Food glorious food&friends.

Truly scrumptious lunch at Safaas today was truly scrumptious. (to the chitty chitty bang bang theme) .. . Its days like these which don’t require much effort which you enjoy the most.  Getting together with friends and cooking great food is a nice chill down mode which I enjoy now and then, out of a business schedule.  Brunching at Safaas apartment we cooked heaps of healthy food, and gave our tastebuds a treat they deserved on a simmered Sunday morning.

Next time, brunch is on us, Safaa!

Masked Up

Venetian masquerading – Colonnade Hotel

Yesterday we took the advantage of the many wonderful events in which the incredible ISSI Carnevale had organized.  In celebration of the diversity and many cultures at Northeastern University, a two month long string of events takes place embracing in day to day culture differences.  Extremely appreciative, we were given tickets from a colleague for helping in marketing outreach, and I could not have been happier advertising this events to friends in Boston.  The night hosted an array of elegant appetizers and a DJ set which kept the crowds swaying with their sassy hips and cha cha chaaa moves.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!!!! To all my friends and family with partners, lifelong companions or even just your ruddy good friends, I hope you had a wondrous day letting those around you know how much you love and appreciate their company.  

 Tonight I celebrated the lovers day, by getting a haircut, what other best way to say, I love myself but to go and boost your ego and confidence with a little TLC?!  This afternoon I lunched at Panera with friends to munch ourselves to happiness with each another’s presence and stories. I ended the night in a food comma, from dinner with my good friend Katie and even splurged out on a chocolate sundae for dessert. 

 Being it Ash Wednesday yesterday I think I’ve made a decision to stop eating chocolate, perhaps I will stick to it now that I’ve already gave up.. . I did avoid a caramel macchiato from Starbucks earlier, little footsteps make large strides.. .. . 

Showing my Husky Pride!

SHOWING MY HUSKY PRIDE! If you look 7-9 seconds in you can see me bouncing about with my friends at the Womans Beanpot Ice Hockey!

Everyone loves their one second of fame- (even if its two seconds in my case)

Pancake Day!

Happy pancake day/Mardi Gras/FAT TUESDAY!!!!!! Today is Shrove Tuesday, which means for us in Scotland Pancake Day! We traditionally empty our cupboards of all the items we no longer want to eat during the month of lent, and bake tons and tons of pancake’s to act as a base to the normally sugary and junk foods we are trying to lose. It is a day of eating, and for foodies a day of experimenting and trying to make the most MIGHTY pancake stack seen to mankind. Today in America we celebrate the same idea, however it is called Fat Tuesday, which does what it says on the tin.  A Tuesday of getting plump and stuffed until your fasting begins.  Many people don’t even do lent, however do Shrove Tuesday as who really passes by a food fest?.... …

Beads, masks, boas, beads, hats, and more beads. After work a few friends and I all headed to Stetson East on Northeastern Universities campus to celebrate the evening with many students hyped up and hungry. The atmosphere was great, with the live band and copious amounts of food everyone smiled as they royally stuffed themselves like their Christmas turkeys!

Earlier on in the day we made it to one of the ISSI Beyond Border events, today they were focusing on Israel.  I learned about the misconceptions on this software savy, technology driven country, from speaker Esker who is Northeastern alumna as well as a now dual citizen of Israel and America.  Adding to my total consumed foods today, I got to try traditional Israeli cuisine which was as I always appreciate, a treat to my tastebuds.

There are more of these events planned, if you would like the chance to learn more about a country, and meet with students, alumni and faculty/staff take a look at the dates, and we’ll see you there: http://www.northeastern.edu/coopconnections/programs-events/events/ The next event is Brazil March, 20.

Happy digesting!

HuskiesVSEagles.

NORTHHHH EASTERN. NORTHHH EASTERNNNNN. As the diehard huskies bellowed out their game chants, the Mens ice hockey final teams were skating their paws of down below on the ice in the TD Gardens.  The Mens Beanpot final happened last night, and boy did it happen with a bang, or shall I say massive WOOOOF! With my excellent hockey coaching received in previous games via my incredible Boss and friends, I knew exactly what was going on and the rules- which, funnily enough actually emphasizes the incredible atmosphere of the game, if being in the bouncing crowds isn’t enough adrenaline boosters. College hockey, so I’ve been told, is a whole different ‘puck’ game than that of Ice Hockey with the Boston Bruins etc since the students really fight for their teams, giving them as much support  as possible! This could be bias, but I really think that the Huskies fans give it their best, compared to the other oppositions from other games (I’ve now only been to four games..) who seem not as chanter’ful. LETS GO HUSKIES!!!! ……. Regardless of the score at the end of the game, we lost to Boson College.. …… I had an AWEsome experience cheering on our team for the three periods! Sadly, we left a few minutes ending the game, and missed the BC kids ‘traditional’ celebratory winning action, they fling streamers into the ice rink and roar with gleeee, after being such eager eagles! My colleague in work, who is Boston College alumni, but northeastern staff showed me the video of their happiness and utter euphemism once they had won.

Being in the crowds is the best part of these games, for me… since horse-riding is my sport I naturally enjoy watching that to any other sport – so lapping up the experience like a true thirsty Husky is just great! A little extra treat bone to our husky fans, is that President Aoun comes into the crowds and cheers on the players, one with the dog pack. Luckily he came over to us, enticed by our Husky attire, and we managed to get a picture of the moment!

We have waited 25 years to win the Beanpot since winning, so an extra year won’t go a miss, perhaps our Huskies with snow storm teams next year and come out topDOG in 2014, which I will be most definitely trying to stream online back in Scotland!!

'SuckstoBU'... .

What could be more mind replenishing than watching ice hockey and shouting all of your tensions away. Tonight we cheered and roared like lions, supporting our womans ice hockey team.  The match was held in Mathews arena the oldest ice hockey stadium in MA. This was more of a support affair night, and Admissions were attending as the best support team I knew, for the womans ice hockey.  Normally Mathews arena is extremely packed hustling and shaking with diehard huskies roaring like the best Sumbas known to mankind…… clapclap,clapclapclap……LETS GO HUSKIES!!!!  But tonight the turnout was poorer than the men’s games, the crowd however never let that phase them and still chanted and clapped towards victory against our pedigree opponents! We, however enjoyed the function before hand for faculty and staff getting our paws warmed up for the game!

It was cool to see the woman’s team battle it out, as I’ve only ever seen the men play.  Although it is supposed to be a non-contact match, I’m pretty sure I saw a few paws flying from both the Terriers and Huskies. Tonight we were against Boston University, this was the semi-final, the decider to who was going to play on the final Tuesday 12^th in Mathews arena, against Harvard!

Being with the Admission Counselors was inspiring, as they glared at their fellow enrolled students, the pride you saw from the Counselor of each talented girl on the ice rink was lovely.  I really love working amongst such inspiring professionals, who love to work and make students dreams.  Giving them a golden ticket (to NU and all of the amazing life opportunities and experiences) and to kickstart students fruitful futures, down the yellow brick road of the unplanned and achievable.

I also learned a lot from my Supervisor and Boss about icehockey tonight, pour example:

-A player charged with a minor penalty is sent off the ice for two minutes, with no sub allowed.

-Major penalties is sent off the ice for five minutes, and the most common major penalty is fighting. (naughty)

-Understanding the simplest things like the rink zones, split into three zones; the defending zone, neutral zone and the attacking zone- has helped a lot since I now know what is going on within the rink right infront of me.

For future games, I will know the rules and what’s actually going on in front of me!

Finding NEMO

Nobody this weekend should be saying the phrase, ‘wheres Nemo’ as this weekend in Boston and all of New England, we have been hit by the Nemo Snow Storm. Expecting a frantic Friday with the Thursdays news hype of the trooping storm approaching, I woke up in the morning with not even a sight of snow.  It was cold, check. windy, check but I couldn’t see the sight of the fluffy white stuff which we had all been expecting.  Luckily, for safety precautions we had all been given a Snow day off work.  Even more luckily, my awesome ‘I’ TEAM which I like to call us, (the International Admissions team) had been given the technology and equipment to work from home, so I had spent the day meeting my goals and work priorities keeping standards high. By the end of the day, the snow had hit.  A storm, not yet.

Eat, pray, love was screened in our apartment which made my very happy, after reading the book. The story within the novel inspires me to be happy in life, finding what my best fit in life is, not others. Travelling is encouraged and I MUST follow my feet, tiptoeing to new sights and experiences in life which will shape my clay sculpture of a life.

Saturday arrived, and we had now by this point stopped looking for Nemo. .. … With roughly two foot of snow barricading our door we braved the cold, barefooted, and all dived outside to chill outside, excuse the pun. A walk around the very frozen and snow layered reservoir we enjoyed watching the Bostonians snowboard downhill, perfect snow angels and curve the best mighty snowball ever seen.  We marched frozenfooted, chitterling chaps back to the apartment via the local store stocking up on groceries and snacks to tide us over a few more days. By Saturday night the snow amounts fallen in the past 24 hours was incredibly, I can truthfully say have never seen so much snow!! Forever checking things off my Boston to-do list.

Sunday sleighed in and we have pondered and plodded outside for froyo and a nice walk. And, yes, you did read correctly….. We happily bought frozen yogurt with delicious toppings on such a horribly cold day! It has been a great weekend of snowdays, snowballs, snow angels, movies, great food and fantabulous time with my friends…… …. If we forget about the cold feet and fingers.

Enroll here

Today was different from most extra working Saturdays.  Volunteering my time, since it was not required as usual I had the pleasure of working alongside the Admissions and Recruitment staff on another Welcome weekend on Northeastern Universities campus.  This weekend was different, because I was no longer welcoming ‘newbie’ students, but students who had chosen Northeastern, and been accepted. A whole new ball game in the Admissions cycle, as I was learning. Today was a marketing day, and I relished the challenge.  Why Northeastern, Why Boston, Why Experiential learning Opportunities and why should I enroll to come here? Lots of new questions were thrown at me today, on the spot working alongside the talented professionals on the Admissions Table, in which I tried my hardest to answer successfully.  I got the lovely opportunity to speak with many families and admitted students on why I love Northeastern, a story I would tell a thousand times if required.

Truly since I arrived here June 2012 I have loved every minute, every day, every week and every month.  There are a mound of opportunities piling on Northeasterns beautiful urban campus, a mountain that every student should challenge their selves to climb. I know, for a fact, that if I had the experiential learning element of study so readily available for me to do, I would have grabbed it with all my might.  The talent and experience graduating students from Northeastern have when entering the industrial world is incredible and, forever thirsty, I have only managed to lap up some of it.

After a great afternoon of work, I enjoyed a free lunch (who said there was no such thing as a free lunch) with colleagues winding down from our eventful day meeting all of the amazing students.

Until next time Northeastern!  .. ……. . . 

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY

SUPERBOWL SUNDAAAY. This time last year, we were placed in front of our laptops streaming the game at crazy hours roaring and cheering at the two unknown teams which at this point I was oblivious to anything going on, apart from the half time show with Madonna. But the act itself was so thrilling as we had been offered our internship positions to Northeastern University, and assumed that within a year we would be watching the game but in Boston, and hopefully had more of a widget to the rules. This year, 2013, we were in Boston surrounded by friends, some American, Mexican, French and of course Scottish. Fabulous food amounts were consumed and I actually knew what was going on between the san fran 49ers and the Baltimore ravens – thanks to a little help from my friends.

The result of the game pleased me either way as I sat on the fence the whole time, being British has its advantages and I was happy with what team won, as it was the more taking part that counted and not any particular team success which counted towards me. The ravens won, which shattered a few friends happiness but the day as a whole was a grand one, and I’m sure I will continue to watch the Superbowl in years to come and be reminded of watching it for the first time in America!

Museum Marvels and Bagels.

The first weekend every month, the Bank of America gives all of their customers the chance to go to their local museums for free admissions, so of course we were keen to visit the Museum of Fine Arts (FOR FREE).((I also should maybe mention at this point that all Huskies from Northeastern University already get free admission to the MFA, being an NU student just gets better and better!!!))  It’s ludicrous to think that I walk past this marvelous collection box every day to go to work, and have yet to even step up its stairs inside.  Molly, Safaa and myself woke up early birds and headed to the doors opening for 10am, conveniently this weekend was also the weekend that Mario Testinos collection of Royals and Celebrities left the exhibition. Killing two birds with one stone, I guess. We enjoyed marveling at the massive colorful cheaky snaps that had been put out for the public viewing. Some of the pictures just inspired you to be a celebrity just for the sheer bragging rights of having an amazing picture taken by the man himself, Mario Testino.  Testinos pictures capture not only the scene but character but also the personal space with the camera and the model, I really like the in-depth view he gave from most of his work.

 

 

Afterwards, to shake of the drizzly snow that was softly hazing over our clothes we headed to a small café called Pavement, which ironically is what we Brits say as the sidewalk. How lovely. Over bagels and mochas we caught up with Safaa who has just returned from a month of torturous (more sun sea and friends) travels in Brazil. Her pictures were almost MFA worthy of the beautiful coast lines with a dreamy sunset, the heat definitely sounded a lot more pleasing than the -16 degrees C we have been experiencing here.

you win some, you lose some.

Six nations this morning in the UK!! Quite exciting stuff if we were living back in Glasgow you’d be experiencing many many proud Scots stoatering about with their blue and white flashing, heading to the pubs for a beer or two to watch the Scotland vs England match in the Six Nations Rugby tournament.  I am not particularly a rugby fan, however I will watch the game to get a thrill out of the possible win against our rivals.  UK rugby is very intense, quite brutal and exhilarating to watch. Today we headed down to Brighton to the Green Briar, an Irish pub, to watch the match with many other, Irish, Scots and English.  Sadly cutting a long story short, we lost. We enjoyed the game though, cheering as we tried to win and pulling of rather impressive depressed faces every time the English cheered, and most importantly thoroughly enjoyed our sweet potato fries – my first time trying them – boy were they scrummmyyummy!

In the late afternoon, we scrubbed off our Rugby game faces and headed into Northeasterns campus, to join many domestic and internationals students celebrate the lunar New Year.  We ooh’d and ahh’d over dancers and performers sharing their amazing skills from traditional dances, warrior moves with even fight weapons, clapped and sang with the Chinese dragon that floated around blinking and winking and the crowds, ate traditional Asian cuisine and even tried on some Chinese attire for some photo opportunities! The night celebrated started with students wishing everyone a happy new year in many languages such as Chinese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Japanese – I had a great night emerged amongst many students all from different cultures and backgrounds- celebrating the lunar new year!