5 Randoms

Dear Familia, 

There are quite a few things that I think I would love tell everyone about, but I just never have time. So here are 5 random things that you might be interested in hearing about:

Farmer's Markets- super expensive, but I try to go as often as possible. There was a 2 week stretch when I didn't get food for the house once. It was not good. 

My 1st Haul

Hurricane Irene- by the time Irene got to us I'm pretty sure she had been downgraded to tropical storm. There was a lot of wind and rain. Since I wasn't in the ramshackle structures of Guatemala, I survived just fine. However, the tree across the street did not. 

Taken from my 2nd story window

I miss these guys A LOT. Sam didn't come to the bridal shower, otherwise he would have been in this photo as well. 

So cute!

I make a pretty mean Gold Star (think Gold Fish cracker)...Deb from Smitten Kitchen strikes again :)

GoldStars...Yes, I am a nerd. 

Busted out the cool weather comforter I bought from Ikea. Not ready for the sub-zero temps, but at least by bed is ;)

Yes, I need to decorate the walls

Love,

Jem

Boston Local Food Festival

Dear Familia, 

I think I can stop apologizing for my lack of updates. Y'all understand that grad school + wedding + long distance engagement mean that I have zero time for fun things like blog posts. 

I really haven't been up to all that much other than school except for a couple of things. One: Alysha's wedding. Post to come very soon on that one. Two: Boston Local Food Festival. Saturdays I usually try to do at least one thing that doesn't fit into the "grad school + wedding + long distance engagement" equation. A couple of Saturdays ago, I hit up a Boston food festival. It was a festival devoted to food so you know I loved it. Haha. 

This Saturday I am going to do another something VERY fun, but it's a big secret so I will wait to tell you about it until Monday. Anyway, some highlights from the food festival:

First Buy: Pita Chips to go with the gallons of hummus I eat these days

Grilled Cheese Truck. Done and Done. 

2nd Lunch...the market veggie sandwich

Happened upon the beginnings of Occupy Boston on my way home

So there you have it. A quick fun post. Hopefully I can do some posts on my classes soon. Basically they rock, so I definitely want to tell you all about them :)

Love,
Jem

My Sugar Daddy

 Dear Familia, 

Ok, don't get the wrong idea from the title. Hear me out. In honor of our anniversary, I would like to share a little story about my amazing my fiancé. 

While in DC this summer there was never ending talk about who has the best cupcakes. In Georgetown, there were 3 major contenders: Sprinkles, Baked & Wired, and Georgetown Cupcake. All Summer I wanted to do a taste comparison of the three, but for one reason or another it never really happened. Well, to be honest one of the biggest reasons was that you had to literally wait in line outside of Georgetown Cupcake to try one of those babies and it was hotter and stickier than even 2 minutes outside could justify. Haha. I still really wanted to try them all, but between school and the wedding and the move it just didn't seem like it would happen. 

THEN, one evening close to when I was heading off to Boston, Zane came home with a surprise...

The packaging 

Yep, that amazing man of mine had gone to all three bakeries, waited in line outside of Georgetown Cupcake and bought me 3 red velvet cupcakes. It's in the details ladies, and Zane has that down pat!

Baked & Wired

Georgetown Cupcake

Sprinkles

The Three Contenders 

I bet you're curious as to who came out on top, yes? Well I broke it down:

Frosting- Georgetown Cupcake
Cake- Sprinkles
Presentation- 3-way Tie...they all were great
Value- Georgetown Cupcake (the smallest, but also the cheapest)

Winner: Georgetown Cupcake...although if I were craving a cupcake, I wouldn't wait in line over it. I'd definitely pop into one of the other two shops. Or I could even try out one of the other DC cupcake shops :)

Ok, that is your story for the day. I am going to make it my goal to make a post about Boston soon. I'm actually caught up after today so I will have some time to update everyone.

Love,
Jem

Orientation 1

Dear Familia,

Yesterday I had my first official day at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government(HKS). It was our first day of orientation :) We were at HKS from 8 am to 5 pm doing various activities, but I was pretty happy because we finally got a better idea of what the program entails. In the morning the large group (MPPs, MPAs, MPA-IDs, etc) got together in the forum (where the most ridiculously amazing speakers come every year) for the Dean's address. They had displayed all the flags of the countries represented by this year's incoming class and it looked very cool. I think there are over 40 countries in our class!

It was definitely a full day...we were at the school from 8 am to 5 pm. I stopped back home for a bit before I headed back to meet up with about half of the class (100+ people) to go on a boat cruise down the Charles River. I definitely had a lot of fun...I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, but here are a few :)

A couple of shots looking over the river from the bridge that meets up with JFK street.

Our boat and the bar on the boat. Still not a drinker, but they set up a snack station after this so you know I was definitely all over that!

The sunset was completely gorgeous!

I got home a little after ten and went to sleep shortly after b/c we had another long day today. Luckily, we had a long break in between the massive amounts of information. A couple of my classmates and I checked out a Harvard staple, Mr. Bartley's Gourmet Burgers.

I got the "Drew Faust (Harvard Prez)" which was a veggie burger with feta and red peppers. It was pretty decent, the bun was buttered and toasted which I definitely liked. It was really nothing too great though and at $10 even for the plain jane burger, I probably won't be going back anytime soon.

At the end of the day all 215 MPPs (master of public policy) got up in front of everyone to do a 15 second intro. Some were funny, some were awkward, most were just normal (mine included). We learn all about registration tomorrow and we have some other fun things planned for the rest of the week so I will be sure to do at least another post about orientation before the end of the week.

Love,

Jem

This Weekend

Dear Familia,

Sorry for the long absence. It's been a crazy past few days! I've been doing Apple stuff everyday since Thursday and it was Zane's Dad's 60th birthday on Saturday. Zane's Mom did an awesome job throwing him a big surprise party and we all had a great time. It was catered by a lebanese restaurant and the food was delicious. I will post a follow up just on the food. Oh and we had our marriage prep class! It was all about finances which I think may have been uncomfortable for some people. We had some great facilitators though that made things pretty fun.

I fly to AZ on Friday for a 10 day wedding planning extravaganza and Tara and Kaiya's birthdays :) Zane and his Mom are flying out for the holiday weekend to check on reception venue possibilities as well as where guests can stay. Should be very fun and I will hopefully have some exciting updates to the wedding website when I get back.

Love,

Jem