this week's adventure!

um.....Burlington, VT is a must-see place in the US of A.

it was as hippy, dippy, trippy as i thought it would be. Burlington did not disappoint as far as dreadlocks, the smell of patchouli and, I AM NOT LYING, college kids smoking pot on the sidewalks.

this was a work trip, so in 2 days i toured 3 colleges and visited with 3 alumni students from the school where i currently work. it was great to see them in their first and second semesters of college and hear about their current stage of life.

as i listened to them, i realized that regardless of how many things have changed so utterly much since i was an undergrad, so much has stayed the same. professors text and tweet, kids swipe student cards for their laundry (machines don't take quarters) and textbooks are becoming more scarce. luckily, kids still have really small and unkempt dorm rooms, they wear shorts when it's probably just a bit too chilly still and they get involved with worthy causes and complain about the dining hall food.

i was forced to reflect upon this incredible phase of my own life and in some ways it felt like eons ago that i was in college. i couldn't relate any longer to wanting to skip class or tolerating a lecture hall full of silence as the professor tried to engage the young minds of her students. i realized that shoving your face full of empty calories and surviving on such little sleep is so short-lived.

but what hasn't been short-lived for me are the friendships that i made in college that are still of the finest i have to this day. i found myself encouraging one of my old students to weather the totally normal storm of having to weed through all kinds of people who will NOT be your lifelong friends to find the ones who will. she will make it, i'm sure, but i couldn't seem to help myself with giving the same advice over and over: hang in there, this is the most exciting time of your life. but my heart hurt for her a little bit when i heard that it has been difficult to find those like-minded young people who she just clicks with.

man, i must have sounded old for most of that conversation, but whatever.

one of my favorite tour guide quotes used to describe what students do when the weather gets nice in the normally snow-covered VT - "sun's out, guns out" - as in biceps? she said it so off the cuff that i had to keep running in through my mind since i had never heard it before.

also, never seen or heard of before by me - the word "localvore". which is defined exactly how you may think - consuming local products as much as possible. those Vermontonians are super enthusiastic about consuming local goods and i commend them for that.

signing off now so i can endure more airline delays. i'm already a cancelled flight, a crappy night's sleep in an airport hotel, and another delayed flight in. i'm in it to win it.