The Perfect Fall Weekend

What better way to spend your fall weekend than doing the typical fall activities? For me, fall is a completely new season (and so is winter, really). Seeing the leaves change is absolutely amazing in Vermont, and this year is especially beautiful. The other weekend, I was in White River Junction, Vt. with my boyfriend, Paul, and we just had to bake a pie, pick raspberries, and go to a corn maze!
This was my first corn maze. Really! I have been to a hay maze once, but going apple picking and to corn mazes isn't super popular back home. But I absolutely loved it! I really like doing puzzles, so weaving through all the tall corn stalks and trying to find my way out!

Entering into the maze!

Paul leading the way!

Finally made it out!

 After, we decided to go to the raspberry field and picked some beautiful berries!

Paul starting to pick the kiwi gold raspberries

Our picks!

The leaves in the surrounding trees were the most amazing, vibrant colors and it was the perfect cool fall day. If you are able to get out and really experience fall in Vermont, I highly suggest doing it all!

And here is a video of Paul following me in the corn maze! He was very excited to use the different video features on his new phone.

My First Article!

For my Reporting for the Media class, we work with St. Mike's school newspaper, The Defender, to create stories. This semester was my first time ever writing for a newspaper, and it was a really cool experience!
First, on Thursday we went to the "Pitch Pick-Up" where you go  to hear the different stories that they have and choose which one you want. This can be competitive sometimes, but I luckily got my first choice in articles. Mine focused on a student run concert venue on campus called Turtle Underground, located in the bottom of Purtill Hall (mostly sophomore and junior dorms) on our North Campus. Turtle has equipment for student bands to use and perform with so they can continue their passion for music while here at St. Mikes.
After picking up my pitch on Thursday, I had until Wednesday to interview my sources and write my first draft. Though it is a short amount of time, I was lucky enough to get all my interviews finished in time. When I met with my editor, we went over my article to see what I did well, what I could add, and making style adjustments. It was super helpful!

My questions for my interviews

My first edit after meeting with my editor

Once my changes were made, I sent it to my editor at 12:00 pm that Friday, and the following week, I found my article in the Defender!

My final article!

I really enjoyed my experience writing my first article and working with my editor and look forward to contributing more to the Defender! And if you want to check it out, here is the link!

Nature and Outdoor Writing

This semester, I am absolutely obsessed with all my classes. As you can see under my schedule tab, I have a lot going on, and all of my classes are MJD, which I love! But my Nature and Outdoor writing class is extremely fun, and I will tell you why!
We talk about a bunch of things in this class that are really interesting, it is almost a mix between a writing class, nature class, and some journalism sprinkled in there. We have a book that breaks down the months in New England and talks about the plants and animals that you would see during those times. To take advantage of the good weather that we have and also to really be able to check out the outdoors around us, my class went to Local Motion in Burlington by the waterfront to learn about their initiatives to improve biking ability in the area, but also to rent out some bikes so that we could ride along the waterfront.

The class and our bikes overlooking the water around us

My friend McKenna and I started off on the tandem bike, which was a lot more difficult than it seems! I was on the front at first, which handles almost everything, steering, pace, and most importantly, making sure that we don't fall over! Which I thought was surely going to happen! We rode for about 2 hours and it was amazing!
 We also went to the Woodside Loop, a walking trail around our North Campus. We were out to spot different animals and plants that were in our book, and it went pretty successfully!

The beginning of the Woodside Loop

Our class looking at the different birds and trees

This class has been one of my favorites because we get to go out of the classroom and try to spot birds or frogs, it almost makes me like a kid again!

Three in a Row!

The Acabella's, my other half and amazing all female acapella group on campus, had quite a busy week to say the least. We welcomed 4 new members to our group (all of which are absolutely amazing!) and started off the year with a bang!

On Thursday, we had an amazing time at the Multiple Scler dinner. Saint Michael's College is a huge supporter, so we were approached about singing along with Mike Check, the all male acapella group, to come out and sing for the lovely people at the dinner. It was such an amazing time! We sang Zombies by the Cranberries, Little Talks with Mike Check, and then they sang Hallelujah. We sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. They were also very generous and gave us dinner along with our performance, which was amazing!

Aisling (the new Alto 2) and I at the dinner

Liz and Casey (also Alto 2) at our table

The event space at the Sheraton

Our table!

After this performance, we jumped right into the next one! Friday Knight Dry is a night that is full of activities and entertainment for everyone on campus. Every dorm and suite building has different activities going on where you can earn tickets, and then you put them in a raffle to win different prizes. They also have the acapella groups perform at this. We jumped up on stage first, being the first group there and ready to go, and performed a great set!

The Girls, being our typical goofy selves

And finally, we ended off the three day performance streak with a Fall Academic Preview Day performance for the parents and students who were visiting. Later that morning, I gave a tour and the families said they loved our performance! It was a busy few days for the group, but I think that we are sounding fantastic, especially with the new girls! I cannot wait for what the year has in store for the Bella's!