The circle of life...

Sadly, my Grandma Margaret passed away this weekend. I am traveling to Utica, NY for her funeral on Thursday. It's hard to imagine that she is gone, she was such a strong force in the family. I haven't really grasped the fact quite yet. She was one tough and intelligent woman, and she will be greatly missed.
My whole family (the Cifonelli side) is coming out. And my Dad will be on the east coast for the first time ever. So he will get to see Amherst and Boston.

Other than family issues, life has been a little hectic. Professor Miller is leaving for Australia for 4 weeks so we're trying to get all our projects in order. And all our gels keep getting double bands which is driving us a little insane. Also, I got a new debit card but cannot activate it. I called the bank and they said they will activate it today so hopefully that happens. That $3 isn't going to last very long.

Over the weekend Matt visited. We went strawberry picking and picked 10lbs of berries, which is way more than feasibly can be eaten on their own. So I've been baking a lot. Strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry chocolate chip muffins, and I have all the fixins for a strawberry cheesecake so we'll see about that maybe next week. Strawberry jam may also be in the near future.

I hope all is well with everyone!

Deep beneath the cover of another perfect wonder...

Today, while I was eating ice cream, a bird pooped on me. FML.

Also, today, while I was making bacon and chicken, two boys were making pot-infused vodka.

I haven't been doing too much in my corner of the world. All work, no play; you know how it goes. I recently watched X-men First Class and Bad Teacher. They were both fun (neither was exceptional) so if you guys get a chance, definitely check it out.

On Friday, I went with Sara Gehrdes to Zen in Northampton for dinner. Sooo good. And I ate far too much food. After dinner we walked around and popped into Urban Outfitters and Faces. UO had great sale items: $5 t-shirts and banner that says "Keep calm and party on." My other purchase at UO was a pair of purple canvas sneakers for $20. Then, I bought that same exact pair of shoes at Faces for the grand total of $10. So, I shall be making a return trip to Noho tomorrow with Jenney Shamash.

On Saturday, I went over to Araba's apartment and made banana bread with her and Stefan Breitling. Then, we tossed a frisbee around. (Is that the right verb? Maybe flung?) I made a great discovery: throwing and catching frisbees is easy. Later that night there was a Civil War in the Jungle party at Marsh. It was mildly awkward; I knew barely anyone there and most people were playing. Civil War looks pretty fun actually; if there wasn't a $15 entry fee per team, I would definitely have played. We should put it on our weekly schedule next year.

And today, the lovely Anna and I biked to Maple Farm where we saw a crazy boy nearly pedal into an angry old man. We made strawberry cuppycakes today and I have been told that they are super delicious.

Annnnd I think that about sums up my weekend. Work has been going pretty well. My partner and I have been making steady but slow progress on our microinjections and I think by the middle-end of this week we will finally start actual experiments.

Glad to hear that everyone is safe and happy!

Karen

So Long Stateside

Mia- you are amazing, I hope everything is bigger, brighter, and better in California!

I'm winding down my last hours in the US of A, packing, double checking, watching Wimbledon, etc. This week has sort of just been a whirlwind ever since I've gotten home, trying to get everything together before I go. On Wednesday I went to Decordova, which is a sculpture museum in Lincoln with my 7th grade teacher. It was a lot of fun even if the art by Ursula von Something or other was a little weird and made up of different combinations of cedar, graphite, and intestines. Yesterday was just some packing and then dinner with the family. My Dad got home in time for dinner, but he left this morning at 5 to head to the Northwest Territories (I know, it's your greatest fear Dylan... not only is it Canada... it's unincorporated) to go fly fishing, but it was good to see him for a little bit before I leave. As of today around 4pm EST today, my US sim card will be out of commission until august 20th when I return. The best ways to contact me are skype: jenna_troop (add me!), or my google voice number 731 924 9670. Hope everyone continues to enjoy/ make the best of their summers!

'Til next week,

Jenna

My New Name...

Kefakom Ya Shabab,

It sounds like everyone is off to a truly exciting summer. To Mia my deepest condolences on the unfortunate turn of events in Bosnia. I can't imagine how stressful, terrifying, and unsettling it must be to have to make impromptu escape plans from a foreign country. I am truly glad to hear that you made it back safe and sound though and are now greeted with the endless possibilities of an unemployed summer. If you decide against taking the Canterbury-esque cosplay job, why would you, and have some money to throw around, I highly suggest coming to beautiful Amman, Jordan.

In my week here I have learned many things. Such as:

• Just as it does at Amherst, the weekend starts on Thursday and ends on Sunday.
• If you are a man you must always sit in the front seat of the cab, so as not to make the driver appear as if he is beneath you.
• You can get an amazing meal for under 2 JD (roughly 3 USD). Any place that charges higher than that is for the wealthy or tourists.
• You can say no either by saying "la" or  by clicking your tongue. This is especially important when voicing disappointment at overpriced cab fares by slimy cab drivers.
• After 11pm all cab drivers turn in to F***KING thieves!!!!!!!
• Milk with Banana is the single best non-alcoholic drink that has ever passed through my lips.
• Kunafah is the single best food that has ever entered my mouth.
• Two years of Amherst College Arabic does not prepare you for the advanced intermediate level of the CLS program. Spending extra hours learning grammar you should have learned long before is not fun.
• It turns out I function better on an average of 4 hours of sleep a night, 3 cups of coffee, bread and cheese for breakfast, and a falafeel sandwich for lunch.
• Hookah/Shisha in the Jordanian dialect is called "Argeelah."
• Jordanian drivers are worse than Maryland drivers but only by a little bit.
• Amman is an amazing city full of great people, great culture, and great food. I am truly excited to call this city my home for the next six months.

This short list should help you all form an impression of what my time here so far has been like. Despite the thieving cab drivers, ridiculously reckless driving, and the late late nights of Arabic homework Amman is amazing! Along with studying and learning the dialect here, I have begun to form a Jordanian personality as well. For instance, after a joke about him teaching us how to pick up women in Jordan, my Jordanian dialect teacher gave me the nickname نسونجي (niswaann-jee)  which means "womanizer"... I have done nothing to warrant this nickname but it continues to stick in all of my classes and among my peers in the program.
The program itself is really intense and it's only going to get more so. Hopefully six months of intensive Arabic will do the trick. I am thoroughly enjoying the weekend thus far. Tonight, I went a great restaurant on shariyat rainbow (Rainbow St.), a Franco-Arab film festival screening of the film "microphone", and several argeelah cafes.

That is all that life is right now for me studying, working, and going out and seeing the town. I will begin to post pictures soon I promise. I miss all of you so much! I hope all in your lives is well!
مع سلامة
-جوش

P.S. How is Thursday? It's Friday here already. I'm on that future stuff!

Hi guys!

Sadly not a ton of exciting news to report from the city of sin, certainly no daring international escapes (at least not around the Bellagio). I recently returned from the desolate wastelands of Northern Nevada and my third stint as a counselor at Boys State. The program was actually pretty great, the guys in my "city" were all really cool and we even had a very touching bonding moment about three days in that would have made all girls in the Family (actually, probably Dylan and Josh too) respond with a collective awwwww. Basically we did this "step in" activity where all the guys get in a circle and then step into the circle whenever I read a descriptor that applies to them. The descriptors start off pretty innocuously, "I have brown hair," "I have blue eyes," etc. but get progressively more personal "I have felt uncomfortable because of my body," "I or someone in my family has been the victim of abuse," you get the idea. After I'd gone through all of them we then had what essentially amounted to a collective heart to heart for an hour and a half where all the guys had realized how close they had become in such a short time. Its really a pretty amazing thing to see, and definitely the most rewarding aspect, in my opinion, of being a counselor.

In less touching news, because of how long it took for my background check to clear with Mandalay Bay (life on the 40th floor will do that to you) I couldn't take my drug test until earlier this week so I still have yet to start working. Basically what this has meant is continuing to feel like a complete bum as I alternatively read, watch The Office (definitely willing to own up to the Jim comparisons now) or get big at my nearest gym. While none of these activities are necessarily a bad thing, I certainly wouldn't mind feeling productive again one of these days.

Glad to hear that most everyone's having an amazing summer (or at least eventful in Mia's case)! Can't wait to hear your guys' updates!

Eric

Home Again

Somehow, and I'm not exactly sure how, I have returned to San Francisco. Many thanks to Anna and Karen for promptly responding to my panicked texts on Saturday. Your help was greatly appreciated.

I suppose the short version of my experience in Bosnia can be summed up like this: lovely country, awful internship. I had decided to suffer through the unreasonable hours and lack of structure, and even ignore the murkiness of the the "fee" I had to pay to the organization. What I could not tolerate was the extreme unprofessionalism of my boss, namely his emotional instability that had him lashing out at interns without warning and hysterically crying. The working relationship was abusive, featuring two incidents in which he verbally attacked interns in protracted displays of bullying. These existed along smaller incidents that proved I would not be able to continue working with him or the organization.

As such, Lilia (the other Amherst intern) and I contacted Ken on Saturday. We packed up, moved to a hotel for an evening (in which we were paranoid our boss was after us, egged on by my American phone receiving two calls from a blocked number) and worked on our escape plan. Ultimately, we made it to Sarajevo and shacked up for another night at a hotel. I left on Monday and made it back to SF by Monday night.

Sorry for the delayed notification. I just wasn't sure how to phrase my experience.

On Tuesday I schmoozed a bit at the SF Alumni/Intern/Student gathering. It was rather uneventful, and now I'm trying to decide what to do with my summer. So far, my most sought after volunteer opportunity is dressing up for a Canterbury Tales-themed fundraiser and working as an usher for an evening.

What does this mean for all you lovely people? Well, most of you are wandering the world or navigating jobs/internships, but, regardless of this, you are all welcome to visit me.

From a land of microwaves, dryers, and toilet seats in public places, gratefully,

Mia

Fun Fun for Everyone

Wow, great times all around :) I promise that lil Herts is still there, so he should turn up before too long. Yell if you don't find him...he'll respond. And beat him up if he thinks he's too cool for you guys since he's so wrong about that.

Sounds like there are parties in Amherst, Jordan, France, and Mia's internet cafe full of Bosnian men playing WoW. Sad that I missed them, but Jenna's been circulating some awesome party ideas for the fall (poker/whiskey nights on Thursdays, anyone!?)

But as for what I'm doing now, well, it's busy busy busy.

So it turns out this IT job isn't like the ones I've had before. Most of the time I'm a cog in the machine - just one guy, one task at a time, one problem to manage.

Here I'm one of two people serving a staff of over one hundred. I have to host our server, too, and it's the sort of thing where - if it breaks - I'm yanked out of whatever I'm doing to go fix it. If an office head needs help, I'm yanked out of whatever I'm doing to go fix it.

In short, I've become a Systems Administrator (or SysAdmin). Being a SysAdmin in IT is a huge, huge amount of work with a lot of important decisions to be made in very little time (think chef in a kitchen). But it's also kind of fun: I get to log into people's systems from another room to install things, I get to choose the theme for the staff photos (Mustachioed T. Rexes, btw), and everyone's really understanding about just how much work the IT duo have to do.

And, in addition to all that, I start teaching in less than a week :) The days are long, the tasks are exhausting, but there's something that I can't quite name here that makes it all somehow satisfying. And we'll see how things go once all the kids get here...

So yes, that's all from me for now. It sounds like everyone's having a wonderful time!

Best,

All Good Things,

Love,

Sincerely,

Last one,

Last one i-promise-this-time,

Dylan

Love bites

Hello!

Just the usual shenanigans here at Amherst. Rebecca, Jenna, Karen, and I put our creative minds together to masterfully craft party-wear for Biddy's ABC party last Saturday. One could say that our dazzling outfits and sparkling personalities made us the life of the party. Over the course of the evening we bonded over a tonic water bottle filled with cranberry juice and rube, scared some poor freshman into being friends with us, and danced until we sweated our costumes off. And we met some nice alums from the late seventies. Unfortunately it was towards the end of the evening so our clothing was a little worse for wear.

Other weekend items included: Taste of Amherst. Squirt guns. Puffer's pond. Bub's BBQ. Bart's ice cream.

Jenna left campus today and will shortly be headed for Paris. Why anyone would want to spend there summer gallivanting around France, eating delicious cheese and tasting endless bottles of wine, is beyond me.

Also, we have yet to see little Herts. We were tempted to yell his name throughout val until someone responded, we'll wait and see if this tactic becomes necessary.

wwoof wwoof

brushing donkeys, baking, sweeping mopping, cutting wood, clearing blackberry brambles, ploughing, weeding, planting, EATING sleeping. and learning some German swearwords.

Rain and Anticipation

I'm currently sitting at my kitchen table, putting together my article which should be a quasi-summation of the research I've done so far this summer. I left Amherst on Tuesday to have coffee with an old teacher, before deciding to stay Wednesday for my birthday, because I had to go to a reception on Thursday, at which point my mother told me I should wait until today to drive back to Amherst. So I'll be back some time later today. For my birthday we went to Hungry Mother which has the best grits North of the Mason-Dixon line, hands-down. It's got bacon and cheese and it's times like these I pity those who keep kosher. Then yesterday I spent the morning with Kate, before hanging out with Eric. Then I went to this celebration of Mrs. Leana's retirement (she's the outgoing head of my elementary and middle school). This reception was young alums and I saw some classmates I hadn't seen in 6 years. It was actually a lot more fun than I expected. Then I came home, got hungry, and made mac and cheese (from scratch) and chicken. I was quite impressed with my self. That's all for now.

With love,

Jen

في الاردن

Hey Guys,

So I am finally in Jordan! after 24 hours of travel. To be perfectly honest I freaking love it here! I've only been in the country for about six hours but I already know that the next six months are going to be amazing! I can't yet hope to produce any story as amazing as the rest of the abroad contingent, but I hope that in a week or two I can give you guys a run for your money!

Orientation in D.C. was fun. I happened to run into one Amherst alumni while I was there, Molly Doyle. To Eric, I met and I am currently sitting next to Elizabeth she is awesome! I hope you and tiger are planning some schemes for world domination because we are totally on board! Anyways Jordan is awesome I'm looking forward to being completely immersed in Arabic for the next six months.

I must say I am a bit intimidated by mostly everyone here it's rather ridiculous most people have traveled or studied abroad prior to this and know a dialect. So yeah... Also it really helps one to understand how behind their school's Arabic program is when you compare it to the larger universities. Well that's about it for now I'll keep in touch more regularly now that I am in the country and have markedly more interesting things to say. Anywho I should be going to bed now. For those of you on the east coast Jordan is 7 hours ahead. I have to wake up for orientation at 8 or so in the morning. It should be a fun day! Miss you all lots!
ما سلام يا شباب,
-جوش

IT'S JENNA'S BIRTHDAY! Also I've perfected the art of gluing flies to wires for my lab work. It's pretty awesome.

France!

There is too much to write I should have posted earlier!

Terry and Sam and I spent a week together after looking around Paris with a French woman in a cottage on the Italian border and her three sons doing garden work. She often left us alone in the chalet for long stretches of time (like from 9 am to 3am one day) without saying where she was going so we would just play board games and drink her wine. She had water scarcity issues so alcohol was literally cheaper to drink than water, so we drank all the time.

On Friday I split up with Sam and Terry and traveled across France by myself, which went smoothly until the towns started getting smaller and smaller and then I had to take buses. The last "bus" was just someone's van with a phone number painted on it that only goes from Condom to Gondrin where I had to be picked up every three days. After 14 hours of traveling this bus was an hour late and I was freaking out. But then a nice old couple assured me in French (after recounting the horrors of Normandy to me for 20 minutes) that the bus just comes whenever it is convenient for the driver, which made sense given what the bus looked like. Then when I told the driver that I needed to get to Gondrin he looked at me like I was crazy and said that he doesn't drive there. Fortunately it turned out that I had forgotten that they mispronounce everything in south west france and that I was just saying the name of the city wrong. So I get in the sketchy bus and drive some more. When I get to the town, my host isn't there because I'm late. The only thing open in the town is a pub, and I have to convince the propreitress to let me use her telephone. I have to leave a message for my host, and wait outside the bar. so finally a woman in a Volvo pulls up and yells out the window "Get een Deeirdree we're all going to a bullfight!". (My host is German) Inside the car are already four German women and an American college football player and everyone is speaking German. (Everyone is speaking German all the time and I can't understand a thing). We drive to another small French city and get out of the car to be greeted by a riotous party. Hundreds of French people are drinking and dancing in the streets wearing white and red for the bullfight. One of them hears me speaking English to the American football player and yells to his friend: "C'est Hermoine Granger!" and then he and two of his friends start pretending to cast spells at me yelling "Expelliamoos!" At this point I am exhausted to the point of thinking that I'm hallucinating. But we watch a bullfight (not the kind were they kill the bull though thank God). It was pretty incredible- the men do backflips over the charging bulls and these strange twists in funny outfits.

Since then its been really tiring farm work. The farm is beautiful though and I can see a castle from the kitchen window. They raise lambs and donkeys. I've been brushing the donkeys, stacking wood and chopping brambles, planting veggies and whatnot. I keep doing everything a little bit wrong though and it's really frustrating not to be able to speak English to everyone working here, or even French. My hosts speak all three but there are also wwoofers here from Austria and Switzerland.

I told my host yesterday that I liked to cook bread, and so she delegated the responsibility to me today of baking. But for her "liking to cook bread" meant "I know bread recipes by heart." When I asked for a recipe she got really angry and said "You said you knew how to make bread, why would you say this if not true?" I was able to quickly find an internet recipe, but was very confused by the metric system and the bread took way too long to make and she was a little upset at me. So I tried to redeem myself by doing the dishes without being asked even though it wasn't my turn. Then I got yelled at because it wasn't my turn to do the dishes and I messed up the system. I think that Germans are very into systems.

I've gotten in the routine of naturally waking up at 6 or 7 which I haven't been in since I was like 12 and had a bed time at 9pm. But I love the French countryside and actually enjoy the work quite a bit too.

Will post pictures as soon as I figure out how (technical difficulties) , probably in Lebanon.

Guten nacht, Deidre

I think this says it all...

MISS YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!!!!!!

Sorry that wasn't a very substantive post, I promise I will redeem myself on Sunday, when I will not forget to post this time!
Much love and sloppy wet kisses,
-Josh

The Recovery Process

As Anna alluded to in her last post, we've had quite the eventful week out here in Western Massachusetts. Let's just say that all those curious george and sesame street band-aids have been put to good use. And I keep having to put off my promises to play tennis with people, because I can't hold a racket. I'm plodding along ever so slowly with this article I'm writing "as a culmination of my research." For every page I write, I probably delete at least 2/3rds of it. But enough about the travails of work.

In other news the Troops will be out in force tomorrow to drop Josh off at tennis camp, so there should be at least one good meal in it for me. I think Anna basically told you everything else, except that it's her and Matt's six month anniversary! So on behalf of everyone who doesn't feel the need to post openly on the web: Happy Anniversary!

Sapphire's second strike

Hello all!

I know I missed my day... but since it's Jenna's day I figured it was okay if I posted. This week has been pretty good. Working in the steamy greenhouse, collecting styles, pollinating things.

Jenna and I went on a lovely bike ride. Well, it was a good idea. We discovered that Josh's bike was not meant to ever be ridden by a girl, my bike has very loose steering, and mosquitoes not only bite you but can blind you. Let's just say that Jenna is still recovering.

But Jenna and I managed to rally after our adventure and go "swimming" in the little creek by the bike path. Then Karen, Jenna and I went to the rafters to watch the Bruins game which was really fun. We ate a lot of food. And now we are camped out in the first floor common room of Cohan preparing for the next game!

Cheers, Anna

Hangin on the 40th Floor

Hi guys,

Life's relatively tame here at the Bellagio, just hangin with my fellow playas and generally enjoying living in the lap of luxury. As awesome as being on the 40th floor is though, I do sometimes venture out into the real world and participate in the excitement of commoner living. A couple weeks ago I got to see my high school (yep, Bonanza) win the state title in men's volleyball which was pretty awesome (and a little painful for my hands/throat, though this probably comes as little surprise). When I'm not kickin back with my fellow playas I've been enjoying seeing my buddies from Bonanza and beyond who are home for the summer, with the obligatory froyo or smoothie outing.

I recently got a job at the Mandalay Bay as a lifeguard, which is pretty exciting since they have a wave pool, a pool-side concert stage and a lazy river(!) all of which will hopefully compensate for the deluge of intoxicated guests that I'll have to save from themselves. I won't actually be starting until after I get back from being a counselor at this program called Nevada Boys State though, which is basically a mock government camp for rising senior guys in high school. Aside from being in Reno (definitely the uglier, lesser loved step-brother of Las Vegas) the program's actually pretty cool and surprisingly considered one of the best Boys State programs in the country (Nevada isn't used to being on top of many rankings these days aside from the drop out and foreclosure rates).

Finally I've also been pestering my mother to teach me how to cook, a project that I took up last summer but that kind of petered off with the whole not having a kitchen for 8 months thing. I've done pretty well so far, did a couple of dishes I learned last summer and even some baking! Oh and don't worry Mia I haven't forgotten that I owe you a freshly cooked meal for those delicious treats you sent me last summer!

Wedding in the City

Hey all,

So I'm currently on the megabus on my way back to Amherst where with any luck Anna will pick me up. It's been a pretty rad few days since I left Amherst. Deidre and I experienced hands down the coolest lightening storm as we drove down route 2. First it looked like we were in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. The sky was pink but it was already past 8:30. Then we had the northern lights on one side and spider like lightening on the other. Meanwhile, my mother keep receiving updates along the lines of "the tornado are 20 miles ahead of you." The next day, Deidre was kind enough to help me run some errands before heading off to Paris, so we took a trip to the Concord Cheese Shop (http://www.concordcheeseshop.com/). Thursday night consisted of a delicious dinner, a seven year old teaching me how to use technology, and a pink and green snake, which the four year old Eleanor christened Sammy the Sheep (no, we don't know why). Friday morning we drove down to New York to begin the festivities for the weekend. The Rehearsal Dinner Friday night was a Chinese banquet down in Chinatown. There was a stuffed pig with pink bows! Then as a member of the under-21 set, I went home with the family, while other revelers started pub-crawl number 1 of the weekend. Saturday we had Brunch at Barney Greengrass (kippered salmon and nova: SCORE!) before I met up with one of my best friends from high school who is interning in the city this summer for Cupcakes. Saturday night was the wedding, which took place at the Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers. It was so beautiful and tons of fun! (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/fashion/weddings/renee-sekino-jonathan-wolfe-weddings.html?ref=weddings) At one point my cousin Nancy (Jon's sister) asked Josh and me to look after her two boys Benny and Danny. We failed miserably, but I did manage to stop Danny from jumping over the railing, so I guess that has to count as a minor success. Then I missed the apparently epic pub-crawl number two, sad times continue. But Jon and Renée were real troopers (haha) and still made it to the brunch in high spirits. Benny and I had a great time watching the ducks that congregated by the fountain, while Diana (David's (Jon's twin brother) daughter) and colored some amazing disney princesses. Sunglasses were worn by most even if the sun was barely visible, and before I knew it it was time to head out!

I guess this means that I really need to start working....

Mazel Tov!

Jenna

I'm in love with seahorses.

Hey y'all! Okay I know I am slightly computer challenged but I cannot post any comments! Please tell me I'm not the only one?!
And sorry for the delay. Tuesday was a little hectic, traveling and unpacking.
Florida was amazing! I mostly laid on the beach and swam in the ocean. But the cottage provided free bikes, so I went on a 10 mile ride through the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge and it was a blast! We saw dolphins on our last full day there. They swam about 10 feet away from a nice little family and the family didn't even notice! We told them when they came out of the water and in exchange for our information they gave us lychee fruits.
I started work this week. It's been pretty fun but a little slow. I've been working in the green house, pollinating flowers and collecting styles. I get to use the fancy fluorescence microscope on Monday! And for all the chemists out there, I had to make 8M NaOH. For the non-chemists, it is an extremely basic solution that gets really hot when you make it and smells. According to all the comments I got, I look pretty good in the lab coat and goggles, so... yeah.
Today was full of mini adventures. Upon discovering a need for a bike pump and WD-40, I decided to venture to the store to by some essentials for the summer, including: a blender, running shorts, batteries, cups with crazy straws attached, 99 cent squirt-guns, graham crackers, and york pieces. After I acquired the necessary equipment, I skillfully picked the lock to Jordan's bike, tuned it up, and took it for a spin to Maple Farms and beyond. I love Maple Farms. Words cannot describe its awesomeness. There are chickens, ice cream, and fruit. What else, really, is there in life?
I am loving the posts! Since I can't seem to comment... shout out to Hannah for an awesome post. Mia, it sounds like a whole new world! and Dylan, I love general laziness. Keep up the good work!
Now-August 6 AC#1842
August 6th till September: 14572 Crossroads Loop, Sisters, OR 97759
Much love, Anna

Time (?) Travel

Zdravo!

I´m not sure how it happened, but somehow I have found myself in Bosnia as of late, where the ˝y˝ and ˝z˝ letters are switched on the keyboard and apostrophes are more hassle than they are worth. I left San Francisco at 11AM on Wednesday and arrived in Sarajevo at 12PM on Thursday, but it felt like the longest day ever, as it included stops in Chicago and Munich.

Thus far, I have learned that Bosnians eat ketchup on their pizza. Though seemingly insignificant, I was very taken with this idea (at the time I was severely dazed after not sleeping on the plane).

Lilia (the other Amherst student) and I are living in an apartment in a very Soviet-feeling building. It is situated in a neighborhood of like buildings that surround a grassy square with basketball courts, a fountain, and old people putzing around plazing chess on a giant chessboard. I went to the grocery store today and there was an entire aisle devoted to candy. This aisle abutted a half aisle devoted to pudding mixes. Shocking.

In other news, I wore a full suit for the first time ever today as we visited a school to promote our summer institute. I am not sure if the students were impressed.

Certainly not as impressed as I later was with myself after navigating a series of security questions on Facebook in Arabic.

Excusing the stilted English and horrifying lack of apostrophes, I shall sign off now. Until the next time!

Do videnja!

P.S. Dylan, the computers at this ˝Computer Club˝ have Chrome!

Brain Scrambled, Blog Must Go On

Hello all,

I know it's a tad late in my appointed day, but I've been at Cedar Point with some friends since this morning. I'm high off of roller coasters right now.

It was the perfect day to go: not too hot, but still warm and bright outside. There was no one in the park, so we skipped all the weak, pathetic rides and went straight to the Millennium Force. For those of you unaware, this is the greatest roller coaster ever. It takes people who aren't roller coaster people (like me) and turns them INTO roller coaster people. It has, in fact, been described as life-changing.

Don't believe me? TAKE A RIDE

Once was not enough - we rode it three times. And then tried some other stuff but it all sucked.

So we rode the Millennium Force again.

And then ate dinner in Oberlin. And that was my day.

In other news, the Herts fam is going out on our friends' boat this weekend so that should be fun - water sports, grilling, and general laziness. After that, I do have to pack for Explo and come to terms with the fact that I have a job and cannot just slack off for the next few months (which is a good thing).

Blog is going strong, and I love it. Miss you all!

Hello from Chicago!

Hi Everyone!

I delayed this post for as long as possible in case something interesting happened I had to share with all of you, but since my life has been pretty ho-hum since I've been back, I thought I'd start anyways.

Since being back home, I've played a bit of golf, babysat the smaller Hickeys for a few days since my parents were out of town, seen lots friends, and started caddying. I'm sufficiently sunburnt already despite applying SPF 70 regularly. Exciting thing to forward to is that I'm making a trek to Granville, OH next weekend to visit one of my best friends from high school. Also, since there has been a fantastic amount of thunderstorms lately, I've bummed around my house enough to have time to watch 3 1/2 seasons of How I Met Your Mother. Yay for finally understanding all the references you all make!

In exciting news, I did caddy for an Olympian today. Yes, I caddied for a current member (and in her 18th year, mind you) of the US National Women's curling team. Although I have to admit I have mocked curling in the past, I have to respect this woman, who probably could have beaten me up in a matter of seconds if she tried. (She did tell me all about her off-season weight training program...terrifying).

Enjoying all the posts...keep them coming!

Missing you all dearly,

Irene

Hi All-
I finally located the email with my summer address in it, so I thought I'd share it with all of you; this was slightly hindered by the fact that it took me a really long time to find the "new post" button on the blog. But then I figured it out. I guess two years of spending time with Dylan's wealth of technology is starting to rub off. So, here's my address:

Hannah Gendelman (duh)
Turner Lab
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
1 Bungtown Road
Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724

I'll be there from June 7th- August 12th

It would be excellent if people added their addresses and relevant dates somewhere on the blog so that I can send you post cards, either from the city or with my dead flies taped to them. (I'm studying flies and scent receptor coding!)
In the mean time I have been baking, reading, pimping out my ACEMS fleece and generally being a bum. My little brother finished school today, so I get to add harassing him to my list of activities for the next few days! SO MUCH FUN!

I'm going to counter Jenna's sign-offs by using a Monty Python reference:

NI!
Hannah