WUSTL Graduation and the Start to Summer

June 10, 2015 by Mackenzie

It’s mid-June, 100 degrees in St. Louis, and I’m still adjusting to this post-college life of no stress, no deadlines, and decent sleep! The last few months passed in a whirlwind of excitement as I learned of my Fulbright grant, finished my final college papers, and walked across the stage as a proud graduate of Washington University in St. Louis. It’s hard to put into words how fulfilling and happy the last year has been – I’ve found new passions, established old ones, learned more about myself, made new lifelong friends, deepened relationships with mentors, and am so excited about the future, whatever it may hold.

I haven’t blogged in ages, I know – but blogging didn’t hold the same charm for me as it used to. I started this blog as a means to share my life with family and friends but with all the other social media outlets out there, I’ve felt less of a need to blog in order to stay connected with them. This blog also used to be about cooking and baking and the joy I found in the kitchen – but in the last six months, I think I’ve made cookies once, roasted a lot of brussels sprouts, and made countless batches of hummus…but that’s about it. My meals are quite simple these days but that’s how I prefer it at the moment and hey, I’ve lost a few pounds not baking all the time!

I know I’ll start blogging regularly again when I leave for Indonesia – this blog is how I plan to share that experience. I’m growing increasingly excited about Indonesia, although I still don’t know much about where I will be or what my day to day will look like. We are supposed to hear soon what our placement will be and then I’ll know which of the 17,000 islands I’ll be living on! We are also all flying out to DC in about ten days for the Fulbright Pre-Departure Orientation. I’ll get to meet the other ETAs headed to Indonesia and will hopefully learn a lot about what my year will look like! I’m also thrilled to be headed back to DC and will get to see a lot of my friends and coworkers from last summer.

In the meantime, I’m staying in St. Louis for the remainder of the summer. It was wonderful to have my family in town for graduation – here are a few pictures from the weekend.

My wonderful momma and I

So happy to have my family in town!

A wonderful dinner at Olio

A fabulous night at Taste!

In addition to the craziness of the end of senior year, I also began working at Taste, a cocktail bar/restaurant in the Central West End. When I started, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to or how much I would learn or how much fun I would have… but it has been an absolute blast and I loved it so much I decided to stay on for the summer before heading to Indonesia! I work at the restaurant most evenings and have most of my days open to read, sleep, run, meet friends for lunch… it’s been an incredibly relaxing couple of weeks but as nice as it is, I’m getting a little stir crazy and ready for some intellectual stimulation again 🙂 But for the next seven weeks, I’m going to enjoy these free days while I have them and then I’ll be off to the other side of the world!

5 Easy, Healthy Recipes for Busy College Students

October 16, 2014 by Mackenzie

As usual, life is busy, my days are packed and I’m spending less and less time at home. I’ve been all about the PBJs and Trader Joe’s frozen dinners this week. But I have been spending time looking at all my older blog posts and have been quite impressed with how much I was cooking two years ago without a full kitchen to work with!

I thought I would pull together a roundup of some of my favorite easy and healthy recipes! I’m going to do two segments – this one is my top 5 EASY, healthy recipes for busy college students. Next week I’ll share my top 5 easy college treats! These meals are easy for students to throw together when all you want is a yummy home cooked meal. Some of these require an oven or a stovetop – but hopefully you at least have a kitchen in your dorm somewhere! The ingredient lists are short and you don’t need any special kitchen equipment – a pot, pan and knife can get you far! Whether you are on campus or you’ve just moved into your own apartment for the first time, try these 5 EASY, healthy recipes for busy college students! If you need ideas for substitutions or cooking improvisations, drop me a comment below!

If you want to look at some of the crazy things my roommate and I cooked up in our dorm, take a look at some of these really old posts! Cranberry Pecan Muffins, Snickerdoodle Cake and Roasted Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing!

1. Avocado Chicken Salad

2. Sweet Potato, Kale & Black Bean Hash

3. Sauteed Sweet Potatoes with Lemon Parsley Gremolata

4. Fresh Lemon Mint Pasta with Chicken and Peas

5. Blueberry Basil Grilled Cheese Sandwich

[Life Update] A DC Summer…

August 12, 2014 by Mackenzie

Well friends, another adventure has come to a close! As you read this, I’m probably on a flight from DC to St. Louis or catching up with my dear roommate after 3 1/2 months apart! I thought I would take a moment to share some of my photos and tell the stories behind some of my experiences – because what a summer this has been! I really didn’t think I could top last summer in Indonesia – but honestly, this summer has come pretty darn close 🙂

I know I have shared a lot of these photos on facebook and instagram over the summer – so I’m sorry if you’ve already seen them! Hopefully I can share a little more behind each photo and give you the big picture of my time in DC! There is also a lot I won’t be sharing to the world over this blog! So if you see me in person – ask me for more stories!!

So… I arrived in DC at the beginning of June – after spending a month in Madagascar (see this post for that update!) The photo below is from my first morning – I went for a run through the National Mall and couldn’t believe I had been in the bush of Madagascar just days before!

I’m proud to say that I became a very consistent runner during my time here! I ran pretty much every other morning, waking up just before 6am to beat the heat and humidity and take in the breathtaking views of the National Mall without the throngs of tourists. According to “my fitness pal” (PS – awesome app), I think I ran 95 miles this summer! Yeah!

I did plenty of exploring – I had quite the bucket list and checked off just about everything! This was day 1 as I was exploring the Hill and trying to figure out where my office was so I wouldn’t be late on my first day of work 😀

Okay, so then I actually started working! Here’s Martha and I working hard! 😀

The next big question you probably have is, what exactly did you do in your internship? Well… a Hill internship is…a Hill internship. There are plenty of hilarious buzzfeed articles – and they are quite accurate! I highly recommend reading this one if you want to laugh. Anyways, I worked 9-6 and every day would answer phone calls from constituents, give tours of the Capitol Building to constituents, do research on policy for staffers, attend briefings and Committee Hearings (I went to some really cool hearings – one on International Violence Against Women, Campus Sexual Assault etc), go to Intern Lectures (with awesome speakers – I have some pics below), and just do whatever anybody asked of me!

Martha and I would accidentally match at least once a week – so awkward since we were always together

I was outside the Supreme Court when the Hobby Lobby Decision was announced – it was insane!

Another fellow intern and I exploring the Capitol Building! Our badges could get us just about anywhere – so this is just off the Senate FloorChuck Todd – Chief White House News Correspondent – one of the Speakers at the Intern Lectures

Fairly typical sight inside the tunnel connecting the Senate office buildings and the Capitol. The press would wait here for Senators to come off the floor and attempt to interview them before they got on the tram back to the office.

Newly elected House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaking at the Intern Lecture – he was hilarious!“Puppy Day” at the Capitol – yeah, that was a great day 😀One day we were walking around the Capitol and befriended one of the Capitol Police. He showed us the Press Room off the Senate Floor and so I gave an eloquent speech on… well… yeah.Okay, this was definitely the best intern lecture – I got to hear Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speak in the Supreme Court! And she called on me to ask a question – it was certainly a highlight of the summer!! I asked her what has been her proudest moment as a Supreme Court Justice and what was the most challenging. She first said “Well, that’s like making me choose which of my four grandchildren is my favorite!” But then said that the US vs. Virginia case (made the military academy accept women) was her proudest. And for the difficult ones, she said “when we’re divided 4-5 and I’m on the 4 side” 😀Weekends were filled with exploring the sights and sounds of DC! First up, the Jefferson Memorial

The White House at dusk – absolutely beautiful.

Martha and I went to the Congressional Women’s Softball Game – a charity softball game with female Members of Congress versus the female Press!

We also went to the Men’s Congressional Game – this one at the Nat’s Stadium!

I flew home for a quick weekend trip to see Spencer graduate from BCS!The 4th of July – Martha and I camped out at the base of the Washington Monument and had a lovely picnic and enjoyed the incredible firework show with THOUSANDS of people!

We went kayaking on the Potomac River one Saturday night – that is one of my favorite memories of this whole summer!

Martha and I attended the Make Progress Conference for Millennials…That was a fairly epic week but you have to ask me for that story in person 🙂They had fantastic speakers like… Vice President Joe Biden
One of my favorite Senators… Elizabeth Warren (Former Speaker of the House Nancy Peloisi and Senator Kristin Gillibrand and many others were also there!)
Went to a National’s Game!

Went up to Arlington National Cemetery… this is the view from General Robert E Lee’s mansion at the top of the hill in the center of the Cemetery

Had to share this – the longest escalator I have ever seen!!!
On one of our last nights – enjoying ice cream on the steps of the Capitol!Met Senator Parry Murray (the other Washington Senator)Got to sit down and talk with Senator Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakorta!
REALLY wish I could have met Senator Elizabeth Warren… but I at least got my book signed! Another beautiful night at a baseball game!Drove up to Baltimore for the day

Met up with Chesna – a woman I worked with at Standard Chartered Bank in Indonesia last summer! It was so fun to see her again!Got to be in the live audience for a news broadcast for the 2014 Africa SummitChesna somehow made some phone calls and got me connected with the Indonesian Ambassador! I got to go out to his (beautiful) residence and have breakfast with him and his family!

And finally, my own Senator, my Boss and a woman I greatly admire and respect – Senator Maria Cantwell. It was an incredible summer and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to come out here and try out this DC life 😀 I loved it and hope that returning to DC is in my near future! So exciting!

Thanks for bearing with me through this long post – hope you enjoyed this snapshot of my summer! I also cooked, baked and blogged a ton! I made…

Blueberry Basil Grilled Cheese

What a fabulous summer!!! And now, you might ask – what’s next? What did you learn? What is your career path? Well, honestly I have no idea. I can tell you that I have many more realistic, exciting options than I did at the beginning of the summer. But we’re not there yet – and I can’t speculate that far out. First – I have to catch a plane to St. Louis in a few hours. Then tomorrow it’s off to Seattle for a week! I’m looking forward to seeing all my friends and family and then jetting back to STL.

This school year is already promising big things! I’ll be working on my thesis, taking 18 credits (of classes I am pumped about), and madly applying to any opportunity I think may be a good fit 😀

But… I’ve got another big announcement! Stay tuned because it’s BIG and I’m SO EXCITED! Subscribe to my blog (see the link on the right near the top of the page) to be one of the first to hear!!!