Ambivalent About Summer :- l

Dearest Darling Readers,
Well...my summer so far has been a mix of the really amazing and the sorta kinda not so great. So...not sure how I feel about it...yet. I shall preface this tale of romance, friendship, and tragedy by telling you that I am spending this entire summer away from Darien and all of my friends. So...I have not seen any of them in two weeks, and I won't see any of them for a little more than eight more weeks. I figure that that is a good thing to know before reading this post and/or any of the other posts that I write this summer. I am returning home on August 26 (AFTER the last day of band camp...of course! :( SADNESS!!).

ANYWAY. So, right now, I am at the University of Notre Dame. As you may or may not know, I am a MAJOR Notre Dame fan. So, literally ONE DAY after I got up to my summer house, I turned right around and drove down to South Bend, Indiana where I have been for the last week and a half. What am I doing here, you might ask? WELL, I am here taking pre-college classes as well as working in a molecular biology lab! It is really freaking awesome. Every day, I have 3 hours of lab work in the mornings, and 3 hours of classes in the afternoons, but then a couple of days each work, I get to skip class and go outside and do field work! I love this place! Now, don't misunderstand me, Notre Dame isn't my absolute first choice for college, though it's in my top 5, but there's just something about being here that makes you feel...good. I don't know how to describe it. And it's not just me, you can ask people who don't even have any affiliation with Notre Dame whatsoever and they'll tell you that this place is magical. My tennis coach once told me that...he's been to Notre Dame once in his life.

So...basically I had to apply to the class just like I would with college, except that they only take 20 students. And then I had to apply for the laboratory internship/observation program, which only takes about 10 students. I didn't really think that I had much of a chance of getting in, but I guess I must have just squeaked by. But OH MY GOD I am so glad that I did! I love it! I especially love the lab work. Right now, we're working on finding ways of fixing or altering the genetic mutations that cause blindness...in fruit flies. But hey, maybe we'll have cured blindness (and cancer...we're doing another side project with colorectal cancer) in humans by the end of this week (I, sadly, depart on Friday).

Outside of the classroom, it's pretty much just like being in college. Well, we have a dorm curfew (11pm weekdays, 12am weekends), and we have to check in via text with our dorm managers at certain times in the evenings, but other than that, we have total freedom. It's pretty awesome. You know, after class I just swing by my dorm, pick up my laptop, and go to the student center and grab some Starbucks and then go and work on my research project...pshh NBD. That's another thing: my friends here are from all over the world, and one of my closest friends always says "NBD." It's kinda funny because my friends at home don't talk like that. There's also the whole "soda/pop/coke" debate that is constantly discussed.

And...that closest friend...here come the parts of my summer that make me not totally loving it. I met this really cool girl on my second day here. She's a huge chemistry nerd, just like me, and we bonded over discussing the AP Chemistry exam and getting out SAT2 scores for Chemistry back on the same day. Anyway, we were super close for the first week, and then on Saturday and through Monday, she totally distanced herself from me, and I have no idea why. So...I still have friends here, but I basically lost my closest friend...oh well. After Friday, I'll probably (though not definitely) never see her again. That's depressing...but...eh...so it goes.

The one who pointed out that I would never really see her again after Friday was my boyfriend...Mickey. I miss him, too. What's weird though is that I'm not dying of misery missing him. Last summer, I missed my now-ex-boyfriend so much it was pathetic, and I definitely love Mickey much more than I ever liked that other guy, so I really don't know why I don't miss him too much. Oh well, it's eight more weeks, so it's probably a good thing that it's not too painful.

I also miss my other friends!!! Garsh! Bimbo! Geek! Freak! Jane! Alexa! THE TWIN! Minnie! And...assorted friends who have yet to gain code names on this blog! I miss you guys!!

Pshh...I'm sure you miss me too though, right?
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Right?
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RIGHT???!!!
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Pshh...love you guys!

~Book

PS. Guess who has a "Notre Dame Biology" T-shirt!