Summer vacation — How we passed the time

If you’re applying to Fletcher this year, you’ll probably be in touch with members of the Admissions staff, and I want you to have a sense of the person at the other end of your phone call or email correspondence.  To reintroduce themselves, I asked my Admissions pals to describe their summers.  You already know what I did this summer (tromp around to colleges with my daughter…host Iraqis), so I’ll leave it to others to describe the summer.

First up, Laurie, director of the Admissions Office, and Fletcher’s resident wine expert, who describes her summer, as well as that of her hat:
My Fletcher baseball cap was used quite a bit this summer.  During the month of June I attended an APSIA meeting in San Francisco.  The location allowed me to spend the weekend following the meeting in one of my favorite places — Napa Valley.  The weather was perfect and the wine wasn’t bad either!  Then, at the end of June, I brought my daughter to New York City to visit the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Unfortunately, my Fletcher hat needed to block the rain, rather than the sun, during this trip.  We enjoyed the view of the Statue of Liberty on the ferry ride over, but she completely disappeared in the fog on the ride back.  Nonetheless, it was a great day of history.

July was filled with a hectic family reunion in Maine and a quick trip for Fletcher to Geneva, Switzerland, and Talloires, France (the home of the Tufts European Center).  During free moments, I grabbed my Fletcher hat and headed out to see the sights.  I almost lost my Fletcher hat in the wind in August,  as I learned how to drive a boat on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.  Thankfully, I was able to catch it at the last minute, and also did not crash the boat!  Last weekend was the final official weekend of the summer, as the academic year has started in full force this week.  I am not sure what fall weekends will bring, but sun or rain, you will find me proudly wearing my Fletcher hat.

Next, Liz, who probably has contact with more applicants than any of the rest of us:
For those of you who don’t know me, I am the Staff Assistant for the Office of Admissions.  In this role, I often serve as the “face” of the Office:  I’m most likely the first person you’ll meet when you walk in the door, the first person you’ll speak to when you phone the office, and the first person you’ll hear from when you email fletcheradmissions@tufts.edu.

For some Admissions staffers, this summer was filled with vacation plans, weddings, and honeymoons.  For me, it was a little less exciting, in that I didn’t really take a vacation this year.  Instead, at the end of April, my husband, Steve, and I purchased our very first home.  The home-buying process for us turned out to be long (over a year and a half of searching), disappointing at times (we had previously made five unsuccessful offers), and a huge learning experience (bad paint colors are not a deal breaker, but warped foundations are).  For most of the summer, Steve and I have been chipping away at projects both planned (painting and unpacking) and unplanned (backed up sewer pipes and ant infestations).  It seems our to-do list only gets longer, but we couldn’t be happier.  I look forward to the day when most of the major projects are done, and we can just live in our new home.

Last, for today, Kristen:
For me, summer was on the quiet side — nothing really blog-worthy.  I made it through a couple of very long books that had been weighing down my nightstand, had some nice weekend visits to family living near the beach, and enjoyed some Boston eateries and tourist destinations not on my usual route.  Just a plain ol’ summer kind of summer.  That said, it’s particularly refreshing knowing what lies ahead for all of us in Admissions.  I officially book-end our Admissions travel with a kick-off trip to Mexico City in August, and a final trip to India in November.  In between, my colleagues will be here, there, and everywhere.  The contrast between the quiet, local summer and the fast, international autumn, makes each one even more enjoyable than it would be on its own.