This Weekend: Nature and Dancing

This weekend I went to New Hampshire with Morgan to visit Johnny. We took the bus from South Station to Concord and then he picked us up and brought us to Canterbury, his homeland. We went up on the hill in front of his house/farm and made a fuego (and when I say "we" made a fuego I actually mean Johnny and Morgan...however I did document it).

The next day, we got up, made breakfast, and drove up to Dartmouth to visit Chris Coey, who's doing a business program there for part of the summer. We found a room with a big-screen TV in the b-school and set up camp for the US-Ghana game. Sad. Very sad. Also I realize now that the reason I don't spend a lot of time watching sports is that when I do, I get way too emotionally invested in them (and jumpy when things are close). It's too much. On the bright side, there was a catered event downstairs and they thought we were in the business program, so they brought up trays of tiny cordon bleu and tiny tacos for us, so at least we got free adorable food out of it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon/evening walking around Hanover, taking pictures of ourselves (and mostly Chris) jumping in the air. We spent some good quality time on the rocking chairs in front of the Hanover Inn, and then we headed back to Canterbury. On the way back we grabbed ice cream, then settled down for a movie before bed. We watched Punch-Drunk Love, which is probably the most frustrating movie I have ever seen. I just sat there for an hour and a half waiting for something to happen...and even though stuff did happen, it didn't feel like it did. A lot of actors/directors I like have good things to say about this movie, but I don't really get it. Good things I have to say about it: it had pretty colors, and Jon Brion did the musical score.

The next day we pretty much just got up, ate breakfast, caught the first 20 minutes of the England-Germany game (SAD SAD SAD. What the eff. My two teams are out so now I'm rooting for the Netherlands) and headed to the bus station. Morgan and I befriended the guy in front of us who had two adorable little girls. He made a joke about Minnesotan accents only to find out that Morgan is from Minnesota. Ooo ya, small world don'tcha know. Then I headed back, bought some shoes, picnicked with Drew, then Cote joined, then she and I left and we bought MORE shoes! Oh mah gaga.

After that I got ready at Cote's house for AJ's grad party. He's going to be a murse, so that's exciting. Dinner was delicious, and then the dancing began. At first it was a little awkward because it was just Alice, Rachel, me, and then all of AJ's friends who obviously all knew each other, and then a bunch of Cote's parents' friends who thought it was fun to watch the young people shimmy. But once we got warmed up, PACK took over the dance floor! Things we started: A conga line, a circle dance around AJ, a Lady Gaga marathon (of 2 songs...but still), and just a whole lot of awesomeness. It was a ton of fun, especially since I haven't had a good dance party in quite a while. Marc's girlfriend said that the 4 of us looked like pixies dancing around a mother tree, which is probably the greatest thing anyone has ever said to me. And I bonded with all the Cotes. Success all around.

Anyway, now it's crazy to think that there are only 16 days till England! And before I peace out, a few of my favorite photos from the weekend:

Some nice looking sunset clouds from the bus window on our way up to NH.

Creepy view out the front windshield as we drove up Johnny's family's hill on Friday night. Gah.

Some real live New Hampshire nature on the way up to Dartmouth.

More nature, this view from the back of the business school.

Jumping! Such a fan of this picture.

PACK! (In PACK order).

And finally, a beautiful moment between Cote and me (one of many).

What I Learned at Work Today

Today, a few other Dorm Crew people and I did some freelance work. In other words, we sorted through 40 bags of trash at the Business School, separating and weighing the recyclables, compostables, reusables, and actual trash (or residuals, as they are technically called) in each bag. Officially, we were auditing the B school's waste, and we got to dress up as if we were handling hazardous waste (which, in some cases...it felt like we were).

So the first thing that comes to mind is probably "that's nasty." Can't totally argue with you there--the bag full of rotting chicken parts was especially offensive. But overall it was a really good experience. It was just fun to chill with Kathryn and Jack at our incredibly efficient waste-sorting table, but it was also really interesting to see first-hand just how much we waste. On average, each bag of trash probably consisted of 10% reusables, 30% recyclables, 30% compostables, and only 30% actual trash. Multiply that 70% of could-be reused/recycled/composted material by the 40 bags we had, and then think about the fact that this is only a very small sample of all the trash generated by one program of one school over eight weeks...and that's sad.

The thing that's tough is that actually preventing all this unnecessary waste is mostly a matter of educating everyone in the US about how to recycle/compost and why it's important. The two people we were working with from the Office of Sustainability--Colleen and Marc--were explaining that at this point, people don't totally understand how to recycle (or appreciate its importance, in some cases), so composting would be a whole other animal. When I helped man the trash stations at reunion picnics during Alpo, Harvard had to hire a person to stand at each trash station and tell people what was recyclable, what was trash, and what was compostable. So that's a lot of man power over a lot of time...but the results at those picnics were pretty impressive. By the end of each night, there were about 10 bags of trash versus 80 bags of recycling and compost.

Anyway, my point is, even though I'm probably not going to join the EAC or anything, I've gained a new appreciation for the people who run and work at waste management facilities. First off, it's a big job. Second off, it's really gross sometimes (did I mention the rotting chicken meat?). So good job, people who run and work at waste management facilities.

Oh, more things I learned today--the place we did this auditing was in a giant warehouse where they keep all of the Habitat for Humanity stuff that we collect during SCU (it's allll connected) which I'd never seen before and did not know existed. But basically...people leave a lot of stuff behind every spring. And that stuff earns about $100,000 at the Stuff Sale in the fall. Naht too shabby.

Anyway, I'm gonna get back to watching Cote play videogames (which is actually one of my favorite things to do).

Cape with the Cotes

This weekend, after 5 long weeks of SCU, I got to go on vacation with the Cotes to the Cape. They have a timeshare there, and I haven't gotten to go since...sophomore year I think, so it was nice to make my way back. The whole weekend basically consisted of us sleeping a lot and watching a bunch of movies, which was just what I needed. On Saturday we hung out at the pool for a couple hours then went to Stop & Shop to get more movies from Redbox, but that was mostly the only adventuring we did.

From when I got there on Friday night to when I left this morning, we watched Daybreakers, Where the Wild Things Are (although I fell asleep during that one), Dear John, Ninja Assassin, Legion, and the Young Victoria (fell asleep during that one too...which sucks because not only does it have my name in it, but it was also really good). Right now I'm really tired because last night's movie marathon was 4 movies long and lasted till 4am, and then we had to get up at 8am to leave the apartment by 10. So Iiii'm a little sleepy. But overall, really fun weekend. I caught up on my movie-watching, saw a lot of blood and guts (especially in Daybreakers and Ninja Assassin...ew), improved my tan, slept in the same bed as Cote, drank a lot of chocolate Silk, watched the World Cup, and bonded with all the Cotes in general. Here's a picture of Cote and me on her back porch, lookin' nice and awk (at least I am). But we're friends and we love each other, and that's what makes all the difference:

Now that I'm back, I realize that 1) I'm really tired. Did I mention that? Because I am. and 2) only 24 days till England! That was fast. So in a month I'll be seeing my Bobba (who I haven't seen in 6 years) and my aunt, uncle and cousins (who I haven't seen in 10 years). It's been a while to say the least, but I have a feeling things will fall into a comfortable place pretty quickly. Also, I get to see the Leveques! It's only been a little over a year since I've seen them, mais ils me manquent grave.

Alrighty, time for a nap, then a trip to Harvard, then Rachel's cookout, then hopefully some trivia at Uno's! Summer is finally here. I can't wait to delve into a world of crafts.