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!