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!

 

 

 

 

Birthday bounces for Tanya!

Tonight in our weekly Zumba class which we shake it out for a full hour with the most amazing instructor I have ever had before, Ketty Rosenfeld.  She is full of happiness, exhilarating everlasting energy and just throws an hour long party for friends to sweat it out to. LETS ALL DANCE.

 

Today was even more fun when we ended the class singing to Tanya for her tenth birthday.  This girl is a fabulous young lady who has a fruitful future infront of her filled with happiness, love and success! I hope she had a great week of celebrations, entering a new decade into her life.

 

I am so happy to have met my Zumba friends in this class, and I enjoy our movie nights and little plans we make outside of the gym.

 

Lets all get fit for the future.

 

HappyHelpers!

Everyone appreciates a helping hand, and recently we have been giving the help of our little Scottish mittens to the Boston community. With the help of the NRHH student organization on campus, I have participated in some community service days around Boston with other students.

The first day of help we all grouped together after work and headed into south Boston to one of their community servings voluntary organizations.  This was a great way of experiencing what aid their was available to families which have a member who is extremely ill, unable to go out and get food to help them survive daily.  Community servings volunteers group together and form an almost production line, after our very serious healthy and safety talk, followed by giggles with everyone’s dazzling hair net poses- we got busy and the work began.  From preparing the packaging, filling the containers with food to be frozen for future meals, sorting and coding food and maintain all the highest cleanliness work area possible, we were all given an important role in the process of serving Bostons Community- Community servings.

The second day of help I, again joined the NRHH during their give five week and went to the Boston food drive organization for a day of separation and driving food to those in need of satisfying that HUNGER need.  The give five week organized by Northeasterns University was certainly an amazing week for students to get involved in organizations and events around them which opens there eyes to communities outside of the college campus.  I think it is important to also spread out to those around you, and surely makes you feel happy and giving knowing that you spent a good few grafting hours contributing to making others who need it, happy. Happiness in life is important- being able to share my everlasting happiness is just a great feeling.  Once we arrived at the organization we were informed that today was our lucky day. (isn’t every day a lucky day, if you make it!!?) But, today really was an interesting day food d rive colleagues as the Mayor of Boston had stopped by to help volunteer some of his time and give back to the Boston Community. After making note of the Mayor, as I had never seen him before- we let the hard work, once again, begin!

We all got to our little production line, which as a group had designated specific sorting roles t different people to run as smoothly and effectively as possible.  The results of the day were phenenominal, our amazing group had sorted tonnes of food, which we were informed would go out and help hundreds of people in Boston. Now if I don’t have a great sleep tonight after that, I don’t know what’s going on in my Brain.

For those of you out there who have not done anything voluntary before, I would highly recommend it!  Not only is it a great way of meeting people, helping those around you, boosting your ‘I AM REALLY NICE’ confidence, a great experience to learn and give back and the skills you adapt to whilst working for free in groups is also very interesting as you are not made to be there- it’s all on your merits.

So far, being in Boston I have now took part in the Boston Food Drive, Boston Community Servings, Walked the Boston marathon for Breast Cancer and participated on man student organization events helping with the behind the scenes, nitty gritty tasks which help the clubs host excellent gatherings and events for the Northeastern HUSKIES!

Technology makes things FUN

As I sit here and type on my new Microsoft RT, I am finding the slightest of things like checking my email and updating this, so much more exciting! (slight exaggeration… . ) but none the less, having this RT means I will now be able to sit on the T (as I am currently) and read, write, listen and watch things during my commute to work. Which is an hour both ways, sigh.

I cannot wait for the summer/spring to arrive as I will be able to walk in to work, of course not taking advantage of using the mighty RT but I will be able to get fit, get healthy! Onwards to advancing technologies…. …

These past few weeks I have also been fortunate enough to work from home.  During this extremely busy period of the Admissions Cycle, I have been allowed to save two hours commute daily, and work in the comfort of my own apartment. Being given this opportunity was very rewarding as my Supervisor trusted me to get on with my daily targets and goals, which I met and tried to exceed with the extra hours of work now available taking away my commute hours.  What a another experience to have. .. .

ICA Thrusdays

With the lovely arrival of a fellow scot (I’ll say she’s a scot for ease of typing she is actually from many different places, traveling around as a kid with her family, so a scot she shall be for the time being) we were keen to try and see some more of Boston, and there is nothing like a fee event which intrigues your interest over to the goody.  The ICA, The Institute for Contemporary Art, hold free nights every Thursday for Bostonians to experience and enjoy most of their exhibitions at free admission!  So, of course this enhanced our variables as to go or not to go and onwards we headed after work Thursday Night.  We met each another in Downtown Boston to stroll 15-20 minutes down the harbor to the location of the ICA. Nicely, we enjoyed the pretty festivities of fairy lights and sparkles around Faneuil hall, snapping a few evening shots!

The ICA was a hit, I thoroughly enjoyed their 70s/80s exhibition which was leaving the studios that week.

Ending the night with mochas in the restaurant, the staff welcomed the three of us in their suave surroundings, knowing we were only wanting to have coffees which I appreciated as the restaurant itself was very busy on the open night.