My Summer so far...

I do work 40 hour weeks, but I have also had time for some fun, during my days off.

Home: I have been home( Thornton , NH) twice so far this summer. It has been nice to spend some time with my family and to explore new areas of New Hampshire. On one of my trips home, I went on a 8 mile bike ride with my mom. It was a lot of fun and really pretty. There are not a lot of places that you can go for a bike ride and see beautiful mountains the whole time.

Getting to See Nelson: Last summer I spent 7 weeks in Zambia with the Navigators. While there I lived with a man named Nelson and his wife and 4 little girls. I became really close to this family and have really missed them since I have been back in the US. This past month Nelson came to visit the US and made a stop in Massachusetts. So a week and a half ago I was able to drive to Burlington, Ma and see him for the afternoon. It was great to see him and catch up with him and hear about my Zambian family.

Me and Nelson

Wedding: Last weekend, one of my Roommates( Katy) and I traveled to Haverhill, Ma for the wedding of a friend of ours from UMass. It was a lot of fun. It was fun to celebrate with our friend and to see other friends at the wedding. We also spent the night at the house of some family friends that I have not seen in a while, so it was great to reconnect with them as well.

Friends at the wedding

This summer has also been a great time to relax, read at coffee shops, sleep in late( that is when I am not working at 7am), and hang out with friends.

My Summer with UMass Summer Conference Housing

This summer I am working on campus, with Summer Conference Housing Services. Over the summer some of the dorms at UMass turn into Hotels for different camps and conferences that come to UMass. I am a desk monitor at one of the dorms. So I get to sit a the "front desk" for 8 hours a day and check people in/out, let people into their rooms when they lock themselves out, smile at people when the walk by, give directions and answer questions. It has not been to bad so far. Most of the time nothing is really going on and I get to read, watch movies, go online etc.
I like all my co-workers, it has been fun to meet new people and all the guests are pretty nice for the most part. I have gotten to meet people from all over the world which is really interesting. So far I have met people from Africa, Brazil, Puerto Rico, India, Estonia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Taiwan and a few other places I can not remember. It has been fun to talk to these guests and learn a little bit about their home countries. It is also fun to ask them what they think of Amherst and have them respond saying that it is so beautiful here eventhough it has been raining the whole time they have been here.
So overall the job has been a good one and I am looking forward to seeing who else I will meet!

First Blog Post!

Hello Everyone,
I have been reading other people's blogs for a while and thought that it was time for me to start my own. In trying to decide what to call this blog and I thought it would be fun to write about my adventures in Amherst over the summer and give people an updates on my year of Grad School which I will start in the fall. So I came up with the ingenious title: Rachel's Adventures in Amherst!
I graduated from UMass, May 23rd with a Bachelor's in Psychology and a minor in Education. I am working on campus at UMass over the summer before I start my Masters program this upcoming fall.
I will wrote a separate post about my summer job and about what I have been up to so far this summer! Hope you enjoy!