"In a hole in the ground..."

Today, I was wandering through the library, looking for a certain journal for a research paper, when I came across what I shall now refer to, forever, as the Tolkein section. You can imagine what that means. I picked up The Hobbit just out of that kind of "Oh, I love that book! I'm gonna pick it up for no reason whatsoever!" feeling one gets when one is in a library or bookstore, and sees a book one likes just sitting there. I opened it, read the first line, and promptly began crying.

I don't know why that happened... perhaps I'm more homesick than I thought I was. That first line always reminds me of the Wesners' house, and... well. The Wesners themselves. Especially Sam and Amanda. Badminton. Music. All those things.

My friend Trevor called me yesterday... we didn't talk about much, as we follow each other's blogs and therefore don't really have much news for each other, but it was just wonderful to hear his voice. It's surprising how much I can just miss the sound of another person's voice.

So... I dunno. I just thought I should share that. There have been so many great, wonderful things going on, but I have promised myself that I will be keeping you up on all the... well, not-so-wonderful things that happen. So there you are.

Tasha

Autumn.

When I walked out the door this morning, it was rainy, chilly, and overcast. I actually had to wear a sweater for the first time this year. And I am so, incredibly, happy about all this.

It's been about 90 F all week, until today. It's been... urgh. I don't hate warm weather. I really don't... it's just that it shouldn't be 90 F in late September. Really. Maybe I'm just a spoiled New Yorker, but I don't believe in this whole not-getting-cold-until-mid-October thing. Nina, of course, is the complete opposite: she has lived in the South her whole life (she's immediately from Texas, but originally from Louisiana), so she's been quite happy these past few days, and now that it's getting chilly... well. It should be interesting.

So, anyway, I'm in the best mood I've been in since the week began: I have a sweater and corduroy pants on, there was hot cereal at breakfast, there are leaves on the ground, I have tea, and I can finally listen to Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! on NPR. Things are as they should be.

Well. What's been going on this week... ? Not a whole bunch, outside of homework, etc. And I haven't even really had that much homework this week... most of it has been reading (which I can do reasonably quickly, of course), which has given me time for other things... like "helping" Nina with her Chemistry/Biology/strange English class work. And doing a bunch of outside reading... I have started way too many books: I just finished two books on Gothic Cathedrals (which are really interesting... I don't know why, but I seem to be going through a phase of odd fascination with them), I'm still working on Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, and I've just started That Sweet Enemy, by Robert and Isabelle Tombs... it's essentially a book on the history of the relations between France and Britain. It's a really interesting perspective on the history. I'm very much used to seeing British or French history through the lens of American history, and how they relate to the U.S., etc, etc...

But anyway. I've finally been able to understand what on earth is going on in my Philosophy class! We've moved on to our next book, which (in my opinion), is far better written, and seems more relevant to what I thought the class was going to be about in the first place. The first book (the one I was having trouble with) was Fact Fiction and Forecast, by Nelson Goodman, and we are now reading The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn. I suspect that I like Kuhn better because he's a) actually talking about the history of science, and b) because we just started the book, and I haven't had a chance to dislike him yet.

I've also discovered that I can get the New York Times every week day on my way to class (for free!), so as a result, I've been spending more time than I'm sure is healthy doing crossword puzzles and underlining important-looking-things (yes, that's how I read newspapers: I read, underline and annotate. I blame every English teacher I have ever had). I also have earphones now, so I can listen to NPR while I'm doing my homework... it makes me feel very much at home.

Well, Jeremy has just brought some mango. I'll take a break here, and write more later if I can think of anything.

I hope you're all doing well,

Tasha

ps. A completely unrelated note: there are these great chairs by the library computers. They're really completely unexceptional except for the fact that they have wheels, and they're really fun... I know I sound childish. You'll have to forgive me for that today.

pps. On a more adult note, I've been thinking about taking German next year (after I finish my requirements for Spanish next semester), and I was just wondering what you all think about that... advice is always good.

Soon...

... just a few days before I leave now. It just hit me this morning that I was really going to leave. I'm still adamant that I'm not nervous, or anxious, or feeling any other kind of negative emotion about going to school, but until today, it never really sunk in for me. I think it must have helped that I realized that one of my best friends is leaving on Wednesday.

That was quite the wake-up call. I've really got to get seriously packing.

Today has been one of those lovely days where we've gotten these cycles of 5 minute rainstorms followed by dazzling sunlight... it's especially nice right now, as it's getting later, and the sunlight looks more and more golden. I'm not particularly good at describing what is so attractive to me about all this, so you may just have to go with me on this one. Rain seems to bring out greens in a rather deep, vibrant way, and at this time of year, there's so much green around...

Anyway. I just got back from getting my hair cut. Yes. Again. I know I said I wanted to grow it out more, but, to be really honest, it wasn't looking that great, and I was getting bored with it. So. It's not that much shorter now... just past my shoulders, and with shorter pieces in the front... I'll have to take a picture and post it.

In the meantime, I've been finishing up all the books I've started over the summer. I finished Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose just last week... It really is a fantastic book-- one of my favorites (this was my third time finishing it in full).  It's essentially a biography of Meriwether Lewis, but it just as well could be a piece on the entire Core of Discovery. I finished Simon Schama's A History of Britain this morning-- another fantastic book (or set of books, rather), but I may be slightly biased by my history geekiness. Yeah... don't mind that. I read Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew W. Pham, for school summer reading, and to be perfectly frank, I didn't much like it, so I'll skip over to The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, as most of you probably already know. I got it for my birthday... it's one of those books I knew I had to read to be considered a proper American, but I somehow never got around to it until now. And now that I have read it, I can say that I wish I had read it earlier. It's a really wonderful book... and I'm now working on The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, which is another one of those books I've been meaning to read for a while. So, when they came out with a TV series based off of it, I knew I had to get on it. I refuse to watch the series until I finish the book, so, don't expect to be talking about that for a while... I'd hoped to have finished it by the time I left for school, but that doesn't look likely.

Well, no doubt I'll have more interesting things to write about very soon. Until then, my love to all,

Tasha

Packing

Not a whole lot has happened since my last post... I visited my friend Kathryn, who has just moved back to the US from the UK, about a week ago. It was really wonderful to see her, and now that we live in the same country again, I'm hoping we'll see more of each other. Other than that, it's been more shopping for college, more driving Nick places, more running around the village wildlife preserve... that has actually been particularly nice. It's not hiking in the mountains, but it's still something to keep me occupied. And I especially need it now... I've gotten to that point in summer where I'm so mindlessly bored and wishing I were back in school that a trip to the local coffee shop seems like an adventure. Of course, I'm not bored for any lack of things to do around the house. There are plenty of things to sort out in terms of packing for school, ordering my textbooks, etc, etc... but after a while, shuffling about in my own room, moving things from one box to another for hours on end starts to get a bit old.

So, when we got a three-day visit from Marianne and her family, I was extremely excited. It didn't mean I got to leave the house much more than I had/have been, but seeing people from the outside world was good enough. And I was especially happy since I hadn't seen Marianne in two years, and her husband in four, when I had visited them in Norway.

Since they left, I've rediscovered U2. And that is just about the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the past two days. Since my computer crashed, I've been trying to find CDs with all my old music on them, and in my searchings, I came across my father's U2 CDs, and... well. Nothing can match the obsession I had with them when I was 13, and I like to think I'm mature enough now to resist the temptation to fall back into that adolescent mindset. But it brings back a lot of memories... It's strange to come back to that music as a very (if not completely) different person than I was just 5 years ago. It's also the slightest bit creepy, to be honest.

But in any case. I've started counting down the days until I leave for Goucher... and not including the rest of today, I have 9 days left. My mum asked me the other day what I would like to do with my last evening at home, which will be next Saturday, in fact. I believe the plan for now is to go to an air show during the day, and either a picnic (which nobody but me will enjoy) or a BBQ at home (which will feature everybody else eating hotdogs and hamburgers, and me with the humus and carrots). So we'll see what happens with that.

And speaking of Goucher, I have heard from my roommate. Not in the past two weeks, but I know she exists now. So. That's good news, I suppose.

And... that's about it. I hope everybody is well, and I will write more soon.

Tasha

I have returned!

Well, to be honest, I returned a while back, but I haven't gotten around to posting in a while... there's so much to write about.

First things first: the White Mountains were awesome, in a literal sense. I had the time of my life. I don't think of myself as a religious person, or even a spiritual one, so what I'm about to try to explain doesn't make much sense even to me, but the mountains changed me. I suppose any and every experience one has creates a change, though one doesn't always recognize it. I feel differently than I did before I left. Susie said I seemed more "confident," and I suppose that could be part of it. I won't attempt to explain further than that.

The week I got back, I went back to working at Hilltop Hanover (the organic farm) at their children's camp, which was just as fun as the first week. Given that I never liked little kids much before, I'm very surprised that I enjoyed working with the campers so much.

This past week, I haven't really been doing much... We had our family reunion, which was as fun as always (and we came up with a plan for discouraging redundant questions about college during Thanksgiving. :P). It's really amazing to see how much my little cousins have grown over just the past year...

My parents and I also went out to do some college shopping. That was interesting. I never realized how attached to my blankets I was until I realized I would have to get new ones. I still need to go clothing shopping, though, as my closet currently consists of stuff that is either too big on me, or is in rags. I'll have to drag Rebz along with me, as I never go shopping, and I wouldn't know the first place to go for clothing. Hopefully she does.

I've been trying to hike as much as possible, between family events and trying to get ready for school. Yesterday, we took Daria along on a hike, and I think she enjoyed it. We went swimming in a lake on the trail, and it wasn't until we reached the parking lot that I realized that I had lost my car keys. I remembered taking them out of my pocket at the lake, and so John (a fellow hiker) and I doubled back to try to find them. No luck. We both searched my bag multiple times, as well as all my pockets, and still found nothing. So we went back to the parking lot, and Daria and I got a ride home from him. It was only when I got home, and searched through my bag again, just to make sure, that I found them in my wallet. So... that was an interesting episode.

Well, I hope everybody is doing well.

-Tasha

Last post for a while...

Well, I'll be leaving for the White Mountains in a matter of minutes, most likely. I'll be returning next Friday evening, but I figured I should write now so I don't have too much to write about when I get home.

I've been working at the local organic farm at Hilltop Hanover (for those of you in the area), mainly counseloring at the day camp, Turtle Island. Now, most of you probably already know that I'm not too fond of small children. Some of you know more than that. And even fewer of you know that there are many small children that I'm actually quite fond of, but those aside, I was pretty nervous about working with 30 kids almost on my own for a week. Today was the last day, and I have to say, I'm really going to miss it. I had so much fun. The kids were wonderful, my fellow counselors were wonderful, and I enjoyed every bit of everything we did. I'll be working there again the week after I return from the White Mountains, and I'm very much looking foreward to it.

I have to cut this short-- time to say goodbye to my parents.

p.s. soccer fans: root for Spain for me. :)

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