Nice weather we're having, huh?

Why, yes, it is quite nice out. While other people complain about the moodiness of New England weather, I quite enjoy it. From beautiful sunny days like today with just a hint of wind and some clouds in the sky to keep it from getting too hot, to blizzards that force you to stay inside by the fire for days, I can't imagine enjoying life anywhere without four season. Thunderstorms, crisp fall air, hot summer days, frigid snow storms...I love it all.

The random weather also means more wardrobe options year round. Chances are there'll be at least a few days each summer cold enough to be worth getting out your favorite sweater or long sleeved shirt. And heating in the office means it's okay to keep the shorter sleeves out during the winter. On the train the other day I saw a woman wearing a cable knit sweater. Umbrellas and sunscreen are daily necessities (if umbrellas are your thing, that is).

This summer I've been enjoying the more professional side of my closet as I intern in Boston. I wake up in the morning and root through my clothes to see what new combination I can come up with (I've never enjoyed fashion so much!) A lot of days I turn to dresses and skirts (shock, I know) just because they're easier in the summer heat. I've also realized that I need more clothes. I suppose going abroad for a whole year and not buying any new clothes (even fewer than I usually buy, at least. Who knew that was possible?) takes its toll on a wardrobe.

But anyways, there's another topic of fashion to discuss this summer: Olympic fashion.

Watching the teams walk in I was impressed by some of the outfits, and very underwhelmed by others.

Germany: Not sure why so many teams at the SUMMER Olympics needed jackets. I don't remember it being that cold in London when I was there. I don't think these are horrible, but they don't seem to represent Germany, other than the flags...and they aren't even all waving German flags (notice the Union Jack, top right).

Great Britain: I like the unity of all white for this one. But the dresses could have been a bit more feminine instead of just draping over the women at the front. And not a huge fan of the gold (although, it's fitting to wear gold when what you want is to bring home the gold...)

South Africa: Again, I really appreciate the unity. And this really says South Africa by using the pattern of the flag on the jackets. Granted, some flags would just look weird as jackets, but still. I also like that the outfit is very much an athletic one (it is the Olympics, after all).

Brazil: These are fun yet well put together outfits. I like that they used multiple colors to really show off who they are.

Poland: Here's another country that kept it simple and classy, but not boring or stuffy.

Sweden: Simple, unified, clearly belonging to their country. Seal of approval.

Paraguay: They look like they could be walking down the streets of any American town on the Fourth of July. Well fitted, easy, put together.























If only the US had gone with that instead of:



I know Ralph Lauren is a great designer and all, and berets are used in some US military uniforms...but seriously. These just aren't the most flattering, or most American outfits of the opening ceremonies.

But hey, that's just my opinion. I welcome your thoughts, favorites, and least favorites.

Adventures with my BFFL: Hurricane Harbor and PuttPutt

On my way back to Boston now from a wonderful weekend with my best friend, Parvati in Conneticut...and such. I went down Friday night, and got there about 10, so just in time to get dinner (Indian families operate on a different time schedule). We then watched a movie (This Means War, it was meh, not great) and went to bed.

We got up bright and early for an adventure to Six Flags, New Jersey. It was a full car: Parvati, her two brothers, boy friend, one of her brother's friends, and myself (we stopped in New York to get the brother's friend). Pretty much ran on time, too! We got to the park just about noon.

Instead of going to the regular theme park we decided to go to the water park, Hurricane Harbor. To be honest, there was nothing special about the rides. But we still had a lot of fun in the lazy river and wave pool. Doubly ironic, Parvati commented on how people in the lazy river need to be lazier, then when we got in we played games and got whistled at by the lifeguards. See, Matt (Parvati's boy friend) brought this little red ball with him and he starred throwing it around. We quickly turned it into a game kind of like basketball. It was fun. Later in the wave pool we continued our shenanigans by playing pass. After doing this for a little while we attracted the attention of some other random people at the park an pretty soon there was a whole group playing. There was even this little girl (maybe 3?) who joined. #omgSOcute! Some times we gave direct long passes, other times it was thrown high in the air, and others it was skipped off the waves. That ball could really fly! Matt & I managed too get kinda sunburned (#WhitePeopleProblems), but it was still really fun. On the way back we got pizza in New Rochelle for dinner (shout out to the Player's!), and then proceeded to head back to CT. we intended to have a bonfire & s'mores, but we all passed out pretty much as soon as we for back. Spending all day in cars, water, and the sun is tiring!

This morning we lazed around a bit more. After breakfast (yummy crepes) we went mini golfing. Today it was just Parv, Matt, and Parv's younger brother. I did better than I expected, even getting a couple hole-in-ones but still didn't quite make par...oh well. Matt was definitely the best. It's all just fun and games.

All on all it's been a fun weekend. Its always good to spend a weekend away with your best friend. Too bad weekends are so short though.

So now I get to sit on a bus for a couple more hours until I get home. Not to worry though, Parvati packed me grapes, mango, and a croissant. Yummy yummy :)

Life of an Intern

As hard as it was from abroad, I managed to secure myself am internship for the summer. I am a New Sector Alliance (branch of AmeriCorps) Fellow working with a local non-profit. My placement is the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling where I work with the communications director on social media, web 2.0, & marketing initiatives.

The first couple of weeks were somewhat slow. I had to learn about the organization & problem gambling. Also, my first week was the week of the Fourth of July (I wasted no time upon returning from abroad) so that was a quiet week, then half the office was at the National Conference the next week.

This week I started having real projects to work on and I'm enjoying it. Now that I'm settled in I've been able to initiate my own project (more about that in a later post). Within the office I have my specialized niche, and that feels really good.

What attracted me to this particular internship program is the fact that it pays me to do work in the social sector...as in, I managed to meet both of my internship objectives!! It certainly is going to have its challenges though.

First off, I started a month late and the program is structured such that I need to meet an hours requirement. This might mean I continue into the fall. Actually, it very likely means I continue into the fall (which I'm sure will please the people I work with very much).

Second, I've come to learn that this internship gives me a lot of responsibility. I have a supervisor, yes. But a lot of what I do doesn't need to be checked. That's something I haven't had at previous internships so I'm finding the lack of distinct structure (the freedom) difficult to get used to.

Some more of what I like, though...

The people: I have two sets of people through this program. Primarily I work in the MCCG office. It's a small staff (10 including myself) and they're all really close, welcoming, and appreciative of my help. It's definitely a bonus to like the people you work with at an internship (and to not get sent on coffee runs).

The other set of people is the New Sector set. I'm in a cohort with these really impressive individuals from Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Bowdoin...and I somehow managed to impress them enough to be part of the cohort too! Besides being super smart, the other fellows are also pretty cool as individuals. I've enjoyed getting to know them so far; they each have such a different background, interests, and talents. All in all, an awesome group of new friends.

Bonus: speaking of friends, now that I'm back in Boston, I see my Babson friends so much. #ReunitedAndItFeelsSoGood. There is a good few who also intern right near me, and others in the Boston area for the summer.

I'm only 3 weeks in (yikes, I was in Korea a month ago! And by in Korea I mean I was in the airplane leaving Korea EXACTLY a month ago from when I wrote this sentence) but I'm enjoying the whole get up, dress all office-y, go to work in the city thing. I'm kinda taking advantage of the local eateries a little too much. I'm sure my wallet will need consoling later, but for now I'm just enjoying the summer.

And that's about it for now. I'll update soon about that project I mentioned, and the other adventures I'm up to these days...like how right now I'm on a bus to go visit Parvati in Connecticut for the weekend!

Bye!

Boston Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular

As far as I can remember I have spent every single Fourth of July in Boston. This has always been fun because Boston goes big for the Fourth with the Pops and fireworks. Millions of people join in the celebration from all over the world because it is a lot of fun.

Except when I say in Boston, I really mean in the suburbs of Boston. Since my family is all from the Boston area, I've always spent the day at my grandparent's house, or maybe back and forth between the two sides of my family. We have cookouts, pools, playgrounds, children, and a lot of patriotism going on. The weekend before I usually go to my dad's parents house for a cookout and the celebration in his hometown. There are fireworks at night that can be seen from my grandparent's house.

Then on the actual Fourth I end the day at the house my mom grew up in. From there you can hear the fireworks in Boston, so we watch the Pops on tv, open the back door, and listen to the fireworks from a few miles away.

This year I mixed it up a bit.

The Saturday before I was still with my dad's side of the family. It happened to be the day after my birthday (see the previous post, 21st Birthday Shenanigans). But instead of going to Braintree we all went down to Plymouth where my cousin Jake was marrying his long time girlfriend, Ali. It was a really beautiful day for the wedding, they lucked out. Her dress was pretty and his army uniform was, well, as army uniforms are (he's being deployed to Afghanistan, they wanted to get married before he ships out).

Then we went back to Braintree for dinner. Since we had been gone all day my grandparent's weren't hosting. Instead we went to a family friend's house. We hung out, chatted for a few hours, then watched the fireworks from her porch. It was a perfect view over the neighborhood, really.

(please excuse the poor photo quality. I have a tendency of breaking cameras so I use my ipod as a camera)

Then on the actual Fourth we were doing our standard cookout thing. I had a couple of friends over (Ranee and Sultan). We were hanging around the pool. My little cousin was jumping off the side to me (the closest a kid his age really gets to the diving board since he can't swim on his own yet) when Ranee decides we need to actually go into Boston.

Now, we've always wanted to do this. But all of the crowds were just not something the family ever dared to brave on the actual day so we never have. But this year we decided we were going to do it. We went about making our plans, coordinating how we would get into Boston, how we would get back out, all of that.

We figured it all night, I packed an overnight bag, and we headed into Boston. It was still fairly early (only about 7:30), so we were going to hang out with some of Ranee's other friends. On our way to them we/I decided to take a little bit of a detour...to see the USS Constitution. In all my years of seeing it from the high way on our family trips to and from Massachusetts, I had never actually seen it up close, so I was excited.

On our way we got to admire the beauty of the city of Boston. I've traveled all over the world and still love this city. Just look at it:

Then we came across a Korean War statue. Naturally I had to take a picture:

And then we arrived at Old Ironsides! (my best attempt at an artistic image, sun in the back, American flag at the front):

Because the tall ships were in town the US Coast Guard ship was right next to the USS Constitution:

Yup. Still love this city <3

Sultan carrying an umbrella because of the sun...I'll be honest, I poked a bit of fun at him because of it...

As night fell, it started thundering and lighting, so much so that the Pops were cancelled before the end (as any of you who were at home know, the show was still televised...thanks to the prerecording the night before). And at this point I was really glad Sultan had the umbrella as it had started pouring rain while we searched for the perfect place to watch the fireworks. We wound up under the Tobin Bridge, nice and dry (again, please excuse the picture quality):

The cloud in front of the fireworks is actually smoke from all of the fireworks. It truly was a spectacular show! 

If you ever get the opportunity to come to Boston for the Fourth of July, take it immediately. So many people and so much going on, I doubt you could be disappointed.

Happy Independence Day America!

21st Birthday Shenanigans

I returned home on June 28th, perfect timing for my 21st birthday (the 29th). And in case you're wondering, yes I planned it that way. Coincidentally it was on a Friday which happened to mean that I got to see many of my close friends and family for the first time in months all in one day.

I didn't manage to take many pictures I was too excited to remember to pull out my camera/ipod most of the time. The one time I did pull it out I dropped it and cracked the screen. Not to worry, though. It still works just fine.

So first thing I slept in. It was a wonderful start to the day considering the day before I had sat on an airplane for about 20 hours. Around noon my friend Nicole picked me up and we met my sister (Meghan), Ranee (who's house I was at in Hong Kong), and Ranee's brother (Sultan), for lunch. We went to Wicked in Legacy Place, Dedham. I ordered my first drink and we all got caught up. Then my sister hands Nicole an envelope with instructions for the rest of the afternoon and heads off to work.

We then proceed to the next stop on the adventure: Make. If you ever went to Plaster Fun Time, Make is kind of like that. Except instead of just painting ceramic figures (which you can still do), you can also make jewelry, candles, soap, glass, paper,  and cake (want to learn more? Check out http://www.makemeaning.com/buzz). We decorated a cake (shout out to my KLI family on this one). Ranee (who by the way, also happens to be my birthday buddy...hers is just a few days before mine) gave me little input as to what to put on the cake. Her only request: a blue elephant. Well, none of the items to add were blue elephants, but we did get to use three colors of fondant, and there were some other safari animals. Nicole and I decided it should be a Lion King themed cake. Now, it should be noted that Nicole is REALLY good at cake decorating. She does it for her friends on the side anyways, as well as working at a bakery. Between her and me (a slight perfectionist) the cake was a carefully crafted beautiful creation. All of the employees were really impressed (granted, they probably usually have young kids make cakes so they don't get works of art like this).


Then it was onto stop number 3: bowling at Kings...a bowling ally that also has a bar. We played a few rounds, I got another drink (Nicole is still 20, perfect since she had to drive home after), and had some fun. Nicole is definitely better than I am at bowling, but I think we're even on this one (she won at bowling, I had a drink).


After bowling Nicole left. It was SO good to catch up with her after many months apart! Keep in mind that I hadn't seen her that much over the winter even though I was in Boston because she had class and I was busy with other things, so we had about a year to catch up on. Also, she JUST got back from Rwanda. Lots to catch up on.


Anyways, next stop was Gap for some birthday sfhopping. I got a couple new dresses, a couple new tops, and a pair of jeans. Nothing major, you know? And then we were off to see mom, auntie Julie, uncle Joe, and little Brady. This is when all of the excitement caused the ipod screen to break...still haven't gotten it fixed...Brady was extra excited. I was home after months away (he kept asking why I was so far away), and auntie (mom) and Meggie were there too. Very good to see them :)


After my birthday dinner family time was over and I was off to see the rest of my friends. Ranee and I drove to our friend Nikkii's apartment where we also met Parvati (best friend) and Allison. We donned our tiaras and made our way to the T and into Boston. We met the guys (Tyler, Mike, Raphael...) at Faneuil Hall and continued the celebration. Mary, Christy, and Annalisa also joined us later on.


The night pretty much consisted of much excitement over the fact that I was home and 21, and the tall ships were in town aka, fleet week, aka, many coast guard. Much to some of our delight (like when we got to borrow their hats:

(Picture courtesy of Mary Halpin, the other young lady in this picture)

Definitely the best birthday/welcome home on record. It was definitely the mix of two events and getting to see everyone all in one day.

So thank you to everyone who made the day so special! I missed our shenanigans ^.^

<3

To start with...

Greetings from Boston!

I have been blogging for a while now about my many adventures in foreign countries (from my perspective, I understand I have a bit of an international following. Shout out to my friends from Korea, Romania, South Africa, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan!) (www.kmowles.blogspot.com). Over the past year I spent most of my time traveling and having adventures in new places. This year I plan to stay close to home much more.

I am starting the year with a summer internship in Boston. It was difficult to find something while abroad, but after just the first week, I think I'm going to enjoy this new job. The organization is the Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling (http://www.masscompulsivegambling.org/). It is a non-profit organization (my favorite type) that advocates for more attention to problem gambling, as well as running education and assistance programs.

My role is Public Awareness (so that the fact that you just went to the website to find out what the council is because you've never heard of it doesn't happen in the future). More specifically, I will be working on enhancing the social media strategy and helping improve other technology related areas of the organization (so essentially, my job is to use social media).

I got involved here through AmeriCorps summer internship program called New Sector (http://www.newsector.org/). I am a summer fellow, along with a cohort of something like 30-40 other individuals who are also helping non-profits around Boston in various capacities. They have been great from the start. While I was still abroad the director of the program was great at keeping me in the loop as to what was going on with the program. I met her in person for the first time yesterday, and she is equally nice in person. Meanwhile, the other fellows all seem really great (granted I haven't really gotten to know them that well yet, but I'm working on it).

Also exciting about being back in Boston? Reconnecting with friends and family. I got home right in time for my birthday and the Fourth of July, so I got to see pretty much everyone over the past week. Most of us still have so much to catch up on though!

Well, that's just a preview of what I'll be up to this summer. I'll also update my travel blog with some residual posts that I didn't get around to.

:)