Thing Two?

Two days after coming home from Montreal, I was on the road again! This time to the Schenectady County Community College, to take a Biology CLEP test. I passed, so now I have 4 lab science credits at UVM! I stayed the night at my Aunt Peggy and Uncle Ron's house in Loundenville.
The following morning I took the train from Albany to Syracuse, which was probably the most relaxing mode of transportation I have ever taken. I was also surprised to find a lot of deaf people and high school musicians, all heading to Rochester.
I spent the next few days in and around Chittenago, New York. The main highlights were spending time with my relatives, learning who the Knicks were, and crying through a theatrical production of A Christmas Carol. My brothers then made fun of me by saying, "Louisa, a play and a water park!"
After the play, we were driving down Erie Boulevard in Syracuse, which is the extreme version of South Burlington, when my mom suddenly spotted a Polish market. We stopped, and were amazed at not only the inventory, but also how most of the costumers were from Poland, Ukraine and Russia. Also, the clerk kept on telling us not to get this because there was no flavor, or don't get this because it's stale. But, he also said that most of the inventory came from Green Point, an Eastern European neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Sunday we came home, but I was there for only an hour packing. I then went to my aunt's house in Norwich, so that I would be ready to commute the next morning to my Wilderness First Responder course on Lake Morey. That Monday, I was the last one to arrive, because of the weather, so that was a little awkward. Then I realized that I was the youngest in the class, and the least experienced! Everyone introduced themselves as being EMTs in Alaska or guides. When it finally came to me, I was so intimidated, that I just said that I took a WFA course in October. I felt like nobody needed to hear how I was on my gap year, and was in an outdoor based experiential learning program at my public high school in little Brandon, Vermont. I did drop things about myself here and there, but nothing too extensive, over the next ten days. But, I was there to learn, not to socialize, and I did acquire knowledge! I learned how to monitor vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate, etc.), clear the spine, form a traction splint, and how to make a makeshift liter.
In the beginning I felt like I was behind and didn't know what I was doing, mostly because I had no past medical work, but by the end I felt like if I really ran into someone that was critically injured
in the woods, that I would be able to help them the best that I was capable. 

Thing One!

Procrastination- I never thought I would use that word to describe myself, but here I am. The past three weeks have been very busy, so this post will have two entries. Honestly, I don't want you, readers, to feel like you're drudging through a long National Geographic article on angiosperms (I'm sorry if you're into that.)

Months ago my parents were thinking of spending Thanksgiving somewhere other than Vermont; St. Johns, Nassau, Bogota, etc. But once mid-November rolled along we couldn't imagine leaving New England in November! (I mean who can resist Vermont during the shoulder seasons.)
So the Tuesday before Thanksgiving we were Boston bound! We went to the Museum of Fine Art, and saw a really cool Singer Sargeant exhibit. My favorite exhibit, though, was Colonial America, mostly because I knew all of the artists from American Studies (I couldn't resist taking a picture of Watson and the Shark, even though the original is in D.C.)  That evening we went to The Christmas Story, which I really liked (I've never seen the movie) but my brothers hated it because they couldn't stand the child actors (go figure!)

The following day I had to go to the Spanish consulate in order to get my visa. I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. After standing in line for an hour it was finally my turn to hand in my paper work. The woman on the other side of the glass wall told me I didn't have everything, even though it didn't say on the consulate's website or in the visa instructions from CIEE that I needed two copies for everything. This got me a little angry, and I almost gave that woman a piece of my mind (she was really mean!) but my mother stopped me. She then told me about how when she was in Budapest, in 1985, she and her friends had to go to the Czechoslovakian embassy to get a visa in order to pass through Czechoslovakia to go back to Poland. When they went embassy was closed when they went, and her friends had a tantrum (despite being "mature" 23 year old women.) When they went back the next day, the people at the embassy refused to give them a visa because they acted so poorly. Being students, they had no money, but fortunately the US government was willing to pay for their tickets to fly over Czechoslovakia, but the moral of the story is to always be calm and respectful while at foreign embassies. Also, I almost forgot my passport there, then realizing that I was going to Canada. Hopefully I will get my visa before I leave!

Later that afternoon we went to the Isabelle Stuart Gardener Museum, which was someone's house. Everything was the way Mrs. Gardener left it, so there are no labels, the lighting was very dim (you want to go on a bright June day, opposed to dusk in late November), and it really needed to be clean. But, I felt like there were some interesting highlights, like the chapel that she made herself (she collected pews and religious art from Italy, and held mass once a year on her birthday), the empty frames of the paintings that were stolen in an art heist in 1990 (mostly Vermeers) and the Singer Sargeant paintings (who she had an affair with. Go figure!) My dad said it reminded him of Disneyland, whatever that means?

That evening we spent hours walking around Boston, following an iPhone GPS while walking (which does not work what so ever), looking for an Irish pub. The first one we went to we were kicked out because my parents were the only ones that were over 21, so we tried to look for another. We did not get anywhere (we stumbled into Chinatown, if that counts), so we had to take two taxis to the Charles Playhouse to see the Blue Man Group, which was awesome! Andrew actually knows a Blue Man in the New York production, and he contacted him to see if he would be in Boston, but he said that one of his friends was in it. So, Andrew wowed us once again by making a Blue Man speak.

Thursday was Thanksgiving, of course, and we headed to my aunt's house in Norwich to have a modern yet rustic Vermont meal. Since Thanksgiving is an iconic American holiday, my cousins and I thought it was a good idea to watch Borat. I mean, Borat is trying to find the REAL America!

Friday we headed to Montreal, which I hadn't been to in six years. I was amazed over how within three hours from Brandon, I felt like I was in a different culture. Yes, everyone bilingual and are nicely dressed, but I felt like I was in Europe due to the sense of sophistication from others, as well as the architecture and rich history. We stayed in an apartment in the Old City, which was interesting because it was above a bar that played very loud and profane rap after hours, but I was asleep through it all, so whatever! We were "musuemed" out, so we mostly ate our way through by going to several Marches, a Jewish delis (Schwartz?), and ethnic restaurants (Chinese and Polish.)