Monday, February 18, 2019

Claire Graduates Mid-Year on the Mountain!

Here at Middlebury, we have a special mid-year graduation.  It's call Feb Graduation.  There are a whole class of "Febs" who actually start their Middlebury career in February and then end mid-semester as well four years later.  These Febs (usually a mini-class of around 60 students) don the traditional cap and gown...and also some skis or snow shoes and then process down the mountain for their symbolic ceremonial procession!  It's a unique tradition, and one that's quite a sight to see!

This year, Claire White-Dzuro ended up having enough credits to graduate early, and thus became a "Feb" and took part in the mid-year graduation ceremony.  She will be back in the Spring to take part in the formal Spring graduation ceremony, but she had a lot of fun with this mountain celebration!  Congratulations Claire!!




Monday, February 11, 2019

J-Term Fun

January term is a fun time at Middlebury.  It's a time when students only take ONE class, so there inevitably ends up being a little more free time to enjoy various fun activities and take some short trips around the area.  

 Some of the team went to Montreal for a couple of days at one point, and another excursion was a trip to the Ben & Jerry's factory, where several tackled the "Vermonster!"  They had fun polishing off that huge bucket of ice cream sundae!!  

We also managed to have dinner (by class) at my house, at least with a couple of classes.  I missed the juniors together, but I had lunch with Chellsa before she left for Spain, and Beth, who's staying around junior year for Track.  Gigi's abroad program started after she went home for the Holiday Break, so I missed her completely.  However, I decided to invite the freshmen and sophomores out to my house for dinner.  I usually catch up with the seniors during Senior Week, but maybe we'll have to have them out to dinner soon as well, minus Claire who's already graduated!

The freshmen came out and we made pesto pasta (fresh-frozen pesto, but made with basil from my garden this Fall).  It was also their introduction to Annie, our newest family member.  We adopted her from the Animal Shelter this Fall right after the entire team and their families came out to the house for our opening BBQ, so no one had met her yet.  It's always nice for me to get to hang out with the girls outside of the season when it's not all about volleyball, and I think they enjoyed being at a house away from campus, and of course, they enjoyed playing with Annie!

Then the sophomores came out another time and we made "make your own Pizzas!"  Jaime hand-tossed one of the crusts, and we tried to recreate one of their favorite pizza's from Flatbread--the one with Balsamic, honey (and maybe maple syrup?), basil, apple, and cheese...it was very good, whether or not it was just like Flatbread, I don't know?!  We also made a margarita pizza, a meat lovers pizza with sausage, bacon and pepperoni, and a Hawaiian pizza with BBQ sauce as the base, and then pineapple, bacon, ham and cheese.  They were all very different, and fun to make, and tasted great!


For our Track team members, Beth and Emma, J-term meant a lot of track meets!  They were home almost every weekend of January, thank goodness, and we got to see a lot of action. Beth wasn't competing for the most part, resting her ankle for the Spring outdoor season, but Emma was getting her start with the Shot Put, which was exciting!  She's improving with this new event and we're excited to see how far she can progress for the outdoor season.  Virtue Field House is the venue for Indoor Track, and when those meets are going on, it's a spectacle to see.  There are TONS of people everywhere, and the best term for it seems to be, "organized chaos!"  I tried to get a picture of it, but I didn't catch the full feeling.

J-term culminates with the Feb Graduation, but since we had a Feb this year, we'll give her a separate Blog entry of her own!!  :)