Back at Saint Mike's!

Hello! Hope everybody's move-in and first week of classes went well.  I am absolutely thrilled to be back at Saint Mike's and wanted to share with you how my time here has been going so far!

I arrived here a few days early because I am a part of the peer ministry group on campus called VITA, which means "way of life" in Latin.  As I think I've mentioned before, my friend (and fellow blogger) Alex and I will be leading a VITA program called Dessert and the Divine this year.  We are both very excited about it, not only because it's a great faith sharing opportunity, but also beacuse we will get to display our wonderful baking skills :)
Coming back early, Alex and I got to spend some time with our fellow VITA Team leaders, who are all super awesome! 

We got to take some time to reflect on the upcoming year and to volunteer at a school called Rock Point in Burlington, which was very rewarding. 

Alex and me cleaning and organizing the game shelf :)

Anna Lester, the leader of VITA, even had us over to her house for a BBQ -- so much fun!  The weekend ended with the first 7pm Mass of the semester.  It was great to see all my Lit Choir friends again!

S'mores!

This week was the first week of classes.  It seems that most everyone had a lot of work to do, but there were plenty of smiling faces around campus.  This semester, I am taking Gen Chem I, Research Methods, Social Psych, and Intro to Anthropology.  I really like all of my classes so far and am looking forward to a great semester.

As the weekend winds down, I am ready to start a new week.  I spent most of Friday finalizing decorations in my room and hanging pictures on my walls (finally!).  It was so great to be able to relax after a week of hard work.  On Saturday, my friends (my SMC family as I like to refer to them) went out to dinner at a restaurant called the Three Tomatoes on Church Street in Burlington to celebrate my friend Alex's birthday.  The food was absolutely delicious!  It was so great to be together once again with such great friends.

Hope everyone had a fantastic orientation/move-in/first week and is ready for another great week at SMC!  Let me know if I can answer any questions and thanks so much for reading my blog!
~Merrill