Ocean Beaches!

After work yesterday, I left with my family to drive an hour and a half away from Portland towards the coast to beautiful Manzanita, Oregon. Every summer, we try to rent a small house along the coast and spend a long weekend there to relax and hang out. It ends up always being a blast because we have certain things we always do in town and we team up into teams to make dinners. Now that we have a new puppy (she's 2 years old now!!), it's also really fun to take her out running and watch her go crazy in the sand, chasing birds.

The coastline along Manzanita

The tiny grocery store and deli

Beautiful sunset!

It was a really beautiful day here yesterday and hopefully will continue to be a beautiful weekend! Wherever you guys are, I hope it's also sunny! This trip to the beach is so symbolic to me as a return to fall and to school, so it's strange that this summer it signifies my new adventure abroad in a completely different setting for school.

As always, questions are welcome! I'm bored over here in Oregon! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

Cookin' in the kitchen

Being home for me has been such a fun and relaxing thing to do this summer. I am so happy to have decided to come home.... and mostly because I am a huge fan of my kitchen and how the pantry is stocked and I can cook for my whole fam!

Lately, I have been experimenting a lot, not only with stir fry, delicious salads, fruit concoctions, but also baked goods! This afternoon, in the lovely heat of the sun, I decided to fire up the oven and make some scones.. who doesn't love scones?

I took  on a whole wheat raspberry scone because I wanted to incorporate the delish raspberries I've been picking at a u-pick farm out near my house. They turned out amazing!!!

I love Smitten Kitchen, a food blog, and she always makes delicious stuff and has step by step pictures like the one I posted below here-

Try something out, you may fall in love :) No idea how long these scones will last...

:) Marisa

Birthday Weekend

Hi everyone!

The famous carrot cake that I must have every year...

I just celebrated my 20th birthday this weekend at home. It was a really fun weekend full of housesitting (not eventful but profitable), sushi, tapas, carrot cake, family, friends, and phone calls from friends far away! I was so happy to hear from many of my GW friends who are working in DC this summer. Several of my professional sorority sisters left me a sweet voicemail with all of them singing happy birthday. My best friend from home also got me these enormous blown up silver balloons that took up my whole car when I had to drive them home from her house. It was really fun. 

In other news, nothing is going on : ) I am just enjoying the relaxing summer that is somehow continually rainy here!! Work is going well even though at times I feel like I am doing a lot of database work. The good thing is is that I am doing work that my supervisors would be doing if I weren't around, so I feel good about that and it feels like I am really helpful to have around. 

Hope everyone is doing well and hope to hear from you if you have any questions! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu

- Marisa

Portland Chillin'

I'm loving being home, but it does get lonely at certain times. I am so happy to have a few friends here and to be doing really great things, yet at the same time it feels so different than high school. In a way, this is my first summer home from college only because I studied abroad last summer and was only in Portland for two 3 week intervals. It felt like holiday break twice, instead of a long drawn out spell of hanging out, working, relaxing, and doing fun things. I do think I made the right decision in deciding to move home because that way I can work an unpaid internship without worrying about room and board (it is so expensive to live on GW campus during the summer or to find an apartment to rent for just a few months!). But at times, I wonder if there would be a cool internship waiting for me in DC. Maybe next summer. Who knows!

Anyway, I thought I'd update you all on some things I have planned for July. My birthday is coming up this weekend and it's making me feel like this summer is passing by so quickly!!!

The Oregon Country Fair was last weekend and I went on Saturday. Can you say crazy awesome hippie town? It was amazingly fun and a new experience for me.

I'm also planning on going to a Fleet Foxes concert, berry picking, and more. If you're a new student or a perspective student with any questions, as you can tell, I have a lot of time on my hands! Get at me with your questions :) marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu.

- Marisa

Summer Livin'

Hi everyone!

Hope your summer is going well. Mine has been much busier than anticipated! I initially chose to intern Tuesdays and Thursdays, and then got a second internship for Wednesdays. Now, I am also babysitting and petsitting and leaving myself little time for the reading, room painting, relaxing, and cooking that I expected to be doing all summer! But it is fun to be busy and I'm happy to have some money coming in to compliment by unpaid internships :)

I am also continuing to prepare for my study abroad which begins at the end of August. Chile awaits, and I am so excited to head down there. I will probably post more about this later, but I am starting to think about what I'll need. I decided that I'm going to see if I can fit everything into a backpacking backpack in order to make traveling really easy. I'm not sure I can travel that light though. We'll see!!

My internship has had me outside a lot lately which is nice and Portland, Oregon, has been beautiful! Hope the sun is out for all of you as well! Happy Summer Solstice!

As always, questions are welcome! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

Summer Internship Begins!

Hi everyone!

As I get settled into life at home, lounging around is starting to cease as my summer internship starts. Though it's only 2 days a week, it ends up being very time consuming and getting up early is something I am not yet used to :) I am working as an Action Center Intern for Mercy Corps, which is a global aid non-governmental organization that works in countries that have experienced natural disaster or conflict.

The Action Center is a way for Mercy Corps to expand on their love for global engagement. Mercy Corps is trying to make it a hub for activism in Portland, Oregon, on issues that Oregonians and citizens worldwide face. There are museum-quality multimedia exhibits and this summer, the Action Center is running some summer programs that I will be helping with. I am really looking forward to it!

Because this internship is only 2 days a week, I am going to be taking advantage of a few other opportunities at home. I'll keep you all updated!

marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu

- Marisa

Home Sweet Home!

Hi everyone,

Sorry for being so MIA lately! After finals, I haven't had the energy to even look at a computer screen or type out coherent words :) Now, almost 2 weeks later, I am getting back into business and looking forward to hearing from all of you and your decisions that you've made whether it be to come to GW, to sign up for a co-curricular program, or to live in Madison Hall.

So what have I been up to since finals? Well, I flew immediately to Los Angeles to meet up with my best friend from home and we spent the next week driving up the coast on Highway 1 and Highway 101- the scenic routes up the ocean to Portland, Oregon! I thought it would be fun to share some pictures:

Sketchy little bridges were part of the drive

Climbing up a mountain in a Mini Cooper is difficult

Waterfall into the ocean

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz! Look it up, very cool

Museum of Modern Art San Francisco (this is a matchbook!!!)

Fortune Cookie Factory, San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge!

Elk on the road in Northern California!

Since the roadtrip, I've been relaxing, babysitting, catching up with friends and setting up my internship. I'll tell you all about it soon when I know more information!!

As always, send me your questions! marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu

- Marisa

Back at GW

Hi everyone,

Finally back on Colonial soil :) I got back to Building JJ last night and have pretty much been sleeping since. My flight was early on Saturday and I've also come down with a pretty bad cold, starting last Tuesday, that has kept me doing low-key activities. I'm glad I was home for most of the sickness but it would be great if it could clear up now so I could get to work without feeling exhausted and drained.

My roommates are slowly making their way back today. The girl I share a room with went on an Alternative Spring Break to Nicaragua with GW Hillel, one roommate went home to Minnesota, and the other went to Bonaire with her dad to go scuba diving! Pretty cool. I felt like the boring one because I went home to a week of rain but oh well.. it was worth it to hang out with my family and relax.

Now, I'm just trying to get a headstart on all the work I have coming up this week. It's crazy how soon this semester will be over! I'm also applying to some internships and reaching out to some cool places in Portland so I'll keep you posted as to what I end up setting up for this summer. I already have a babysitting gig for two nights a week which will be nice, but otherwise I'll need something to do!

Ideas for where I should intern in Portland, Oregon or need ideas of what to do for your summer? Let me know :) marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

Day of GW in Portland

Hi everyone! Today at home in Portland, Oregon, I had a wonderful visit from a friend and her friend who both go to GW. The girl I don't know just moved out to Oregon and so my friend has been spending the week with her in Hood River, which is a beautiful spot along the Columbia River outside of Portland.

Hood River, Oregon

They decided to come into town and I showed them some spots I love. Basically, we ate our way around :)

Voodoo Doughnuts

Stumptown Coffee

Vivace Crepes

Well I hope you've enjoyed some of my Portland favorites. I'm off to babysit and then to see my friend who is also home from school!
marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

Spring Break Holdups

Of course, I can never take any type of transportation without a glitch. First it was Megabus from New York back to DC, and yesterday it was Amtrak from Seattle home to Portland. This weekend, once I got home to Portland, I traveled up to Seattle to visit a few friends who go to school at the University of Washington and Bellvue Community College.

It was a great weekend, including Pike Place Market (an infamous stop in Seattle), Whole Foods almond cookies, longboarding (I'm not good at all), Lord of the Rings, getting my ear pierced (very Northwest, I know), and hanging around eating good food!

Pikes Place

My new favorite almond crescent cookies

Now, I am safe and back in Portland but only after torrential downpours in the Northwest that led to mudslides on the railroad tracks. They arranged for buses to take us back to Portland which wasn't too bad except that I couldn't plug my computer in to do some homework. Oh well :)
marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu
- Marisa

A Care Package

Today I picked up a care package put together by my one and only mother! Since Freshman year my mom has been putting together odds and ends things and sending them to me randomly during the semester.  (She even sent one to me in Sydney!!)

She packs everything into a Flat-Rate Shipping box from the post office and it is here pretty quickly.  She mailed it out on Saturday, it was at GW on Monday.  I would have picked it up sooner, but package services never sent me an email :(

If you live in a GW residence hall all of your packages go through Student Package Services.  This means you don't have to be around to sign for a package.  They sign for all of them and then contact the students.  There is some processing time, but it isn't as bad as waiting around your room for the mail man.

My favorite installations of this package were the Trader Joe's gift card of course and the Valentine's themed socks!  I also always appreciate the loads of candy she send me, but she is never forgetting about the effects of the candy on my teeth.  So you can see she included a new tooth brush! (It's the little things in life...haha)

What would you want in a college care package??

Don't forget to email me!

Kim