UNH Visit: Part Two

This is part two of my trip to visit the University of New Hampshire and explore Boston and Concord! If you missed part one (or want a refresher) here is the link: Part One.

Monday was actually a much busier day than all the other days combined, though I took by far the fewest pictures! I was totally absorbed in learning about the school and pretty much left my phone in my purse the entire day. Oops!

What I did take pictures of was the outside of the school! J was kind enough to be in one of my pictures. UNH is a ridiculously beautiful school in a ridiculously beautiful area of the country. Seriously. J and I were both blown away by the brick exterior with the vines and plant life everywhere. Across the street was White Park, which had a large pond where people apparently play ice hockey in the winter. Hockey is a big deal in New Hampshire.

We went on a tour around the school - for a small school, there was a lot to it! My favorite part, by far, was the practice courtroom. UNH really emphasizes real-life (or at least, mock) practice of the law. They maintained that a lawyer can be great on paper, but if you never set foot inside a courtroom or have to argue in front of a judge before you graduate, you're not going to be prepared. I totally agree with this; I'm SO excited to be able to "try" cases in front of real judges throughout my legal education! They're also going to teach us how to mediate!

The other thing I really, really loved was the professors. Every single prof that I talked to (or heard speak) was so passionate about what they taught! You could tell that, given the chance, they could talk about their specific area of the law for hours (much like if I was given the chance to talk about my cats, haha). They got so excited, even talking about teaching. The professors all tried really hard to be good teachers, and they prided themselves on that. 

UNH also works really hard on placing their 3L's into jobs when they graduate! They all try and place students into internships and legal residencies while they're in school so that (a) students have real-world experiences in jobs that they're passionate about; and (b) students have connections to different attorneys when they're about the graduate and are looking for jobs.

Seriously, I can't emphasize enough how much the school impressed me! I got to meet Michaila finally, who I'd been talking to on Facebook. She was just as adorable in person (actually no, she was more adorable) and was super, super nice. I met a few other students I'd "friended" on Facebook - literally everyone I talked to was wonderful! It's gonna be an awesome class this fall!

Monday was also Penina's birthday! Again, I totally forgot to take pictures. J and I drove to her house in New Hampshire after our day at UNH to meet her and her family for the first time. I saw my first "Moose Crossing" sign and I remembered that moose existed. Who knew?

I can't emphasize enough how wonderful Penina is. I knew we clicked online, but as we all well know, online is not real life. Thankfully for all involved, it was a perfect night! Her parents totally spoiled us and fed us a feast. I met her cat, Herbie, and her little brother, Simon. It was a beautiful night - you would have thought that we were all old friends. :) It made me that much more excited to room with her this next year!

The next morning (Tuesday), Penina met us in Concord to visit the apartment we'd been talking about! I don't want to give too much away - that'll be in another blog post!

After checking out the apartment, J, Penina and I checked out a coffee shop we had seen in town! We talked and talked and talked... then realized we had only put an hour's worth of money in the meter. I was like, "There is no WAY our meter's out yet," and yet it totally was. Talking with Penina was just that effortless. It helps that we all love the show, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." I feel like I could easily judge someone on if they like that show or not.

Penina had to leave, so J and I went back to the hotel to get our stuff packed up. For lunch, we check out the Thai restaurant in town. We had already eaten at the Indian place, so it was only naturally that we check out the Thai one!

For lunch, I had the veggie pad thai and the most AMAZING bowl of tom yum seafood soup! It was spicy and full of seafood and mushrooms and perfection. Definitely tom YUM if you know what I mean! ;)

After lunch, we drove back to the Boston airport (a horrible, horrible experience) and returned the rental car. We took a shuttle to our final hotel and had a wonderful night watching Law & Order and cuddling.

Our flight back home didn't depart until 9:40am, but both J and I wanted to be sure we got to the airport in time so we took another shuttle and got to the airport around 6:30. Thankfully everything went really smoothly and we got out of security by 6:50! We grabbed some Starbucks - bagels and iced green teas for both of us - and sat around our gate for the next 2-ish hours. I eventually went on a small adventure to find some cold medicine. I could feel my ears starting to hurt and get clogged, and I didn't feel like dealing with that without drugging myself up. All I found was Dayquil, which basically does nothing for me now, but I'm sure it was better than nothing.

I also had more than enough time to take a few "creative" selfies. Our first flight was pretty non-descript; I managed to finish reading "The Great Gatsby" for the first time since High School. I didn't want to see the movie without reading the book again first, which I'm still glad about. Hopefully I'll have time to see the movie this weekend?

Our second flight left from Atlanta and J and I had enough time between flights to grab some food. We went to some Mexican fast food place where I got two extremely messy (but yummy) tacos and the best tortilla chips ever. 

That flight sucked - it turned out to be super painful for my left ear and by the time we landed, I was pretty much sitting there with my head in my hands like some first-world problems stock photo. After we landed it got a little better, but J and I stopped at a Walgreens to get some over the counter meds. Still super pumped about that decision, because I've felt steadily better since!


It was one busy, stressful, and awesome trip and I can't express how happy I am that we took the time to check out UNH. I was sure that it was a great school before that, but visiting it totally solidified my decision. I feel wonderful about my choice to go to law school there. Along with that, I got the chance to meet a few people who I'd only previously met or talked to online! As a blogger, I seem to get a lot more new online interactions than real-life ones, so it was definitely a wonderful experience meeting Penina, her family, Michaila, Stephanie, and everyone else on Monday. :)

Have you ever experienced an ear infection on a flight before? Have you talked to people online and then in real life? How was that experience? How great does UNH sound?!