long story short

12 November 2021

One of the things that most thrilled me about living in the New England area is experiencing autumn in all its glory. All the oranges, reds, burgundies, ambers. To borrow from Linda Cope: "And that orange, it made me so happy, as ordinary things often do."

I'm not a very outdoorsy kind of girl, but New Hampshire didn't have to try so hard to make me change my mind. I live in front of a park, and seeing the view outside my window makes me want to go outside, burst into song, and feel the sun on my face. Yep, this is my Disney Princess origin story, I guess.

Autumn is so short in this neck of the woods, apparently, so I did my best to soak everything in. Here are a couple of pictures from the last few weeks that would make you want to put on a coat, a big fluffy scarf, and take a walk in the park, like a manic pixie dream girl in a movie emoting to the When Harry Met Sally soundtrack.

Apple picking (taken using a Samsung, haha!)

We went apple picking after school one random Wednesday, organized by our super lovely Dean for Student Affairs, Dean Lauren Berger. After spending about an hour filling up our baskets with apples of different varieties, we sat down for some apple cider and brought home apple crumble pies. Whew, that's a lot of apples.

Did you think I would pass up the chance to pretend like I'm the modern-day live-adaptation remake of a darker, more twisted Snow White? Of course not.

Pretending to know which apples to pick. (There were ribbons to differentiate the varieties, but I just went for the roundest, reddest looking ones.)

Pumpkins waiting for Halloween! I can't wait for my Disney Princess-turned-witchy-villain plot twist.

Portsmouth

We drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire one Friday for my friend Kathy's birthday - and completely forgot about our afternoon makeup class. Ha! Model students. We attended the class via Zoom while we were having lunch by the marinas and having lobsters! Portsmouth is known for its fresh and delicious seafood so of course, we had to try it. But not really knowing how to eat lobsters and crabs - and you know, not wanting to ruin my outfit - I went for lobster mac & cheese instead. Make no mistake though, it was literally the best mac & cheese I have ever tasted. We walked around, visited a few parks, window-shopped, went to a museum, took lots of pictures - typical foreign-students-being-tourists stuff. It literally felt like being in a Gilmore Girls episode.

That's Kathy's sister, Karol, driving us. Look at that view!

Lobster mac and cheese!!! The most incredible thing I've had in the last few months.

Portsmouth's cute, small-town vibe was delightful.

Dartmouth

From one "mouth" to another! I attended a talk at Dartmouth co-sponsored by the UNH Law Rudman Center for Justice, Leadership & Public Service on "Renewing Trust in Democracy: The Role of Courts," featuring former US Solicitors General Gregory Garre and Neal Katyal. I went with my good friend Mithra, who, just like me, wanted to learn about the career trajectories of these former Sol Gens, and was looking for an excuse to visit and step foot in one of the Ivy Leagues.

I was so glad to have finally visited Dartmouth because it's a dream college of mine. It doesn't have a law school, sadly - if it did, I would've been in Hanover and not Concord! Papa and I have always talked about wanting to attend Dartmouth, especially since his father (my grandpa) was supposed to have gone there under scholarship offers by the US to exemplary university students after the second World War. Things just didn't work out as hoped, but it remained one of his (and our) dream, what-if schools.

Fun fact: the University of New Hampshire was originally incorporated as a part of Dartmouth in 1866, as its College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, before finally becoming the state university in 1923. So I guess... I kind of am Dartmouth-adjacent now?

Another fun fact: My favorite Conan O'Brien commencement speech was the one he made at Dartmouth! (Kind of wrote about it here.) One of my favorite screenwriters also went here: Mindy Kaling.

I feel like in another life, I could have gone to Dartmouth and become a screenwriter like Mindy Kaling or Shonda Rhimes. Ah, multiverse, when are you gonna unravel??

Just a bunch of other fall pics that will make you quote Taylor Swift and go, "I remember it all too well,"

Fall just made me want to rebrand to a very "live, laugh, love" / "nature is my playground" kind of girl. Lol! If only I wasn't so lazy and dedicated to my bed and space heater most of the time! But I definitely enjoyed going out and actually taking advantage of the public spaces nearby. This is something I wish we had in Manila: less malls, more parks and hiking spots. Maybe I wouldn't be such a Greenbelt and Landmark hoe if we actually had nice outdoor spaces in the city??

The temperatures are starting to drop to around 8-14 degrees Celsius these days. Pretty cold, but nothing that a cute coat can't fix! I'm just trying my best to enjoy the sweater weather and the warm oranges before winter comes creeping in and officially turns me into a scrooge.

The view in front of my house. Can you believe it!!

White Park, which is just in front of the school

And that's the law school behind me!

Panorama photo from the Pierce Bridge

More pictures of White Park - because how else can you not capture that view?

The lodge won't open until the winter: it's used by skaters and hockey players when the lake freezes up!

Concord has its charms.

And just generally more pictures around Concord because I like remembering my weekend walks to the grocery and the bank. Running errands (and not having a car!!) doesn't feel as exhausting when you've got this view along the way.

I also went on a couple of hiking trips with friends. One of them was to Rainbow Falls, in Plymouth, NH (Another "mouth"! New England towns, amirite?) which was not the original place we wanted to visit but Waze kind of tapped out and brought us somewhere else. Not so bad at all, though, because we didn't initially plan on seeing waterfalls.

My "I miss my bed and my back hurts enough nature for the day" pose

And some more pics of my walks to school. My two pairs of Adidas UltraBoost have served me very, very well.

Pretending to text but actually taking a very artsy/aesthetic photo for the 'Gram

Rains do not dampen the vibe of the scenery at all

Can this view get any more perfect? There's a baseball court somewhere in the right side of the picture, and every time I walk past it I feel like one of those girls in teen movies, meeting up with friends and secretly eyeing their crush. Unfortunately for me, my crush is all the way in Boston - hi Chris Evans, when will the universe conspire for us to meet???