I can't believe it's Thursday already. This week has gone by pretty quickly. Last Sunday Steve and I went to the M.Ward, the Shins, and White Stripes concert in Brooklyn. Coney Island actually. But since it's after Labor Day, and rather late in the day at that, it was dead. But the concert was a lot of fun. All of them are really good live. I've seen the opening bands before, but this was the first time I'd gotten to see the White Stripes, and they did not disappoint. Classes have been going along just fine, if a bit boring. I have two quizzes on Friday, so I feel like I should at least look over my notes a bit. The highlight of my week so far was hiking at the Vanderbuilt mansion yesterday morning. Most of the lawn is really well cared for, although still a bit brown since we haven't gotten much rain this year, but there is a thick strip of woods between the bottom of the hills/cliffs and the river. There's a dirt road running through it for park service vehicles to run between their headquarters and Bard rock, which is where the Vanderbuilts used to dock their boats and such. You can get right down to the river there, and it's quite nice and peacefull. Beyond this, there are also some footpaths through the woods, which I wandered down. Really cool.Other than that, it's been a pretty chill week. Got up to do yoga this morning at 9am, which is always nice, and tomorrow Emily, Rachel, Katie and I are going to Olive Garden because Katie loves it and Rachel's never been. I'd rather not go, but whatever. I can handle it for one day. I'm going to try to make a 7pm showing of the Corpse Bride tonight, so I'll let you know what I think.

I've been to all of my classes now, and it's quite apparent to me that this will not be an overly taxing six weeks. Two of my classes, menus development and costing, are taught by the same man and are essentially, just an extension of the other. And neither is very difficult. There may be a bit of work, but nothing hard. And the third class, nutrition, seems like it will at least be interesting, even if it is a bit basic. I have found myself with a good deal of freetime. I haven't found a job yet since they're pretty hard to find between blocks like we are. So I've been doing a lot of sitting around, reading, staring at the walls with Emily. Although Rachel, Emily and I did play a rousing game of Trivial Pursuit, 90's edition. And this weekend we went into the city for Rachel and Nan's co-worker's birthday party and so I could pick up some things that were still at Steve's apartment. Emily and I had lunch with her old roomates, which was loads of fun, got our hair cut, which was badly needed, and watched "Thumbsucker", which was really good. very good even, but not for those of you uncomfortable with r-ratings. Now we're waiting for john wensel, a guy from Rachel and my class last year, to come over to watch a movie with us.

The summer blog seemed to work pretty well so I decided to keep it up here during the school year. I also should be able to keep it updated a bit better, since I'll probably be searching for an excuse not to do homework. Like I'm doing right now. I've moved into my on-campus housing, a lovely little trailer in our own little trailerpark here. It's furnished, so we don't have to worry about that. and our friend Nan, who's in the background and actually lives off campus, has taken up partial residence for homework and studying and just hanging out. We have a whole kitchen, a nice little bathroom and a bit of a powder nook to get ready in. I'm pretty much unpacked, although I still have some books and winter clothes that I was going to store at Steve's apartment in the city. But I have enough room here, so I'm going down to pick it up this weekend. Today is technically the first day of classes, since our first two days back are spent in re-orientation and registration stuff. It's nice though, because it gives me the time to finish up the loose ends of my extern book. It's pretty much done, I just have to draw up some outlines of my station and such. I got a very good evaluation from my chef, all fives (the highest possible). His comments went like this (Mom I know you wanted to read it): "Sarah (he never spelled my name correctly) did a fantastic job at Oceana. She had a great attitude, was energetic and inquisitive. She was also punctual and a hard worker. A+++"I'm a pm student now, so that means that all of my classes are in the afternoon. I only have three classes for the first 6 weeks though, I got out of management and restaurant law, since I already took both of them. So now I have menu development today, and costing controls and nutrition tomorrow. I'll write to let you know how they go.

New Digs

Well, extern's over now, so I'm moving on to a new year at school and a new blog. You can continue to check up on what's going on with me at http://sarasbackupstate.blogspot.com. I'll post more often, I promise