even struck us as quite analogous to theirs – they came in search of religious freedoms, and I came in search of a theological school that won’t contractually forbid me to have a beer. They came with a sense of the limitless opportunity in forging a new and bright future; we came in hopes that I might eventually earn the credentials to actually get a JOB before I'm 35. They came to oppress the native culture, stealing their land, burning their villages, and using violence to change their religion; we came to… well I guess the parallels stop there.So that paragraph was a tribute to our colonialist forefathers. THIS paragaph, though, is going to be a tribute to MARTIN BARLETTA! We didn't have a picture of him, so instead we have a picture of the place where he arranged for us to stay for our first two weeks in New Haven.
(No, the WHOLE PLACE isn't ours -- just one of the apartments in it). Oh yeah -- did I mention that we don't even have to PAY for our stay in this fully furnished luxury apartment? Thanks to Martin! And we've never even met the guy!Two weeks before we flew out here, we found out that our housing assignment at Yale Divinity had been mistakenly given away to someone else, leaving us with nowhere to live. After frantically answering personal ads (the housing variety, not the intimate variety), God ended up giving us a great two bedroom place on campus in walking distance to the divinity school. However, it doesn't open up until Sept. 1, which left us homeless for two weeks!
Just as we were starting to make ponchos out of trash bags and scope out the local parks, the Lord provided again. This time, it was through the cousin of a friend of a friend. Tommy Givens' friend Corey has a cousin (you guessed it -- MARTIN BARLETTA!!) who has connections with Marriott. Marriott runs an ExecuStay apartment right outside of New Haven and they agreed to let us stay here for two weeks free of charge -- so here we are.
This is the first installment of a whole series of posts wh
ere we intend to chronicle our experiences here at Yale as Sameer goes through his S.T.M. (Master of Sacred Theology) program en route to a Ph.D. (either here or elsewhere). We want it to be a point of connection with all of our friends and family -- so please feel free to stop by and leave your comments!
19 comments:
It sounds like your having fun at Yale. We miss you guys so much. Hope to hear from you soon. We love you, take care.
Love,
Violet
hey sameer and whitney im glad things are going well for you guys so far! keep us posted i miss you guys!
jenny embletonata
I am so glad that everything is working out so well for you. I am sure it will continue! We will miss you though. We'll see you at Christmas.
Love
Dick and Barbara
Good things come to good people. I hope you are able to meet the friend of a friend's cousin to be able to thank him in person!
Have a great vacation before your classes start.
We'll see you at Christmas.
the chans
Um, yeah, I think you mean M.S.T., not S.T.M. (unless you're getting your Saster of Thacred Meology). You've got a lot to learn, man. Good thing you're still going to school.
Sheesh,
Cory and Hollie
Blessings to both of you. I think you should go for the S.T.D. instead of the Ph.d., it would be fun just to tell people you got an S.T.D. while at Yale!
Cory,
Actually, my particular degree program only accepts dyslexics, but I'm glad that my learning disability is so entertaining to you (*sob*).
Bryan,
Sorry to disappoint you, but they don't (officially) offer S.T.D.'s here. We'll have to settle for Lyme Disease or West Nile Virus - both of which are common around here.
Enjoy your well-deserved Yalewich
Somehow...someway...i am going to see you guys...soon...too bad i JUST got back from NYC yesterday...grrr...i am glad you are there, i know it is a dream come true for ya. "you're doin' it harry! you're really doin' it!" (random movie quote)...i miss you two. bad. real bad. like rippin' off that week old band-aid that has been there so long it has the gray goo around the edges kind...(tear)ok, enough for now.
funny thing, i called whit's cell phone while you were in ID and her dad answered...good times chattin' it up with Papa Besch ;)
anyhow, we'll be in touch. cuz thatz what we do...
good to hear from you. It look so beautiful over there and your little apt looks like a little resort-ish sort of thing. What a great start.
Hope school goes well. Hope I can visit soon.
Sameer and Whitney
glad you are adjusting to the new surrounding. The real adjustments will be in about 4 months when the color of the earth will change. By the way Sameer the pilgrims didn't come here to steal peoples land or burn them out. They came here to escape religious oppression and seek religious freedom. They also shared that with the natives and had some success at that. Later things went a little sour but let's get the record straight please. Doug Hammonds
Thanks Doug -- I (Sameer) have gotten a couple of reactions to my tongue-in-cheek comment about the Pilgrims. From what I can tell, I take Nathaniel Philbrick's portrayal in "Mayflower" to be a reliable guide to the subject!
Sweet! We (Karianne and I) are really excited for you both! But we are really bummed that you can't make it to our wedding :(. Missing weddings is never fun, but the bright side is now we have 2 more seats that our friends who were too loserly to make the first cut can now come :)! Thank you so much for training us up while you were at EBC, we truly appreciate and we promise to be faithful with what you have taught us. Thank you for working your butt off so that you can teach bums like us! Your awesome!
Andrew and Karianne
Let me know when you start burning and oppressing and stuff, Bren. and I will be right out. That kind of thing is right up Bren.s ally.
All joking aside, when does the burning and oppressing start.
Missing you already,
Ryan and Brenda Metro
sameer and whitney,
i can't get over how beautiful it is over there. i hope you are enjoying your two week stay in the luxurious suite martin provided for you:) I miss you both so much. It is just not the same here without you two. Have fun...I am praying for you. I hope that job-searching goes well, Whitney.
Love you,
Tracie
p.s. Sameer, you are a great writer ....very creative :)
What an amazing provision! We were so disappointed that we could not help you out with housing, God had other plans! Hope your first few weeks getting settled are good. Ya know, shop IKEA so you wont have to sleep on the floor, which would be paticularly bad for YOUR backs!
Lovely blog, friends. I'd also like to point out that, much like the Pilgrims, Sameer has to take pills that make him grim. That's how they got their name in the first place. I love the role-reversal, too-- the fact that pagan indians are the ones invading a Euro-theological stronghold this time is really priceless. Well played, Yadavs. Well played.
I will continue to think well of you AND the pilgrims.
I am sorry that you guys didn't get mugged. I think if you want to get mugged you have to go at night or deeper in the woods. Well, it sounds like you guys are having a good time. We miss you. Lynn will probably be adopting Joseph. That's all. <3
violet :)
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