seven days

this time last week, i was bundled in bed feeling ill. seven days later, so much has happened!

sunday: katie and rachel (two lovely high school friends who came down to boston for their reading week) visited the aquarium without me, because i had a fever and decided to rest up instead. i spent the day working on journal entries for my class in genocide and political violence, and katie arrived in the evening, disgruntled from the drive and ready for bed.

monday: this was presidents (not sure where the apostrophe goes) day in the united states, and the first ever family day in canada. i received a delightful email from a friend that concluded by saying that statistically, there should be a little population boom in nine months from this day. after a vegetable egg scramble, katie and i wandered bridgewater in our sweatshirts (yes, it was that warm here!) and then toodled on to the grocery store. we made hummous, reminisced, tried to do a bit of schoolwork, and then went for dinner. we went to a lovely little asian food restaurant down the road in bridgewater called chatta box, detoured to bring zaine home, who wasn't feeling so hot himself, came back and bumped into jeff, a new friend, and after eating, met rach and her boyfriend mike to see a movie in taunton. it was a silly romantic comedy called 'definitely, maybe' and was probably just the right fluffiness for the end of the long weekend.

tuesday: i got up early, made up a batch of whole wheat blueberry cornmeal pancakes, and zipped off to a meeting with professor james hayes-bohannon to talk about how his geography class on coffee could collaborate with the social justice league to put on a part of the upcoming fair trade fair. before our meeting began, he taught me how to brew a cup of coffee, beginning by grinding the beans (fair trade from equal exchange), boiling water (not tap!) and then letting it come to approximately 205 degrees before combining the two in a french press, brewing for five minutes, and transferring to a carafe. it might have been the best cup of coffee i've ever had. that afternoon, katie gave me a lift into cambridge, where she reunited with rachel and i ran to class. i am now auditing 'global food systems' at harvard with professor james watson, who is an anthropologist who specializes in culture of south china, and the culture of food. each week we are reading a book about a different food system, including sugar (sweetness and power), salt, tsukiji, bananas, potatoes, corn, and rice. harvard is this very interesting microcosm of very intelligent and professional students, but i can't help but smile as i immerse myself in the class that under these impressive veneers, they are all simply 20 year olds. heck, one person picked their nose through class last week. but i digress. after class, i met katie and rach for lunch at a cafe where the man behind the counter answered "how's it going?" with "i'm maintaining" and ended the interaction with "stay focused." the food was delicious and healthy and invigorating and after finishing, we explored the bead store across the street and i headed back to bridgewater. it was such an odd feeling to say goodbye to my friends in a place that is so far from where we know each other.

wednesday: class! monday and wednesday are my busiest days of the week this semester, with things going on from 9:00 until 6:00 with a two hour break in the morning. i passed in my genocide journals, did eurythmics at choir (dancing with motion! we embarrassed ourselves thoroughly), and then came home to a belated valentines package from home and watched the lunar eclipse. i have never (or don't remember having) seen such a thing before, and even though it was a long process, i was engrossed for most of it. we were lucky to have a good view of it from our porch, and reiko, zaine, john and i came in and out for tea to warm up our hands as we marveled at it turning orangey red and then back to full and bright again. zaine and i saw a shooting star above the moon at one point (my second ever...the first one i saw on martha's vineyard last semester). it was a lovely lovely lovely evening.

thursday: i woke up, poked around the house, and received a call that a friend from glendon, elek, had arrived on the train in bridgewater. after picking him up, i spent some time chatting and pointed him in the direction of the grocery store before heading to james hayes-bohannan's class to brainstorm about their project. it was a quiet group, but jill and dan and i spoke lots about what the social justice league does (everyday superheroes!) and where we're headed with this fair trade fair. after the class, we bumped into the other half of our committee (jeff, rich, and brandon) and had a little powwow about contacting vendors, applying for grants, and next steps. then jeff and dan walked me home and they came in for coffee, which was a disaster of sorts. a stick of butter had been left on top of the coffee maker in the sunlight and dripped, unbeknownst to me, into the coffee machine. what resulted was a massive pot of butter coffee, or buffy, which reiko, elek, jeff, and dan all tried. dan said he had a film on his lips. the others said it wasn't bad. i didn't think i could stomach it and told them to pour it out, but wonderful supportive friends that they are, they wouldn't do it. elek came with me to sustainable development class, where we bashed disney and discussed 'collapse' by jared diamond. we then came home and made vegetable bean soup with rice, and hit the hay.

friday: it was snowing when i woke up. which means that i was happy as soon as i opened my eyes and looked out the window. word reached the house through the campus website that classes (and everything on campus!) were cancelled after 10:00 am, but i had a test on hindu theories of personality at 9:00am, so off i went! jeff and i moseyed around town in the light snow to arrive at the rockin k and chat with diane (her son henry got into his art school of desire in new york city!!) for a couple hours. diane is also planning to hold a taste for justice event this year (on behalf of a zimbabwean women's group that is the theme for the year), and i am excited that i will be able to help out in some way. i had talked to tanya about it, thinking her penchant for food might get her interested, and lucky for me, she passed the information into perfect hands. diane made a delicious lunch spread for us; bagels spread with cream cheese and cranberries, artichoke, yellow peppers, and avacado, bean spead and cashews, and sundried tomatoes and hot peppers. it was scrumptious and gave me a boost to hike home through still-descending snow. when i arrived back, elek was getting chewy molasses cookies going, and i pitched in as well. how lovely to have a houseguest who bakes! later in the afternoon, i went out to shovel our driveway and walkways, a chore i normally don't like. yet this particular afternoon, it was the perfect remedy for all ailments, and i felt like i was working some canadian gene as i heaved the snow around, clearing space for our impending company. at about 7, elek and i were joined by john, reiko, john, kim, zaine, evelin, and ronan. we had a merry international games night, joking that the americans in the house (both named john!) were a minority, and that we represented three continents and five countries. we played rummoli, which is called tripoley here, and i won! in the last hand, all but one person was broke (no more pennies) but i finally laid down the 8-9-10 of one suit, which had been accumulating pennies since the beginning of the game. then ronan decided to teach john this complicated argentinian game called "trucu" (sp?) which seemed to have a new rule at every turn, but john picked it up and ronan was delighted to have found a buddy to play cards with. we made popcorn on the stovetop and ended our game night with "pig," where you have to stick your tongue out when you have four of a kind, and we laughed very hard as elek did a little monologue about a different version of the game and we all listened with our tongues out, waiting for him to notice that he was the last. after our guests had gone home, elek read zaine and my tarot cards and i pulled the moon, balance, loss, integrity, and the ace of earth.

saturday: the plumbers were back this morning, making plenty of noise to rouse us all from our beds. zaine and i took a walk in the snow, delivered a letter headed to the school for designing a society, and met ronan and evelin and her roommate katie to frolic in the snow. we built a snowman (the first ever for zaine, ronan, and evelin), threw many snowballs, and even made snow angels. we found a worm out under the snow, which was terribly bizarre, and probably a sign of global warming, and soon headed back to our place for hot chocolate. it couldn't have been more of a february day. and to top it all off, i received a postcard from a dear friend who is on her way to australia, which is perhaps the sweetest letter i have ever received. in our delightfully digital age, thoughtfully penned notes are highly underrated, yet so profoundly sincere and sentimental that i hope to continue writing and receiving them for all of my life.