out my Top 6 Favorites of Church street, which is kind of a continuation of my last post, My Top 4 Favorite Places in Burlington.

A view of the sunset on my way home from work.