My Summer So Far
Hi Friends!
It’s been a hot sec, but I figured I’d follow Tama’s lead and include a little summer update.
Seattle
After coming back to Boston after Nationals and prepping my new house for subletters, I flew not to SFO but to Seattle to visit Emma for a few days! I thought I liked Seattle, but coming as an independent person who has now seen a fair number of cities, this trip really confirmed that I love the city! Also the west coast in general. I can’t really explain it but even though Seattle itself isn’t home, the moment that I stepped out of the airport I could feel that I was back home. I don’t know if it was the Pacific Ocean or the trees or the dry air, but I felt so much contentment and relief I didn’t know I was missing just sitting outside at the light rail station.
But we already know I’m a West Coaster through and through, so enough with that. I spent my days in Seattle walking around, taking in as much of the city as I could. Kind of like the East Bay, Seattle is one giant hill with downtown and the ocean at the bottom and neighborhoods the increase their bouginess as the elevation increases. Seattle U is almost at the top of the hill in a neighborhood called Capitol Hill, which is essentially the Seattle Castro. It was Pride Month, and although I didn’t go to any events, it was fun to revel in the plethora of rainbows. I think that through my walking while Emma was in class I explored essentially every neighborhood Seattle has to offer, unwisely often covering miles and miles in my flip flops or Vans. Some favorite stops were seeing Andy at UW and the downtown Seattle Public Library. Seattle U’s campus was also surprisingly beautiful.
I also spent time with Emma, who graciously took time out of her dead week to spend time with me. We ate lots of good food, did some exploring, and met some of her friends. I even watched an episode of the Bachelorette! It was fun with a group, but I have not stayed caught up with the season on my own… A favorite thing with Emma was taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, a super wealthy island thing across the sound from Seattle, and having a picnic dinner on the water.
Home Home
After a few days with Emma, I flew back to the Bay for a week. This was a weird time because although the Bay is home, my house is under construction so I stayed with my mom in a rental for the week. We visited our house, but when I was there it was just the shell of the house I knew, with my room being completely bare.
Still, I did enjoy being home. My mom always treats me to lots of good food, both homemade and from restaurants, when I come home now. I also enjoyed spending time with Lulu and the Bay Area weather. However aside from seeing a few home friends and even some school friends, the week was uneventful and I was ready to leave when it came to an end. I think being from the Bay is both a blessing and a curse because while I believe that the East Bay is one of the best places to grow up and I am grateful for that experience, now that I’ve spent time changing and growing away from the Bay I often feel that I have too much geographically tied to home and that I take a few steps backwards whenever I am there. While home I took a day trip to Yosemite to visit my old roommate and also the Valley, and there too I felt the curse of calling somewhere home for a time. Yosemite used to be a place reserved for special occasions a few times a year, but after working there last summer the magic was different. Instead of being awed by the park, my time there felt just like any other day off I would’ve had last summer. Being back in the Valley still felt like coming back home, but the home it became for me last summer instead of the home it had been throughout my childhood. I think I need to go back in the snow.
Hanover
After a red eye flight to Philly, a layover, a flight to Boston, and a bus to Hanover, NH, I moved into my apartment here in the Upper Valley! I live in a pretty nice house, and have one roommate who has changed every month. I won’t bug y’all with the details, but housing has been just a little stressful this summer… but that’s life! Hanover is nice and pretty, but also a little fancy for me (however I am thankful for the fancy public library).
Why am I in the middle of nowhere NH, you may be wondering? Well, the bulk of my time here is spent working at the Montshire Museum of Science, a science museum that I refer to as a mini Lawrence Hall of Science, and I love it there! My technical job title is an “Explainer”, however on day one my boss informed us that this is a terribly inaccurate name for what I do, because if I’m doing any explaining, I’m probably doing my job wrong. Five other Explainers and I, ranging from just finished freshmen year of college to high school teacher thinking about other kinds of education, work with the education department at the museum and deal with all of the visitor interactions that happen at there. The main form of this is leading activities every hour, some of mine being color mixing, owl pellet dissection, and cork boat construction for example, however we also work on the floor helping enhance visitor interactions with exhibits and deal with the occasional visiting summer camp group. Being on the floor and super informally trying to help visitors learn is definitely the hardest for all of us, but even in the 3 weeks I’ve been working I think I’ve gotten better at it. Additionally, every few weeks we come together after work to participate in a sort of lecture series meant to further enhance our understanding of informal science education and the different paths we could take after this summer, which I think is really cool.
The museum also uses all of us summer interns for a bunch of other fun (?) duties that no one else wants to do. Once a week I come into work early to clean the outdoor water park exhibit space and part of our time on the floor is spent resetting exhibits, dealing with visitor problems, and cleaning up. This part feels eerily similar to my work in the Village Store… Some of these jobs are fun though! We all get to give the Leafcutter Ants leaves and I just got trained to feed the Painted Turtles and the baby Snapping Turtles. And just last week I got thrown a total curveball and was asked to sub in for a camp counselor who had sprained his ankle. This was so hard and so different from my work inside the museum (less teaching, far more discipline). Apparently the group of 8-10 year olds I got were especially difficult, so I’m pretty glad that next week I go back to my normal duties, definitely with a new appreciation for what I get to do.
Outside of work, I don’t do much here, which sometimes I worry about but also a relaxing and uneventful summer has to be good for me after the exhausting time that was sophomore year. I’ve gotten on a very early to bed early to rise schedule, which I love! I run everyday before work, shower and throw on my “teacher” clothes, then bike the mile to the museum. After work I tend to relax, eat dinner, and read. Sometimes I do a nonrunning workout, like frisbee sprints, lifting, or a bike ride.I often feel like all I do here is work, exercise, eat, and read, and I’m kind of okay with that. I’ve started playing frisbee once or twice a week with the Dartmouth team which has been fun and adds a nice social aspect to my summer outside of my wonderful coworkers.
So yeah! I am quite content here in NH. I sometimes miss my school and home friends, but books and running and nature and work that I love have kept me happy enough so far. :)
It’s been a hot sec, but I figured I’d follow Tama’s lead and include a little summer update.
Seattle
After coming back to Boston after Nationals and prepping my new house for subletters, I flew not to SFO but to Seattle to visit Emma for a few days! I thought I liked Seattle, but coming as an independent person who has now seen a fair number of cities, this trip really confirmed that I love the city! Also the west coast in general. I can’t really explain it but even though Seattle itself isn’t home, the moment that I stepped out of the airport I could feel that I was back home. I don’t know if it was the Pacific Ocean or the trees or the dry air, but I felt so much contentment and relief I didn’t know I was missing just sitting outside at the light rail station.
But we already know I’m a West Coaster through and through, so enough with that. I spent my days in Seattle walking around, taking in as much of the city as I could. Kind of like the East Bay, Seattle is one giant hill with downtown and the ocean at the bottom and neighborhoods the increase their bouginess as the elevation increases. Seattle U is almost at the top of the hill in a neighborhood called Capitol Hill, which is essentially the Seattle Castro. It was Pride Month, and although I didn’t go to any events, it was fun to revel in the plethora of rainbows. I think that through my walking while Emma was in class I explored essentially every neighborhood Seattle has to offer, unwisely often covering miles and miles in my flip flops or Vans. Some favorite stops were seeing Andy at UW and the downtown Seattle Public Library. Seattle U’s campus was also surprisingly beautiful.
I also spent time with Emma, who graciously took time out of her dead week to spend time with me. We ate lots of good food, did some exploring, and met some of her friends. I even watched an episode of the Bachelorette! It was fun with a group, but I have not stayed caught up with the season on my own… A favorite thing with Emma was taking the ferry to Bainbridge Island, a super wealthy island thing across the sound from Seattle, and having a picnic dinner on the water.
Home Home
After a few days with Emma, I flew back to the Bay for a week. This was a weird time because although the Bay is home, my house is under construction so I stayed with my mom in a rental for the week. We visited our house, but when I was there it was just the shell of the house I knew, with my room being completely bare.
Still, I did enjoy being home. My mom always treats me to lots of good food, both homemade and from restaurants, when I come home now. I also enjoyed spending time with Lulu and the Bay Area weather. However aside from seeing a few home friends and even some school friends, the week was uneventful and I was ready to leave when it came to an end. I think being from the Bay is both a blessing and a curse because while I believe that the East Bay is one of the best places to grow up and I am grateful for that experience, now that I’ve spent time changing and growing away from the Bay I often feel that I have too much geographically tied to home and that I take a few steps backwards whenever I am there. While home I took a day trip to Yosemite to visit my old roommate and also the Valley, and there too I felt the curse of calling somewhere home for a time. Yosemite used to be a place reserved for special occasions a few times a year, but after working there last summer the magic was different. Instead of being awed by the park, my time there felt just like any other day off I would’ve had last summer. Being back in the Valley still felt like coming back home, but the home it became for me last summer instead of the home it had been throughout my childhood. I think I need to go back in the snow.
Hanover
After a red eye flight to Philly, a layover, a flight to Boston, and a bus to Hanover, NH, I moved into my apartment here in the Upper Valley! I live in a pretty nice house, and have one roommate who has changed every month. I won’t bug y’all with the details, but housing has been just a little stressful this summer… but that’s life! Hanover is nice and pretty, but also a little fancy for me (however I am thankful for the fancy public library).
Why am I in the middle of nowhere NH, you may be wondering? Well, the bulk of my time here is spent working at the Montshire Museum of Science, a science museum that I refer to as a mini Lawrence Hall of Science, and I love it there! My technical job title is an “Explainer”, however on day one my boss informed us that this is a terribly inaccurate name for what I do, because if I’m doing any explaining, I’m probably doing my job wrong. Five other Explainers and I, ranging from just finished freshmen year of college to high school teacher thinking about other kinds of education, work with the education department at the museum and deal with all of the visitor interactions that happen at there. The main form of this is leading activities every hour, some of mine being color mixing, owl pellet dissection, and cork boat construction for example, however we also work on the floor helping enhance visitor interactions with exhibits and deal with the occasional visiting summer camp group. Being on the floor and super informally trying to help visitors learn is definitely the hardest for all of us, but even in the 3 weeks I’ve been working I think I’ve gotten better at it. Additionally, every few weeks we come together after work to participate in a sort of lecture series meant to further enhance our understanding of informal science education and the different paths we could take after this summer, which I think is really cool.
The museum also uses all of us summer interns for a bunch of other fun (?) duties that no one else wants to do. Once a week I come into work early to clean the outdoor water park exhibit space and part of our time on the floor is spent resetting exhibits, dealing with visitor problems, and cleaning up. This part feels eerily similar to my work in the Village Store… Some of these jobs are fun though! We all get to give the Leafcutter Ants leaves and I just got trained to feed the Painted Turtles and the baby Snapping Turtles. And just last week I got thrown a total curveball and was asked to sub in for a camp counselor who had sprained his ankle. This was so hard and so different from my work inside the museum (less teaching, far more discipline). Apparently the group of 8-10 year olds I got were especially difficult, so I’m pretty glad that next week I go back to my normal duties, definitely with a new appreciation for what I get to do.
Outside of work, I don’t do much here, which sometimes I worry about but also a relaxing and uneventful summer has to be good for me after the exhausting time that was sophomore year. I’ve gotten on a very early to bed early to rise schedule, which I love! I run everyday before work, shower and throw on my “teacher” clothes, then bike the mile to the museum. After work I tend to relax, eat dinner, and read. Sometimes I do a nonrunning workout, like frisbee sprints, lifting, or a bike ride.I often feel like all I do here is work, exercise, eat, and read, and I’m kind of okay with that. I’ve started playing frisbee once or twice a week with the Dartmouth team which has been fun and adds a nice social aspect to my summer outside of my wonderful coworkers.
So yeah! I am quite content here in NH. I sometimes miss my school and home friends, but books and running and nature and work that I love have kept me happy enough so far. :)
A sunset over the Connecticut river. The river separates NH and VT so I cross state lines everyday riding to work, which is just so east coast
Feeling extra crunchy with my iced coffee with both a reusable straw and bottle, my Chacos (I have such a tan now), and just the front tire of my bike (needed to bring to town to fix a flat)
A nice path in Hanover
The Red Room in the Seattle Library!
More of the library
Emma on Bainbridge Island
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