Wonderful Wedding Weekend in Massachusetts

Hello, dear readers! I am back from my brief hiatus from the blogging world. I have fallen behind on my usual weekend tasks because of my trip to Northampton, Massachusetts, two weeks ago, thus the delay in posting about my incredible trip.

Two of my very close friends from Smith College got married on the college campus two weekends ago, and David and I were lucky enough to be present at the ceremony and reception. Smith has an absolutely beautiful campus, and the weather was sunny the entire weekend and perfect for an outdoor wedding. Although I had been back to Smith campus a number of times since graduating, this was David's first trip back since he visited me there in 2006.

Northampton is a lovely town located in the western part of the state, with a population of just under 30,000 people. The town is an artistic and musical center, surrounded by the rivers, forests, and hills of the Pioneer Valley.

                                              The historic Hotel Northampton

                                             Solarium of Hotel Northampton

                                  Hanging flower baskets of Hotel Northampton

                            Downtown Northampton with historic brick buildings

                        The main street leading from town through Smith campus

                                               Historic Academy of Music

                                              Bustling downtown Northampton

                                             Entrance to Hotel Northampton


We arrived very late on a Friday night at the airport in Hartford, Connecticut, picked up a rental car, and took the Massachusetts Turnpike with the wonderful Masshole drivers to Northampton. On Saturday, we were lucky enough to have some time to recover before heading to campus for the ceremony. The wedding took place in Smith's Capen Gardens, which I had never seen prior to the ceremony. This was my first outdoor wedding, and it was, by far, the most amazing wedding I had ever attended.

                               David and I in Capen Gardens before the ceremony

                                               
                                                     More Capen Gardens

                                                          The ceremony

                   Steeple of downtown Northampton church with hills in background

                                                     Site of the ceremony

                       Wandering through the botanical garden before the reception

                                      Friends since my first week of college

                               View of Paradise Pond from the botanical gardens

                    Smith College arboretum with student housing in the background

                                             Paradise Pond and boathouses

                       Arboretum with steeple of campus chapel in the background

                        The members of the other wedding party bombing our photo!


The reception following the ceremony was a perfect end to the day's festivities. The parents of one of my friends who was getting married are Portuguese, and they provided accordion music with castanets as well as traditional dancing. This was the first wedding I had ever been to that included any kind of non-Anglo-Saxon traditions, and the music and dancing made the reception so much more special.

                                         
                                                   My handsome escort

                                                     The bride's bouquet

                                      The beginning of the Portuguese dancing

                                                  Portuguese accordions

                                                    More group dancing


Before flying back to Minneapolis, we had a few hours to walk around Northampton and the Smith campus. There we fondly recollected the time that David had spent in Northampton more than six years ago.

                                                  Smith Campus Center

                                           Boat house on Paradise Pond

                                              My favorite fountain on campus

                                            Tyler House: my residence hall

                                     The Japanese bridge below Paradise Pond

                                                 Spectacular backdrop

                                                          Tyler House

New engineering building: home of the first all-women's engineering program in the U.S.!

                          College Hall: houses the office of the college president

                                                       I love my school!!!

Gainful Employment is Glorious

Hello, everyone! I have spent the past week taking photos on my way to work, during my lunch break, and on my way home at the end of the day. The purpose of this week's efforts was to give you an impression of what I see on the way to work each day and what my work environment is like.

I have been working as a research analyst with the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system for just over a month. I am employed in an office for institutional research at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, just on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. The job has been fascinating so far. My department receives research requests on a daily basis from other departments. Requesting departments are generally seeking statistical information on some aspect of the college, either for an educational initiative, planning, budgeting, or reporting to the state government. As an analyst, I help the requesting departments develop their research questions, then I retrieve the data from our database, and perform analysis on the data before reporting to the department from which the request originated.

Working in the public rather than the private sector has been quite a change. Being a state employee, I am represented by a professional union (so that conservative politicians can't do away with our health benefits), and I get excellent health benefits: the state actually pays for my entire health insurance premium! In addition, I am actually able to leave the office at 5:00 or 5:30 pm if my work is finished, and there is no pressure to stay later (unless there is something very urgent). My office is much more laid back than I am used to, but it is a very welcome change. I also really enjoy working with other data nerds :-)

Since the weather has been dry here, I either bike or walk to and from work every day. The distance from my apartment to the college campus is only about 1.5 miles, so I am very lucky that I don't have to drive like most people. Here are some pictures of my morning route:

                                         Bike path past Walker Art Museum

                                          Walker - a center for modern art

View of Lyndale Avenue with pedestrian/bicycle bridge and Basilica in the background
 

                                   Neat bike bridge which I get to use every day!

                                        Just your normal morning commute

                              Neat bridge which I unfortunately do not get to use. 

                     Not having to drive in this lovely traffic every day makes me feel
                                           like I'm not really part of the rat race.

     Highways with St. Mary's Basilica and downtown Minneapolis in the background

 

The last part of my morning walk/bike ride takes me through Loring Park, which borders on the college campus. Though it is a beautiful park with gardens, tennis/basketball/shuffleboard courts, and several bodies of water, like many city parks, it has a certain attraction for vagrant people. So when I travel through the park around 8:00 every morning, the homeless people are usually just waking up. I therefore generally go along the edge of the park.

The building in which my office is located is not modern like the majority of the college's buildings. Instead, my office and the buildings around it are old brick industrial buildings, restored from the days when grain was still milled along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis.

                                         Alleyway leading to my office building

                   Cafe Lurcat, a French restaurant around the corner from my office

                                          Area originally called "Loring Corners"

                       My office on the right; Saint Mary's Basilica in the background

                                   The beige brick building is my office building

                                                 Entrance to my office

                     Another view of Cafe Lurcat with skyscrapers in the background

                The rooftop terrace of Joe's Garage, which I can see out my window

The college campus is for the most part very modern, and the buildings are connected by skyways. The skyways allow students to travel from building to building without going outside - very important for Minnesota winters.

   The "Nice Ride Minnesota" program, which allows people to rent bikes by the hour

                           Reflection of St. Mary's Basilica in the library windows

     House donated by the Wells family (Wells Fargo Bank) to be used as student center