when skies are grey : A weekend at Gordon

It was kind of strange to say "bye" to my friends at the end of last semester because I knew I wanted to come visit before I left in February. So while everyone was hugging goodbye in December and wishing me well in Italy, I was like "Oh wait! I'm coming back to visit in February! I'll say bye to you then!"

So when February rolled around it it was time to visit Gordon, I felt a little weird about it. Everyone was already a month into new classes and a new routine. Wouldn't it be weird for me to bust in and be like "Heeyyyyyyy I still haven't left for Italy yet!" Anyways, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to visit or not because I didn't want it to be awkward or weird. During my long weekend at Gordon, I seemed to get two responses from people. Either people said "Where have you been all semester?" or "Wait I thought you were in Italy?" But for the most part, it was wonderful to see friends and experience the blizzard at Gordon.

I stayed with Anna in Dexter throughout the whole weekend, but we had to evacuate on Friday night because of the blizzard. So we were whisked off in a bus and dropped off at different dorms around campus. Amy graciously let me stay with her (and eat her food, and drink all her chai latte k-cups, and take over her apartment... and so on) and it was so nice to stay with her for a night. Anna and I eventually trekked back to Dexter in the morning even though it was so hard to see in the snowstorm! It's about a mile to walk from Ferrin to Dexter on the road and even though there was a driving ban in the state of Massachusetts (so we didn't have to worry about cars) it was still a little bit scary walking back.

I thought it would be a good idea to work out on Saturday morning (free time! exercise! hooray!) so I walked all the way back to Bennett from Dexter, only to have the people at the Bennett front desk tell me that I can't go in because I'm not a student! They scanned my card, looked up and me and skeptically asked, "do you even go here??" I was about to pull up the Gordon athletic website and prove to them that I was Athlete of the Week a few weeks ago to use as proof, but after about ten minutes of explaining my study abroad plans at a Gordon program, they tentatively let me go ahead "for now." Anyways, it was a lot of work for the about of exercise I actually did (an average amount of time on the elliptical and treadmill before I was bored and then ending up milling around all of the machines. Overall, not the best workout but it gave me something it do!

I definitely felt annoying as I was harassing everyone all weekend (in an attempt to make them hang out with me), but everyone seemed to be sick or have a lot of work or didn't want to spend money. At times, the weekend was frustrating but I was SO THANKFUL for some great friends that made the weekend great and I loved spending time with them.

I also received a ton of advice from both professors and students about Orvieto and now I'm even more excited to go! Well, I've always been excited but now I'm really excited and I feel like it's finally the real countdown (nine days!). I cannot wait. It's nice to be home now and have a week to finish up everything I've been planning to do over break but never actually did - reading a few books, sewing some clothes, and gathering the last few things that I want to pack in my suitcase. I don't really have plans for the rest of break, I might sub at the middle school a few more times, babysit, work at a few birthday parties at the youth center, hang out with my family and grandparents. Grammie and Papa took me out to breakfast this morning which was delicious, as always. Now I'm happily in a food coma while I try to pack a little bit more.

Here are a bunch of pictures from the weekend. :)