Iceland Trek!

So one of the best things about MIT are the treks. I went on my first trip over Columbus day to Iceland. We had 38 people from MIT on the trip. I stayed with 4 other girls in a studio apartment in Reykjavik. We were only there 4 days but we packed alot in that short

amount of time. First of all Icelanders LOVE to party. The bars stay open

until 6 am and it was a scene saturday night! If you ever go there be sure

to go out on a saturday night. Anyway ad far as touristy things that we did

We saw some Geysers, went to the Blue Lagoon,

and best of all visited a geothermal power plant. The location of Iceland

on the North American and Eurasion plates allows them to harness the

Geothermal energy underneath the Earth's surface. They have implemented a completely sustainable energy solution

even provide hot water to your house! I am sure this will be the first of the many treks I take. If you get a chance

to do them I would definitely recommend it!

Visit to Newport

My mom came up to visit me in september the weekend after labor day. I always enjoy it when she comes to visit...we get a chance to talk and catch up but best of all she cooks tons of food for me before she leaves :) Anyway we decided to go Newport for the day to check out the Mansions. As you can see from the pictures it was a beautiful day! We ended up just going to The Breakers (one of the Vanderbilt mansions)...we walked through the house and around the grounds. I definitely want to go up again during christmas time when everything is decorated. If you are thinking of going...make the trip it's worth it!

New York City Trip/ US Open

So labor day weekend 2009 was awesome! I got home a couple of hours ago and had to write about my trip tonight. I left friday afternoon (Ben was nice enough to take me and bring me back) and met Linda at Aqua. We had dinner and then went back to her place and chatted for a couple of hours. Saturday I met Ben, Kelli, Tim and Bayan at the Park for brunch I had ricotta cheese pancakes with orange marmalade. Sounds yummy doesn't it?? well it was yummy! :)

Afterwards we decided to walk off our meal at the newly opened highline park (the picture is from there). Later on when everyone else arrived we went to dinner at a mexican restaurant and then went out afterwards.

Sunday was US open day! We went to an evening game. We took a train to flushing from Grand Central. It took about 40 minutes on the train to get there. We were all able to sit together but our seats were pretty high up. The womens match was a nail biter! Emily and I decided to walk around and we were able to sneak in to one of the lower levels. We saw the end of the womens match and most of the mens match afterwards. It was a long day but it was awesome!

New Fall Team and Orientation - The Atlantic Herons!

So here's a pic of my new team. In the picture are Diego, Erdin, Jerome, Nathan, Morgan, myself, Lisa and Adah. Jerome was our pilot and was with us the entire orientation. This picture was taken at the end of day at Warner center. The day was absolutely beautiful! We had to build a raft and do some other outdoor activities. I was pretty tired but we all got to know each other really well by the end of the day. Most of orientation was a bit of a repeat for me since I had already gone through it at the beginning of summer. However I did get a chance to meet alot of new people. I am in the Atlantic ocean and on team Heron. I'm excited about fall and all the new activities... I'm really looking forward to working with my new team!

Orientation Week starts tomorrow!

So it officially starts tomorrow. Although it feels strange going through orientation again I think it will be alot different with my 300 new classmates. It should be interesting! I'll update a the end of the week. Oh and I added a pic from the BBQ last thursday...can't stay away from my LGO crew :)

Dinner in chinatown and berryline

I had dinner in chinatown tonight where I met about 25 incoming sloanies. Catherine was nice enough to invite me and it was a good time. They are having a study group tomorrow and I am planning on joining them. Tthe topic tomorrow will be accounting. Anyway The place we went to eat was called.....New Golden Gate Inc. I guess that is not too surprising since they were right next to the golden arch in chinatown. We had ten people at our table and ordered a ton of food! However our bill per person was only $11. You can't beat that! Afterwards I went to berryline in harvard square. I was stuffed from dinner but I had been craving some yogurt for a couple of weeks. I love going there because it reminds me of my vacation to LA with my friend Kami. While we were out there we discovered pinkberry and became totally addicted before we left! Thankfully I can still get my yogurt fix over here. Flying back to LA for yogurt would get awfully expensive pretty quickly :)

Going Back home and Pre-term

So I left a day early because I did not have much time off between end of summer classes and beginning of preterm (yes I spent the $450 to take those classes more on that in a bit) I missed the end of summer cookout...which is kinda sad because from all the pics it looks like it was a great time. I got home monday night and was at work tuesday morning (no rest for the weary!) I was hoping to have an easy last week at NGC but it was very hectic. I couldn't walk down the hall without someone asking me about school. When I left in the beginning of summer I had planned to be funded part time for my education but 'upper' management found out and they pulled my funding. I made one last attempt and talked to as many VPs as I could before I left but was not able to make any progress. I wont deny that I was sad to leave the place. Ten years at one company is a long time but I don't regret coming to school.
I did have to deal with some issues with my house before I left. They had a leak but luckily I was there to make sure everything was okay. It was strange to come back home to see other people living there. I stayed over the weekend which I had not planned. Gave up my vermont E-trek to do that but it gave me the chance to see some more of my friends and that was great!
I come back sunday afternoon and started going though my emails. I was so determined to take pre-term classes when I paid the $450 a month ago. I definitely learn material better when I am in a class versus reading it on my own but $450 dollars??? All the material is online so I decided to drop pre-term and read the information on my own. Hopefully I'll be productive this week...of course I would still like to make a beach trip hmmmmmm