Monday, November 23, 2009

A Warm November

I feel like this year has blown by! This November seems extremely mild weather wise! I don't remember the last time I ran around in shorts and a tank top in November in a 4 season climate!

I also feel like the flu season has hit harder this year though, oddly enough. I don't know if it's due to the H1N1 freak out or what. Even in Idaho, it seems rougher from what I hear. Also, me working at a daycare, I see how much it happens, and yes it finally hit me this past weekend, teach me for not getting a flu shot.

The trimester just ended and hopefully I only have two left until I am done! My classes went pretty smoothly and I'm feeling confident with things, a couple of my finals were tough but I think I will make it! This upcoming trimester should be interesting with most of my classes happening late afternoon/night, I typically have too much ADD around this time to concentrate, so I will see about focusing better haha!

Work is going great, I'm still loving it! I've been working with toddlers a lot more and I'm also a floater but I am still in charge of coming up with the activity curriculum and taking care of the paperwork for school age. Working with toddlers is pure mayhem at times but I still love it! Having up to 18 of them and 3 of us adds to the fun definitely. I think one of my most memorable days at work is when I had the worst diaper blowout ever, a 4 year old with a fever of 104, another sick 4 year old who vomited all across the room in route to the bathroom while I had to make sure my 12 other 3 & 4 years did not get in the mess during clean up, and being bitten by a toddler who was frustrated with me for not letting him attack another toddler. Toddlers are definitely one of my favorite age groups which is kind of surprising to me.

My brother came out on a day's notice for a short 4 day trip and we had a blast tearing up the sites. I took him to Newport to see the beaches and Purgatory Chasm as well as Ocean Drive and we toured the Breakers Mansion, holy cow what an awesome home, I cannot believe that they only used it for a summer residence! We went to Hilltop Steakhouse and had some yummy steak and ribs. I took him to Thayer Street and had him experience bubble tea, we went to Prospect Park and did some night photography of the statehouse. He ran off to Ikea (almost an hour away) while I was working, haha he doesn't like the driving out here, he tells me that RI/MA drivers are horrific. I said yep, we live up to our name of being the worst drivers in the country. I also dragged him along to babysit a 3 month old baby with me and I almost forgot how much joy kids bring to my brother, I haven't seen him smile like that in ages (well it'd help if I saw him more too haha). Of course, he flew into Boston, and he flew out of Boston at the crack of dawn so I got to drive him to the airport at 2:30 in the morning when I had a final at 7:10am. Haha, yeah I didn't make it to class on time but had a forgiving professor who let me make it up, thankfully!

Church and Bible studies are still going great! I've been journeying through the book of Psalms and wow, what an awesome book that is! However, any book I journey through is awesome! I'm seeing more and more the importance of spending time with God on a regular, daily basis. Reading the Bible and praying daily is spiritual food and your body needs it just as much as physical food!

Monday, October 5, 2009

A Happy Medium

Wow, its October already, it feels like it was just January yesterday! I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by, it is amazing how fast time flies as you get older.

School is going great. I'm loving my classes this trimester! I got smart and let go of my work study job so I'd only have my daycare job and school which is a good schedule for me! I'm happy I'm not heaping my plate of life too high these days haha.

I'm loving work, it is one of my favorite jobs ever! Never thought I'd enjoy working with kids so much. Seems like God gave me some kind of gift with them, I just got to figure out how to use that. I typically work with school age kids in the afternoons but sometimes I bounce around classrooms and help out. I love the waddler/toddler age even though the group at my center is a rough and rowdy bunch! Holy cow, never thought I'd see three toddlers war it out with each other and throw each other down on the playground like that.

Summaries of some of my weekends since my last blog posting.............

One weekend....
I went to a BBQ in New Hampshire that was a Soulfest Reunion, it was a great time seeing old friends again! On Sunday, I went to a music festival with a chili competition mixed into it that was fun times and I also did some sightseeing in Massachusetts. I'm beginning to learn how many different things Massachusetts has that I didn't know about!

Another weekend....
I volunteered at a Skillet/Hawk Nelson concert with some other Soulfest buddies and of course it rained that night haha, because it always has to rain when we get together!

Another weekend....
I went to Springfield, Massachusetts to go to the Big E fair with a bunch of friends. It was an awesome fair that represented all 6 states of the New England Region. My favorite part of it was States Row, which had buildings representing each of the six states and each building was owned by that state so you could travel to six states in a matter of minutes! Inside each building were exhibits that were hosted by companies that we headquartered in that state or things that state was known for.

Another weekend....
My cousin and his wife came into town and I got to hang out with them! We went to dinner together one night and then on Sunday I dropped them off and picked them up at a Patriots' game and topped it off with dinner and hanging out afterwards.

Another weekend....
I went to a Newsboys concert in Massachusetts on a Friday night and helped out there (twas another rainy day hanging out with my Soulfest buddies haha). On Saturday, I went to a Voice of the Martyrs conference in Connecticut with a couple of friends which had some awesome speakers. On Sunday, I had church and a goodbye party for some dear friends that are moving an hour or so away because of a job promotion. On Monday (twas Columbus day) I hung out with Peter and went to an art festival in Scituate, RI.

I guess I like to pack it in, I seem to always be busy running around and seeing new things. I love exploring! I put something like 2000 miles or more on my car this past September. One wonderful thing about New England is the fall foliage, so many amazing bright beautiful colors makes a good bang before old man winter settles in!

Monday, September 7, 2009

A New Start

The Lord has blessed me and I praise Him for all the storms we go through together, as I know the rainbow at the end of each storm will be glorious making each storm worthwhile despite the trials and tribulations it may have brought.

I just started a new job and the wait was so worth it! A friend of mine hooked me up with it and I love it! It has a great schedule, a good amount of hours, and it is something I love doing! I work at a daycare center in the school age classroom. I monitor children aged 5-12 and other age groups from time to time such as preschool and pre-K. I get to help them with homework and do activities with them. A majority of the children are inner city kids thus being very tough and coming from all walks of life. The people I work with are great as well and work can actually be fun sometimes!

School starts Tuesday September 8th! I'm trying my best to figure out all my classes and graduate a year early (this year yay!). I'm declaring a concentration in Entrepreneurship and a second one in Food & Beverage Management. A concentration is kind of like a minor or a specialized focus on an area thus making my school's degree programs more versatile. My classes that I am taking are Microeconomics, Business Plan, Dining Room Management, and Dynamics of Tourism.

I am still going to my Thursday night Bible study and we just started a focus on growing your faith in Christ. Church is going great as well, we just wrapped up an intensive and complete study on 1 Corinthians.

I also had the fine opportunity of camping in a tropical storm which can make camping very amusing from building a tarp structure over your tent using random stick poles and having to find shelter somewhere to make dinner. It poured the whole night!

I am excited for this upcoming weekend! There is going to be a volunteer reunion bbq in New Hampshire for the group of volunteers from Soulfest so I will get to see some good friends again! Praying for good weather, although no Soulfest event would be complete without rain I suppose haha.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Oops Where Did July Go?

Uh-oh, August is almost gone already too! Where did the time go!?

I left off with end of June and now it is almost end of August! I've been applying to jobs like crazy all summer with random interviews and random things thrown in there! It's been crazy!

4th of July was great time hanging with friends, followed up by an amazing 45min long firework display in some hick town in Connecticut! To help with the no job scene I began pouring my time into the Rescue Mission and Parrot Sanctuary. The Parrot Sanctuary located about 40 min away from my house is a refuge for abandoned parrot types of birds and other funky animals such as porcupines, wallabies, rabbits, tortoises, frogs, geese, chickens, ducks, and others. I usually help with the food/water changing of dishes and reloading and cleaning cages.

July ended with my time at Soulfest which was wonderful! Soulfest is a 4 day festival jam packed with Christian music and booths of Christian ministries along with some Christian colleges. I went up on July 22nd to help with pre-festival for a week then the actual festival was July 29th to August 1st. It is located at a ski resort in New Hampshire, absolutely gorgeous up there! All the volunteers camped out on one of the ski slopes (volunteer hill!) and this made quite the adventure as it rained a vast majority of the time and a lot of people's tents got flooded or a mini river would form and shoot under tents! During setup, volunteers would report to breakfast at 7:30am and get their assignment(s) for the day. I usually bounced everywhere from kitchen duty, hauling stuff around, setting up artist reception areas, stapling drapes to the ceiling (oh fun times!), put up fence sections, digging trenches, running data cable, hanging up signs, and so many things! Our days usually ended with dinner at 6 and then sometimes I would help clean up the kitchen. We also had about 3-5 stages to build of various sizes that other volunteers helped build.

Overall, it was just intense and a lot of fun! During the festival, I was a runner meaning if an artist needed to be picked up or their driver or if they needed something, I'd get called to do it. It was kind of entertaining to do this!

Some of the artists/groups singing at Soulfest were Casting Crowns, Newsboys, Skillet, Third Day, Sanctus Reel, Thousand Foot Crutch, Phil Wickam and the list goes on! I also met this wonderful guy who was also volunteering up at Soulfest, his name is Peter and we have been dating for almost a month now. He is studying film and production type stuff in Massachusetts and is in his last year at college. He loves photography as well and takes gobs of pictures everywhere we go.

In August, I went camping up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It was great being in the mountains again and almost felt like being in the mountains of Idaho, even though I think Idaho's mountains are bigger. It cracked me up to see a site labeled "Boise Rock" which was this boulder the size of 2 living rooms that a man named Thomas Boise used for shelter in a horrible winter storm.

School begins again in September and so does my work study job! Happy to see though that end of my summer hasn't been as bad as the beginning of it, haha!

Monday, June 29, 2009

A Month Later

Wow, a month of summer already gone! Where did it go?

I've been applying for jobs like crazy. I got accepted for one selling Nissans for a good dealership and went through training with them. I realized though that this job was not a good fit for me when I figured out that I would be working 50-80 hours a week and not necessarily make a lot of money. They also sent me home until July 1st (2 weeks time) because I went to Denver for a weekend. Needless to say I won't be returning back to that job.

I've applied to 50+ jobs and started taking different approaches to working because so many people are applying for jobs that you just have to have an edge and do things differently. I have a small pet sitting job taking care of 3 cats and cleaning their litter box. It pays the food bill and its a start. I'm also starting to work with temp agencies and posting to do various odd jobs. It has been an interesting process!

I went to Denver for 6 days and it was great! I had a fun time with my family and it was wonderful to see them. My brother had his portfolio to display where he came up with a restaurant concept and had food to sample to future employers who came to check him and his fellow classmates out. Afterwards, he graduated, I bet he is relieved to be done with school! Then the family headed up to the mountains along with Grandpa Jim and Jennifer. We stayed in a nice cabin for a few days and visited Estes Park. I also got to see a Connecticut friend of mine that is working in Estes Park for the summer.

This past weekend, my friend got married and it was a beautiful wedding. The rain was vicious though as we were in a national park and under a shelter. It being a low budget wedding (you could never tell though!), I happily stayed to help clean up. We had a good joke going when there was a lightening storm happening in the distance and us taking apart a metal event tent that was the size of a carport. After we had everything all packed up, it started raining buckets, it probably was some of the worst rain I've ever seen!

Church has been going wonderful, I know God is there for me even though this summer has been a really rough one, but I'm starting to understand that every summer I've had usually are rough haha. But on the bright side it is really making me put more trust and faith in God which is something I definitely need to do. He is amazing, unchanging and will never let you down!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Where Do I Start!?!

Boy, it has been crazy around here!

I recently moved into my new apartment and am loving it! It is definitely the best place I've lived in Rhode Island thus far! Thank you so much Mom for helping us clean, pack, and move! Thanks also to the wonderful people that helped us move on moving day! Maybe I'll get some pictures up so you can see what it looks like ;)

I loved having my mom here and definitely am missing her! We went all over the place! We went to the casino where I had my internship, to Mystic (Connecticut) and a bunch of random places in Massachusetts! We made sure to also go to the beach one day and it was so peaceful with no one there to walk along the beach and talk to each other. I enjoyed the time spent with my mom so much, every moment is to be cherished since time is short!

Knowing full well how I love to cram as many things as I can into my life, as soon as I dropped off my mom at the airport, I drove off to Connecticut with Melissa to meet up with a few other people then the 5 of us hit the road! We headed to Kentucky to see the Creation Museum! Wow! What an amazing place! I highly recommend it! The website just does not give it enough justice. I went to workshops, planetarium shows, interactive shows, beautiful gardens, and an amazing 2-3 hour tour! It was about a 14ish hour drive from Connecticut with another 45 min to my apartment which isn't too terrible when you have a minivan and 5 people that all got along well! I can mark some more states off my list since we drove through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky! By the way, Pennsylvania is a never ending state that just goes on and on for hours!

My summer job plans have fallen through and I'm seeking a new job, trusting in God that He will provide at the right moment, I just got to have patience! Well, I better get back to unpacking and cleaning up my new place to make it like home! By the way I do have a new address, so if you need it, please let me know! Thanks!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Patience!

This year has flown by! I cannot believe that I have lived in an apartment for almost a year already! Time to pack up and start new again in a new place!

Well these past couple of weeks, there has been a song ringing in my head, the song Blessed Be Your Name by Matt Redman. There is a lyric, "you give and take away, my heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name!" It has been a confusing and changing time for me and some things are finally starting to make sense. But most importantly I know I need to be patient.

The Lord blessed me with an apartment only to take it away the next day, I was frusterated initially but knew much prayer had gone into it and that God had better plans for me! I think He more definitely did as the place that I'm currently working out the paperwork for is much better than I could ever imagine! This is one key example as well as a few other things that happened to me in the past couple of weeks.

Work has been going well for me, I'm enjoying it a lot and do not want it to end. I'm anxiously awaiting to hear news about my possible summer job that I may get and praying for the Lord's guidance on it. I recently did volunteered at an activity day called Read, Romp and Play. It brought 10 different children's storybooks to life using arts and crafts. It was an awesome free event and it made me miss my own family very much! It also made me take a trip down memory lane back when my mom was teaching me how to read!

I've been busy trying to wrap things up with school! I managed to get pretty sick right before the swine flu came in, so I think I got pretty lucky on that! My school actually was shut down a few days because they thought 3 students had gotten swine flu so that was somewhat humorous.

Church and Bible studies have been going great, we are almost ready to wrap up the study on Crazy Love and I highly recommend it! It has really changed me and my perspective on life and has helped me to start falling in love with God more and more! I also know how much some of my friends care about me and I know I have some Christian mentors and role models to help me grow in my spiritual journey and I praise God for that!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

20 Years and Counting

Well, it has been awhile since I last posted but I think I have a knack for making my 24 hour day consist of too many things!

So, I finally figured out an easy schedule for me! I think so anyhow haha. On Mondays/Wednesdays, I work about 3 hours at an elementary school tutoring 5th graders in general math skills. I love it and love working with the kids and see how they progress over time with their skills. On Tuesdays/Thursdays I assist a teacher in an after school program at a charter school. I usually work with the kindergartners and I love little kids! They totally crack me up and I love how some of them are absolute love bugs and do not want to stop hanging on you or wanting a hug or your attention. I was trying to figure out at what age do they usually begin to not be so lovey dovey and I think that is 2nd grade? On Fridays I work at a elementary school tutoring 4th graders in reading and 5th graders in math (it is the same school as Mondays/Wednesdays).

School is going okay for me. I have statistics which I have a good professor who helps break it down so its easier to understand. I have finance with one of the strictest professors and that class is definitely challenging me. I enjoy my marketing class because I learn funny quirks about the industry. Like did you know supposedly that rounder numbers such as 8,6,9 are more friendlier and people are more apt to purchase something that ends in those numbers because apparently numbers like 1 and 7 can be really spiky and a big no no!? Haha what a load of hooey, my professor is really funny in marketing and makes things easy to understand which is great. My other class, cost control, is going okay, my professor does not really seem to care though so it can make those class times really boring.

I just passed another CLEP test, this one was US History I and jeez do they ask a lot of random questions! I barely passed it but I was lucky! My next one is May 1st and it is psychology. I have high hopes and plans to graduate next year however I am struggling with my school to let me take a certain class even though I do not meet credit requirements just yet. I also plan on taking an online course at a community college in Connecticut this summer (for a class I know I would not be able to test out of haha) and I will be trying to test out of Spanish then I should be done with my testing out of classes, yay!

I had a great 20th birthday, thanks everyone for the cards and presents. Melissa and a good friend of ours went to Dave and Busters for my birthday. I had lots of fun and I am happy to have some good close friends! I am very excited about the new Bible my parents got me, it will be an excellent tool for me!

The apartment hunt is going strong, I have my roommate figured out this year, I just got to find a good place now to live! I think I have found a place, just waiting for the lady to call me back so I've been praying about that and if that is where God wants me to be.

What other random stuff have I been up to? Bible studies are going good and strong. I've been making more new friends there which is awesome for me. I went to an American Cancer Society Dinner which was entertaining especially since I sat at a table full of stuck up old money people who turned their nose at me (haha sorry if that's you!). A work retreat with a photo scavenger hunt of the local small town, my group and I got busted because we used my car to get to some of the really far out places but we had lots of fun doing that! Went to Newport with some friends and also to Colt State Park which is a beautiful park that follows the ocean line with a rocky beach! Great place to fly a kite, just don't get them stuck in a tree! My work advisor told me that a kite stuck in a tree is hope that is lost haha! Or how about volunteering at a church's Easter Extravaganza and helping to hide 3000-4000 eggs! Yeah!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention! I went to West Point, New York to a Third Day, Brandon Heath concert! I went alone (crazy I know), it was only a 3-4 hour drive depending on which way you take. I loved the drive though, it was so beautiful and there is a lot of beauty in that section of New York. I ended up sitting next to some wonderful ladies who attend a Calvary Chapel in New Jersey and they invited me to come see them sometime.

Yes, I know I live a crazy life, oh well, gotta love it!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Changes

Well, today I believe this blog post will be a more personal close to heart one. After some searching and struggling with finding a proper church home, I believe God was testing me in where my faith lies. I think He is possibly setting me up for something and I am unsure of what and I am content with that, I just want to be where He wants me to be.

I had sent an email with a lot of my church confusions and frustrations to a dear friend and pastor who helped me realize some things and helped me see some things. I had understood and taken things the wrong way. A church is an important unit that is composed of many important parts to make it the unit that it is. This church is the church that helped me set up my Rhode Island roots, and yes even though it is going through some changes, I think it may be where I belong, even though I may not totally see eye to eye with it at the moment. I know that church got me through some really rough times for me and it was there for me. It is my Rhode Island foundation and it should be my ultimate Rhode Island "home" with all its loving supporting families and members.

I apologize for any thing I may have said to anyone that was offensive or confusing. Thank you to everyone at that church who patiently waited and lovingly prayed for me to figure this all out within myself. For my family and friends not near me, thank you for all your advice and patience as I went through this time.

For anyone that is not with God daily, I will pray for you to have a desire to seek Him more as I am praying for myself to have that desire. I realize after not reading my Bible daily and praying to God daily and talking to Him on a regular constant basis for about 2 weeks, I see the darkness in my life. I see how easily Satan tries to get a foothold in my life to discourage me and distract me from the ultimate goal of loving God and glorifying His name. God will be there for you, through every valley and mountain peak. I am not perfect and I still have my faults but that is okay, Jesus is there for me and He loves each and every one of us completely and entirely with body, soul, and mind. So my next goal is to work on falling completely and madly in love with the God that made this wonderful universe, because He will never leave me nor forsake me.

God definitely has been knocking on my door this past week, be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him! (Psalm 37:7)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Spring Break & Start of Being a Junior

Spring break came and went. The snow fell and went again. Haha, yes the start of my spring break came with a foot of snow! It is more like freeze your butt off break! Once the snow mellowed out, I ventured out of the apartment.

I hung out with one of my friends a lot and one highlight was that we went to the park together and had a picnic in the snow! Never had a picnic before in the snow! After the picnic, we flew a spider man kite and got it up pretty high! There were people sledding in the park and it was funny as they all stopped to watch spider man fly around, probably thinking those morons have the wrong season for flying a kite. Oh well, it was fun!

Spring break was relaxing and it was kind of weird to not really have to do anything for a week. The next trimester of school started last Tuesday and it is my first trimester as a junior! I think if I get my stuff together, I should be able to graduate next year!

I have four classes that I am taking this trimester. They are Hospitality Strategic Marketing, Statistics, Cost Control (there is a fancy name for this class but I forgot it haha), and Hospitality Managerial Finance. Marketing is going to be interesting as we learn the ins and outs of marketing and also have to do a marketing business plan for a company we create. Cost control is about controlling the costs of restaurants primarily. I get to do a term project about analyzing a restaurant. And the finance class is about taking what we learned in accounting and applying it to our personal and business life.

I also am CLEP testing out of three classes-sociology, US History I, psychology. I took my first test last Friday for sociology and I passed it! Yay! So for about $115 bucks I saved myself the time it takes to go to a sociology class for a whole trimester as well as about $1,000 or so dollars, if not more.

I have been doing 2 Bible studies and I think I finally found a church. One Bible study is about finding time to spend with God with a really busy life. We are reading a book for it and use a teleconference format. It is unique but allows us a lot of flexibility! The book is "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World." The other Bible study is based on a book by Francis Chan called "Crazy Love" and that is about being crazy in loved with God! Both studies are amazing and from what I have read out of the books, I would definitely recommend them.

Other than that, not too much has been going for me other than hanging out with friends and studying for classes/tests. My work study job should start up again soon in the next couple of weeks. Plus, I think I have been battling a cold that may be a sinus infection/ear infection since all that happy garbage has been floating around the atmosphere. With all these people in one place and with the weather being 60 degrees one day and snowing the next, our bodies are like ughh what is going on! I cannot believe that March is almost halfway over! Where has the time gone?!

Friday, February 27, 2009

When One Door Closes Another Opens

I have no idea where to start. I have not written in a really long time and I'm sorry. Life has been crazy busy and it has been a really interesting couple of months for me lately. I've been doing a lot of soul searching within myself trying to figure out who I am. I know a lot of people may think that is a bag of junk but I really am. I am working on strengthening my relationship with Jesus Christ and growing closer to Him!

I just finished my internship. It was an amazing experience. I think I will go back there to work this summer and I'm really excited. I had a hard time leaving there and everyone I had been working with declared they were sad to see me go and hoped I would come back soon! I spent the last month of my internship being a housekeeping supervisor and I had really started to connect with a lot of people there. Although it can be rough being a supervisor sometimes with dealing with cranky guests and rude guest room attendants, there is some bright days to it as well.

After putting over 10,000 miles on my car within a 6 month period, you can surely guess that I am always on the go and always up to something! I am so happy God blessed me with a car out here.

I'm in the midst of my spring break and have made a resolution to take a chill pill for the last three months of this 2008-2009 school year (amazing I know). I will be a junior this March and I am excited for that. I am going to keep my work study job and work about 10-15 hours a week with it. However, this may sound crazy, I am also working on testing out of three general education classes because testing out is a less expensive method and will save me about $6K in the long run if I succeed. I have resolved to pinch pennies and not get another job in order to relax, focus on school, enjoy life, and grow closer to God.

I have discovered some changes within myself lately and this has brought me to change churches. It is a huge thing I know and many question me why I am doing it. I appreciate prayers and concerns for me from those of you that are reading this and may be attending my old church in RI. I guess this is just part of something I need to do to discover who I am and everything.

I guess for lack of better words, I've been growing and experiencing various forms of growing pains. I have been very fortunate to have God bless me with some very loving, Christian women out here to help support me and guide me in the direction I need to go. I also am very appreciate of all the help and support my family has given me while I've been figuring things out with myself.

As for my spring break plans, I'm studying for my first test for sociology that I am testing out of, trying out new churches, relaxing, and possibly hitting up New York for a day with a good friend of mine. I will write again soon!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Time Flies Fast!

Wow! Where did the time go?

Ok, so yes it has been over a month since I've last updated my blog. That just tells you how much trouble I've been getting into haha, just kidding!

I really do not even know where to begin! I just realized that I basically left off on the first week of December. I started my internship and had 2 days of orientation. I loved orientation because it made me realize how much the company cares about their employees and how much the company cares about the tribe's history (I work on an indian reservation). After orientation, I spent about a week being a hostess for 2 different restaurants as well as shadowing some restaurant managers. I loved doing that and am thinking/praying about adding on an associates in food and beverage management. After that week, I spent about a week working in the kitchen for 2 different restaurants. I think the day that I had the most fun or that was the most interesting was when I helped make 500 strombolis which are like calzones but different shaped.

Then we had a huge snow storm hit Providence dumping about a foot and a half of snow within 2 days. I had struggles getting my car into my driveway to my parking lot since I live on a hill and my driveway is a hill as well. I parked somewhere else and spent 2 hours digging my car out to get it into my parking lot. It was an interesting day to say the least. I flew to Idaho the next day in a clear weather window somehow. I was fortunate to pick a Sunday to fly because all flights had been cancelled the prior 2 days. Melissa flew with me to Idaho and we had a great time.

We got to see family and friends and hit up some sites in Boise and get some relaxation in. Melissa and I headed up to Hagerman, Idaho and went to a hot springs site and rented a private pool for a while with the rest of my family. My aunt's family was up from California and I was happy to get to see everybody again.

I headed back to Providence on New Year's Day and came back home to snow again! The day afterwards, a group of about 9 of us headed up to New Hampshire to take advantage of a ski special. For $36 you can get lift ticket, ski rental, ski instructor tips and tubing from 3pm to 10pm. Skiing can be quite brutal and I gave it a shot but I realized I could mess up my back really bad so I had to say no after my 5th fall. I still had a lot of fun though.

I just completed the housekeeping portion of my internship. It was 2 weeks long and I really enjoyed myself. I spent the first day shadowing shift managers and the director and attending various meetings of supervisors, guest room attendants and housemen. I also shadowed a houseman for a while as well as a runner. A houseman is in charge of 2 floors usually and in charge of keeping the hallways clean with the windows, vents, vacuuming, collecting linens from guest room attendants and all sorts of fun stuff like that. A runner is responsible for delivering things to guest rooms when guests request it such as a bath robe, a refrigerator, a microwave, etc.

On the 2nd and 3rd day, I was trained on how to be a guest room attendant. So I mastered how to make a bed hotel style and was capable of cleaning my own room. It was really interesting to see what all guest room attendants do to clean a room. After I did that for 2 days, I shadowed a floor supervisor for 3 days. A floor supervisor is responsible for 2-3 floors and has to inspect every room to make sure that the guest room attendants are doing their job properly and that the room is ready for new guests to arrive. I worked with this supervisor, Holly, who was really nice and apparently is one of the best. She has the higer floors with the supersuites and hopsitality suites so I was fortunate to get to see all the different types of rooms as well as get to learn how to inspect those rooms. After I shadowed and worked with Holly for 3 days, I got to be my own floor supervisor for about 4 days. I really enjoyed it! I forgot to mention that the hotel has about 36 floors and 1200 rooms.

On the weekends between all that I hung out with friends playing games and having movie nights. One of my good friends headed back to college in South Carolina as well so it has been weird to not have them with us. I also have managed to get snowed in twice now at a friend's house which has been quite funny. I cannot believe how much snow we have gotten this winter!

My next portion of internship is front desk so it should be interesting and I cannot wait to start another portion. It has been an exciting time trying out all these different areas. I'm off to go make lunch and run some errands! I hope everyone had a great weekend!