dance, sing, floss and travel.

I got some new yoga clothes the other day (lululemon: best yoga clothes out there for those of you interested; www.lululemon.com) and the bag was covered in awesome quotes... "dance, sing, floss and travel" being my favorite. What a great life motto. I think I've got all but the flossing down.

Now for the big news! I have a JOB starting tomorrow! I have been working with that temp agency I mentioned, went to a few interviews last week, and now I have a week long position starting tomorrow at Cambridge Associates; an international investment agency in downtown Boston. Not sure exactly what I will be doing but it pays and I am excited just to get out and finally start doing something with my life... hope to meet a few people too! Sounds like I may have a month long position at WilmerHale, a large law firm, starting right after this first position ends. YAYYY!

And another two day blizzard is headed to the northeast tomorrow - but that's almost expected at this point. It's been a whole 4 or 5 days since the last major storm! There is so much snow on the ground that the roads are shrinking to nothing, making it difficult for medical vehicles to get where they need to go. The city is talking about dumping the snow in the ocean??

a job? MAYBE??

I had my first interview today! I had applied for a few temporary positions through a temp agency called Beacon Hill Associates, played phone tag with them for about a week, and then finally got in for an interview this morning. I met with a woman who deals with temporary positions ranging from a day long to a couple of months and it went very well. She was super friendly, about my age actually, and she sounded like she would definitely be able to get me a few jobs lined up. I think temp positions will be great for me right now because they are probably not going to be my dream job but will still bring in money to pay rent while I search for what I really want to do. Plus the idea of committing to a 'real' job right now scares me. I'm not quite ready to be tied down for too long. I'm really hoping something comes out of the interview - It would be so great to start working and meeting people - do what I came here to do!

Pictures of the apartment are up - picasa album, right side of the page! I am clearly still getting settled in, and mid decorating but you will be able to get an idea of the place! It's starting to feel like home, and the the location could not be any better!

still alive...

Nothing too exciting to report from blustery Boston besides that I am already over this snowy, freezing, windy weather. A record breaking storm seems to blow in just about ever other day here. There is no place left for the snow to go - the mile high piles are going to be here til June. I look forward to the day when I don't have to pile on half my closet just to survive walking outside. On a positive note, it is pretty and I do enjoy sloshing around in my boots!

I am still working for my aunt, helping her pack and get ready for the big move to Zurich. Any free time I have I spend sitting at Panera (since I still don't have internet in my apartment) attempting to snatch up a job. To be completely truthful, I should be working a little harder on job applications. I seem to spend 25% of my time actually applying for jobs and the other 75% planning my next adventure. I pieced together an itinerary for a 10 day trip to Iceland this spring to see the aurora borealis and the hot springs - anyone want to join me? On the positive side, I have made contact with/joined the Boston Network for International Development, Boston Microfinance Club, and a few other non-profit networking type groups. Hopefully I will start attending events through those groups and at least meet people and learn something.

I also started doing Bikram yoga (hot yoga - series of poses) at a local studio and I love it! After attempting and failing to run outside a few times due to the extreme cold, I decided I needed some other way to stay in shape. I had always wanted to try Bikram and there is a great studio a few T stops from me. I've gone 3 days in a row now. It's fairly intense and you sweat buckets but I feel great afterwards. So hopefully I will keep going. I will need to whip out my exercise star chart again to keep me motivated.

In other news (this is a very me story) I drove to Maine in a blizzard earlier this week. What was supposed to be a scenic 2.5 hour drive to Lewiston, Maine for a mini Stellenbosch reunion with my friends Abbi, Rachel, and Rachel, ended up being a 5+ hour journey through zero visibility snows and icy roads. It was so cold that my windshield wipers froze over every 15 minutes or so forcing me to continually pull over to clear them off so that I could see out the window once again. At one point I had stopped in a random neighborhood off a random exit in New Hampshire to clear them off for the XX time, when I unknowingly dropped my phone in a snow drift. 15 minutes later as I pulled over to clear off the windshield wipers again, I realized I no longer had a cell phone. I did panic at this point and realized how very few numbers I know by heart - my own and home. Neither of which would have been any help at that moment. Anyway, it took me awhile but I was able to find that random New Hampshire neighborhood (I credit my favorite childhood game of Memory!) and after digging around in the snow, I found the phone. And it even worked! So I made it to Maine and had a great time catching up and reminiscing. I was risky (some called it stupid) enough to do the whole trip over again and drove back to Mass that evening. No accident. Still alive.

And I swear, pictures of the apartment are coming sooooon.

BLIZZARD!

I'm here for just over a week and already experiencing record breaking Boston weather! A blizzard blew in around 4 this morning with extremely strong winds and snow falling at about 3 inches an hour. Since my windows look straight into brick, and I have no tv or internet, I woke up this morning with no idea how much snow we had actually gotten. Turns out it was the worst blizzard since '78 or something like that. And I slept through it haha. Downtown probably ended up getting a foot and a half, while inland got 2+ feet. Public transportation was still running so I took the T out to my Aunt's and spent the day shoveling the incredible amount of snow and playing with my cousin. I seriously don't think I have ever seen this much snow. While I am finding that I am not a fan of the cold, I do love the snow. It is quite pretty and the city seems so calm with the white blanket of snow.

 

Boston... where no one knows my name

I have had many requests to keep my blog updated as I venture out on this latest adventure of mine so here I go! I will do my best to keep it as entertaining as possible! My life in Boston….

I departed St. Louis a week ago with just my car, minimal belongings, and my trusty GPS (which turned out to be not so trusty), bound for life-after-college in Boston. I drove a

total of 25 hours over Sunday and Monday, stopping only once each day for gas, and to sleep Sunday night in Zanesville, Ohio. It was a ton of driving but it wasn’t as bad as you would expect. I enjoyed belting out endless hours of BSB and Taylor Swift and watching the landscape transform as I inched from the Midwest to the East Coast. I drove through IL, IN, KY (not really on the way, I blame my not-so-trusty GPS), OH, WV, PA, NJ, NY, CT, and MA – most of the drive was quite picturesque and I found it interesting to see how the people, houses, terrain, etc changed as I drove. Had I not been so anxious to make it to Boston, it would have been fun to stop more places along the way. Besides the Kentucky detour, the only other major directions error I made was in NYC; which honestly it was fairly impressive that I only made that one. I got off on a wrong exit in what I believe to be Harlem, though I’m not quite sure. It really did not look like America to me so I knew it was best to get back on the highway as quickly as possible. From there I made my way to Oakham, MA (about an hour outside Boston) where I stayed the night with my South Africa roommate, Miss Alyssa Quartulli! It was so great (and strangely quite normal) to see her – I am so excited to have her nearby!

Tuesday morning I woke up and drove straight to my aunts (who lives in Boston). She took me to see the apartment, and has been helping me fix the place up, clean, get furniture, and move my stuff in ever since. I stayed at her house this whole week – it has made the adjustment a bit more relaxed, plus I have loved spending time with my 4 year old cousin, Kaisla. She is such a character! She is currently in the process of making me one of a kind artwork for my walls haha.

So everyone is curious about the apartment – it’s really not that bad! Definitely not what I expected to pay $1,300/month for someday but this is Boston! My aunt actually thinks I got a great deal haha. I was a bit bummed at first because it could use a lot of work but after some intense cleaning and a few trips to IKEA, it is starting to feel pretty homey. I made sure to get a large bed even though it takes up most of the space so as to entice people to come visit me! COME SEE ME! As long as I don’t have any insect or rodent friends move in, I should be fine. I have a decent bathroom, a fairly large closet, a living area, and a kitchen (worst part of the apartment by far, but still not awful). And I have a lovely view of bricks from the building next door! The best part of the apartment is the location though - I am super close to everything and in a fairly safe area. I am a block away from the T, a couple of blocks from a grocery store, and within walking distance of lots of unique boutiques and eating places. AND guess what?? A Panera just opened up two blocks from me - I swear I didn't even plan that one!

Overall, I think I am going to like it here. I am loving the city of Boston, the ability to walk everywhere, and the hustle and bustle of life here. I am hoping to find a job soon even just as a way to meet people. The first person I met was a 70-something year old man with missing teeth (just the sort of male I was hoping to meet haha) that lives in my apartment building – he ranted for a good 15 minutes about our awful landlord (great!). Anyway, hopefully I will have more friends my age to speak of soon! Until then, I am enjoying watching all 4 seasons of the O.C. in my new bed (the unemployed cannot afford cable!)