Happy Friday! It was a very busy Spring Break for us. We traveled to Rhode Island, did several college tours, and spent some time with my family. I think almost every other family with a high school junior was touring colleges at some point during their Spring Break as well! My daughter doesn’t know yet what she wants to study in college and I feel like it’s a much more competitive process than when I applied, back in the day. Our next tour isn’t for another couple of weeks and then we will likely visit a couple more during the summer. It’s an overwhelming and exhausting process and I wish any other families going through this process lots of luck! On another note, Happy Passover and Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Here are five from this week:
1.Boston – Prior to this week, I had never been to Boston. Crazy, I know!
I still want to go back and visit since the only day we were there was spent touring Boston University (unofficially walking around the campus since we couldn’t get a tour the day we visited) and Northeastern University. She liked both schools, but they are both very competitive to get into and also VERY expensive!
2. Reading – This week I finally finished Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. I highly recommend this book! It was a little slow in the beginning but once I got into it, it was so good!
I also finished reading Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. This was a suspense book that had me guessing the entire time. It was a 2022 Goodreads Choice Award nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller and I can see why!
3. Rhode Island – My parents live in Rhode Island, so we stayed with them during the break while we visited schools. During our visit we toured Salve Regina, Roger Williams and Providence College. We couldn’t get a tour at the University of Rhode Island, but walked around the campus. We will tour URI this summer when we go back up to visit my parents.
4. Eating – This week there was a lot of eating out! Some of my favorites included:
Mango Sticky Rice with Coconut Cream from Sup Thai (Queens).
These donuts from Union Square Donuts (Boston). There were so many delicious donuts to choose from, but we shared the Baklava Donut, the Key Lime Donut and the Stuffed Cookie Dough Bar.
This Mushroom, Spinach & Potato Bowl from Tatte Bakery & Cafe (Boston).
And these Everything Fries from new.burger, a restaurant at Plant City, a vegan food hall in Providence, RI.
5. St. John’s University – Last Saturday before we traveled to Rhode Island we toured St. John’s University in Queens. She liked this school, which is on the maybe list.
6. My Anniversary – Tuesday, April 4th my husband and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary….if you can call touring colleges a celebration! My parents did take everyone out for dinner to celebrate. However, we will have our own belated celebration soon. The highlight of the day is that both kids really liked Roger Williams University. It’s not a huge school and is right on the water with beautiful views.
7. Family– This week my brother and my sister and her family traveled up to Rhode Island from Maryland and surprised my parents! My dad is undergoing a major surgery in May and everyone wanted to see him before his surgery. It was nice to have the family all together since the last time we were all together was back in November at Thanksgiving.
Also, when you live in New York you are asked to bring bagels, since there is nothing like a NY bagel!
8. UConn – Finally, on the way back home to New York, we stopped at UConn. After our tour, my daughter was able to cross this school off her list for being too big and sporty. It’s been an exhausting several days, but she’s slowly narrowing down what she likes and what she doesn’t. We have also been bringing my son along on these tours, since he’s a freshman in high school and don’t want to have to do this all over again in two years!
Sharing with Friday Favorites! Have a great weekend!
OH yes, UConn is a HUGE school with very large classes. We have a couple of family member that work there. We plan to tour colleges this month and through the summer too but there are far fewer colleges with a culinary focus so we don’t have all that many on our list. It sure sounds like you had a very productive break! Our spring break just started today.
I liked UConn but neither of my teens did. It is very large and spread out! Knowing this has helped us eliminate some schools on our college search! Good luck with your tours and college searches. Having a specific focus is very helpful!
“Too big and too sporty” definitely sounds like high school me, ha! (Though I also hated Villanova at that time and ended up going there for grad school, so what do I know?) I’ve only been to Boston and Rhode Island once, but they were so nice! I am not at all surprised you were asked to bring NYC bagels with you! 😀