thief-in-training

I am so TIRED. Last night after Tim's thing Sandra and I went out for Chinese food. Then we went back to her place in Brighton and stayed up watching Legally Blonde (which was good, but really gave you no sense of the campus...). I slept over, which was a good thing because it meant that I actually got some good sleep, on a good bed!

I spent most of today at Wellesley, with Sandra, at the new store. We went for pastries in the morning; I had a really good pecan roll, and a chocolate croissant, and a baguette, mmm... Then we went back, and I was helping her move a patio-bench outside when the door blew shut behind us. Whoops. We were locked out, and it was raining. All I had in my pocket was 75 cents. We ran around checking all the windows, and Sandra climbed up the fire escape to the second floor to check those windows, but to no avail. She went to fetch a locksmith. I sat there on the front porch waiting in case her boss or the landlord got the messages we left for them. I was pretty bored, so I found a piece of wire, and, um, got the door open. Then I sprinted down the street to find Sandra before we got charged by the locksmith.

It all worked out ok, and we spent more of the afternoon pushing furniture around. There was one big comfy red-and-gold sofa that it was particularly hard to find a place for. We also made a run back to South Street for more things for the new store, and dinner (slices of pizza from a place round the corner).

Around 7:30 Sandra drove me back to the dorm, and then to Swing City. I wasn't too happy when I initially got there, because I didn't like the music, and it seemed like an older crowd, but I decided to stay. The longer I was there, the more people my age showed up. There were so many people there that I hardly ever danced with the same person twice. I danced with Phil and Mike and Michael and Phil (another Phil) and Andrew and Chris and Reuben and Keith and Mike (another one), and lots more people whose names I can't remember. I danced with a Steve during his birthday dance. Hmm. And at some point I was wandering across the room and there was Stanley Hu from Gunn. It really feels like there must not be too much of a distance between Boston and the Bay Area.

So Stanley had just come back from his brother Jeff's wedding. Felix was the best man. Felix himself got married last summer. I'm getting oooollllddd....

Stanley was nice enough to drive me home. I spent a nice long time in the shower washing away all those hours of dance. It's very humid tonight, with all the rain in the air.

dining a la dudley

The dining hall served *lobster* for dinner tonight. All-you-can-eat lobster, with plastic bibs and paper placemats printed with cheesy lobster-eating directions, and pails with nutcrackers. I have a suspicion that this was some kind of continued cosmic vengeance for my having ordered two lobsters in Maine. But actually all the food was good tonight--there were clams and mussels in white wine sauce too. Even the dessert and coffee were good. I sat with a bunch of people who I didn't really know--one from astronomy (Jonathan from Israel), one from psychology (Sam from India, focusing on the evolution of music), and three from East Asian studies (Ryan, I think, from Missouri, and Su-wa, and Xinyu from my dorm). After everyone had introduced themselves Jonathan got on the subject of Israeli-area politics, and then there was no stopping him. He talked about that all the way until he was en route to the kitchen to return his tray. Xinyu and I talked about languages and departments and theory and just ignored the boys arguing about politics.

It was a pretty tiring day today. Maybe partially because lunch was steak and potatoes. But I think most of it was just tension over finishing the reading for Methods at 2, and finding all the right codes for my study card, and chasing down signatures. I turned the study card in at 5, just before dinner, and in exchange got my real Harvard ID card with a photo instead of the one which said TEMPORARY ID in big black letters on it. I look like I was laughing at the cameraman. And I look red enough to be thoroughly sunburned, for some reason. Somehow ID photos never turn out well!

powers alum sighting

Today I had Medieval Science at 11; then I picked up a sandwich at the cafeteria and ate it in Maxwell Dworkin (which is air conditioned!) before Scientific Experience at 2. I did reading for Methods till 5, when the Classics beginning-of-the-year cocktail party started at the Faculty Club. It was all chandeliered and thickly carpeted and gilt-framed and cozy, and looked extremely cushy in comparison with the annual Berkeley reception, which is usually just held outdoors in the courtyard of Dwinelle. I met around 20 people before I got too tired to balance a wine glass and a hors d'oevures plate and eat and talk all at once. After the party I just headed back to the dorm, but when I got there I couldn't find my keys. I dug through my bag several times, but no luck...

So I raced back to the Science Center, where fortunately the security guard let me in to the history of science section of the building, and there they were--my keys hung up from a pushpin by some nice person. I was feeling so much more cheerful that I decided to try going dancing after all. There is a church just a few blocks from here where an organizational group called Five Guys Named Mike (yes, there are five of them and they are all named Mike) do Lindy Hop on Monday nights from 8:30 to 11 and it has a nice wooden floor and only costs $4. It was so much fun! The crowd was very sociable and polite (most of the guys asked me to dance at least once), and good dancers as well. And even more of a surprise--I met three people from Stanford Vintage Dance there! One of them was Aleem, the partner I was dancing with in that professional photo of the Vintage Victorian group dress rehearsal. He has temporarily given up i-banking in SF for Harvard Business School. Kristina (who is applying to Harvard Business) and Johannes (who is at Harvard Med) drove me home. It's really comforting to know I have somewhere great to dance that is so close by.

visit from Emily

Yesterday Emily arrived around 10:30 am. After we got her stuff upstairs and parked the car, we walked over to Professor Segal's estate book sale, where there were several Classics people there already, including Mark, who introduced me to Gisela Striker, his mentor, for the first time. I introduced him to Emily and he made some funny remark about how it was too bad he didn't have any friends because he'd never been to the Centro. It was hard to tell exactly what to make of his remark; whether he was being serious or flippant or something else.

Well, anyway, I bought an entire filebox's worth of books for $70; a really good deal for the books which I got. They will be useful, I think. If I find they aren't I'm sure I can sell them. Emily got a few general reference books as well. The worst part was walking the books home. It was probably 20 pounds of books I was carrying, but it seemed like 40 by the time we reached the dorm and I made a final sprint for the door. I think we stopped to rest about 10 times in the 5 blocks we had to walk.

After the book shopping we rested a little, and then we went to Harvard Square and wandered around. We stopped in at the Coop and I ended up buying my textbooks there. We walked the books back and then went to Bertucci's for dinner. Emily doesn't have pizza much at home, so we were looking for pizza. Then we went back to the dorm again and went down to the basement and watched a little of Around the World in 80 Days (which was very funny) before I went to see Mostly Martha with Sue at the Harvard Square Theater. It really felt like I spent half the day walking back and forth from the dorms to the Square. Emily was pretty worn out as well from the drive, and she went to sleep early instead of going out with me & Sue. I really enjoyed the movie. It was great to hear the Italian and the German, and the plot really cheered me up, though all the shots of food made me very hungry. I didn't even get popcorn since I was trying to save money.

This morning Emily and I went to Finagle a Bagel for breakfast, put some stuff of mine in storage, and then wandered round the North End looking for lunch (more pizza). Then we rushed back so I could make it to the Harvard Ballroom Dance meeting. I was really disappointed to find out that their program is really centered around ballroom competitions, which I'm just not interested in at all. I guess it explains why going to their social dance on Friday was not a whole lot of fun. I'll have to look for somewhere else to dance.

When I got back to the room Emily was sound asleep. In a little while she woke, and then we went down to the lounge to watch a little more Around the World (at which point I fell asleep) to let her get a little less groggy before she left. Since she drove away I've been trying to get my room and papers in order. It's raining outside. It's making me feel very sleepy, and it's certainly not making the air any less humid.

sightseeing and shopping

It's Thursday evening and I just got back from dinner with the History of Science graduate students at Cambridge Commons.

Last night we slept at Sandra's. This morning we missed the last direct bus out of Brighton and so we had a two-part trip into downtown Boston. All three of us went to Rebecca's Cafe (I had a really good pecan pastry and Samantha's OJ--that's like the East Coast Odwalla) on Newbury Street, and then waited at Waterworks for Sandra's boss to show up. We met Belinda, and then Jill and I headed to Boston Gardens and Commons, with a little detour to Rockport and Banana Republic en route. We took pictures with the swan boats, and wandered up into Beacon Hill and saw where the Franklins were buried, and then walked over to the Cheers bar, and finally went back down Newbury Street, stopping in at Rockport (to pick up my shoes), Express, Guess, Serenella (where there was the sweetest little old lady helping us, who showed us this gorgeous mini leather cape for $1200), Jasmine/Sola (just looked at the shoes), and Hold Everything. My feet were sore.

Then we rushed back to campus, where I stopped by the room briefly and then went to the History of Science reception. It went ok except for my usual lack of social skill at mingling. After the reception there was a little grad student meeting, and then we went over to the Commons.

a peaceful 9/11

It's Wednesday morning and I haven't really got anything to do till 1 pm (registration for last names beginning with L-Z is from 1-5 pm at Dudley). Fortunately the weather seems reasonable today; in the 70s and cloudy, instead of in the 90s and sunny.

On Monday Jill and I didn't do very much. It's difficult to remember how we spent the day. I just remember it was very hot and we were very lethargic. The first ordeal was to return the rental car, which we did fairly early because Sandra needed to get to work; Sandra brought a glass of coffee with her (a normal glass, not a travel mug!) and it was slopping all over the place and between that, the traffic, and her talking on the cell phone while driving I was petrified. But of course everything was fine. She headed in to work and we shopped back along Mass Ave until we got to the Gap (Korean grocery, Salvation Army, stationery store, Economy Hardware, Star Market). We picked up several little things--it got difficult to cram them into the bags that we had, especially the hangers. Finally we took the #1 bus to Harvard Square. It was a hot and tiring trek back across campus with everything.

Once we made it back to the dorm I sat at my desk and puttered around on the computer because that involved as little movement as possible, and Jill slept. We left the dorm around 5 pm to meet Sandra in Chinatown. We went to the little upstairs food court. I ordered poached chicken over rice and a green pearl milk tea. The food was DISMAL. I don't want to remember anything more than that about it.

After dinner we stopped by Sandra's work to close up shop, South Street Interiors. The place was absolutely beautiful; warm and rich colors and textures, and interesting objects. Velvet pillows edged with iridescent feathers; a white woolen rug that looked like it was made of french fries; a wedding guestbook made of ribbons attached to a beautiful tiny wedding-dress on a tiny dress form; a huge coatrack-shaped fountain that makes a sheet of dripping water; an imposing black cage with tiny but very professional-looking little brown-and-black finches in it. I can't imagine working there. I'm sure I would manage to break all kinds of things, and kill the finches to boot.

We got lost on the way back from Chinatown on the T; we took the wrong direction of train and ended up in Wollaston. Fortunately we met an older Filipino couple on the platform who pointed us the right direction. It was a very long ride back. The most amusing thing was watching people react to a seat across the car which apparently had dried vomit on it. Most people avoided it, but just as we were leaving someone sat in it even though he had clearly noticed it was dirty...yuck!

We went to CVS and T-Mobile as long as we were in Harvard Square, and bought detergent and other small items. Then I think I puttered about cleaning and rearranging things until it was pretty late. We were the only ones doing laundry and checking mail at that hour, sometime past midnight. To wash and dry a load here at Harvard is $1.50. I think it was cheaper at Stanford.

Yesterday we went shopping, mostly to ensure we stayed in air-conditioned places, and I spent a TON of money. We "did" most of Harvard Square before I left Jill to meet Schaps: had breakfast at Au Bon Pain (I had a very gooey and messy and not-very-good chocolate croissant), stopped by Wordsworth where I bought a copy of the Unofficial Guide to Life at Harvard (which has turned out to be an unfortunate purchase, as I'm now told I get a free copy at registration), and peeked in at Jasmine Sola, my new favorite store, where I bought two very practical pairs of pants plus a sheer and crinkly shirt for fun with huge bell sleeves. We also looked in at Second Time Around, where I bought a winter coat--heavy and lined and black, nicely fitted, slightly worn, Calvin Klein, $130. I hope it works out well, since I don't really know what I should be looking for.

At 2 pm I met Schaps at Peets. It was a nice chat; he's applying for law school now, but seems to be much the same person. He offered to give me his printer and dishes and other small household goods, as he's leaving for South America and is trying to get rid of his possessions.

At 3:30 pm Jill picked me up at Peets. We went back to Cambridge Trust to sign me up for a checking account (where they had given me a sales pitch already when I stopped by before breakfast); there was much less paperwork to it than I expected, which was nice.

At 6 pm we had dinner at the burger place on Mass. Ave near the Harvard Book Store. I wasn't feeling too well, probably because of the Jasmine Pearl tea from Peets and the cocoa and the biscotti and no real lunch. I think it all upset my stomach. My burger was basically a BLT and burger sharing a bun. It was good but heavy...

At 8 pm we had floor meeting. That was really nice. Finally I met all the people I've been awkwardly running into on the hallway and in the bathroom. One of the girls is named Charlotte and is from the Philippines, graduated from UP, studying here at the Graduate School of Design. Her sister is visiting her; Jill and I chatted with them in the hallway after the meeting.

The other thing that happened at the meeting is that I volunteered to be the Graduate Dormitory Council liaison. It shouldn't be that much of a time committment, though.

After all that, Jill and I sat on the balcony where it was cooler than my room, amused by all the students pacing around on the ground talking on their cell phones, and drank sodas from the vending machines in the basement of Perkins. When we got tired of that, we looked for the computer room in the basement of Childs and the TV lounge in the basement of Richards. We found both, and since we were the only two in the TV lounge, we watched part of an episode of Friends, and a little bit of news, which was depressing.

I guess today is 9/11. It doesn't seem like it's been a year. It doesn't seem like the media has let a day go by without something 9/11 related, either. And it still feels very unreal.

three gals in NYC

On Saturday Sandra came and met us at the dorm around 11; we went to Finagle a Bagel for breakfast (I had a triple chocolate chip bagel that reminded me of the bagels I used to get at Noah's on Telegraph Ave, which was kind of comforting, since I was feeling very far from home) and then took public transit to Budget Rent-a-car. Once we had finished all the paperwork, we went back to the dorms to pick up our luggage, over to Sandra's to pack and pick up her stuff, and then to CVS for assorted things like water and snacks. We didn't actually leave the Boston area till around 3:30. On the Mass. Pike we thought we had missed an exit, but we hadn't, so we lost perhaps 15 minutes going in a very big loop. (The exits seem pretty far apart, like driving on the 280.) Each of these things seemed like a small delay, and traffic was flowing well until...

We got stuck on the freeway going through the Bronx around 7. We were still there at 7:50, thinking we were going to miss the whole show we had bought tickets for, which started at 8. I was pretty stressed. We thought about trying to navigate the streets instead, but Sandra called a friend in NYC who said that with three girls unfamiliar with the city, in an out-of-state rental car, we should absolutely *not* even think about getting off the freeway in the Bronx. So we waited. And worried. And the traffic CRAWLED along. Then when we *finally* arrived in NYC at the Milford Plaza Hotel, there was an ambulance parked out front and medics with a stretcher, it was totally chaotic, and hard to find a valet to park the car, and the garage was inaccessible to us, so we had to remove everything from the car and check in before we could give our bags to a bellboy...! There was a line to check in. I was ready to scream. We were late for Into the Woods by about half an hour.

As it turned out, the show was wonderful anyway, perhaps more so for me than the others because I knew the music so well. We arrived just as Little Red Riding Hood was refusing to give her cape to the baker. Our seats were in Row 6 of the orchestra. Vanessa Williams was less than 10 yards away! We were a bit off to the side, but it was still pretty good; I could see most of it. I thought the show was extremely funny; I enjoy listening to the recording too, but it makes all the difference to be able to hear a hall full of people laughing. The actors had great comic timing. I had no idea that the cast I was seeing had actually recorded the CD I have! That was a nice surprise.

After the show we relaxed in the room eating Pringles for a little while, then walked out to Times Square and had dinner at Famiglia's. The cousins had been teasing me about having eaten nothing but a bagel and a handful of Pringles all day; finally I ate quite a bit: garlic knots, a big slice of pizza, and a fruit salad...after that we were exhausted.

We meant to get up early on Sunday, but it didn't happen. The curtains over the windows were very thick. When Sandra woke us up it was already 11 am. I called Dave, and he met us in the lobby at noon after we checked out and stowed our bags on the lower level. We walked a few blocks to a french brunch place, PiGallo I think--pretty expensive, but decent food; I had a "Continental" breakfast that was incredibly unEuropean in being generously portioned--three different breads, coffee, and fresh orange juice. After brunch we walked to Central Park, where Dave left us.

We were wandering around Central Park looking for a circle of drummers Sandra had seen on her previous visit when we ran across a rather strange-looking individual sitting in one of the archways. We joked about how he looked like a character we saw on SNL with Gwyneth Paltrow the night before, "Mango", and kept going. But on the way back, when we walked by him again I recognized him as Thoth, the guy that this year's Academy Award-winning documentary was about!

We decided to sit and watch his performance because it looked like he was going to start, but it ended up being around an hour before he actually began. We watched him put his outfit on: tie golden ribbons round his legs and arms, and do his hair, and burn bundles of sage and incense, and sprinkle lines of golden dust on the ground...and then a very noisy and clownish group of four performers (dressed in rags and stilts and bright yellow hoops, banging drums, and wailing) came and blocked off an area with yellow rope right next to us. We fidgeted. Thoth didn't start till they were done.

Thoth's performance was very interesting; he made use of the way the archway echoed with his voice, and he stomped on a manhole cover that I hadn't even noticed to create more audio effects. It's hard to describe exactly what it was like. I was amused enough to buy a CD on the way out for David, because he couldn't be there, and Thoth autographed it, teasing me about putting David's full name on it. I really just wanted to see him write another word; he signs doubly, mirror imaged, with both hands at once in golden and silver ink.

On the way out of the Park we stopped to pick up bottles of water and a popsicle for Sandra. Unfortunately the bottles had sport tops and so the moment I tried to drink from mine I choked on the water. I was coughing all the way back to the hotel. Pathetic.

We picked up the car and drove to Greenwich village. We wandered around, but spent most of our time in the H&M (clothing quality at the level of Ross, but a little more organized), and in a couple of little cafes so Sandra and Jill could get some food. Then we drove through Chinatown and past Ground Zero (when we stopped at the light we peered at the green walling of the construction site, basically) to meet Dave in Brooklyn at Al Di La. By then I was feeling exhausted again.

The food at Al Di La was great, and the restaurant was really cozy. I had spaghetti alle vongole, and for dessert, figs cooked in some kind of port, with vanilla ice cream and almond brittle, with an Italian-sized tiny cup of coffee. Sandra had the same entree I did; Jill had leg of duck, which was also great. I think Dave had the special--spaghetti with pesto and potatoes--but I didn't try any. I would definitely like to eat there again someday.

By the time we dropped Dave at his place I needed to use the restroom again, so I got to see his apartment briefly. It was very spacious and open and clean-feeling for a place where three guys live! Also you would never have expected it from the vaguely seedy surroundings (liquor store downstairs).

Well, it wasn't just me. Jill needed a restroom before we had left the Bronx. The moment we passed the toll area leaving the Bronx, we got off the parkway or expressway or whatever it was, and went looking for a place. The town was totally deserted. It was a golfing area or something where nobody actually *lives* at night, apparently. Finally we saw a cop parked on the side of the street, and he gave us directions both to the nearest Dunkin' Donuts, and to the freeway from DD. The register guy at DD took a liking to us, even though he gave me a hard time about buying a tiny OJ with a $20 bill (for change...). Perhaps he was tired of just talking to the high school kids who have nowhere else to hang out in the evenings. He gave us extra donuts for free and asked us where we were from.

We talked all the way back; it made the drive seem shorter. Finally we all crashed at Sandra's place; Jill upstairs with Sandra, and me on the couch downstairs. I'm still pretty tired, probably in part because I woke up at 7 this morning. But we really got a lot done in NYC for only having one day.

posting problems

I just wrote a ton of stuff about how not-so-great my first day on campus here was, and somehow I lost it before it got posted. That's probably a good thing, since it was very negative. To summarize: it's very hot and I'm uncomfortable without all my stuff and I'm not sure I like my dorm and I wish I were back home.