Fading To Spring

I finally put my cross country skiis and poles away.  End of the season.  Except, if you never used your cross country skiis and poles then technically I don't think you can claim a season.  But it sure did feel good walking by as they rested against the coat rack all winter.  Getting stronger by being close.  My abs tightened little by little just by passing the front door.  Wicked bulging triceps simply by thinking about all that double poling I would be doing if it weren’t for the Bruins being on TV.  It’s tough being an athlete.

Started on the twice a year cleaning.  Knowing that you’re never going to get 100% of the dirt up does not justify not taking a stab at the first 99%.  Or in the case of 329 Dorsch Hill Road, Putney, VT 05346 (in case anyone wanted to send me a “hope you get over this cleaning thing” card) the first 1%.   When the recliner got moved, (yes I’m that serious) I realized the good folks from Pringles had started a chip factory under there.  

Did you know there is a Pringles App?  Except it is not available from the U.S. Itunes store.  Go ahead, I’ll wait while you go check it out.  They probably have started a campaign to promote better health through exercise.   C’mon America, put down your handheld device, get up off the couch, grab a can of salt and go for a walk.  Hahahahaha.  OMG.  LMAO.  LOL.  BFF.  WTF.  NASA.  SCOOBIE-DOO.

Clean.  I can’t even figure out how to reload the Swiffer Sweeper I found downstairs.  The good folks from Swiffer have a very nice website with a video on how to do this.  Which I should have watched before I spent the afternoon on my hands and knees with a Swiffer Sweeper wet mopping refill in each hand working the floor.  Fake Spring smelling cleaning liquid on, fake Spring smelling cleaning liquid off.  Try saying that 3 times fast with a mouthful of Pringles.  Go ahead, try it.  Now use the Swiffer Sweeper to clean up all the bits o’ chips you sprayed all over the place.

How about these words?  Do they seem brighter?  Jump off the page?  I even cleaned my keyboard.  Most people would just throw away their dirty old computer and get a new one.  Not me.  A box and a half of Q-tips has never been more wisely used.  There are figuratively 100‘s of cleaning uses for the Q-tip.  Literally there are 31.  Go ahead, check it out.  http://www.qtips.com/tip-jar/detail/114964/cleaning-tips.  It seems the good folks at Q-tips want us to use them for everything except for what we all use them.  Making sure the passage through which our brains get fresh air stays unclogged. 

                                

Could someone call my mother?

I think I’m done for today.  I’ll get the upstairs and bathroom tomorrow.  Unless the Bruins are on.  

Now I’ve got to bring the golf clubs up from the cellar.  Looking to take 2 points off my handicap this season.  From the comfort of my recliner.

Love you all.  Peace.  Peter.

gelato is italian kels...

home tomorrow! cant wait to share stories with all of you!

Canadian Checking In

Hello, second family!!!

It has been so nice to catch up on the blog and on Cailin and Connor's adventures! Connor-that bull fight sounds very upsetting. I think Cailin, Grady and I would be in tears sitting in the stands. With gelato...

Things at home have been relatively uneventful, but I have been doing well at my first real job! I'm doing advertising for a local radio station, which sounds a little bit more glamorous than it is. The job entails a lot of cold calling, a lot of rejection, and not as many perks as I had looked forward to. However, I have met a great group of people and have learned a lot. There are 8 salespeople in the office. Jen and Joel are my age, and we go out to eat often. Rene and Rick have been in the radio business for 30+ years, and they have been really great about giving advice and leading the way. Rene also enjoys wearing Christmas sweaters on Fridays even when it is 20 degrees out (Celsius, not Fahrenheit..we are in Canada!) All in all, working 9 to 5 is much more tedious and boring than Middlebury ever was. I find myself missing Vermont a lot and missing the college life even more. Connor's three-hour siestas each afternoon sound like heaven...

Last week I celebrated my birthday at a new restaurant in the old part of Montreal. The group of us then went over to "Chez Serge", a tiny french bar with a mechanical bull and waitresses in leather jackets and cowboy boots. It reminded me of our trip down south to Nashville when Grady and I moved Cailin in!

I've been in touch with Peter (Martone, not Ross!) who has interviewed for an engineering position on a cruise ship. It would take him to the Caribbean for a year and sounds very exciting. Hopefully he can fly some family and friends out to join him if he takes it! I can see Mama Beth enjoying a daquiri poolside...

Last weekend I was in my very first Christmas show with my new singing group, the Lyric Theater Singers. It's mainly a broadway group but they put on a big Christmas concert every December and all three days were sold out! On the last day we even got a standing ovation. It's definitely helped me make friends and enjoy my time back at home since graduation.

My two kittens, Bear and Olivia, have somehow turned into cats overnight. Bear is nine pounds and gaining and eats everything in sight. Olivia is slightly smaller but still eating her way through an expensive amount of kitten food a week. Since we've started putting up Christmas decorations they have gone absolutely mad. Nothing like tinsel and a kitten...

Planning a trip to visit Middlebury next weekend when Cailin, Grady and Connor are home. Looking forward to seeing everyone and seeing snowy Vermont. And if we're lucky maybe Connor will take us skiing!

 Here is the program from my show!

 Peter, Cailin and I relaxing in Biloxi, Mississipi!

The three of us in Memphis.

Lots of love to everyone. It feels so good to be a part of this blog with you all! :)

xoxox

Kelsey

The end of the first semester!

I'm about to head into the last week of my first semester as a teacher (which means I will soon enough be flying home to all of you! I can't wait!)

Some triumphs from my first 5 months in the classroom:

-Brandon can now sit in his chair for long periods of time and knows 3 shapes. It's been 2 weeks since he's been sent to the office!
-Zechariah's neighbor shared with us that in the beginning of the school year he could not speak, and now he is having conversations with her.
-Sammie, one of my lowest readers, pushed my hand away from his book on Friday and said "I can read it by myself."
-A woman from the state who gave us our formal observation last Thursday said to me, "I have a grand baby who is thirteen months old, and I would love her to be in this pre-k. I love what you're doing in this classroom."
-Jeremy, the youngest Prepster in the whole school, can write his name, knows his shapes and colors, and understands the concept of patterning.
-Traylan knows all of his sight words (we call them "Popcorn Words"). I made him a crown that said "Popcorn Word King" and his mom told me he wore it to bed three nights in a row.

I'm so proud of all my babies and can't wait to share pictures and stories with you when I'm home. Here's a picture of Traylan in his crown.

And a quote that is keeping me going through this last long week:
"Never give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration you can not go wrong."
One thing's for sure: I love these babies, and they inspire the heck out of me (even when they are wetting their pants for the 6th time in a week or throwing up on my cowboy boots).

See you soon family!

October update

Hello to everyone,
I think an update is long overdue.

The weekend after my last post, a bunch of us, as well as other Middlebury friends from around Europe, converged on Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest.
Here:

  This little guy is Aloisius, the angel of beer.

Munich is an incredible city and we had a really fun time. Oktoberfest is kind of like going to Field Days. Lots of people, lots of midway rides and greasy food. But instead of NASCAR tshirts, everyone is wearing leiderhosen. And there's lots of beer. That's all I'm going to say about that. (Except Bo, make sure you go to Oktoberfest when you're in college).

A few weeks later, a group of us stayed with my friends Nick and Bratner, who are studying in Paris for the semester.
Friday everyone went to the Louvre, but my flight was later so I missed out on that which I'm pretty bummed about. But the next day we went to Musee d'Orsay, the French version of MOMA (sort of). I'm taking a class about modern European art, so it was really cool to see a bunch of Monets, Manets, Van Goghs, etc. that we've been talking about, and pretend to know what I'm talking about.

Afterwards we went to huge open air wine festival on the Montmarte, a big hill that overlooks all of Paris. It was rainy and cold, but it was really gorgeous. It's basically the only neighborhood left that wasn't ruined by the Nazis, so its the last of old Paris. I felt pretty French eating a foie gras sandwhich and sipping wine, and got this picture of the Eiffel Tower which I think is pretty cool:

We also had a French street artist do this caricature of us, which is arguably the worst likeness of any of us. In case you were wondering, I am apparently the third from the left.

Arc de Triomphe at night.

For my birthday weekend I went to Prague. I got to see a bunch of Middlebury friends once again, as well as my good high school friend Michael Kellner who is studying there as well.
Prague is such a fun city and I had excellent hosts. We spent all Saturday walking around in the snow (so great to finally see snow!) seeing Prague castle, Charles Bridge, the Lennon wall, the Astronomical clock and all the beautiful architecture, and at night, we went out to a traditional Czech restaurant for my birthday.
Some pictures:

A view of Charles bridge, built in 1357. It was too cold and snowy, but normally the bridge is packed with vendors and entertainers.

The famous astronomical clock, not a very good view of the details, Google it if you want to learn more. Every hour a man at the top of the tower plays a trumpet and a bunch of the figures on the clock start to move. Very cool, especially for a clock built in 1410.

Prague castle in the snow.

A section of the Lennon wall, a big wall that began as a place where students would graffiti anti-Soviet art. The Soviets would whitewash it time after time, but it would just keep getting covered. Now it serves as a monument to John Lennon. It still gets painted over periodically, but just so that the art can change all the time.

One of many statues on the Charles bridge. Thought it looked kind of cool in the snow.

 Snow covered Prague from the tower of the Astronomical Clock, with Prague castle in the background.

Back at home things have been pretty slow, with tons of schoolwork all the time. As I'm sure you've read, there have been lots of protests in Madrid against austerity measures and such. Congress is three blocks from my apartment, so I get a firsthand view of the protests. Our professors have explained that people here love protesting more than anything, and even when times are good, people grab whistles and signs and take to the street for really petty things. It's part of the routine here, and if the subway isn't closed down at least 2 days a month because of striking union workers, it's a strange month. But I'm perfectly safe, the protests rarely turn violent, despite what I'm sure the news over there has chosen to show.

We had an adorable kitty for a week, but when I was in Paris he disappeared. When I asked what happened to it, my roommates explained that it got sick, and rather than getting medicine for it, decided to just give it away. All that sleeping, eating, playing video games, and not looking for jobs must have really gotten in the way of taking care of it.

I hope everyone is safe and sound as Hurricane Sandy makes its way north. From what it sounds like, Marley and Grady and Ken and Lauren have the most to worry about in NYC, but I'm sure everyone's taking care of themselves. Thinking of all of you, be safe.

Lots of love always,
Connor

First Day of Fall in Madrid

It's a quiet Friday afternoon in Madrid; the perfect time to fill everyone in on my adventures over here!

Honestly I do not have a whole lot to report, since school has started, we've really settled into a routine and we haven't had much of a chance to explore much.

However, last Saturday, as the last part of our orientation, Middlebury chartered a bus and we all drove to Segovia, one of the oldest cities in Madrid. It was absolutely beautiful and a great way to spend the day. Everyone is really embarrassed of the cathedral in Madrid because it looks really French, but the cathedral in Segovia was incredible. Here are a couple pictures, but I don't know if my phone's camera does it justice (really wish I had taken your camera, Pops). The style is called Gotica Florida, which basically means ornate and flowery and renaissancy. Everything was gold and massive and the organ would have made Kevin drool.

There were about 25 side rooms, each one with something like this or artwork.

Nothing makes me happier than a castle, and luckily for me, Segovia has probably Spain's most famous castle. It was the getaway of Isabel and Ferdinand, amongst others.

Also, it was partly the inspiration for the castle at Disneyworld.

Knight; throneroom.

Segovia also has the best preserved Roman aqueduct in the world because the desert climate allowed it to survive perfectly:

Segovia's famous traditional dish is "cochinillo", which is suckling pig. We split one amongst 6 of us. Pretty delish. I ate the kidney and the tongue. Decided to stay away from the nose, eyeballs, brain, and tail.


School is going pretty well, the teachers talk pretty slowly so everyone can understand them, and although the homework takes a lot longer to do since it's in Spanish, there is a lot less of it. One of my classes is called Spanish Art of the 20th Century and half of our classes is just going to famous museums and looking at art, so that's pretty cool. I probably wouldn't be making it to too many museums if not for the class.

One of the most fun, surprisingly, part of living alone has been cooking for myself every night. Last night I made Tortilla Española for everyone in my apartment. It's the most classic Spanish tapas, and I got rave reviews from the natives, so I was pretty happy with the turnout.

I hate that I'll be missing Vermont fall for the first time. Here it's just more heat and sun and dryness. I would kill for some mountains and rivers right about now. Abby had a couple hiking suggestions for me that I am definitely going to try out before too long. In the meantime, feel free to send me some pictures of some foliage or other fall-y things I'm missing out on!

Love you all! Talk soon!


Few more pictures:

City hall in Madrid.

Lake in the middle of Retiro Park where I run everyday.

In Plaza Mayor, one of the bigger and older squares of Madrid.

pretty in love with this little guy...