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

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

Lots of news

Well, I suppose I should get the bad out of the way first: my laptop crashed, so I haven't had much computer access. I've been able to get most of my files back, as I email most of them to myself at school, but there's still a lot of stuff that I did over the past summer at the writing programs and the NSLC that I won't be able to find again... ah well.

But other than that, things have been going great. I got my driver's license on June 3rd (finally). And prom was... well. A LOT more fun than I expected it would be.

Just a few pictures, but I think you get the idea.

Monday was my last day of high school. That was interesting... on the one hand, I am so incredibly happy to be leaving. On the other hand, there are some people I'm going to miss seeing almost every day. And there's this strange feeling of attachment to the building itself. On Monday morning, I went around to all my usual haunts (past and present): the hallway outside the computer lab, my desk in the library, the green room, the forest pathways behind the parking lot, my favorite tree... and I don't know how much I'll miss those places, but there was the kind of "this is my last time here" kind of thought going through my head. Very strange.

But moving on: I went to my summer orientation at Goucher yesterday. It was amazing. I met so many people I liked (and one person I rather didn't, but that will probably change as I get to know her, as we'll be riding together). I took the equestrian placement in the morning and, of course I'm not on the team. Having never ridden at that level, and having not ridden in about four years I never expected to be. I took the placement because I was interested in taking lessons, and I was going to sign up as a beginner. But the head of the department said that if I had any experience riding at all, I should take the placement, so I did... and I got placed the level above beginner. And I've got a job at the stables for next year set up. So... that's good, I suppose. :) It was amazing seeing some of the other people riding, though... the two girls who made the team were just beautiful to watch.

I've also decided that I'm starting a badminton club. I asked around, and there isn't one already, and quite a few people I talked to said they would be interested, so... I've got that project ahead of me. I'm also working on setting up my schedule for the fall semester, which is turning out to be surprisingly complicated... I kinda wish that the advisors could be of more help, but I suppose its good for me to figure out all this stuff on my own. My advisor is also my professor for the Philosophy of Science, and I met him yesterday. I like him, so far at least. Interesting sense of humor... he refers to the building in which he works as "the labyrinth," and to the area in which his office is as "the place where the minotaur resides." I was the only person in the class who got that joke, which I think he appreciated.

So... I'm excited.

What else... well. I'll be working at a local organic farm for a few weeks this summer. They run a small children's camp, and I'll be helping out there, as will a friend of mine. So that should be fun. I went to the orientation for that on Sunday, and I'm looking forward to that.

I'll let you know when more things come up... in the meantime, my love to all,

Tasha