Lizzy Atkin

In the Neighborhood

Thursday night I went to see "Mama Mia" with two of my fantastic friends from high school, Emily and Christina since they were both back from their Summer excursions. It was a fabulous movie, and I definitely recommend it to anyone female. The movie is about a 20 year old girl who is getting married to the love of her life, Sky, in Greece. Her dream is to have her father to her wedding so that he can give her away to Sky, but the catch is that her mother had slept with three men during one Summer so even the mother isn't sure who the father is! So the daughter invites all three men to her wedding without the mother's knowledge in order to figure out who is her true father. I'm usually not the type of girl who enjoys chick flicks, but this movie was different from all the others because it is extremely comical. The characters have so much energy, and I was just drawn into the movie very quickly. After "Mama Mia," the girls and I went to California Pizza Kitchen for a late dinner and some laughs.

The rest of the weekend was filled with random events such as watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," a strange and slightly creepy love story about a broken up couple who decide to erase each other from their own memories. I played golf with my family at the Wellesley College golf course and went out to dinner with my friend, Eric, at Qdoba in Wellesley Center.

Sunday I was woken up by a phone call from my neighbors, asking if I wanted to come over for some baking and guitar hero. After a nice run, I walked down the street and baked brownies with my friends. We had a special recipe that was given to me by a lady at the Admissions Office for the best, fudgiest brownies ever:
- Use two boxes of the Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie mix
- Mix in eggs, veggie oil, water, and add vanilla
- Mix in one bag of chocolate chip morsels and some walnuts
- Pour into greased 9x13in pan and bake at 350F for 40 minutes
While the brownies were cooking we played guitar hero and ping pong. Later that night, my buddy Fred picked me up and we went out for dinner at John Harvards in Shoppers World. Then we saw "Pineapple Express" at the AMC Framingham 16, which was pretty funny!

Lake Winnipesaukee

On Friday after work my family and I drove up to Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. We stayed in a nice little Inn near Lake Winnipesaukee. We were also located next to a famous ice cream shop called Bailey's Bubble which we stopped at to try German Chocolate Cake and Milkyway flavors. Yummm!

On Saturday, Dad drove us all 182 miles around the lake, getting lost multiple times, but ultimately making it back to the Inn after stopping for a round of golf. We ate dinner at the Wolfeboro Inn which had a rustic atmosphere, beer steins covering the ceiling, and a huge moose head hanging from the wall.

Sunday we got up early to go scuba diving in the lake. A boat took us out to Ship Island and Lady of the Lake, two boat wrecks about 30 feet under water. Getting our buoyancies sufficient was a challenge since we had never dove in fresh water before and we could use less weight than we would need in salt water. The lake didn't have much aquatic life, but we did see a few schools of friendly fish swimming around. Between the first and second dive, our boat got caught in a thunderstorm, so we docked on the NH Safety Department's dock and waited two hours for the thunder to subside. On the second dive I found a compass laying on the bottom near the wreck. I picked it up, thinking that someone on our dive may have dropped it, but no one claimed it when we got back on the boat. Sooooo I have a cool compass now from 2004! Dad told me that I could sell it on ebay, but I might just keep it as a souveneir from our trip to NH.

Music and Movies

This weekend was kind of odd. On Friday my friend and I went to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen at the Natick Mall. Then we watched Flight of the Conchords, a super awesome band's music videos. Basically the band consists of two awkward guys who sing about subjects from robots taking over the world to business socks.

On Saturday my friends Dana, Taylor, and I got together to go swimming. Unfortunately, it started to thunder storm as soon as we got in the water so we had to get out and leave. That night my friends and I went to a house party in Milton. I finally got to wear my new rain boots since it had been raining! I met some really nice guys from University of Hartford. Then we watched the movie, "American Psycho"... really creepy... based on a 1991 novel by Bret Ellis about a young attractive man from Manhattan who turns out to be a serial killer.

Sunday I slept until 3pm!!! I don't think I've ever slept that late before. That afternoon my mom and I went back to school shopping for some new clothes and shoes. That evening I went to see my friend Jimmy, and we watched "Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay," which was hilarious. Jimmy claims that the first one was better ("Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle"), but I disagree.

During the course of the weekend I also developed a new obsession with the Foo Fighters, an American alternative rock band. The band was formed in 1995 by Dave Grohl, singer and guitarist, after his band Nirvana broke up. I heard their song "Let It Die" on the radio various times, absolutely fell in love with it, and began to listen to more of their music such as "Pretender" and "Long Road to Ruin."

Wellesley During the Summer

During the school year, Wellesley College is swarming with students running to classes, biking into town, taking the bus into Boston, attending on campus lectures and concerts, stopping to chat, or participating in sports and organizations. But you may be wondering what the college looks like during the Summer as well. Wellesley is home to a few summer camps such as Exploration (which I attended), a summer camp for middle schoolers who can take a variety of classes ranging from Public Speaking to Home-Made Beauty Aides. Another program is Upward Bound, a program for economically or educationally disadvantaged high school students to help them with academic support. These students reside in the Quad dorms (Caz, Pom, Bebe, and Sha) as well as Munger.

Wellesley students can also live on campus during the Summer. They stay in the "new dorms" (actually built in the 60's) which include McAfee, Bates, and Freeman. I would imagine these dorms would be very convinient for students living on campus during the Summer because they are only five minutes away from town and are close to the Science Center where students may be taking classes. During the Summer, students can take classes at Wellesley during two sessions: Session I (June 16-July 11) or Session II (July 14-August 8). Some of the classes offered are language, economics, computer science, math, art, and biology classes. Students who have jobs in Boston or on the campus are also welcome to live on campus during the Summer.

Vacation

Last week I took a week off from work to spend time with my family. Uncle Rob, Aunt Diane, and my cousins Treat and Matt came up from Kansas. Matt is going to be a senior in high school next year so I took him around to visit colleges in the Boston area. We visited MIT, Harvard, and Tufts. Harvard was his favorite. I'm so excited he's applying because then I can visit him all the time!!

Treat and I spent some time at our favorite place, Singing Beach in Manchester. It's called Singing Beach because when you scuff your feet in the sand, it squeaks or 'sings.' The water was a warm 66F so we decided to swim out to a buoy and back. We also made a huge sand castle and buried Treat's legs.

Friday night was Grandpa's 80th birthday party, and all his friends and family came to visit. Grandpa is amazing in that he still is very active. He enjoys tennis, windsurfing, biking, and I even got him to try scuba diving! So the frosting on his cake was in the design of a windsurfer. Everyone had a great time at the party, and I really enjoyed talking to Grandpa's friends about their college experiences; many of them went to Harvard so they knew about the Wellesley campus and events.

On Saturday morning I woke up before everyone else, and my buddy Derick picked me up to go scuba diving at Cape Ann Divers. First we went to Burman's Ledge, which was a beautiful spot, however, very deep (120 feet). As we were diving, Derick suddenly turned around and kicked the regulator out of my mouth so I couldn't breathe! Fortunately I continued to exhale and found the reg. But when I tried to put it back in my mouth, it was freeflowing, so air was gushing out of it at an intense force! After flipping the air switch, I was able to breathe normally again. However, I felt uncomfortable going down any deeper so I signaled to Derick that we should surface. On our way up, my dry suit kept inflating and we shot up to the surface, missing our mandatory safety stop at 15 feet, putting us in great danger of nitrogen narcosis. The rest of the day I felt pretty sick and just slept, drank water, and read by the pool.

The rest of the weekend I spent at the pool with my cousins. Uncle Steve, Aunt Gigi, and my cousins Olivia, Francesca, and Amelia also came up to visit. We had a fantastic time jumping off the diving board and playing Categories, a game where someone yells a category as another person jumps off the diving board and has to name something in the category before he hits the water. Overall it was a wonderful week off, and it was so nice to see my family again.

Scuba Diving and Cream Brulee

Most of the weekend I spent scuba diving in Rockport, MA to finish up the open water class.  Saturday and Sunday morning I woke up at 5am to drive up to Back Beach to get a good parking spot before the other divers arrived. During the weekends the good parking spots fill up quickly, and it's best to get a spot closer to the water so divers don't have to carry the heavy gear for a long distance. Although it was difficult to get up so early, the sunrise was beautiful and the traffic was fantastic! Saturday's conditions were perfect. The water was a nice 63F and calm. Sunday's water temperature dropped to a low 50F, so our dives were a bit shorter. We saw crabs, starfish, small schools of fish, flounder, and lobsters (or lobstah if you're from Boston). Each day we did two dives which ended around noon. Afterwards we went out to lunch in the cute and artsy town of Rockport, MA. Then I went back to my grandparent's house in Beverly Farms for a shower and a long nap.

My cousin, Matt, from Kansas came up to visit on Saturday evening. I hadn't seen him since last year so it was super awesome to see him again. He's participating in a pre-med  Summer program at Babson for the next ten days.

Monday night after work my friends and I got together at Paul's house to make cream brulee. We had never made it before, but Dana had a recipe that she claimed would work. So we invaded Paul's kitchen and mixed together the ingredients. While we were waiting for the cream brulee to cool, we played Apples to Apples, the best board game ever!! After they cooled, the best part of the process occurred... We sprinkled sugar over the cream brulee and burned it with a blow torch to get the crunchy brown surface. The cream brulee was super tasty and now I know how it is made!

Choosing Classes at Wellesley

At the end of each semester, Wellesley students start to think about what classes they will take the following semester. This is a bit more difficult than one may imagine since the college offers over 1000 courses! My first semester at Wellesley I was following the pre-med route so I took Cellular Biology with a lab and Calculus. I also wanted to continue my Spanish so I could go abroad Junior year so I took Spanish 201. And for the first-year writing requirement I took Poetry and Other Arts, a writing 125 class that relates poetry to works of art such at Monet's Water Lilies. The class was small (around 12 students) so the professor could help her students and give individual attention to their different writing abilities.

Between first and second semester is a funky time called Winter-session. Winter-session takes place in the month of January, and students can basically do whatever you want. Students can go abroad, take classes, do a special project, or just go home. I stayed on campus and took a Weather Forecasting class at MIT. It was a great way to get to know a different part of the city and meet new people as well as learning how to forecast the weather from charts and maps. Kira and I did our final project on the weather in Colorado. My friends and I also took the Chocolate Tours of Boston which is run by MIT students who take groups around to the chocolate hot spots in Boston and Cambridge and share the history of each store. I'm so glad that I stayed on campus because I made some close friends with the other women who also stayed on campus.

After deciding that I was no longer interested in the pre-med track, I decided to take some random classes to explore what Wellesley's diverse curriculum had to offer. Second semester I took Egyptian Art, Uncovering the Ancient World (Greece and Rome), Psychology, and Spanish 202. My favorite class was Uncovering the Ancient World which covered the basics on classical civilization. The professor, Raymond Starr, was so enthusiastic, helpful, and positive. Through my exploration of classes, I discovered my love for literature and decided to double major in English and Classical Civilization.

At the end of the year I signed up for my Fall 2008 classes. To pursue my majors, I am taking Latin and English "Rise of the Novel". I am also continuing Spanish, and my friend Phoebe and I are trying out something new - Astronomy "Life in the Universe" for a little variety.

Advice for choosing your four classes:
- One class that fulfills your major
- One class that fulfills a course requirement
- One class that is a passion that you would like to pursue/feel like you should know more about the subject
- One class that is completely random --> Who knows? It could end up being your major!!

4th of July Weekend

The Admissions Office got a four day weekend for the 4th of July!! Hurray! After work on the 3rd, I went into Cambridge to TT the Bear's, a funky bar in Central Square where new bands are welcome to play their music. My friend from the Berkley School of Music, Elisabeth, was playing with her band Deezy and the Brobots. Elisabeth (Deezy) played the acoustic guitar and sang, her boyfriend played the drums, and two other guys played the bass guitar and the electric guitar. One of the band members gave me a free CD!!

On Thursday, Dana and I drove up to the North Shore to go beaching. That night there was a party on the beach. The fireworks seemed huge since they were set off less than a mile from shore. And the DJ was awesome enough to play our favorite songs "American Woman" by The Guess Who and "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet.

The next morning we went to the Manchester parade and saw some amazing floats, some of which squirted water or threw candy at us! That night my family got together to play games and watch the Beverly Farms fireworks.

Sunday was the last day of the long weekend so I decided to make the most of it. Dana, Taylor, Chris, Nicki, and I set up a net on the Town Green and played Badminton until it was too hot to stand. To cool off we went to Dana's house to watch the Wimbledon tennis matches. That night I had dinner with a friend and went to see the movie "Wall-e" with Rick. I didn't like it as much as "Kung-Fu Panda," but it was still cute and had some interesting messages.

Hulk Smash

Friday night I visited my friends Maria and Josh who are staying at Harvard for the Summer. Maria is taking classes at Harvard, and Josh is working in Cambridge. After catching up, Maria and I walked around Cambridge and found a Latin dance party. Our curiosity got a hold of us and we checked out the Longfellow bridge construction too.

Saturday I had a really girlie day and went to the Natick Mall with my mom. We scoped out the various make-up counters and bought chocolate drinks from Godiva. That night my friends and I went to see "The Incredible Hulk," which wasn't the most fantastic movie... It was a bit corny, especially when the hulk said "HULK SMASH!" during one of the fight scenes. I had to keep reminding myself that it was based on a comic. But we went to Joe's for dinner in Shopper's World and had a wonderful time!

On Sunday I worked on my Divemaster certification. Bud, Joe, and I took the open water divers to the YMCA pool to continue their training. Unfortunately, we were delayed because of a thunderstorm and had to get out of the water. But we finished the pool sessions quickly and went out for ice cream. Our next  dive will be in the open water!! 

Scuba and Sweets

After work at the Admissions Office on Thursday, I got a strange urge to go mini golfing. So my friend Rick and I went out for subs in Natick and went mini golfing on Rt. 9. The mini golf course had a Revolutionary War theme and played patriotic music continuously. We had a great time even though Rick was way better than I at mini golfing. We finished off the evening with some Oreo cookie ice cream and a walk around the park.

On Friday I started my internship with the MASS Diving Open Water scuba class, a requirement to achieve my Dive Master certification. Fortunately, I am working with Bud, the totally awesome dive instructor who Open Water certified me when I was 13; we make a fantastic team. We are teaching a class of nine students who range from sophomores in high school to middle aged adults. We have two women in the class, so I enjoy helping them out with the more feminine issues such as long hair getting caught in the snorkel keeper. It is so interesting to be on the teaching side of diving instead of the student's side. After the classroom work of reviewing material and tests, we drove to Wayland pool to teach the students some new skills and let them breathe underwater for the first time. It feels so rewarding to share my experiences and skills with new divers!

Saturday night was Dana's birthday party! After an intense game of Badminton, a creative streak hit us, and we decided to create a miniature town out of Graham crackers, frosting, M&Ms, gum drips, licorice, and other tasty treats. However, the entire town ended up being eaten. Yum.