Here are two pictures of where I work, WorldTeach. In the street shot, my building is the one in the distance, directly under the traffic signal. Its about a 10-15 minute walk from my dorm. Yesterday I helped work the Harvard Career Forum, where we had a table informing people about our organization. Some other companies there: Microsoft, Oracle, Disney, Abercrombie and Fitch, Google. Much bigger names than at the UCF career fairs!

Today I went to "What the Fluff?" It was a festival in honor of Marshmellow Fluff that was invented here in the early 1900s (I think 1917?). Pretty strange. They had a bake-off and Fluff food for sale.

Here's a picture of a Harvard classroom taken right before my School Reform class ------>

• I found out that I'm running unopposed for my SGA position as V.P. of Health, Wellness, and Athletics. I guess that means I'll need to start setting good examples by eating better and exercising more! I am excited to play some football, go on outings, and get SGA to pay for food and activities!

• My friend Mike and I are starting to plan a trip to Salem in October. Here are some activities I found: http://www.hauntedhappenings.org/attractions.htm

• Chandler and I also talked about a ski trip sometime with his sister. Probably early 2007. My parents and I are currently planning a post-graduation trip in June to explore Cape Cod. Right now we're thinking about visiting Plymouth, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and other areas of the Cape. If anyone has been there before and has any advice, please share!

• Also, if you are thinking about coming up to visit, here's a link to Harvard's academic calendar so you can see days I have off: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/academics/calendar/index.shtml This semester I don't have class on Thursday or Friday, so those days would probably work for me too! I think the ski slopes up here open the end of November and I'll probably be in Boston until around Dec. 20. Just let me know and we can work something out!

This weekend's fun:


Saturday night we celebrated Eric and Doug's birthdays. They are the two guys on the ends of the bottom pic. Then on Sunday I visited Harvard's Natural History Museum. Pretty neat since it is free for students! I have to do some intellectual activities while I'm here!




Couch pic 1- Lorenzo, Elizabeth, me, Mike
Couch pic 2- Doug, Rachel, Elizabeth, me, Serra, Mike, and Eric

First week of classes
Whew! This has been a pretty crazy week! I've had so much paperwork and things to get straightened out, but I think most everything is finished. Now I just have to worry about my classes! So far the readings have been quite long, so when I'm not in class I'll be reading. This week I had orientation for my work, WorldTeach. They are a non-profit organization that sends volunteers to teach in developing countries. Don't worry, I am not going overseas- I'm just working in the office :) Here's there website if anyone wants to check it out: www.worldteach.org I officially start working next week.

This week I applied to run for a SGA position in the Health, Wellness, and Athletics committee. If I get voted in, I'll help organize events for the Ed. school. One of my friends is running for President and another is running for the Social committee. We'll see how elections go over the next few days. In addition to running for political office (haha, that sounds funny), I'll also be playing intramural co-ed flag football for my dorm. I'm pretty excited. That should start in a few weeks.

PS The picture is a shot of Boston and the Charles River from the above-ground portion of the T.

Today was my first Harvard football game! It was pretty fun since 17 of us went together! I organized some of the people in my program to all buy season tickets together, so games will be great! It was a little disappointing to see the stadium so empty! In a way it was nice because we could sit so close. I do, however, wish more people had school spirit! I know everyone will come out for the Yale game because its supposed to sell out. I guess going to one game is better than none. Today we beat Holy Cross 31 to 14. I heard that today UCF didn't have such luck. Too bad. It's understandable to be beat by UF, but not USF! Enough chit-chat, I need to get some reading done for my first class on Monday!

My busy Orientation week has come to an end! As you can see in the photo, some of us in my program have really enjoyed getting to know each other! But note that I am not in the photo, because I was the sober photographer! Always responsible.

Today I registered for classes and here's my schedule:
M/W School Reform: Curricular and Instructional Leadership
W Social and Moral Development
W Second-Language Teaching and Learning
Field Experience/work: at an organization called WorldTeach
The second half of the semester I have a Classroom management module on Tues

Tomorrow is the first Harvard football game of the season, so I need to save up my energy. I organized a group of 15 of us ed schoolers to buy a block of season tickets. I'll take a nice pic and post it here soon. Go Crimson! (and good luck to UCF too because deep down I'll always be a Knight!)

This photo was taken at Harvard's Opening Exercises for the Class of 2010. I know I'm not a freshman, but my new friend Mike and I crashed and pretended we were. In the photo the President of Harvard, Derek Bok, is speaking at the podium. We wanted to see him and see what the ceremony would be like because the Education school's ceremony wasn't quite as grand. This one was pretty nice, and the setting was gorgeous.

Today, Monday, was my first day of orientation at the Grad School of Education. We met the dean, our program director, my advisor, and all 50 of the students in my program. All this week we have meetings, mini-classes, and activities with the ed school. Not to mention, lots of free food! Today lunch and dinner was provided and tomorrow we get breakfast! That gives us a nice break from the hectic schedule we have planned. Free food is always a plus. Tomorrow and Wednesday we meet with professors and decide what classes we want to take. This time called "course shopping" seems like a nice way to choose which courses we want. Better than just randomly picking a class based on a one paragraph description. Once I decide on my courses, I'll post them here, so stay tuned!

Here are pics of my dorm room! The last one is a view from my 4th floor window- pretty nice!

I've survived a week in Boston. Chandler flew back to Florida today, so now I am officially on my own.

In chronological order, here's a summary of the random people I ran into my first week:
-The dorky/akward law student from Legally Blonde
-Tracey's parents
-A girl that Chandler was an RA with at UCF
-Reese Witherspoon! She was staying at our hotel on our floor!
-Theo from Road Rules (I don't watch MTV much but Chandler recognized him. We rode the T with him to the airport.)

I guess Boston is a pretty popular town! I'll keep you updated on any more celebrities that I run into. I hope there'll be many more!

Well, here I am: in my Harvard dorm (second picture is outside my dorm). When I first walked in my room on Friday, my initial impression was, "This must be like what prison cells looks like." Now with all my stuff moved in its much better (less depressing) but by no means luxurious. The room is on the fourth floor (no elevator) and is 111 square feet. The bathroom is two doors down which is convenient- but not as convenient as my own private one. I must now get used to shower shoes and carting my toothbrush and towel in a cheesy plastic caddy. Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom won't be fun- especially if I forget my key and get locked out of my room. This whole experience will definitely make me appreciate UCF much more. I didn't realize how nice I had it in Academic Village or The Vintage on the Green.

Yesterday Chandler flew in to Boston, and today we spent two hours walking around downtown Boston. We also had my first grocery shopping experience. We took the T (subway- see picture) one stop to Whole Foods and proceeded to carry four bags of groceries back onto the T and up the stairs to my room. City life is definitely going to take some getting used to. My feet have been killing me from all this walking. I'll post some more comments here soon and I'll be adding more pictures to facebook. I'm still trying to figure out this whole blog thing. Hope you're doing well- I miss you all!