One year later...lovely summer.

the delicious wine/restaurant at a super small, tiny village in chianti...
yorkshire
my second mom :)


mike and me...such a fab day.
the humber bridge and river a few houses down the street from our old house at 19 humber road, north ferriby
looking for puffins in flamborough head...we used to go hiking here on the weekends with the rents etc....


pat and john

teaaaaaaaaaa

my class in rome
my fave classmates
i think i did like 3250382 million people's makeup that week...in return i received champagne, gelato, and unlimited use of my roommates hairdryer...totally worth the trade.
espresso time

we would just sit and have class...and talk about policy etc. lovely roma.

sorrento
julie and i had our first grad class together...shes my age and a teacher...and she likes awkward photo shoots. obviously we are friends.

the blue grotto in capri


capri

speech time...it was a bit awkward..but mostly fun

pompeii
sitting in the dorm having convos...the usual.
sooooo drumroll please...this is what the sistine chapel looks like sans tourists.

We had a private tour of the Vatican after hours and got to take as many pictures as we wanted...and it was just our group of 60 in the whole place...we were in the Sistine chapel for an hour just having class, talking, looking, etc...very cool.


my professor

they had baby kittens at loyola's rome center...obsessed!
how i looked for the week before class...sweaty, tired, and falling over with the weight of my backpacks and school books.
pretty cinque terre
the med
village and vineyards in chianti

6 am in the wimbledon queue...no food, sleep, or shower...so excited.
with my wonderful, dan in la

blue claw crabs and grandpa :)


full house!!!!!!!1

CUA alum in CALI
pit stop on highway 1

golden gate bridge...and lots of fog.

Well, helloooo....it's been exactly one year since I left Ktown. Perfect time for a blog update? I think so...well, that and i'm taking a break from writing. I think I have the most painful writing process ever....I sit for 30 minutes, think, type a sentence...edit that sentence...type two more...then 30 more minutes...etc. etc. etc. I can't help it! It's weird, the only thing I'm a perfectionist about is writing...and its very painful. Luckily, I'm in the final stretch of my master's (although, recently I've admitted to myself and family that I'm pretty sure I want to go get my phd in a few years and hopefully become a professor someday) This is bizarre because I definitely never thought about this growing up, or in college, or even working...basically it went something like this: i was in italy, sitting in on my last graduate lecture ever (which just randomly happened to be as St. Peter's Basilica) and i thought, hmmmm...i want to do this. i want to be a professor. i need my phd...cool, looks like i'll be going back to school). So yea, we'll see how/when/if that happens. But that's neither here nor there.

Moving on...
It has been the most marvelous and lovely summer and past few months ever. Seriously. Lovely, amazing, addicting, challenging, you name it, there's an adjective that will fit.

Too much to go into detail about...but I will in the near future...however, since it's my year anniversary of both leaving Korea AND starting grad school, i deemed this post necessary, even if it's just a bunch of pictures and mumbles amidst my caffeine induced disjointed thought process...

So, CLIFFNOTES VERSION:
MAY - friend's wedding and roadtrip from DC to New Orleans...very fun. love my college friends.
JUNE - independent study, job applications, getting ready to leave for England/Italy
END OF JUNE and JULY - England...met up with the lovely Sarah in London where she was working. I've been lucky enough to have visited london many times but this was different. we did absolutely nothing and a whole lot of everything. Basically, we had two days to hang out before I went to Italy...and we ran around london laughing, drinking wayyy too much coffee, and decided to campout at Wimbledon and got court two tickets and saw the most amazing matches from the 7th row...in the words of the Brits, BRILLIANT!!! However, we were not prepared and showed up at 11:45 pm (almost didn't get court tickets had we come five minutes later) and everyone thought we were joking when we told them we were there to camp-out. Why??? Because EVERYONE had tents and huge sleeping bags...it was legit queues in a big field and it was camping...and we didn't even have an extra sweatshirt. not smart. luckily, some 20/21 yr old british boys from yorkshire invited us into their tent and we spent the night with them (but don't worry, we had previously met a nice man and his son who promised they would check up on us)...anyways, we hung out with the boys outside and found out that they went to my elementary school in hull! soooo, of course you could imagine the ridiculousness that followed about us laughing and being so weirded out that the american and canadian girls at wimbledon had a yorkshire connection...it was funny, random, and oh so typical of the adventures i have with sarah. needless to say, london and wimbledon were awesome and it was a fabulous little event :)
JULY - italy...
I spent about 8 days before my graduate class in rome backpacking with a girl from my grad program. We started in rome, then venice (which im not a fan of), florence, a small small village in chianti, cinque terre, florence, then rome...everything was amazing, of course. I really loved this tiny, tiny village we went to in chianti. we basically just walked around, talked to the locals, ate gelato, and had the most amazing wine at this little outdoor family-run pavilion restaurant.

Then it was off to Rome for class. Rome is wonderful as im sure you all know. Class was super cool too. people, fun/funny/energized/tense/random conversations at night after class...and just wonderful. lots of time to think and talk...i guess that's what happens when you put 60 m.a./phd 20/30 somethings in one dorm after a day of school...and wine.
we went on a weekend trip to pompeii, sorrento, and capri. gorgeous. reminded me a lot of croatia actually.

then after rome, i went back to england (but this time yorkshire) and stayed with our family friends, the toes. their son mike and i are the same age and hung out on countless weekends when i lived in england. we had the best time reconnecting and just wandering around being kinda bizarre and doing the most random things...and lots of laughing, and posing for pics, etc. and pat and john, my parent's friends, are seriously like my second parents...im lucky my dad randomly met john when he was living in england before my mom and brothers and i moved there....so yea, it was fun..and we went on lots of fun little trips over yorkshire and stopped at the occasional pub or two...

then went back to WI/CHI to do some thesis research/finish my independent study...which i can happily say is FINISHED NOW!!!!...sadly, i missed my family reunion which my grandparents do every two years in door county. buttt, thanks for all the calls/and newspaper clippings grams and pops..you guys are awesome, obviouslyyyy

AUGUST - back in DC, then went to NY to visit my grandpa and cousins. some of the best days i've ever had in long island...hung out with my grandpa, ate lobster, went to the airport, did the flight simulator with my grandpa's instruction,...andddd we bought blue claw crabs and took them home for a dinner..deliciousness.

then, i had a free ticket from airtran from way back last december and i knew i needed to use it up before starting work next week (i'm teaching and coaching after-school middle school classes at georgetown day school, very excited)..soooo, i went to LA to visit my friend, Dan. We were in LA then drove up highway 1 all the way to san francisco listenting to the most random mix of the glee soundtrack, drake, matt wertz, rihanna, and kina grannis....

I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO..the only city i've been to in america (besides dc of course) where i've always wanted to live...and it certainly did not disappoint. dan met up with some friends there and i met up with my cousins' cousin...whom i've known from family functions etc. he was a great tour guide and it was great.

then back to LA...also one of my best friends from college, natalie, just moved back there so it was great to see her/hang out and have two of my favorite people meet.

sooo, thats a major cliffnotes version of everything until now. currently working on my thesis before a big deadline on wednesday and work starts this monday. going to the cubs/nationals game tonight in DC...

going to new jersey and new york over labor day weekend....and the annual trip to the us open!!! 2 out of 4 majors in one year...i know, im very lucky :)

so, luckily i start work next week. it was very frustrating having to quit my 35 hr a week schedule at the end of the school year so i could move and finish my degree....i don't like not working. so, thankfully the universe threw me a bone and here i am...my last week of "freedom" before starting work again.

ok that is all..if you made it this far then wow, thank you!!!! love you all...of course i love updates with everyone...such a fun time in life and love celebrating everyone's lives together obviously.......but most importantly, thanks for sharing mine with me...you are all simply lovely!

ok ughhh thesis time...the 30 minutes is up. blahhhh.

xoxoxo
maureen