My Jet-Setting Summer

Name: Tabitha Moses

Year: Class of 2011

Hometown: Oxford, England

Majors: Cognitive Science, Philosophy

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So people are still asking: what did you do with your summer? The problem is that it feels so long ago I’m having trouble remembering already! (I thought going to college was supposed to make you smarter!)
Anyway, I thought I’d write out a blog about my summer experience, and reminisce about how I’m sad it’s over already.

Okay, so I will start from the beginning, which was the last day of finals. My boyfriend and I decided to stay in Baltimore for an extra couple of weeks so we could organize and furnish the house that 5 of us are renting. I developed a serious Craigslist obsession (which I’m still slowly getting over) and one day we rented a giant U-Haul and Jeremy (the boyfriend) drove, while me and one of the people we’re living with—Kempton—did directions and got us lost. We were in that U-Haul from 10am until 6pm collecting furniture. It may not be all that modest, but I must say I did a great job finding good, and cheap stuff for the house. I’m currently sitting in our reclining sofa, which makes me very happy! Anyway, the next few days involved a lot of organizing, moving stuff and building (we also stopped at IKEA where I got my desk). I’m not sure I’d call it fun, but the results were awesome and I was really sad to leave. We were leaving the gorgeous house for two whole months, which was going to suck, but Kempton spent the summer interning in D.C. so at least someone used the house. (On that note if anyone wants to know anything about the Navy or Military history and internship/job opportunities, I know someone who knows a lot!)

Anyway, leaving day was sad as Jeremy and I left (with our 2 cats) for Chicago (his hometown). I won’t talk about the fun of flying with cats, I’ll leave that to your imaginations! However, as you can see above, I am going to subject you to some pictures of my babies from the summer! I was only in Chicago a couple of days before I went back to England for a couple of weeks to see my family and friends. I got bored very quickly though, and looked forward to my flight back to Chicago for a quick stopover to pick up my boyfriend and the cats to go to Seattle.

Seattle was my destination for the summer. I was there for about a month and a half, and had a great time. Everyone asked me what the hell Jeremy and I were doing in Seattle considering I’m from England and he’s from Chicago; but it’s pretty simple really. Neither of us felt like going home, and my uncle lives in Seattle so we got to live with him for free, and we both managed to get some sort of internship.

I had a wonderful internship; I was doing bioethical research, which most people don’t know what it is (and I didn’t either!) Essentially you do survey’s of sorts to find out people’s views on certain bioethical questions and issues. Sadly, due to all of the confidentiality training I can’t actually explain most of what I did. But I really had a great time, I got to go to meetings, and was asked my opinion, I felt like a real grown-up! If I go back to Seattle again I would definitely look into working/interning there again.

I had also planned to do volunteering of some sort over the summer, and my boss tried to set some up for me. Sadly, as it was summer most people were on vacation and there were lots of new doctors, so I wasn’t able to, but my boss did offer to talk to people in Baltimore and get me somewhere to intern, so it’s great.
One thing I learnt in my internship is how important networking is, my boss knows so many people and was able to get me in contact with them. I’m not sure what the point of me saying this is, but anyway: NETWORK!!!

While I was in Seattle I was also able to take an online Hopkins course in Positive Psychology. I had wanted to take it, but wasn’t sure I’d have time, so I was happy to see that she was offering the course online over the summer. It was very strange to take a course online, and kind of difficult to take some of the work seriously because there was no professor telling you what to do in person. But I finished it, and found it interesting. I am glad I took it, although I’m not sure I’d choose to do it again.

What else did I do? Well, as the title of this blog suggests I travelled a lot. My mom then came to Seattle, we did touristy things, which were fun, and then went to Las Vegas to see my grandparents (they’ve lived there for almost 30 years now!) I’ve spent a lot of time in Vegas, so I can’t exactly say I did anything exciting. It was hot, and my grandmother gets cold easily, and likes to have the heating on in the house, which is a little annoying when it’s 110 out!

While I was in Vegas poor Jeremy took both cats from Seattle to Chicago by himself, while I feel bad, it does make for amusing stories! And after a couple weeks in Vegas I stopped over in Chicago to pick up the boys before coming back to Baltimore.

Being back in Bmore was nice, but strange. Not long after we got back orientation started and all the people I know started coming back. It was strange after a being away for so long, but kind of nice-until classes started that is!

I had a great summer, I’m sad it’s over. I hope I managed to get across some of its greatness in my rambling.

I’ll leave you with the creep family picture from Vegas where I’ve decided my grandfather looks a lot like someone from the Russian mafia!

Thank you for reading!