explore – Jaclyn Grace

Early Spring Recap

So remember around January 1st I posted about my New Year’s Resolutions? Remember how one of them was to be more consistent with the blog? Oops! I guess life just gets in the way sometimes and you have to roll with the punches. Lately, that means not opening my computer for any purposes besides work and studying. It’s not pretty or fun to think about, but hopefully it will get better soon.

While I have a few minutes, I wanted to share some of my favorite things that have happened over the last couple of months since I posted!

My aunt, uncle, and cousins came to visit me! We only got to spend a few hours together, but I loved having them here none the less.

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2. I discovered one of my new favorite places in Massachusetts – Birth Tree Bread Company. Since visiting, I can’t stop thinking and talking about how I would love to open a coffee shop just like this one – homemade pastries, fresh bread, delicious coffee, and craft beer. All of this along with the cozy atmosphere and the farmer’s market downstairs — I am in my element!

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3. Mom, Dave, Ant, and Dan came down for a long weekend in March. We had a great time despite it being one of the last freezing cold weekends that we had. We spent our Saturday night at Maxwell’s Tavern and ended up front row at a country concert. It was a bizarre twist of events, but we had fun being front row at a Drew Baldridge concert.

4. I visited Departed Soles Brewing Co. in Jersey City with a friend from college, her boyfriend, and Dan. It was so great to catch up with her after months apart! The brewery that we went to was such a unique and quirky little place – but the beer that I had was fantastic. She loved it because they have gluten free options, which is nearly unheard of for a brewery. Since we went around Easter, the specialty beer on tap was infused with marshmallow peeps. Now I know that this sounds strange, but it may very well have been the best beer that I have ever tasted. I’m still kicking myself for not buying a case!

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5. My five best guy friends from college came to visit me a few weeks later and we had the best weekend. We started the weekend off with a delicious Italian dinner at Margherita’s Pizza Cafe and it was a fabulous choice. All weekend everyone raved about the meal that they had here – myself included.

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On Saturday we spent the day walking around and exploring NYC. We went up to the observatory deck of One World Trade Center, visited Ground Zero, Wall Street, Central Park, and Trump Tower (or as all the guys kept saying, “White House North”).

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It was a full day of walking but we had a blast. I was so grateful to have them here for the weekend! I always find myself feeling so lucky to have such solid friendships that all started 5 years ago in our college freshman dorm.

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6. Last but not least, Easter weekend! I got into MA around 11 PM Friday night and immediately went to bed. I was exhausted after working all day and traveling all night, but it was more than worth it. On Saturday morning, I took a ride to Birch Tree Bread Company (surprise, surprise) for iced coffee. They had a farmer’s market downstairs where I picked up two bouquets of tulips from Fivefork Farms in Upton, MA – one for my mom and one for my grandma. The photos don’t do them justice because they were absolutely breathtaking.

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On Saturday afternoon, my Dad and Peggy stopped by to have an early Easter lunch with Ant and I. They brought us the most fantastic Easter baskets, as always, and I’m mad at myself that I didn’t get a picture of it. I was clearly too busy inhaling as much candy as possible, as fast as possible (LOL). We went down to Brew City on Shrewsbury St. for lunch and had a great time catching up.

After returning from lunch, we decorated cupcakes, easter eggs, and made chocolate covered strawberries with the boys!

Sunday morning we woke up early to have kielbasa, coffee, mimosas, and butter braids and it was the perfect relaxing start to the day before heading off Grammy’s house!

Here are a few of the photos taken from the day…

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That’s pretty much everything that has been going on for the past few months around here. I always find it funny how I can get so bogged down with the little details of my day to day life, yet looking back the weeks are filled with so much happiness. Writing recap posts like this really helps me put into perspective how blessed I truly am. God is so good.

xo,

Jaclyn

First Weekend Visitors!

So I’m a little behind here (per usual) but I wanted to fill you all in on the fantastic past weekend that I had with my mom and brother.

Before they arrived on Saturday morning, I woke up early and took a walk downtown to a cute little coffee shop called “bwe kafe.” I heard about this place through Instagram and I am so glad that I decided to go check it out.

They had the cutest little set up and I loved the atmosphere. I’m hoping to spent a few hours here this weekend catching up on some studying!

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I ordered a dirty chai latte, which was essentially a chai latte with a shot of espresso. It was so perfect and I have been craving one ever since. Though next time I do think that I’ll go with 2 shots of espresso!

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When I got home from the coffee shop, Anthony and my mom were here! We brought up all of the stuff that didn’t make it into my car during the first move and spent a few hours unpacking and chatting.

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By the time we finished, we were starving and decided to head over to Mom’s favorite deli – Fiore’s. We got roast beef and mozzarella subs and they were just as great as we remembered from last time that we visited there.

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We spent the rest of the afternoon curled up on the couch watching movies and napping. Around 7 o’clock, Anthony was starving so we ordered pizza and wings to snack on during the football game.

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On Sunday morning, we woke up early and headed into the city for a fun and touristy day, starting with Times Square!

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We went into the M&M store and the Hershey store, both of which were absolutely packed for so early in the morning. We had enough of the huge crowds after that, so we decided to head over to Rockefeller Center.

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On our way we stopped into St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was just recently renovated. It was beautiful inside. I wish we could have stayed for mass!

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We spent the rest of our day walking down 5th avenue, visiting Madison Square Garden, and getting an awesome lunch at “The Counter.” We had huge cheeseburgers with french fries, which pretty much put us into food induced comas immediately.

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We headed back to Hoboken and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and hanging out.

Even after our fun weekend, I think my favorite part was coming home from work on Monday night to dinner on the table and all of my grocery shopping done for the week. I am so lucky and already can’t wait for their next visit!

I have a fun post coming up regarding some of the things that I’m loving lately, so keep an eye out! 🙂

xo,

Jaclyn

Random Update

I am finally adjusting to the routine and starting to get used to everyday life here. Soon enough I am sure it will feel like home, though there are some major things I’m missing. I would give just about anything for a regular dunkin donuts coffee at this point! I have yet to come across any cafe, restaurant, or coffee shop here that prepares coffee like we do in the US. While I love the fancy lattes, lately I have been craving a regular coffee.

Here are a few things that I have been up to over the past few days…

Last night a few of us went to one of the first nights of the Melbourne Comedy Festival.It was a free show located at a little bar in the city.To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of this. It had been a long work day and I almost stayed home and went to bed early, but I’m so glad I didn’t. There were 11 comedians that performed for about 5 minutes each and they were hysterical. The purpose of this show was to advertise the rest of their performances throughout the festival, so they all highlighted some of their best jokes. This was the perfect week night activity for us and I’m hoping we can catch another show while we are here. Comedy

Today after work I had a few errands to run. First, I went to the post office as I had to get a passport photo taken for my internship. This is the building that it was in…

I am telling you that everything here is beautiful. I couldn’t help but compare this to the post office in my home town, which doesn’t quite measure up.

After that, I went to the library to send in my forms for work and was so surprised by all of the people sitting on the front lawn. People were eating, reading, and working on their computers. It felt like I was on a college campus.

One other thing that I have been doing is playing around with the GoPro that I brought. It is awesome! I have been taking tons of videos, but unfortunately I am having trouble downloading the software to edit/compile them. I can’t wait until I can do that and see the final product. 🙂 Here are a few random photos I have taken with it…

xo,

Jaclyn

Cricket World Cup

Tonight, about a mile away from where we are staying, the Cricket World Cup was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

We had been following the sport for a few days on the news and were excited that Australia made it to the finals vs. New Zealand!

This morning we went to Queen Victoria Market and the boys all picked up their gear for the game tonight – including 8 matching Australia jerseys.

After the market, we spent our day at the beach, then came back around 5pm for the second inning of the game. For those of you who don’t know, cricket games consist of two innings and can last around eight hours! I would never want to sit through the entire game.

We watched for a few hours from our apartment, but once the end got closer we headed down to the stadium. There were people and jumbo-trons everywhere showing the last few minutes.

When Australia won we were expecting a huge celebration… like when the Pats win a Super bowl! It was nothing like that. Our group was the most excited, decked out group there. The guys were actually interviewed by 7-8 news stations!

It was really funny because they acted like die-hard fans even though I’m pretty sure we all watched out first game of cricket less than 48 hours ago.

The best part of the night were the fireworks set off after Australia won. They were the best fireworks that I have ever seen!

The whole night was a great way to really get immersed in Australian culture. We were lucky to be here for this, especially so close to our apartment!

xo,

Jaclyn

Wildlife Sanctuary

At 6:30 this morning Jimmy, Raeshawn, Francisco, and I set out for the gym before work. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time as we thought we would and I ended up doing a quick 20 minute circuit… I guess something is better than nothing!

After working out, we showered at the office, ate breakfast, and then were ready to start our day. My four team members, my two WPI advisors, and 3 employees from the office set out for a day-long tour of Melbourne.

We drove around the outskirts of the city and gained a better understanding of the area, which is important for the project we are working on. After about 2 hours of driving, we decided to stop at a little cafe for a quick cup of coffee. In Australia, you do not just slurp down a large Dunkin’s iced coffee when you need a quick fix. We stopped, sat outside, and drank latte’s from little glass mugs. They were tiny but very delicious – definitely better quality than at home.

Also, you cannot just order regular coffee here. It has to be either a latte, a magic, or a cappuccino apparently. Luckily for me, I love lattes. My teammates aren’t overly enthused about this.

After our lattes we piled back into the bus and continued driving. We drove out through the Yarra Valley wine country and it was beautiful. The entire WPI group is booking a Wine/Chocolate/Cheese tour to do on Sunday, so luckily I will have more time to visit there and take pictures. 🙂

Next, our group stopped for lunch at a small bakery in the country side. I had a BLT which was very good, but dessert was the best. I don’t know what it was called, but our sponsor ordered us these cake-like pastries dipped in chocolate and coconut. They said that they are an Australian tradition and I can definitely see why!

We were under the impression that lunch was one of our last stops on the tour, until we pulled up to a Wildlife Sanctuary! Our sponsor surprised us with tickets and we spent the rest of the day looking around and seeing all of the animals.

The first thing we saw were Koala bears and they were just ask cute as I imagined. This is probably the animal that I was most excited to see, but I wish we could have pet or held them as the staff was.

We saw some other awesome animals as well… The kangaroos really made me laugh!

It was really cool seeing so many different animals that we wouldn’t see back home!

xo,

Jaclyn