July

I have often told myself that February is my least favorite month of the year, with March as a close second. Mostly, this is because the weather (at least on the Northern half of the Atlantic coast of the United States) is generally unpleasant, and seems to drag on forever. However, around this time every year, I am forced to reconsider this. I think I would gladly move to a place that was constantly raining or sleeting, in order to avoid temperature norms of 80-90 F at any point in the year.

Anyway. It's been a good few weeks. My internship at the New Castle Historical Society has been fantastic, but I'll talk more about that later. I saw Hamlet in early July, as the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is putting it on this year. I went with Rebz and Sam, and for the first time, without my parents, or theirs. It was a little odd to have that break with tradition, but of course, it was enjoyable as ever.

I've also managed to get some hiking in... Sam and I went (again, in early July) with Susie, and it was really lovely as always. Towards the end, we stopped by a lake, and for once, I went swimming. Sam and I swam/walked out to an island, and were a bit disappointed when we couldn't actually get onto the island, but ah well.

And, of course, as I was saying before, the Historical Society has been fantastic. I now know that I never, ever want to work with anybody under the age of 14 (at the very least), that I'm quite good at putting together power-points, and that I can decipher handwriting that my superiors deem "impossible." I've been helping the archivist put together a slide show for a gala in September, transcribing Horace Greeley's letters (so much more fun than it sounds), and doing research for an exhibition on former farms in New Castle (which has basically consisted of me making copies of maps and circling names, and is also a lot more fun than it sounds). I also just finished working on a joint project with the Chappaqua Library, which I won't bother going into detail with... it was a kids' program, and I'm very glad to be done with it. 

The Story of A Summer, by Cecilia Cleveland (a niece of Horace Greeley's) tells us quite a lot of what we know the Horace Greeley House was like in the 1870s. It was his summer residence-- much of New Castle was still "countryside" at the time. The house is now a museum, as well as the home of the New Castle Historical Society.

Thomas Nast cartoons!

Supposedly, this was Horace Greeley's crib...

The research room (aka: Tasha's new lair).

Some samples of what I've been transcribing.

Anyway. In other news, I now have only 2 1/2 books left to read before getting to Cambridge. So that's something like... 1, 400-odd pages left? So... I need to read 117-ish pages per day? Something like that. In any case. I'm planning on finishing the two shorter ones by the middle of next week, and then getting started on the 700 page one, and hopefully finishing it on the plane.

...we'll see how well that plan goes. 

But really, though. I'm very excited about Cambridge. I'll be at Clare College, by the way. Daria is currently at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and though we haven't heard much from her, she seems to be happy enough. I don't dare make a more strongly-worded guess.

I don't really have much more to say at this point... more to come.

My love to all,

Tasha

Shakespeare and fireworks

Hello all! (And to my fellow Americans: happy 4th!)

Well, still not much to tell, really. Lots of World Cup and Wimbledon watching... I realized the other day that my ability to speak, write, and generally understand Spanish has diminished in just the past two weeks, so I've been trying to practice. Mainly, that consists of re-reading all my notes, changing the language on my computer and facebook to Spanish, watching the World Cup on univision, and attempting to "think" in Spanish... well, as you might expect, it's a bit difficult to tell how it's actually going.

Yesterday evening, we went to see Troilus and Cressida put on by the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. It was fun, as always. This is, however, the first time I've seen the play interrupted by fireworks. All the actors (as well as the audience, of course) left the tent to watch the fireworks going up across the river, and it was... well. Quite magical, actually. I've never really seen fireworks... the last time we went to see them, I was rather little and too scared to actually look, and whenever I had a chance to see them at camp, we got rained out. So that was quite special for me.

Edit: These photos are from another evening I spent at the Shakespeare Festival, this time seeing The Taming of the Shrew, but I thought I'd post them anyway.

Sorry to cut this one short, but I have to be going: Fourth of July celebration preparations are calling.

My love to all,

Tasha

Summer begins...

So, not much of interest has been happening lately. My graduation was on June 20th (Fathers' Day), and, as you all are probably already aware, I chose not to go to the ceremony. Instead, we had a really lovely party on the 19th, and another on the 20th at my friend's house. Thank you all, by the way, for all the graduation wishes. I really appreciate your thinking of me.

Since then, I've basically been driving my brother back and forth from tennis, visiting the Wesners, singing, learning Elvish (yes. Elvish.), hiking and taking walks, reading, and watching the World Cup. ...yeah. I've been doing a lot of that. I was devastated when the US got knocked out, but I can't say I was surprised. In retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised that England got beaten out as well, but... wow was that depressing. I was planning on cheering for them if the US got sent home, but now that we're both gone, I suppose I'll just go with Argentina. Eh.

But soccer aside, I'm going to see one of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's productions on Saturday with my family (both the ones related by blood, and the ones that aren't (:D), so I'm excited for that. I've also been meaning to play more badminton... I may or may not have already mentioned this, but I'm starting a badminton club as soon as I get to Goucher (because there's no way I'm going to survive the last few weeks of summer in Maryland without it), and I need to get "training" for that... heh. I have so many good memories connected to badminton, really. Good friends, good weather (and some not-so-good weather)...

I'm sorry there's not much more I can really talk about. I haven't really been doing anything too dramatic. My sleep schedule is all screwed up now, though... I usually wake up at around 5.30, and go to bed at 10.30-11.00ish, but now, I've started going to bed at around 2.30-3.00 in the morning, and waking up at 7.00ish. (Told you. Not interesting.)

I'll write when something more exciting happens. Until then, my love to all.

Tasha