Sarees, Sorries, and Saint Petersburg

What started off as a whirlwind ended as one as well. Full of beautiful sunsets, the gorgeous Vermont mountain-scape, and some amazing new friends summer 2012, my LAST summer as an undergrad, was unexpectedly a success! After two short weeks home from Russia (which was juuuust enough time for me to unpack, store all of my winter clothes, repack, and FINALLY get my first car) it was time for me to ship up to Burlington where I interned with Vermont EPSCoR, researching adaptations to climate change in the Lake Champlain Basin area. I had applied for this position early in the Spring semester while I was still in Russia.
How did I get information about such an amazing opportunity happening here in Vermont all the way from Saint Petersburg? Saint Michael's Career Development Office sends out emails regarding intership positions, full and part time job opportunities and notices about career development workshops throughout the year. When I saw the email regarding the PAID full-time summer internship position, I got right on the ball applying, updating my resume, and coordinating a letter of recommendation from a professor in India I took a course with the semester before. The internship experience was great, but it was also wonderful to spend a summer living in the amazing city of Burlington. I learned new skills, made new friends, and had the summer of my life and made it home just in time to celebrate my 21st birthday! In case you're skeptical about how fabulous my summer was, the pictures below should really help to highlight why Summer 2012 will forever go down as an A+ in my gradebook!

This summer I worked, I played, I took casual weekend trips to Canada and NYC...

I obviously get my cool points from my mom, who is willing to pose near strange Canadian posters...

The Cloud City exhibit at the top of the Metropolitan Museum of art in NYC. If you have the chance to get over there and see it, I highly recommend it. It just so happens to be one of the coolest places of all the museum to hang out for a while and enjoy some city views...and lemonade!

Taking it to the top...of the Empire State Building

I'm not one to gush over famous works of art, but how could anyone resist excitement when you spot van Gogh's self portrait from across the room??

NYC from the top of the Empire State Building

Sometimes we were let out of our very intense research quarters (the library, cafes, and homes where we conducted most of our research) and took us to the field to learn! Here we are on a beautiful day outing to the Maritime Museum where we learned a lot about Lake Champlain and its history both at the museum and on a cruise of the lake.

My best friends from home also took some time out of their busy, busy schedules to visit me in Burlington where I showed them around the farmers markets, waterfront, and all of my favorite places...their favorite place? The back-porch of my apartment...typical.

I also made some new friends, thanks to one of my lovely roommates who insisted we have quality roommate bonding time!

This is my wonderful roommate the day we watched Venus passed the sun!

This, is the sun...through specialized lenses so you don't go blind looking at it. That tiiiiiiny speck down toward the bottom is Venus!

I also became friends with this lil' guy. The cutest guinea pig, Mr. Boobear himself.

I was lucky enough to make it home in time to celebrate my birthday with my friends and family, just two weeks after my internship ended and I moved back home to finish up my summer...