Thursday, October 2, 2014

The State of Mollie: October 2014

Well it's official, I have finally succeeded in overloading myself. Just one month in the second year of grad school is craaaaazy and I am a wee bit overwhelmed. I feel like I have been doing many things, everything, all the things all the time, which explains my month-long internet absence. But I miss blogging (aka writing for fun), so here I am back again!


To be clear, for the most part all the things are mostly good things that I am interested in and want to do. So, other than busy, what is the State of Mollie?

Well on the school front (I will keep this brief so as not to bore you), second year woohoo! I am taking four very interesting classes this semester -- internal wars, gender in conflict, corruption in post-conflict peacebuilding, and big data for strategic decision-making. Basically, if it has "conflict" in the title I'm there. I'm also auditing a French class three days a week just for funsies. I'm also working as a research assistant for one of my professors, and also as a writing tutor (making the monies, like ya do), and also as an editor of this journal. I also have a thesis to write and a job to find...gah enough stop pressuring me!

Apple crisp with homemade cinnamon ice cream!


But the great thing about second year is that you come back and already have friends, and therefore can really hit the ground running on the social front. I've been trying my best not to say no to any social invitations, which at some point will become unsustainable but for now is quite fun. Back-to-school has also meant back to weekly Wednesday Dinners, and ooooh I have some recipes to share with you! Boston cream pie. Apple tart with pastry cream. Apple crisp and homemade cinnamon ice cream. More on that later...

Kyle visited from Azerbaijan, so of course we went to a brewery.

On the weekend report front (oh dear oh my so much too much to report!), last weekend a big group of school friends went to New Hampshire to rock climb and hang in the beautiful White Mountains. We climbed at Rumney and it was awesome!


Speaking of New Hampshire, a couple weeks ago a different group of school friends -- 24 total -- did the Reach the Beach Relay Race and it was awesome! We started Friday morning at Cannon Mountain, and 207 miles and many many hours (approximately 29) later were at Hampton Beach. I ran 19 miles total, at an average of just under 7-minute pace. Considering the MOUNTAINS I ran at approximately 6pm and 3am, I'm pretty pleased with that.



Which brings me to running. In the wake of that most fun relay, we all got excited about running (obviously I am always excited about running) and signed up for the Baystate Half Marathon on October 19th! So I've been "training" -- doing some long runs, a couple workouts, ya know the usual. I've never done a half marathon before, so I'm pretty excited.

In addition to running, I renewed my rock gym membership and have been going to climb and stretch it all out with yoga a couple times a week. Clearly my "so busy" involves more extracirriculars than perhaps it should...but what can I say? I love fun activities.



In conclusion, the State of Mollie as of October 2014 is strong.