Happy Saturday! I received really positive feedback on last week's A Peek at My Week post so I'm back again with a recap of this past week! If y'all are following me on Instagram (@northprepster) then you know that I did quite a bit of traveling this past week. I won't go into great detail in this post but be looking for a college orientation recap, a Charleston recap and a Kiawah Island recap next week here on Northern Prepster!
S A T U R D A Y
On Saturday I didn't get up until about 8:30am because I was exhausted from waking up early to nanny and from being out semi-late with my friends the night before. I just hung out around the house for a couple of hours until my dad got home from golfing. Not even going to lie, it's so weird not thinking about golf 24/7 since this summer is the first summer in 5 years that I haven't had a golf season to be preparing for.
Once my dad got home from golf we made a quick stop at Starbucks for some iced coffees and then headed to the Apple Store where I purchased my first MacBook Pro laptop! The laptop I'd been using the past two years was a school laptop so I'd been without one for a little over two weeks and I'm so glad to have my own now because I don't have to use my mom's to write blog posts anymore.
After we got home from the Apple Store I set up my laptop and then hopped in the shower and got ready for one of my best friends graduation parties. Lauren (the one standing to the right of me) has been one of my best friends since kindergarten and I'm so sad that we won't be going to the same school, let alone living in the same state next year!
After Lauren's grad party I came home and worked on blog posts for this past week since I knew I wouldn't have a ton of time to write them since I'd be traveling a lot. My mom and I did make a quick run to the carwash to wash the car and vacuum it out before we would spend 8+ hours in it the next day. We also ran into Fresh Market to pick up some of our favorite flavored waters, cookies, and some fresh fruit to eat in the car on the way down.
Once we got home from Fresh Market I worked on blog posts again before packing and re-painting my nails later that night.
similar dress // shoes // bracelet // earrings
similar top // similar shorts // bracelet // earrings // purse
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similar seersucker dress // earrings // bracelet // purse // similar shoes
S U N D A Y
On Sunday I was up bright and early (5am!) as my mom and I were heading down to South Carolina for my college orientation and a trip to Charleston, Kiawah, and Raleigh. Most of the day was spent in the car because it's about an eight hour drive from Columbus to Columbia. The first picture you'll see below is what our kitchen counter looked like before we packed everything up in the car. I know it seems like a lot of stuff for only two people who would be gone less than a week but one the bags was my orientation bag since we spend a night in the dorms.
Once we arrived in Columbia we checked into our hotel and hung out for a bit before I changed from my casual clothes into something a bit nicer as I had to head over to campus to take my Spanish placement test. My testing time was 4:30pm and I was in and out in 8 minutes! I did end up scoring high enough to place out of the required global language courses which I'm super happy about because that meant I didn't need to register for a Spanish class during orientation.
After my placement test we drove around campus and through Greek Village because it's absolutely gorgeous! If you ever find yourself on USC's campus I highly suggest you take a peek at the Greek Village because the houses are stunning.
We then returned back to our hotel and hung out for about an hour before going to pick up my roommate and her mom from their hotel and then heading out to dinner. This was only the second time I'd seen my sweet roomie, Sophie, as she's from Texas so I was super excited to see her and my mom was really excited to meet them for the first time! We grabbed dinner in The Vista which is just off USC's campus at a place called Grill Marks which has really good burgers & fries! After dinner we walked up the street to mine and Sophie's favorite dessert cafe, Kaminsky's, where we treated ourselves to giant dessert plates and started to plan our dorm room a little bit!
M O N D A Y
Monday morning was another early start to my day. I was up at 6:30am to get ready for orientation and since our hotel was on campus my mom and I decided to walk up the street to check-in for orientation rather than taking the car and trying to find parking. I met up with Sophie and we finally got checked in around 8:30am. I then went on my way and began the joy that is college orientation. I dropped off my bag in my assigned dorm for the night (honestly, not as small as I had imagined the room to be!) then I headed over to our student union to pick up my university ID and then met up with Sophie for breakfast.
After breakfast we boarded shuttles over to Colonial Life Arena (our basketball arena) where we spent a couple of hours there listening to various presenters and then breaking off into smaller groups with our orientation leaders. We were fed lunch at CLA and ended up eating it on the floor of the main concourse. After we finished up at CLA we walked back to the student union where we could attend various breakout sessions on a variety of different topics. I went to the sorority recruitment presentation and so did Sophie but afterwards, since there was still an hour left for others to attend more breakout sessions, Sophie and I just grabbed Starbucks and sat outside our union with her mom since there were no other sessions we wanted to go to.
After the breakout sessions ended we met back up with our small groups and orientation leaders and played a couple different games and learned more about traditions at USC and then it was time for dinner. After dinner we all went into one of the ballrooms in our student union and watched skits that were put on by the orientation leaders. Then we walked down to Strom Thurmond (our fitness center) where they had a bunch of games and a dance floor for all the incoming freshman to hang out and get to know one another. At this point, it was 10pm, everyone was exhausted, everyone's phones were dead and we were counting down the minutes until they shuttled us back to dorms.
I think I finally went to bed at 12:15am after getting back to my dorm, meeting my roommate for the night, struggling to put a fitted sheet on that dorm mattress and texted my family to let them know that I was back in my dorm room. While I understand it's nice to show us what living in a dorm is like and giving us a glimpse at our next year, I definitely could have done without that dorm mattress! I've already started researching the best rated mattress topper, haha. (Recommendations are greatly appreciated!)
T U E S D A Y
Thankfully, Tuesday wasn't as early of a morning as Sunday and Monday were but I was still up at 7:30am and I won't lie, I didn't sleep very well that night. I quickly got dressed and did my makeup and sprayed some dry shampoo in my hair (seriously a lifesaver!) before heading out to turn in my key card to the residence hall and meeting up with Sophie and few other girls we became friends with and hopping on a shuttle over to CLA.
Once at CLA we were fed breakfast and met with our small groups and orientation leaders one more time before heading in the arena for one more information sessions. After that was over we walked back to our student union where we were fed lunch and also could attend an activity fair if we were interested in any specific clubs or had general questions about certain topics. Sophie and I quickly walked around and managed to score some free shirts so I guess you could call that a win. Afterwards we met up with our moms and since we both needed to get out of orientation as soon as it was done, we gave our moms or luggage tags and sent them over to pick-up our bags from the residence hall they were being stored in.
After lunch and the activity fair were over we split up into our specific colleges and headed over to our different building where we met with advisors from our college and registered for classes for the fall semester. This was extremely overwhelming for me because I was so nervous I would register for the wrong class or take something that wouldn't necessarily benefit me on my path to becoming a teacher. Thankfully, USC has First Year Advisors and after my mom and I made it to Kiawah (I know I'm skipping ahead a bit) I sent my advisor an email and asked her to take a peek at my schedule and let me know if I should change things around and she replied within 30 minutes and told me that everything looked great so that was a huge relief! This upcoming semester I'm taking 5 courses; statistics, history, English, University 101, and dance appreciation (this counts as my elective and is basically a history of dance which should be super interesting!)
Mom and I ended up leaving USC and Columbia around 3pm and arrived in Charleston a little before 5pm. We spent a while relaxing in our room (which had THE BEST view) while I did a bit of work for the blog and had a decently healthy snack which was so nice after spending the past two days eating dining hall food.
We drove down into the city of Charleston and parked on King Street and walked around but since it was 7pm, all the shops were closed so we got back in the car and grabbed dinner at a local seafood place which was located on the water so we were able to watch the sunset from the dock that was attached to the restaurant patio.
After dinner we stopped in a Harris Teeter to grab a pint of ice cream to eat back in the hotel room. Once we got back to our hotel I took a shower and then spent the rest of the night eating ice cream and working on blog posts in bed. I think I finally went to sleep around midnight and wow did I sleep well that night!
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W E D N E S D A Y
Wednesday morning mom and I woke up around 7am (still pretty early for me) and headed back in the city to grab breakfast at Callie's Hot Little Biscuit! I'm sure you're already aware but my sweet dogs name is Callie so we felt it was only fitting to stop by and grab some breakfast. We also picked up an adorable coffee mug and t-shirt.
We then walked around King Street (the opposite end of what we had walked around the night before) and we also walked through part of College of Charleston. I almost toured CofC last summer but we ended up deciding against it since Charleston was getting hit with really bad storms the day we were planning to tour the campus.
Since it was only 8:15am, now of the stores were open and I was a little bummed out but thankfully we came across a Starbucks so I popped inside and grabbed myself an iced coffee before we hopped back in the car. We tried to get to the Pineapple Fountain that a lot of people take pictures by when they're in Charleston but sadly we couldn't find anywhere to park so we just headed back to the hotel.
Once back at the hotel we changed into nicer clothes and got ready for the day since we had only thrown on some workout clothes when we headed out for breakfast earlier that morning. We then checked out of our hotel but before jumping on the road to Kiawah we shot one more outfit back on the dock that was connected to our hotel. It was so nice to stay at a hotel located on a marina and it was even nicer to have a view of the marina from our hotel room, seriously though, I could get used to working with that view outside my window!
The drive to Kiawah was super easy but we did stop at a TJ Maxx to shop around quickly and then we grabbed Chick-fil-a for lunch and ate that in the car as we continued our drive to Kiawah.
Once we arrived in Kiawah we chatting with the family we were staying with and watched their dog, Hart, swim in the pool in their backyard. We then took Hart for a quick walk around the neighborhood and a couple holes of the golf course that they live on to help him dry off from his afternoon swim. Once back at the house, mom and I quickly changed and we headed over to The Ocean Course where we ate dinner on the back patio overlooking the ocean and the 18th green. The Ocean Course will be hosting the 2021 PGA Championship so I was freaking out!
After dinner we headed back home where I changed, again, but this time into some workout wear and we took Hart on another longer walk around a bit more of the golf course. I took a couple of golf clubs and golf balls from their garage and played a couple of the holes that they walked around. Surprisingly, I actually hit the ball pretty well and it made me miss playing golf as often as I used to.
After we got home from walking Hart we watched some HGTV and I had a bowl of ice cream while we sat and talked and caught up since it had been two years since we'd last seen each other. At about 10:30pm Mom and I headed upstairs to our rooms to get ready for bed and while Mom went to sleep pretty much as soon as we got up there, I stayed up until about midnight watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix and working on Thursday's blog post.
T H U R S D A Y
Thursday morning I was, again, up early around 7:15am and I quickly put on some running shorts, a t-shirt and my tennis shoes and then we headed out to take Hart on his morning walk. We walked around the golf course again and this walk ended up being just about 2.3 miles! It's safe to say that I did a lot of walking this past week.
After we got back from Hart's walk, we ate breakfast and then Mom and I headed up to our rooms and bathrooms to shower and get ready. We ended up leaving their house around 11am and before we left Kiawah we stopped at FreshFields which was the cutest shopping complex where we stopped in the Lilly store and then before we hopped back in the car we went to this super cute coffee shop called Java Java where I had the best iced mocha latte I've ever had.
We then drove up to Raleigh, North Carolina where we had dinner with some family friends before heading back to our hotel where I watched the highlights from the first round of the US Open and worked on Thursday's blog post.
F R I D A Y
Friday morning my mom and I got up at about 6:45am, got dressed and checked out of our hotel. We quickly went through a Starbucks drive-thru near our hotel before getting on the highway to head back home to Ohio. What we thought we be a six hour drive ended up being a nine hour drive because Siri routed us on several different highways instead of keeping us on one highway the whole way home.
We ended up getting home around 4:30pm and I unpacked my bags and then took a shower before working on blog posts and then eating dinner with my family. We ordered pizzas and a salad from one of our favorite places so I was super excited to see my dad come home with that! After dinner I spend the rest of my night blogging and watching Friday Night Lights.
How was your past week?
xoxo,
