pictures, for comparison purposes, from our current top-two choices for wedding venues in vt; further pros and cons to follow.

( mom and hannah! go! )

a few quick updates from some of my last real down time for the next five weeks...

staff week:
-lots and lots of long-winded meetings. the director of the program is a math teacher during the regular year; he both dresses and drones like one. nice, but awkward. and meetings that run a full hour longer than you're expecting. yegh.
-ran out of yarn, still have the urge to work on my blanket and listen to the new audiobooks i got from naomi (peter pan and american gods).
-stayed relatively cool and rainy. hopefully this holds out awhile longer... the one day it went up to 85, my room was an oven.
-my dorm director has a fireman fiancé, a playful and sweet black lab called sadie, a little grey kitty called sneakers whom i've only seen from a distance, and is babysitting her mom's 20 lb. maine coon cat named finnigan, who is GIGANTIC and super fluffy and orange. HUGE. seriously.
-the other interns are really nice, and i was good about being social, eating meals with all different people, etc., etc. just when i was starting to feel comfortable around everyone and like i knew who people were, 200 students showed up to confound me all over again...
-somewhere between my still needing to drag my french abilities out of a closet and dust them off, and the fact that the teacher i'm working with is from senegal and has quite a heavy accent both in english and french, i struggled quite a bit in working with him this past week. the good news is, i know more french than the (5) kids in my class... monday, i get to teach them the alphabet. rock on.

kiddos so far:
-i can take a good stab at the names of all the girls in my dorm (about 25), all of whom are between the ages of 12 and 14. ...actually, that's a lie. the littlest one is 11 and will turn 12 next week. they are all pretty tiny and adorable.
-i have seven advisees, most of whom are quite sweet and still little girls and eager to please. just one is giving me a little trouble so far; my current strategy is to nice her out of it. no use making enemies the first weekend of camp.
-katie is the troublesome one, part of a big group of seminole native americans from florida that send up a bunch of kids every summer. i can tell right now she's acting up just to push her boundaries and see what she can get away with. more on her and her friends later...
-kelsie is sweet and bonded with one of the day students right away. she's a gymnast and will be in my dance class. her brother goes here during the regular school year, so she's already pretty comfortable with the environment. her mom's way overbearing, but she's a good kid.
-michelle is from taiwan, and her english is the best of my ESL students. she's quiet, but has taken up a leadership role simply by default of translating a little for the other chinese-speaking girls in the dorm.
-maggie goes to an international school in japan, but that doesn't stop her from being a typical american 'tween. she's the cute bouncy type and the leader of a newly-formed gaggle, who have been in her room listening to music from high school musical and messing around online all morning. and giggling. did i mention the giggling?
-angel is from taiwan too... she's shy about her english and hasn't opened up much. she's quite the outlandish dresser.
-ellian is from china, and speaks almost no english. she's really sweet, though, and we've had a few conversations, they just take a little bit longer than you'd expect. she plays the piano, and likes to watch american tv shows "to practice her english" :)
-tylinda is probably my favorite so far (eep, need to try not to play favorites), also one of the oldest in my group, going into 9th grade next year. she has corkscrew-curly hair that sproings back when you tug on a curl. eeeeeee. she's a little bit attention-seeking, which took the form of her coming over to my room for help with lots of little things (putting batteries in her electric toothbrush) every 10 minutes last night. she's a little chatterbox, and already has a little gaggle of friends.
-i'm really surprised that over 3/4 of the middle school girls showed up with laptops, most of which are their own. i expected cell phones, but this surprised me.
-i'm not quite sure how to deal with this group of seminole girls. from what i know of them, all of their families are pretty low-income, and their tribe is paying for their tuition and expenses for the summer. they're also all pretty low-achieving in school, and have so far refused to go get their textbooks. one of them has even refused to register for classes for monday... thank goodness she's not my advisee, as i would have no patience to deal with her nicely. anyway, they're all acting up in little dumb ways and putting on the too cool for school act, which i think bothers their roommates, and it sure as hell bothers me. all of them have relatively new (and expensive) laptops, cell phones, ipods, and designer clothes, and they seem to take the opportunity they have by being here totally for granted, far more than any of the wealthier kids. i don't know if this is me being racist or classist, or just being inexperienced in the realities of the teaching world, but i'm not especially inclined to be sympathetic towards them if they're more interested in scribbling with crayons on their laptops than in getting ready for classes to start tomorrow...

so i'm now back on the east coast (sort of...) to teach french at northfield mt. hermon school for the next four weeks, with this coming week being staff week before the teaching starts. i'm all moved into my dorm room, killin' a little time before the crazy meetings start tomorrow. since graduation, hannah and i have put close to 5,000 miles on our lovely little car, penelope, who has taken the strain admirably (and apparently got just over 30mpg on one tank of gas on hannah's way back to pennsylvania today!). it's been a bit of a strain on us, too... lots of nights in motels (that is, before we figured out the joys of booking ahead on orbitz and paying less than a regular price at a motel 6, except at a 3-star hotel instead), lots of hours on the road, lots of fast food. i miss my lovely fiancée already, but there's something to be said for my staying more or less in one place for 5 straight weeks, with one weekend off to visit vermont - wedding venues and date night and middkids, oh my!

anyway, my main purpose for this post was to post pictures of various ventures on our denver trip, so here they are...

( PICTURES!!! )

um so i haven't posted in awhile. here is what is happening in my life:

one. i graduated. that was weird. i keep feeling like i'm going to wake up some morning in july and be like OH SHIT I'M NOT GOING BACK. right now, just feels like summer vacation. i was about .02 away from getting phi beta kappa, but my mom gave me her key engraved with her name anyway. it was sweet of her. also, highest honors in my department, because they think i can do no wrong. ftw.
one point two. we had lovely humans visit for graduation, and they weren't about long enough, and i miss my xenia family and my bowkerteers.
two. we drove cross-country in my subaru. it got a lot of mashed bugs on the windshield and front bumper. we have left them there as a badge of pride. in kansas, about half of the road signs are for motels or gas stations, a quarter are something along the lines of TRUST IN THE TRUTH OF JESUS, and the remaining quarter are for adult novelty superstores and gentlemen's clubs.
two point five. we signed on an apartment about a mile's walk from our building in columbus, and it is in a duplex and has nice windows. i have a key to it, and it makes me feel powerful, the end.
two point nine. hannah and i are officially engaged. yes.

two point nine five. yay new hamster. i'm still getting married in vermont, but... yay.
three. hannah and i have been wedding planning like fiends (one of us more voluntarily than the other, but ok). we visited a couple places, have emailed a couple others... discussions have been held with parents, tears have been shed (my parents are not the cause of these), invitations have been picked out. i am terrified. i am very excited.
four. my dad plays on the temple softball team, and he was a hero at their game on sunday. their team is called the mitts-vahs. other teams in the league include the torah-nadoes and the ten plagues. he batted in the final run to win the game in the bottom of the last inning, and we hooted and hollered.
five. i have sort of a game plan for my middle school dance class i'll be teaching this summer, which is the only thing i have to plan on my own - i have a master teacher for baby french, and i have a co-intern-person from bates for high school dance. also, i'm a dorm mom for a whole passel of middle school girls. many of whom may or may not speak english. should be an interesting four weeks.

i like being home. i like it a lot. it generally involves getting up nice and early, having coffee (on or off the porch), getting some business taken care of, reading, accumulating stuff for our apartment in c-bus, getting my dad hooked on firefly (aka fruit fly or fruit bat...), and of course cuddelz. vacation is so nice.

so finally, after many moons and heap-big time, i am to post pictures. this may or may not be challenging on my new computer, as 1) iphoto does not seem to like photobucket, so i'm working with flickr for the first time, and 2) i'm trying to use xjournal to post, and again, not entirely sure how everything works on here. but! many pictures: go.

( click here! )

in addition:
i had dinner with the senior fellows tonight at two brothers', which involved me not killing michael. i am a magnanimous human being.
i finished writing my translation today. editing is quite another thing, but... writing. done. accomplishment!
my lovely girlfriend is getting here tomorrow! and there shall be steve and hustle and otter creek bakery fruit tart and general festivity - huzzah.

fact: in texas, it is hotter'n a mofo.
fact: i am glad i'm not moving to texas in the fall.

peripherally related fact: hannah and i just found the *cutest* little apartmentie in columbus, and it is on the third floor of a victorian house near campus, and i want eet.

fact: i am done with all my final papers and crap, and just have my translation to work on.
fact: i like my translation. it is kind of trying to kill me. this is ok.
fact: i really, really, really want to get it published. so many bad.

fact: i can't believe i'm done. relieved about done with classes/papers, glad to be rid of my stupid job, can't believe no more midd.
fact: there will be a visit to midd next year.
fact: there will be a midd field trip to columbus next year.

fact: thai food = delicious.
fact: ut has a turtle pond on campus. this was almost as much of a selling point for me as the crazy ice cream place in columbus. fortunately, ice cream won out.
fact: now i am going to watch some buffy with my lovely girlfriend. don't you love summer vacation?

i've accomplished a relatively large amount in the last couple days.

yesterday, i got my hair cut, and i feel that it's pretty cute. also, i ran by the bakery in town, and i shall be using the gift certificate from my boss to get a large and pretty fruit tart there at some point to share with my housemates. mmm, fruit tart. then yesterday lauren and i made mom's white bean risotto and some enchiladas for today's barbeque, and both came out well.

then there was an epic, epic thunderstorm that dumped buckets for all of about 15 minutes, during which time the power went out. we made the most of it, though - candles, fire in the fireplace, cheese, crackers, and good company made for a very nice (if at times not as quiet as i would have liked) evening.

today, i've nearly gotten my german paper done, and the barbeque was nice even though it rained and we had to eat inside.

i'm feeling a little desperate emotionally, pulled in a lot of different directions. i get upset really easily about little things, and i'm really motivated in fits and starts, between which i sit and stare at the same spot in my essay for long periods without writing anything. i'm lonely even though most of my friends are here.

so so so so so so today was my last day of undergraduate classes. ever.

excited for what's ahead:
moving in with my love, grad school, new adventures.
sad for what i'm leaving behind.

(also, bummed how many of my profs-whom-i-love-and-whose-approval-i-crave are skipping out on my graduation.)

so i have a new computer. and it's pretty slender and badass. and i can put my music on it without crashing the hard drive, and can see the screen, and everything! hooray.

today was my last day of undergraduate german. i'm feeling a bit morose about it... i will miss my fantastic wonderful department, because they are fantastic and wonderful. i wrote florence and natalie nice evaluations, and turned in my paper for natalie, and have twice as many quotes as i have room for in my whole paper. to say nothing of analysis. le sigh.

i've decided to start posting again for real.

from a wandering mind in the process of digesting and regurgitating material for a final paper: i am rather interested by the idea of having to prove law by transgression (baudrillard). i guess i never thought about it that way... in fact, i think i think about it generally in rather the opposite way, that law reflects the bare minimum standard of typically good behavior. also in the process of some german research, i encountered a book that i would quite like to read, entitled "wer bin ich, und wenn ja, wieviele?" (who am i, and if so, how many?).

it rained today, and there was a gigantic woodchuck in the back yard just now. and my new laptop has gotten as far as alaska, and should be here by friday.

for the record - plans for the summer:

12-16 May: Austin, helping girlfriend move
17-25 May: Vermont, gradumacating
26-31 May: Pennsylvania, Columbus, driving home to Denver
1-18? June: Denver vacation
18-21 June: drive back east
21 June-2 August: teaching internship, Northfield Mt. Hermon School
2 August on: moving in in Columbus, orientation, settling in, starting grad school

(ignoring the fact that this is my last week of classes at midd.)

Dear Governor Douglas,
I am writing to express my disappointment in a fellow Middlebury College alumnus after your veto of S.115 today. Your decision to veto the measure even after its overwhelming success in the legislature indicates to me that your interests lie, not with the promotion of measures important to your constituants, but with the furthering of your own political goals within your party. For a party whose ideology is based on minimal intrusion of the government into the lives of the governed, furthermore, it seems illogical for you to take such interest in who among your constituents is allowed to marry (or civilly unite with) whom. Vermont is not a state whose residents support a "separate but equal" lifestyle that demeans their family members, co-workers, neighbors, or friends. I urge you to reconsider your position on this issue as it concerns the laws of your state and the rights of and issues important to its residents.
Respectfully,
Elizabeth Gordon

i did not say:
if you don't like gay marriage, don't get one.
what kind of idiot are you?
just so you know, your argument is full of holes.
please stop being such a tool.

also:
i have come to a new appreciation of the Genius feature on itunes.
tomorrow is my adviser's birthday. i made cupcakes.
it is raining, and we're supposed to get an inch of snow tonight.
i officially accepted osu's offer tonight, and got a very nice email back from the department chair, and felt validated and happy for the future.
will gave me a backrub, and i realized just how sore 4 days of flying in 2 weeks will make you.

it's all good.

you may know what you need, but to get what you want, better see that you keep what you have. (c'est le temps que tu as perdu sur ta rose, qui fait ta rose si importante.)

hello, home listeners, how are ya? i'm back after a long absence - you'll have to forgive me - with photographic evidence of the reason for my long maintenance of radio silence. long story short, after i finished my thesis, amethyst_drop and i got real busy putting on margaret edson's play wit. this, to be frank, kicked our asses. under andy's able direction, i was able to not suck. photos follow ( under the cut! )

so. other than that, i promise - i am still alive. but 4 weeks of mad-crazy wit rehearsal, one week of catching up, a week of lovely girlfriend up at midd, and then coming down to texas have prevented me from posting since january. sometimes, life calls, and the interblogs must be abandoned. but i have at least some resolve to return to them now... so, i am in austin being wined and dined by the ut deutsch department (on their dime, yussss) and in the mean time i get to visit my lovely hannah, whose t-shirt i am currently wearing and it smells like her. the end.

i just turned in my thesis.

it is 72 pages, including my (kickass annotated) bibliography.
it looks professional.
i am a scholar. that is all.

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- What I create will be just for you.
- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- You will receive your item before the end of the year (or sooner).
- You will have no clue what the item is going to be. It could be a photograph. It could be a piece of handmade jewelry or an embroidery. I may draw, paint, collage or knit something. I might bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you have to repost this meme and make and send out five surprises of your own.

(in other news: my thesis is almost done. that is all.)

i should be working on my thesis, a draft of which is due tomorrow. if i had to guess, i'd say i'm approximately 8-10 pages from the end. i might get 3 or so of those written tonight... which means tomorrow is going to have to be So Many Epic. anyway, if i'm going to post, i really should post christmas pictures... that's going to have to wait. i'm in a very strange optimisticish but very Blue sort of mood...

i need a new paper journal. i have some things i need to process to myself in writing before i can debrief them with other people, either here or in person (or online, which is where my Support Network seems to have disappeared to these days). maybe tuesday on my Day Off After Turning In First Draft i will stop at the bookstore and make the investment. or the stationery store, or whichever. i'm about ready for it to be feb break... or rather, i guess i'm feeling sorry for myself because of hannah going back to texas today, and i'm craving the self-spoilment that i had planned for feb break, including much cooking and baking, movie watching, memorizing lines for wit, etc. at this point, i can't really justify much Time Off, since i gave myself hannah's last day here Off yesterday, and i'm taking tuesday Off because my draft's due monday night and i don't meet with my advisor about it til wednesday, and my thesis is still due at the end of the month. so i'm trying to fill feb break with things that make me happy so i'll quit feeling so damn sorry for myself.

wit readthrough this afternoon was very nice and inspired some confidence in me, both in terms of the cast seeming pretty stoked, and in my ability to at least steamroller through my largeish number of monster monologues with little finesse. getting some direction on those over feb break will be helpful. slash it is a lovely play and i'm very excited (or exciting, as some of middlebury's prospective applicants from china like to say...) that we're actually putting it on for reals.

coming back to bed alone after carol picked up hannah at 5am today was very, very, very sad, and i haven't been feeling quite myself all day. still, good things:
garlicky smells wafting up from downstairs herald the approach of sunday night dinner.
i have a very sweet, loving, dedicated girlfriend whose slippers are lined up next to my door for next time she's here.
Things To Do, both academic and otherwise.
a Support Network that isn't here, but is there for me nonetheless.
big kitty cat mug from my mom, full of tea from my mom.
the arrival of mail. hopefully.

as i've been reminded that i haven't posted since new year's, and as i've just finished the second of three major thesis chapters, i would like to take this moment to say:
it is currently -4 degrees. the high today should be 4 degrees. the low tonight should be -13. this is not a climate meant to support human life.

...i love it :) i have caved and started wearing long underwear, holing up in the library with my box of 12 teas from my baby sister and my slippers, and spending the evenings drinking more tea, rotting my brain in front of firefly or alton brown, and snuggling my girlfriend. if my life were an '80s movie, this jterm would make a really good montage.

also, i'm currently addicted to the soundtrack from A Beautiful Mind.
also, i have a bag of clementines in my carrell.
also, i'm supposed to hear today or tomorrow whether i get the deutsch school job i wanted.
also, my thesis is such a goddamn beast and it's kicking my butt.
also, i am day by day slowly increasing my library tolerance.
also, wit is cast and we have our first readthrough sunday.

and now, back to having my butt kicked. *bends over*

new year's eve/ as per usual.

january: happy new year, world. i went to sleep earlyish last night, since i've never been much of one for new year's festivities beyond fancy dinner and cranium with my family.

february: hey i'm back to blogging, did you miss me? :) anyway. thursday was altweiberfastnacht, which is the sort of kickoff party night for carnival, evident by the booming business being done by the taxis when i went down to the train station after midnight to pick up andy and ana from their shuttle.

march: i've been trying all weekend to get around to a nice long photo post and update, but it just hasn't happened. oh, the massive homework (not complaining, just saying, it's there).

april: the first week back from break, it is long and tiring... even though i haven't actually had that much work. just... lots of mandatory lectures, lots of class, lots of... not too much but at the same time more than i feel like doing.

may: a few photos to throw out there before i at some point make the faust photo dump... (sunset on hillcrest road)

june: before i begin, a couple of pictures from graduation day... (these may only interest graduates or friends thereof, but here they are)

july: ...lowfat yogurt just isn't worth it. especially lowfat yogurt with no fruity bits in it. also, coffee with non-dairy creamer. i am exiled to the basement to work on college fairs, but... yeah, i'll do it in a minute.

august: ...i'm leaving a week from ass-crack-of-dawn-early tomorrow, to spend a week and home and then a week at the university of minnesota. on the one hand, this is fantastic, as i very nearly started hurling napalm at my tour group yesterday morning.

september: so... i just met with my thesis advisor. for 2.5 hours. because that's what happens in the german department. partially, this was productive thesis-y stuff and grad school-y stuff, and partially we visited, and i do so heart my department and my advisors and eeeeeeeee.

october: a few days have past since i last posted... i feel like i have relatively little to impart, though that's mainly because... i read, i sleep, i work, and i feel guilty when doing one because i'm not doing the others.

november: it's been a really tough/stressful week, and i haven't had a chance to post my pictures from last weekend... so, a gigantic picture post. apparently, lj still isn't interfacing well with my videos, so i'm taking them out, but you can still find them in my photobucket account (mostly from quidditch).

december: there are a lot of things i'd rather be doing right now than working on my german paper. just thought i'd throw that out there.

best of 2008:
-realizing after study abroad how many homes i had to come back to.
-later on, being able to be glad i spent the time i did in germany.
-knowing what i am. knowing what i want.
-academics: i can has them. i can does them.

worst of 2008:
-long distance can kiss my flabby white ass.
-a lot of ups and downs that i couldn't really control.
-grad school applications, related stress and and anxiety.

all in all, a very good year. and lots of change to follow in 2009.

i've been rather absent from the interblogs lately because of break, but i'm finishing out my time in rural pennsylvania with hannah's family before heading back to middlebury for thesis marathon. new year's eve consists in so.many.food. and resisting jonathan in his constant urging to watch a 3-hour russian movie.
i'm kind of stressing out about my thesis. i miss my family. i'm going a little stir-crazy and am ready to be back on my own schedule.
...other than that, can't complain. HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

yay, break! sleeping in + girlfriend + kittens (which give me asthma but which i like nevertheless) + daily outings + no homework!


( the few pictures i've gotten around to uploading )


anyway, today was wet and yucky out, so we spent it wandering about in providence at the mall, which is giant and which was fun, especially because it culminated with ben and jerry's cheesecake brownie ice cream. big plans for the rest of the week include lunch at crazy burger, decorating cookies with tiny cousins, laundry for the decatification of my clothes, and christmas pie- and cake-baking. and then arrival of family! yay christmas - i do so enjoy the holidays.