Technically, Trey will be 10 on June 8 and I will be home! However, for those who have summer birthdays and can remember back to those young years, after school is out, it's hard to get friends together for a birthday party, so Trey had his today at ESPN Zone. Ashley, Trenton, Kelsey (Trenton's girlfriend) and Trevor hosted the party of nine boys! Yes, I know, it's another one that I owe Ashley! (And Trenton, Kelsey and Trevor, too! - thanks for helping, guys.)
This time next week, I will be at home, getting ready to get into my own bed, big enough for me AND Ashley. I cannot imagine the adjustment back to a bigger space.
This past week, and this weekend, especially has been one wild ride! Some people wear callouses on their knees from praying. I have walked the treads bare on my running shoes (really!) walking and talking to God. I have a "Life's Good" t-shirt with the saying on it: "All who wander are not lost." That is no longer true for me. I try to walk everyday here, rain or shine. A lot of days, I walk instead of eating dinner, and sometimes I walk very early in the morning. I also try to make an adventure of it and sense I have a pretty good orientation of Cambridge (as long as I know which direction the river is) I am ok. Thursday, around dinner time I was wandering and talking a lot to God -- we have so much to talk about these days. I looked up and realized that I had wandered a long way. I had outwalked Harvard's vast campus, past Radcliffe, and probably almost to MIT. I wasn't really lost, because I knew I was in Cambridge, but I didn't know exactly where I was. As a little aside, there was a woman walking a chihuahua and the wind was blowing about 25 mph or so -- very windy here a lot. That poor little dog kept getting lifted off the ground! Good thing she was on a leash! Anyway, I thought about that shirt and after all the wandering I had done for 7 weeks and always finding my way back, I wasn't really sure which way the river was. I could have asked someone, but I figured I would eventually work my way back from whence I came, and eventually I did. Some of you know that I am very directionally challenged and probably should not wander off and not pay attention, take a map, or leave a trail of bread crumbs.
By the way, this started as a simple journey to buy a new toothbrush. I learned something else after 7 weeks -- CVS has an upstairs!!! I could not for the life of me understand why they did not have typical things CVS carries -- it was all upstairs. That would have been handy sooner. I learned how long it takes to use up things since I have been the only one to be using them. A toothbrush (well, I am the only one whoever uses mine, I think) takes a month. I started my third one. A large tube of toothpaste last 2 months, assuming about 4 brushings a day. Dental floss - one month. Hair gel - six weeks. Deodorant -- still on original container. Toilet paper - 4 days. I guess that is more than you need to know!!
On Friday, I went out to wander another neighborhood closer to campus. It is a really beautiful, in a old Buckhead kind of way, neighborhood really more like the West Paces area. I walked about 4 miles each way. As I was walking down the street, a nicely dressed man was walking home from the market. (He was much smaller than me -- I had already sized up that I could take him if I had to) I don't remember what occurred that he started talking to me, but we were walking almost next to each other, crossing streets at the same times, together. Turns out he is a former tennis pro and played in the Rolex tournament in Atlanta at one time. He asked me how I liked Cambridge, and I said that it was beautiful, but I am having a hard time getting used to the people not being overly friendly. He said that they are once you get to know them, but they are not very open people initially. Some of you know about me picking up pennies on the ground and how I consider that to be a thing between me and God. As this man and I walked, he reached down, picked up a penny, and said, "I believe this is for you." Needless to say, chills went up my spine. Shortly thereafter, he announced that it was his street and wished me well. And then he walked off and sort of disappeared into the trees that lined the street. I had thought, "I wonder if I just entertained an angel unaware?"
After seven weeks, I suddenly had a very social weekend and I have have been busily packing books and clothes for home and trying to finish my last case studies for the coming week. Wish I could tell you everything, but just one more. Today, I went to get my nails done -- no I didn't have time, but I am about to rejoin civilization as I know it and I need to be looking good. As I was sitting at the drying table, a woman sat down next to me. She was wearing a Harvard jacket and with a very nice Southern accent asked me (since I had on an HBS shirt) if I was attending a class. Actually, she was two seats over. There was a young woman named Kelly, with spiked purple hair and those ear things that make holes the size of dimes and several rings hanging off her nose and eyebrows. The woman talking to me was named Adalaide. She is from NW Arkansas and knows Jim B., our CFA Operator there. She is attending a year-long program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and she runs a very large non-profit benefiting and supporting rights of children. So, we decided to go have lunch. Hey, if I can't talk to the people in my living group, I will just start talking to strangers. Anyway, she listened -- the first person since I have been here -- to listen to the whole Kenya Project story and act really interested. Turns out what her organization does is get grants for non-profits that help children and some of her big donors are people like Walmart and Coca-cola. She would like to go to Kenya! Her husband is a broadcaster for the Arkansas Razorbacks Football program and they do a charity event each year at the football stadium before their spring game that brings in about 50,000 people. I could go on and on, but you get my drift. I have been looking for that particular moment when it would all match up and who knew it would be because I went to get my nails done.
They had a big party here Friday night. We have a guy in the class who works for Bacardi and he brought in his products by the cases, including the Bacardi girls. About 150 people came and by the looks of the pictures posted on the web, it looks like it might have been more popular than Chick-fil-A day here. However, I will say, to my knowledge, no one threw up after eating CFA or had to wear sunglasses to class the next day. I went for my obligatory 30 minutes, beat several people in Guitar Hero and left. I joined the Asians (really I was the only non Asian) who were having a birthday party for Yok. Yok's boss had sent a beautiful bday cake and they invited me to join in. So I did. After cake, they turned on karaoke on the big screen and began singing in one of the Asian languages (unsure which) and taught me the traditional dances. It looks a little like the Hula without all the wiggling. Then they did their version of the Conga line around the living group table and I joined right in! I figured it had to be better than joining in the other party. The other party got out of hand and I understand that one of the men was wearing the skimpy little Bacardi girl black dress. I don't know what the girl who had been in dress he was wearing. I was in bed by 10. Oh and the Asians went up to the party and took the birthday cake after I left. There are pictures on the internet of my classmates smearing it all over each other.
I have to get back to my Japan, Nissan, Barack Obama, and Merck case studies. Tomorrow will be here before I know it. And then it will be Tuesday. And then it will be Wednesday. And Ashley will be here!!!!!
Love and miss you all~
Dee Ann
