Off to Sea

We're leaving Mystic at 2pm today to drive to Boston, where we will board the Corwith Cramer vessel and begin our adventure in the Gulf of Maine! Looking forward to a strange sleeping schedule, seasickness, and salty air...

Hurricane Irene: Bracing for the storm

I would have liked to write a general post about my first few days here in Connecticut for the Williams-Mystic program, but the weather has gotten in the way. There's a hurricane headed straight for us this weekend! 

It's pretty rare for a storm to hit New England like this; we're more likely to face blizzards and ice storms than tropical storms or hurricanes - and when hurricanes do make landfall on the East Coast, they usually weaken so quickly that the only impact the NE feels/sees is some wind, rain, and bigger ocean waves. That's been my experience, anyway.  This time is different, though: according to reports, Hurricane Irene is actually supposed to come straight through Mystic on Sunday. We have been busy all day today and will be busy tomorrow preparing sandbags, moving things out of basements, and securing our houses, not to mention the boats at port. On Sunday night we're supposed to hunker down together in the W-M Marine Science Lab, which happens to be a hurricane-proof building.

It's a little crazy to be packing up our houses, moving to the Lab for a night, and then to come back to our houses on Monday to unpack/repack before leaving for Boston on Tuesday morning to board the SSV Corwith Cramer and set sail for a ten-day sailing trip. Yup, we are following Irene out to sea... no need to worry. Actually, there really is no need to worry. We expect the storm to have passed fully by the time we shove off Tuesday morning. And the W-M staff will definitely abort or change plans in consideration of our safety.

Wish I could write more at this time... but I have to go help with dinner! We have cooperative living arrangements here, so I'm living in a house with three other people and we cook for ourselves and all that and it's been nothing but fun so far (never mind that this is only day four).

I'll post a more substantial update and intro to Mystic, complete with pictures, when we get back from the offshore voyage.

Concluding Summer

Today is move-in day at Williams-Mystic - where I'll be studying for a semester instead of attending Fall Term at Dartmouth - and that means summer break is over. The last few months seem to have gone by so quickly, and this summer as a whole felt really busy, even though I don't think I accomplished very much.
Highlights:

• Mooseman: my first Olympic-distance triathlon, at beautiful Newfound Lake in NH in early June. Was a bit nervous about the biking section, but it went very well and I had a blast. 
• "UofIN," or "University of Insulindependence": leadership training for Insulindependence captains at the organization's headquarters in San Diego, CA during the last week of June. Included three days of backpacking in Yosemite National Park. 
• Mother-daughter road trip: Mom and I drove up and down the California coast for a couple days after UofIN. We stayed at the amazing Treebones Resort in Big Sur and went sea kayaking.
• CWD: I volunteered with Insulindependence at the Children With Diabetes Friends for Life Conference in Orlando, FL during the second week of July. It was my third time attending this major annual gathering for families and health care professionals dealing with Type 1 diabetes. 
• A Night of INspiration: I hosted a fundraising dinner for Insulindependence in Bethesda, MD in late July. The event was a success in my eyes - we had a great turnout, a fun time, good food,  and a very positive response to the Insulindependence mission and vision, especially with the accompanying screening of the Triabetes documentary. 
• New Hampshire: first to Hanover to get a taste of Sophomore Summer, then to the coast for beach time, family time, and (best of all) whale watching!

And now I'm settling in to my new home for the rest of 2011 - Mystic, CT. It is a cute town that is rich in maritime history and tradition, not to mention great ice cream shops. More about Mystic in future posts...