I understand that it would seemingly be easier to post consistently to this blog in the States than in Barcelona or Paris, home having connectivity advantages over hostel life in either of those great cities. I understand that posting every 2 or 3 months does not advance any quest for frequency or regularity of blog additions. I understand that it shouldn't take me ten minutes to locate my own blog (to my credit(?), I was distracted by a recipe for apple sandwiches), regardless of how far down it is on the list of options granted to me by Google.
Let's agree that a) our 2 1/2 month hiatus means our reunion will be even sweeter, b) I probably still have lots of fun travel updates for you (true), and c) the new format I've designed for you may not be as easy a background for reading, but does have a very pretty picture from the Tuscan countryside. Those points concluded, let us commence.
I'll begin with the now-standard question: Where in the world is Becca? This week, I'm in Massachusetts, where it's currently raining outside - less intense than African rain, these droplets splat rather than pounding down. Next week, I'll be in Connecticut, where I'll be starting a sure-to-be-wonderful year of service through AmeriCorps VISTA. Since I last posted, I've been in Lyon (bonjour Tom!), Rome, Tuscany, Umbria (the region of Italy bordering Tuscany to the east), Massachusetts, Washington DC, and Maryland.
I do plan to share lots more fun travel updates, but I'll stick to recent life in America for today. Almost immediately after my return, just as the jet lag was wearing down, my sister arrived for a visit from Israel. She brought her three-and-a-half kids (hi Ud!) and her wonderfully patient husband Avigdor. We had a birthday party for her upon their arrival, complete with homemade kosher carrot cake and a piñata. She and I exchanged wonderful sisterly birthday/congratulations cards which I'm sure both of us will treasure forever (if we don't accidentally destroy them as they sing to us for the thousandth time). We took the girls (ages 4, 2, and 1) to the park, where they had fun riding the little train that loops around the grounds. Admittedly, I had fun riding it too. How could you not when seated with nieces bubbling over with excitement?
My next stop was DC. (I'd been home for ten whole days so it was clearly time to travel somewhere.) I had a fantastic visit with friends in our nation's ever-lovely capitol city and got to meet some truly amazing young people at the Congressional Award gold medal luncheon and ceremony. If you're worried about our nation's future resting in the hands of our generation, a) encourage service and b) don't be. Stopping at Perry Point on the trip north from DC, I enjoyed visiting AmeriCorps friends still serving in NCCC before they headed off for their next round of saving the world.
I returned home to settle in for a month of pre-VISTA relaxation and preparation. I took the GRE and was happy to find that I remembered what 'mendacious' means on test day. Since I hadn't formally studied big words just for those 4 hours of my life, I consider this a big success. I proceeded to begin grad application fun time, compiling the necessary paperwork for the September opening of applications and starting to compose essays. I admit that I still like applying to institutions of higher education - go ahead: judge. I also continued the epic quest, begun pre-world-travels, to sort through every item in my room in the pursuit of having less stuff. As these travels have shown, a backpack-full is often enough. I have many backpacks-full, but not so many as I once did. The great find of today, in a stack of paper that threatened to eat me whole if I don't sleep with one eye open, was the complete script of my rugby class' musical ode to the senior class our junior year. Words don't even begin to describe that creative work. In good news, the stack of paper is now down to the size where it might take three or four bites to consume me. I'm liking my odds.
I've also been playing with all the fun features on my new mac, working on an NCCC scrapbook (towards my goal of finishing one for the first time ever), and avidly watching the Tour de France. Sadly, the Tour (capital T) ended this weekend; happily, it'll resume a mere 49 weeks from now. Cycling, with its unique blend of competition and reliance on adversaries for survival, is quickly becoming one of my favorite spectator sports. Admittedly, this is probably greatly aided by my lack of attempts to watch it live; it's much more enjoyable to watch the leaders for two hours than for thirty seconds of blurry 35-miles-per-hour glory.
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