Back in New England...& back to blogging?!

Tunes:"Walcott"//Vampire Weekend

Months have passed, haven't they? I have honestly lost count of the times I've sat and thought to myself, "I should really go update my blog. Uncle Dave and Uncle Claude read this and ask about it. You should really go update everyone on how life's been." And the one thing that's stopped be this whole time? My blog title.

Ridiculously enough, I feel sort of silly now that I'm back in New England to be writing in a bog entitled "The Transplanted New Englander"...as I am transplanted elsewhere no longer. Finally I have gotten over that, realizing I will likely be on my way living somewhere else eventually, so I might as well keep the same name on here.

That is not to say that I intend on leaving anytime soon. True, I miss Virginia more than I had imagined I would. Some days it almost feels to be an ache for the place; I wake up, roll out of bed and completely forget that there's no mountains outside my door or a valley to explore, with countless farms to drive through and get lost amongst. When I play my favorite Emmylou Harris record and bake cookies, I can swear I'm still in Virginia. But I am not! Now you can find me residing on the 3rd floor of Shamie Hall at Nichols College in quaint (tiny) Dudley, MA. My apartment is awesome. My coworkers are amazing. I'm only an hour from Boston (and my best friend! Ricker's in Allston these days, it's great)...life is good!

Living here has been filled with a-ha moments, challenges and fights, to be honest. The students I'm responsible for (all 377 of them) are great overall, but goodness- some of them just like to get into tussles. I have never encountered such an challenging group...probably because drinking here is also a lot more commonplace, especially since this school is pretty secluded, leaving students with little to do on weekends. My student staff is fantastic; 11 driven individuals who do the job without asking a million questions about everything. They understand that sometimes they just gotta do what's asked of them. I bake them cookies every week for our staff meetings. :)

Aside from work life, things are going well enough. I'm still getting my bearings living in Southern Mass. I go to Boston just about every weekend to stay at Ricker, Ryan & Katy's. It gets me off campus and gets me around the kind of friends I don't have to think much about being around...they've known me for years, so it feels so comfortable with them. I seem to have also met a dude, but it's nothing even remotely serious. He's real cute and I like being around him, but he's about an hour and a half north up near UMass...so we don't hang often. My best friend from Virginia, Bianca, moved up here in July-- she's living in Nashua, which is sort of awesome. But her Americorps job at the Nashua Red Cross seems to keep her just as busy as me. Bummer. Hopefully seeing her this weekend, actually. Whew.

I'm also planning a visit to Virginia for next weekend to see friends and get another dose of the mountains/south/little grill before winter time comes. Eugh. Winter. I forgot how much I enjoyed not dealing with snow and freezing cold. Although, I am totally enjoying the beautiful fall weather right now. Mmm. That crisp, cold air. Nothing beats it.

So, there.
A proper update.
I'll be sure to be more on top of writing in here, getting pictures up and everything, soon. Much love from Dudley...you should come visit me! :)