Haha, just kidding. This is South Bend. It’s about as far from a tropical paradise as it gets. So even though my dress looks vaguely as though it could fit in in a sunny beach setting, it’s not South Bend where I’m going to find it.

For one, for a solid 60% of the year, it’s below freezing, and there’s probably snow on the ground. And when it’s not below freezing — like now, in the summer — it’s probably miserably hot and humid.

Take this day for example! It was cloudy but hot, and the humidity made going outside more like going for a swim. And indeed, it did end up raining for quite a bit, so even if I never got a real swim in, by the time I came back inside, I looked like I had.

Anyway, I found a new location for photos at Notre Dame — the Rockne athletic center, also known as the Rock. Most students don’t really bother going anymore now that the new gym has been built in the Duncan Student Center, so I didn’t have to worry much about foot traffic getting in the way of my photo shoot. It also helps that it’s sort of out of the way at the very end of South Quad.

I’m going to be trying my best to get photos this year that aren’t just rehashes of the same locations that I used for all of my photos last year — the door of South Dining Hall, the arches of Howard, the steps of Bond.  Hopefully, I may even get to do some photos in locations other than campus because hopefully, I’ll get off campus more often — now won’t that be wild!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next one with more updates on my life at Notre Dame! Don’t forget to check me out on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr! For business inquiries, shoot me an email at lensembledujour@gmail.com!

Dress: Unknown (gifted by a friend)