Laundry Emergency: Be-Do Be-Do Be-Do

Today, I woke up at around 10:00 AM. It was wonderful, being able to wake up after seven, but I did worry that everyone in my ILC cohort had left to go somewhere without me already. I didn't need to worry, because even after I showered and changed into some of my last clothes (I would need to do my laundry today) I had lots of time before we actually headed off for Newport. To get to Newport, we had to cross two bridges, and the view was amazing. 

We crossed Pell Bridge on our way to Newport

It's a pretty cool-looking bridge, if you ask me

There was a lot of sailing going on

The bridge was sloped, which I thought was cool

We could see a lot of sailboats from the bridge

And this is just a plain old Geico ad...written in the sky. Awesome.
I haven't seen that before. The part in the picture just says "rates" though.

We drove until we hit the coast, then we stopped to get out and take some pictures (which I will show you now).

Even though there were tons of sailboats by the bridge,
I could only see this one from where we were. 

Not exactly a sandy beach, but pretty nonetheless.

The winning shot

We were going to move on to Newport's mansions next, but we were too hungry not to eat, so we stopped to eat before we looked for something to do. We got a little bored while we waited for our food, so Michelle and I had a pretty competitive game of paper football. The stakes: the loser eats a spoonful of sugar (Mary Poppins style) which was not my idea. I was not ready to have a tablespoon of sugar by itself. Fortunately, I didn't have to. 

The pictures of Michelle's face after this were a lot funnier than this one.
It's pretty clear that she didn't like the sugar. 

Even though we had planned to explore near the mansions in Newport, we decided to walk to the wharf and stop in a few shops along the way (I liked the chocolate shop best). The temperature on the walk was perfect. It wasn't to hot, and it wasn't too cold (which is what it's been switching between since we got to Brown).

Lots and lots of boats

We sat outside the Newport Yachting Center (as you can see)
and looked out at the water before we walked back.

After the wharf, we walked to the Newport Creamery, where I got ice cream. It was still refreshing, even though I've had plenty of soft serve from the Ratty and ice cream from the Ice Cream Social (come on, it's impossible to get tired of ice cream). 

I got Chocolate Chip and Black Raspberry, both really good 

We drove by some of the Newport mansions, which I'll show you here. It was nice to admire the different architecture styles, and think about what people could possibly do with so many rooms. 

This was one of the largest houses we passed
(I'm sorry that the trees got in the way a little)

This was one of my favorites

Another enormous house we passed

The view from the bridge on the way back

When we drove back to Providence, Ms. Neal stopped at our hotel from visiting colleges (it seems so long ago now) and returned with a package with my name on it. 

The mysterious package

My brother took a macroeconomics course at Brown with the ILC, and while he was away, I had sent him cake pops (crumbled cake and frosting rolled into balls and dipped in chocolate...I know, it's awesome) shaped like bears (the Brown University mascot). Now that I'm at Brown, my brother, Nick, sent me a box of Despicable Me cake pops (the minions), because we had watched Despicable Me 2 just before I left for Brown. Well, Nick had the idea to send minion cake pops, and my mom pulled it off. (Thanks, mom!) If my brother had actually made them, they wouldn't look anything like the real minions. Still, he did say in a card wrapped up in the box that he had "put in like 5 of the eyes," which is close enough, considering that Nick has no cooking skills whatsoever.

A card with a picture of what they looked like when they were packed
(my mom was afraid they'd melt a little on the way)

My army of minions!

This is what my family was aiming to make 

This is what they actually made...
they look just like the picture, and they taste good. 

The care package from home was a reminder that no matter how much fun I'm having here, I still have my family waiting back home, and it shows that being independent doesn't mean forgetting about the people who miss you.  

I had planned to do my laundry before I went to bed, and Crystal and I were going to figure out the impossible new washing machines together, but we decided that once we were both ready, it was too late to go do it tonight, so we chose to meet up in the morning instead. The laundry emergency continues! Aah!

So I spent the day walking around a new town (bonding time) with members of my Women and Leadership cohort. But the important thing was how much I liked knowing I'd be returning to a college dorm, and not my house, and how that's only reinforcing my sudden adoption of the college lifestyle: responsible, but independent. I'm starting to realize how much I love it here.