Closing remarks

Friday Seth and I went to Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford (about 15min away) for Mark's retirement ceremony. We arrived right at 3:02, thinking we were early for a 3:15 start, not knowing they actually started at 3:00. We said hi to Mark as he was waiting in the back for his grand entrance and took our seats just as they were reading our names on the guest list. Typical for us, I suppose, even though we thought we were early, for once!

It was neat to see the base. It really does seem like its own little world, and I imagine it will be quite a transition for Mark once he begins working a civilian job. Lots of jokes were made that after 21 years in the military he will have to start thinking about what he will have to wear to work in the mornings.

Mark, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant colonel

An award for Gina, too

Mark's parents (Bud and Jean) and work friends were in attendance, as well as Gina's parents and sister, who came all the way from Florida. After the ceremony and reception we breezed over to their house where Gina had managed to prepare a massive surprise party where many more friends, neighbors, and family were waiting for him. Mark wasn't kidding when he said he had to marry an energetic woman!

The surprise party

Today was also Graduation at Brandeis. While I was at the annual Spring Fling luncheon at church, Seth zipped off to the see the last few minutes of the big graduation ceremony. He got to miss all that boring speechy stuff and see the finale, a performance by Paul Simon, who was accepting an honorary degree. (After a petition circulated on Facebook, he agreed to sing a song).

Paul Simon performs The Boxer at Brandeis

After lunch I ran over to campus and attended the mini graduation ceremony for the arts departments. Here, Paul Simon gave the main address--and Seth got to sit on stage with him :o)

Seth "sharing a stage" with Paul Simon!

Before walking onto stage at the start of the ceremony, Paul Simon hung out in the room with the others, so Seth got to chat with him a little and asked him to sign our Graceland CD. With the majority of our music burned, it is a good thing we had a real copy! (This is an indication of a REALLY good album).

New shoes

I went out on a limb and finally gave in to my several-year-long fascination with trail running shoes (though it helped that the ones I have had my eyes on were on sale and in 7.5 wide!). Seth and I have always bought Asics 2100-series running shoes (almost 5 years for me, about 13 years for Seth), so this time I tried their trail version (2140). This shoe basically seems more robust, with better traction, tighter mesh weave, and is supposedly water-resistant. After wearing it twice, it does seem slightly heavier, but the additional durability already proved its worth this morning when I caught a stick over the top of my foot and it really didn't hurt (this is normally a lot more painful). Since the snow melted in March I have settled on a standard morning route, about 6 miles long, almost completely trail, so it makes no sense ripping up road shoes anymore! Now if only my knees would cooperate... (I think they will appreciate a little rest next week when we are in New York).

New Asics 2140 trail shoes compared to Asics 2130 road shoes, now retired to only walking

**I swear Asics didn't pay me to write this, though I doubt anyone cares to have my opinion anyway!

***Also, in the lab yesterday, Yulia pointed out that perhaps the reason our flights on August 13th were so cheap may have something to do with that day being a Friday. :o(

Departure date!

Yay, we booked our one-way flight to Italy! We grabbed unusually 'cheap' tickets for $500 (per person, from Boston to Milan), which is exactly twice as much as when we flew out last year, but last year flying was freakishly cheap so I'm not going to complain. We will be heading out August 13th, just in time for Ferragosoto, the last two weeks in August when all Italians apparently abandon the cities and flee to the beaches. Maybe this is why our flight is so cheap? Will there be tumbleweed blowing through the streets when we arrive? Seems suspicious.

Last week I spoke with the woman at the I Tatti office in Harvard who coordinates the fellows. She gave me a few tips on getting health insurance (for emergency coverage) and then basically told me not to bother trying to get a visa beyond the 90 day tourist visa. Apparently it is best to stay in the country illegally... This is actually fine by me because it means I won't have to stress out about jumping through hoops to try to get the proper documents.

Now we just need to pick up a few more pieces of the puzzle. The next mission: Lorenzo.

Arancini

Last night I figured out how to make Arancini, a dish from southern Italy (I got the idea after trying a couple at the Italian party last week). They are basically deep fried risotto balls stuffed with cubes of fresh mozzarella. Instead of deep frying I baked them, and since I didn't have fresh mozzarella I mixed in some shredded mozzarella, ricotta, cottage cheese, Parmesan, and spinach. They held together and baked better than I was expecting!


Also, here are a couple really cute pictures of Lorenzo Seth has been spending all his free time taking ;o)

Birthday(s) party!

Seth's Uncle Bud celebrated his 70th birthday this weekend at his home in Buzzard's Bay, just inside Cape Cod. His kids, Mark, Beth, and Karen, were there with their families, and Seth's parents and his Aunt Mare came all the way over from New York. Chrissy's family made it, too, and everyone was able to meet Annika. It was so much fun to relax and catch up with the family! It has been ages since we saw some of them, even though we live practically down the road.

Uncle Bud with all the grandkids

Kate helping Chrissy unwrap Annika's gifts

Annika with her grandma

The Birthday Boy

Seth's parents came back to Waltham with us after the party and joined us for the New Music concert at Brandeis. This is where the composition graduate students have some of their pieces performed. I really wanted to hear Florie's work--she was in Seth's graduate seminar last year, but we met in Italian class back in August (we were probably the only ones over the age of 20!). Her boyfriend is Italian, so hopefully she will be able to come to visit us in Florence ;o)

It was great having Seth's parents stay at our place (they typically stay in Brighton, near Chrissy, so they can help with the kids), though they had to leave pretty early the next morning. Maybe on their next visit when they go for their walk they will be able to find the entrance to Prospect Hill!

Cut loose

The semester is coming to a close, and for me this was marked by our Italian final exam we took this afternoon. I studied quite a bit but I know I got confused over a couple tenses and botched a few sections. It would have been nice to have nailed it before going to Italy. Though the class was more work than I was expecting, it was good to have the structure and be made to plow through the language (we supposedly learned most of the grammar rules in these two semesters). Since I won't be able to take any more classes before heading off, learning the rest of the language will be left solely to myself, but at least I have a great partner to practice with! Of course, the end of the year is bittersweet--I really grew attached to my little class of only 11 students, and the professors for both semesters were amazing; we had outings, watched films, were invited to seminars, and there was even a party with lots of fantastic food yesterday. The truly sad aspect, however, is that due to the university budget cuts the department will have to drop the Italian major next year. Professor Servino has worked to build up the department over the past twenty years and she took the news pretty hard; it was obvious that this was a difficult year for her. At least it seems like she is willing to do her best to keep everything afloat, and maybe when we return Seth can teach some Italian/music inter-disciplinary classes to help support both departments.

Goodbye, Xena

Yesterday was a sad day. It was the last day of Yoga Club, which means it will probably be my last free class ever, unless I can think up some clever way to weasel my way into a few more when we return from Italy. The great thing about the Brandeis Yoga Club is that it is taught by Renee, the woman who owns the really nice heated Yoga Power studio on Main St. For the club she would teach twice a week at Brandeis and once a week at the studio. Renee isn't quite as spiritually fulfilling as Scott in Chapel Hill, but she is really, REALLY challenging, which is hard to find. Physically, she is sort of the female equivalent of Seth--a former classical ballet dancer, runner, and weight lifter. As a bonus, she looks like Xena AND has a very similar personality as Xena. How cool is that?

Arts hot

Ugh, so first off it feels really really hot this weekend. It's relatively not that bad, mid/high 80s and sunny, but we just aren't used to it up here so it feels pretty awful. It is made worse by the boiled water restrictions that were placed yesterday. There was some water pipe break and Boston and the surrounding communities had to switch to untreated reservoir water, which could last for days. Luckily Seth and I mostly drink tea so we are constantly running our electric kettle anyways, but for the big jobs, like rinsing dishes, we have had to boil big pots of water. This of course gets the hot apartment, which has no air conditioning, even hotter. Poor Lorenzo has been sleeping outside his little wooden house, and is stretched out flat like he is melting. At least we gave him an icepack to snuggle up next to. So much for creature of the desert, poor guy.

This week has fulfilled our year quota of attending live performances. On Wednesday I somehow ended up going to see a popular Italian singer, Jovanotti, by myself at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. It was offered through the Italian department but I was the only person in my class to go, and Seth had lots of work to do so had to sit out. Jovanotti has been around for a while and is like a rock star in the Italian community, so I was happy to experience some rather intense Italian pop culture. Also, I hadn't been to a fun dingy, dark, loud, venue like that since the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, so it was about time!

Brandeis had its big annual arts festival this week. We caught a performance of Love's Labour's Lost on Friday, much of which I inadvertently slept through, and yesterday was really special because my cousin, Phuong, came to visit for the day (this is the same cousin we met up with in Philly back in November, and this time around she was in Boston for a conference). I took her down Moody Street, showed her the apartment (and Lorenzo!), then went back to Moody St for dinner at an Indian place. We later had a brief tour of Brandeis before we met Seth for the Irving Fine Tribute Concert, conducted by one of Seth's senior undergraduate students (Seth was in attendance as an adjudicator for his performance). I'm so glad we got to meet up with her for the day!

Today was the culmination of Arts week at Uni. Mark, Gina, and the girls actually came over and met us on campus to join in some of the activities. The day is totally family friendly and we saw a performance of the AMAZING Tanglewood Marionetts, watched some world dances, did a bit of sidewalk chalking, and checked out a folk group. It is overwhelming how much goes on today--four or five venues across campus have performances and activities simultaneously throughout the afternoon. It had been a while since we saw Mark, Gina, Kate, and Adah, so it was wonderful catching up with them.


Time for dinner now (ironically we are having red bean soup... bad choice for such a hot day... ergh).