Sorry I fell off the face of the earth there for a while. The end of summer tends to do that to me with all the frantic goodbyes. I tried to see my friends from home as much as possible and soak in the time with my family. We took a quick trip to Long Island to celebrate my grandma’s 80th birthday (a big year) and it was such a breath of fresh air to have my whole mom’s side of the family reunited. I hadn’t seen some of my cousins in what feels like forever. The weekend was a whirlawind of beach days, catching up, cousin bonding, and elaborate family dinners. I have attached some pictures below that well encapsulate the trip.
I always feel melancholy and nostalgic going back to school. I love DC, but leaving my family still takes its toll the same way it did for me my freshman year. It feels surreal that my siblings are entering their senior year of high school; I hate missing out on the day to day of their lives.
Despite bittersweet goodbyes, my return to DC was better than I could have imagined. My mom flew down with me on Wednesday and stayed until Friday afternoon. I ended up being upgraded to a bigger, nicer apartment near campus due to a mold problem in my old room and I lucked out with an incredibly sweet roommate: Mika. The moving in process was stressful because I hate unpacking, but I love how my room turned out. It feels spacious and homey and my bed is a dream to sleep on.
The rest of the apartment has a ways to go in terms of decorating, especially in the living room, but we have put up some lights and paintings and shifted around the furniture. The kitchen is also organized and I like my desk space a lot. On my list of things to buy is a rug for the living room and a full length mirror for the bedroom.
While my mom was in town with me, we stayed at my grandparent’s house in Bethesda. We shopped for everything I needed for my apartment at Target on the first and second day of us arriving in DC. We also took Anna out to lunch with us at Millie’s on the first day and took Maeve grocery shopping at Giant. On the last day Mom was with me, I took her to some of my favorite places near campus. We ate at Little Red Fox for breakfast, getting iced lattes and foxacados. Afterwards, we wandered over to Politics and Prose, where I saw my friend Alecia and Mom purchased a book. For lunch we drove in to Georgetown and ate at Los Cuates (she got fish tacos and I got chicken enchiladas).
The past few days leading up to the first day of school have been packed with seeing friends (Eliza, Akosua, Julia, Paige, Amanda, Deep, Alice, Syeda, Emaan, and many more). I have attached some photos that summarize welcome week and this past weekend in my life.
That brings me to today: the first day of my junior year. I woke up at 9 am, lazed around in bed, made myself some scrambled eggs for breakfast and a turkey sandwich for lunch and walked down to campus to get coffee with Alice at the Dav. I decided to wear something nice to start the year off right: a black linen button down midi dress from target and adidas sneakers.
I ran into Anying and Courtney and Maeve and Syeda also at the dav which was a welcome surprise. I ordered an iced chai which was a delicious way to start my day. My first class: Reporting is at 2:30 and then I have Digital Skills. I’m meeting the professor I’m TAing for at 1 pm to set up a plan for the semester. I have a really good feeling about this year and the people who are in my life. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days 🙂 I promise I’ll post more regularly.
The Bucketlister 