Summer Fun

School is about to start again for most students, but since I am going to England for my Fall 2009 semester, I don't start until the end of September. So I will be working while my friends are attending classes until I leave for the United Kingdom. I was really surprised when I first found out how late they start classes over there. Their semester goes until February, but I will finish the last month from back at Clarkson University while my classes here have also begun. I have pretty much everything I need to go, I have my plane ticket, visa, and most essential items. I ordered new luggage today, so hopefully that will work out well.

Now for an update on what I have been up to lately. A couple weekends ago I went camping at Higgley Flow State Park. It was a lot of fun, and I didn't realize that a state park was so close to Potsdam. There were a lot of things to do at the campground, from fishing, to hiking, and hanging out at the beach. I even went to a star gazing class and learned some pretty cool information about the sky. I definitely plan to go camping every summer now that I had so much fun this time. My boyfriend and I made eggs and bacon using tinfoil and cooked them over a grill. They actually turned out really well, suprisingly! We made smores of course, and overall had a great time!

Last weekend, I spent a lot of time hanging out at Lake Bonaparte and doing a lot of skiing, wakeboaring and boating. It is finally starting to get nice now that summer is coming to an end. I wish that the weather would have been really nice the whole summer instead of wet and rainy. I better get use to the rain though, as I am going to be in England soon!

That's all for now. :)
Jen

Back in the Office

Hello everyone!

I have not posted in a long time because I was working at the Horizons camp for a couple of weeks. The camp went great and it was a lot of fun but also a lot of work. Horizons is a camp for girls that excel in math and science, they continue to develop their math and science skills while at the camp while also having the opportunity to enrich their lives and grow through personal development. It is a very cool thing to be able to be involved in this whole process and to watch and help the girls to grow and form bonds during the week. I am very glad that I was able to be a program assistant at Horizons this summer, and hope to do it again next summer.

I finished working at the camp on Saturday and was back at the office yesterday (Monday). It is good to be back, I know that all of my co-workers missed me. ;-) I had been taking care of paperwork, and had to go to Syracuse at the beginning of July to get stuff ready for my Visa, and while I was at the camp I officially got my Visa! I was so excited that it went through, and I am getting very excited to go to England! I have a lot more to do still, I am booking my plane ticket this Saturday and am hoping that I will be able to get a non-stop flight! I think that I am going to fly out of Montreal so I won't have to deal with stopping at another airport. I will be leaving Montreal on the 21st, and flying into London on the 22nd! There is going to be a representative from Brighton University at the airport to pick me up; that is going to be a huge relief to not have to deal with lugging my luggage all by myself!

I think that is it for now, only a month of summer left- gotta enjoy it! :)

Flap Jack Attack

Yesterday my co-workers and I went to the Village Diner in downtown Potsdam and attempted the Flap Jack Attack Challenge! Only 3 of us were succesful, watch the video to see all of the excitement!

Summer Days

So it's been a while since I last posted, but I have plenty to update you on! I have been trying to keep busy in Potsdam and have been pretty successful so far. My on-line class is way more intense than I thought it was going to be, and I am about half way done with it. I am learning a lot of new information about Abnormal Psychology but I will be glad when I don't have to spend hours after work, working on homework. I have been playing a lot of tennis lately , and have been improving my game. Last Thursday my boyfriend and I went to the Morley LongBranch Restaurant out in Morley, NY and had 30 cent wings. They were pretty good, and the deal wasn't too bad either. Here is the website if you are interested in the restaurant: http://www.morleylongbranch.com/.

We also went hiking Sunday morning to a place called Stone Valley, which is out in Colton. It was a fun hike but it was so hot outside that day, that after an hour we turned around and hiked back down. It was nice to hike alongside the water. We even saw a couple of deer in the woods that ran away when they saw us.

As for the cooking situation, I am getting pretty good. I made taco salad last night, and have made chicken and baked potates, chicken and biscuits and some more dishes. My co-worker Nduka told me about making some delicious scrambled eggs, so I made them for breakfast on Saturday. That is all for now, I will be in touch. :)

An evening at La Casbah

I think that I will tell you about a restaurant that I went to recently in Potsdam. Last night I went to the Moroccan restaurant, which is called La Casbah. My boyfriend and I have wanted to check it out for a while, so we finally decided to go last night. I had heard that it was very good and authentic so I couldn't wait to eat there. The waittress brought us an appetizer which consisted of a wheat pita and what I believe was a type of butter. It was very good, and a nice change from the usual bread that restaurants typically bring out before a meal. They offered dishes that you could get in American restaurants like lemon chicken, shrimp scampi, and swordfish. They also offered Moroccan meals like couscous, tagine, and kebabs. My boyfriend's parents have actually done mission work in Morocco so they had dishes to recommend to us. I ordered the chicken couscous and Matt ordered beef tagine. I was surprised with both the portions and how good the food was when it arrived. We ended up splitting our meals and I have to say the beef tagine was a bit better. Beef tagine is a type of slow cooked stew. The chicken couscous entree consisted of tiny pasta with chicken and vegetables on top. I would definitely recommend this restaurant if you are ever in Potsdam! :) Here is the website where you can view the menu, hours and other information on La Casbah. http://www.lacasbahny.com/

As I go to different local restaurants I will keep you updated so you can check them out when in Potsdam!

As for the cooking situation, I went home for a few days, so my mom made me dinner. :) & I have also eaten out a few times, but I did make pasta the other night which was very good. Tonight I will be cooking chicken and baked potatoes, so that should be tasty.

It is finally nice in Potsdam, and I was able to go for a run yesterday and hopefully tonight. Tomorrow is Friday, and I will be home for another weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend in the North Country

So another week has gone by since my last post already! Time is going by so quick, and it is finally starting to feel like summer. This weekend I played some golf for the first time (not counting miniature golf :)). I actually wasn't as bad as I thought I was going to be and loved the game. I can't wait to golf again! I also played tennis on Sunday against my boyfriend which was a lot of fun. Neither of us are very good but we still like to play for fun. It was really windy outside though so, we didn't play for too long. After, we went home and played guitar hero with my brother. I can now play at a medium level and I am slowly improving my guitar hero skills. ;)

On Memorial Day my dad was in charge of introducing everything at the ceremony after the Memorial Day parade, so my family and I went to watch him in the morning. He did a good job, and spent the rest of the day packing for Argentina. He leaves today and I am so jealous! He said that it is suppose to be winter in Argentina when he is there though, so at least we will have warm weather up in Potsdam.

Yesterday evening I packed up my car and drove to Potsdam - I finally was able to move into my new apartment! I have a lot of unpacking to do today during my lunch break and all afternoon. I am hoping that everything is all set by the time I go to bed tonight. I really didn't bring too much stuff, just enough for summer. :) I have a lot of cleaning to do around the apartment and would like to plant some flowers to make the outside look nicer. It's looking like there might be a Wal-Mart run at some point tonight. I need groceries, because when I go home for my lunch break I am probably just going to be eating crackers.This is the first time that I have not lived in a dorm or with my parents so, it should be both interesting and exciting when it comes to cooking my own meals. I'm not going to lie, I am not known for being the greatest cook, but hopefully with some practice and good cook books I will make delicious food. I will let you know how it all turns out. TTYL. :)

Weekend!

After work on Friday I was able to go home and relax for the rest of the evening. I just watched tv and hung out with my family - nothing too exciting, but it was a long week and I needed some rest. On Saturday my boyfriend and I went to Watertown to go shopping and to go to dinner and a movie. It was a very fun day, I didn't buy too many things, which is probably a good thing. I love shopping and hadn't been in such a long time! After we were done shopping we went to Applebees and had a delicious dinner and then went to see the movie, Angels & Demons. The movie was really good, I thought that it was better than the Da Vinci Code and it had a really big twist towards the end. I won't give anything away in case you haven't seen it, but I recommend going to see it! I never read the book so it was a whole new experience for me but I heard that the movie didn't do the book justice. That is usually how those things go, The Harry Potter moves are definitely not as good as the books and my favorite movie ever, The Notebook still isn't as good as the book. My favorite book of all time is Where the Red Fern Grows, I read the book for the first time when I was in 4th grade and have probably read it ten times since. Every time I end up sobbing at the end of the book, it is so sad! I bought the book, Pride & Prejudice the other day and will probably start it sometime soon.
Enough rambling, on Sunday I went to Seneca Falls with my boyfriend and his family. I love it down there, the town is wonderful! We didn't do anything too exciting, but we did play the game Cranium - and I won! lol! When we got back we went to a friend's house and hung out there for a little bit. Then I went back to my house and watched Survivor with my brother. The finale was on and even though it was the only episode I had watched all season I got so into it! Then I went to bed and the weekend ended, work again Monday at 8 am.