Lighthouse Point, New Haven

Manhattan. Highlight of the day: Watching the snow fall gently in Little Italy as we sipped cappuccinos and indulged in decadent canolis.

Can you guess where this was taken?

Last Sunday

Well I thought I might blog everyday that my parents were here to give the family back home a play by play... it was a nice thought. Instead I'll reminisce a bit about the highlights from the week.

Sunday, April 1- we took my parents to our church service. We warned them that our service is a little (okay - a lot) longer than what they're used to at Grace Baptist. The service was great but the sermon seemed to go on and on that day. There actually is a biblical text that captures very well what the experience was like:

"And there was a certain young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor, and was picked up dead" (Acts 20:9)

Just replace "Eutychus" with "Sameer, Whitney, Steve and Sue" and replace "Paul" with "Pastor Graham" and there you have it. After the closing hymn and announcements our pastor came to the front and apologized profusely, explaining that his watch had stopped and he didn't realize it until after the sermon. God had also made the sun stand still for Joshua, but at least they could pass the time by killing some Amorites.

Afterwards we walked downtown for lunch and a beautiful grilled chicken wrap with swiss aroused me out of my theologically-induced coma. By the providence of God, the honey-mustard in my wrap was accidentally replaced with *wasabi* mustard -- God breathed into my nostrils (and sinuses) the breath of life. And it was quite tasty.

We spent much of the remainder of the day at Kohl's and Bob's Discount Store looking for comfortable shoes for my mom. Poor mom - she thought that the nice "comfortable" heels she wears to work would fit in nicely with our pedestrian life. Oops. One day and several miles around Mystic and Newport taught someone a valuable lesson: namely, comfortable heels after a mile feels more like Chinese foot-binding. I actually can't believe I didn't warn her about this. Sorry mom, it's completely my fault!

By the way, here is how we often blog. I (Whitney) write the post and it's really boring. If Sameer is too busy, it stays boring and I publish it. If he has a few minutes, he edits it and gives it his magical Sameer-touch. Given the way our personalities have affected (infected?) one another, it may not be as easy as you think to discern which bits come from whom. But you should still try and guess - it is good practice in redaction criticism, whereby you attempt to use literary criteria to determine layers of editorial activity within texts. Okay that last part was clearly Sameer.

Or was it?

Okay, yeah, it was.

My parents are here visiting us for the week. We went to Mystic for lunch and then ended up going to Watch Hill and Newport in Rhode Island. We thought about throwing some rocks into Mystic River but it was a little too expensive. Sameer had fun frolicking by the sea.And scaring birds.

Because we're car-less in wintry New England.... PART 2

We don't have to dig our car out of the snow today.....yay for not owning a car! The pedestrian life is a lot simpler.

Today was a little weird

Weather.com said it was about 40 degrees today. This was cause to rejoice. It was definitely the warmest day we've had in months. So we left our apartment this morning to go to church and there was this guy wearing only swim trunks and playing with his kids in the courtyard. Hmmmmm. Apparently 40 degrees is sunbathing weather here.

We went to church and enjoyed a great time of worship. After church a bunch of us always walk to a restaurant downtown for lunch. As soon as we started our walk we noticed that there were A LOT more pedestrians than usual. Whole families were out walking their dogs and pushing their strollers. The dogs weren't even wearing cute sweaters like usual. Spring was in the air and the sunshine was glorious. Everyone had come out to enjoy it. Then strange things started happening. First a whole family (mom, dad, 2 kids) walked by us wearing those ridiculous four leaf clover headbands that stick up in the air. OK. But St. Patrick's Day is next Saturday. I tried to pretend not to notice but it was hard not to laugh.

Then we start hearing helicopters and marching bands off in the distance. We arrive at the Green in the center of town and the whole area is more crowded than Manhattan at Christmas time. There is green everywhere. Beer is being thrown around. Dogs dyed green are looking pitiful while children are climbing the walls of the city courthouse. Now everyone is wearing those crazy headbands and all kinds of green accessories. They're selling the stuff on every corner. The streets are lined with Irish flags. People young and old are running around screaming with their faces painted green and there are random tables full of food all over the place. We suddenly realize that we are in the middle of a huge St. Patrick's Day parade. We push our way through the crowds and finally reach our destination. Unfortunately, it's closed. Every store and restaurant downtown is closed for the festivities. We finally walked past the mess and found an open food establishment - Bulldog Burrito, a very Yalie Mexican food place. We ate lunch and watched the strange green people pass by. On our way back to church a couple hours later we ended up walking into the actual marching band head on. This was THE most festive and enthusiastic parade I have EVER seen. I guess St. Patrick's Day is like the biggest holiday ever here. Or maybe everyone was just excited to get free beer.

Because we're car-less in wintry New England.....

I always have an extra pair of socks in my purse and also one in my desk drawer at work. You just never know.

I have stood in front of a hand dryer in a public restroom defrosting my feet. (one at a time, of course) You have to be shameless, flexible and have good balance. Fortunately I didn't get caught.

Along with the socks, I always have a pair of gloves, scarf, hat and ear muffs in my purse. I therefore have now become one of those people with a really big purse. People here call purses and bags "pocket books". I don't understand it - it's not a book and it certainly couldn't fit in anyone's pocket but my huge purse is still referred to as a pocket book.

I check weather.com every day. Actually three times a day. It's very important to know what temperature it is.

We often watch Jeopardy and play Scrabble. We get one channel and we have one game. When we want to have fun and don't feel like getting our faces whipped by the winter wind it's what we do.

We drink Tang sometimes. Yes, they still make and sell Tang. We wanted something to drink other than water and powdered Tang is easier to carry home from the store than real juice.

I own a really ugly pair of boots that are too big for me. I wear them all the time along with 4 pairs of thick socks to keep my feet in the boots. The things we do for warmth.....

Walk home from work.....

Icy Valentine's Day

We're having some kind of strange storm here in Connecticut. It's 17 degrees on the ground but it's above freezing where the clouds are so rain is falling and then turning into ice and we have a mess of snow, sleet, freezing rain and hail all over the place. It's very noisy. The local weatherman Dr. Mel (pronounced "Docta Mel" in these parts) keeps excitedly saying, "It's just an old fashioned Connecticut Ice Storm!" I've been listening to the news for about 20 minutes and he's said this several times. So are ice storms just not popular anymore? Were they more in style 100 years ago? I don't get it.

Being Cold Stinks - But not as Much as Fish Paste!

Just when I thought I was so tough that I could make it through the winter without buying knee socks, boots or thermals, we got hit with the coldest day Connecticut has had in two years. Yesterday all the public schools closed because of the risk of hypothermia and frostbite. Yale, of course, did not close. Walking to and from work in below zero temperatures with wind is miserable. "Mother" nature doesn't seem so nurturing when she's stabbing you in the face. The cold pierced through several layers, a down jacket, gloves, scarf, hat and a hood. We went to a party last night and I (stupidly) wore ballet flats with thin socks. It came in handy though, when a re-enactment of "The Nutcracker" broke out -- who's embarrassed for inappropriate attire NOW? Alas, the bones in my feet are still achingly cold and we got home 12 hours ago. So I searched and searched for cold weather bargains online and found some warm boots on sale from Lands' End for $19.99. I also got ear-muffs; a must-have in New England. I think my ears almost broke off yesterday. If only I could find a see-through face mask I'd be all set - plus it would be easier to rob a bank if the urge ever overtook me. Sameer got a few pairs of thermals too. Now we just hope that our cold weather apparel is delivered before we experience another frighteningly cold day. Fortunately for us it's warmed up now and we're back to our luxuriously "warm" 20 degree weather today.

In other news, our neighbors are cooking cabbage again today. You must be thinking - "That must be quite stinky." Well, it actually smells like Chanel No. 5 compared to the vile fish paste that they normally like to boil. The fumes from our neighbors' kitchen which infiltrate every corner of our apartment on a regular basis is by far the hardest part about living here. We used to stick incense sticks in the peephole outside the door to fend off the angry ghosts of the long departed sea-life, but it just ended up smelling like someone had vigorously beat a decomposed fish against a block of sandlewood for several hours. Candles? French vanilla fish paste. We even opened the hallway windows as well as our kitchen window in the dead of winter in order to arrange a grudge match: Mother Nature's Adamantium Wind-Knives of Shivering Death vs. Neighbor's Nasal Napalm of Withering Contempt (or "Korean Mustard-Gas"). Somebody go tell Magneto - fish paste shatters adamantium like a wrecking ball against a porcelain mouse. Anyway, after mother nature got her face kicked in, we were forced to experiment with various household chemical reactions. We won't bore you with the horrors of the failed attempts, but instead we'll close this post with an odor reducing tip: Q: Are you encountering a horribly noxious, seemingly omnipotently offensive gas seeping into your precious living space? A: Boil copious amounts of CINNAMON in an uncovered pot on the stove for SEVERAL HOURS. Repels the olfactory demons like a stink-fighting charm. CAUTION: remember to check the water level regularly, so as to avoid the spontaneous combustion of your pot and possibly your entire apartment. Don't be put in a position where you're forced to throw your body to the flames -- then the fish paste wins.

Princeton

Yesterday we went to Princeton so Sameer could talk to a couple of professors there. I got the day off, he skipped a class and off we went. We took the train to Grand Central in NYC, grabbed a couple cappuccinos and then ran over to Penn Station where we caught a train to Princeton. It was a pleasant day. Princeton is a very pleasant, pretty, peaceful place. We didn't hear a single siren. It was kind of weird.

Princeton is a very wealthy place. Even the squirrels there are unusually plump.

"Does this branch make my butt look big?"


.......we finished the day off with dinner in New York and then came home very tired with sore feet.

a light dusting

We're still waiting for it to really snow. In early December we had a couple inches one morning (and I saw five, yes five, snow related car accidents on my one mile walk to work) but other than that, it's been pretty mild. Here is the view from our bedroom window yesterday morning.

We're almost home

After a hectic and stressful week (mainly for Sameer) we are ready to leave for California. Almost. Sameer is going to stay up all night again and work on his applications. He has only slept a couple nights this week. He had a huge paper due earlier this week and unfortunately there is no end in sight. On December 26th he'll get back to those applications and then get to work on a paper that is due when we get back. I'm afraid he will spend most of our time at home in the library. Poor Sameer. On a fun note, I just got to go to New York to see the Nutcracker with some friends from church. It was a very festive place to be. We did all the typical "NY at Christmas time" touristy activities - Rockefeller Center, Trump Tower, window shopping, Central Park, Little Italy (canoli is now my new favorite food...) and of course, we went to a sketchy restaurant in China Town and ordered fried frog. It wasn't bad.

Eli Whitney

New Haven is really proud of Eli Whitney. His name is everywhere. I work for Kaiser Whitney Staffing, I work on Whitney Avenue, we go to church on Whitney Avenue. There's the Yale Payne-Whitney Gymnasium, the Whitney Humanities Center, Whitney Lake, Whitney Terrace, Whitney Tower apartments, Eli's on Whitney Restaurant, Whitney Medical Library, Whitney Grove, Whitney Manor....do you get the idea? SO, it's a little embarrassing to be named Whitney in this town. There is one benefit however - for the first time in my life, I am more likely to hear a joke about the cotton gin than a poorly sung excerpt from a bad Whitney Houston song when I meet new people. I always hoped people would get sick of the Whitney Houston comments, but it took moving to a quaint New England town for that to finally happen. Everyone here knows how to spell my name too. It's great.

O Tannenbaum

annual tree lighting on the town green.....this kind of makes it okay that we're not getting a tree of our own this year.

Thanksgiving

Since Sameer is finally "allowed" to drink caffeine (and beer!) we decided to get out our cappuccino machine to celebrate Thanksgiving. We are very thankful for cappuccinos! Sameer is very thankful that he is finished with his 9 months of antibiotics (and beverage restrictions).

On Thanksgiving we hung out with Lance and Cassie, friends of ours from school and church. We went out to dinner where we ordered the traditional Thanksgiving meal of stuffed shrimp (injected with tryptophan). We then came back to our apartment where we all played a game of "Mexican Train." Later, Sameer and Lance got to debate various theological issues while Whitney and Cassie struggled to stay awake.....

Application update:

So this is our living room last week while we got Sameer's recommendation forms ready to send to the recommenders. It's actually a bit of a catch 22, because one needs to have already achieved a doctoral education in order to navigate the complexity of the application procedures....



Yarrrgh - I need a beer.

Autumn in New Haven

It's been really beautiful here this month. Unfortunately we don't really know how to take pictures but here's a little glimpse of our neighborhood in November.


Whitney's walk to work....


Along Prospect Street....


The local dog park--pretty fancy!


Behind our apartment - Sameer gets a great view of this tree from his office window.


Our collection from the walk home....

It's hard to type when it's cold

Sameer is way too busy to write anything funny so I thought I'd show you a picture of him looking funny while he writes. (a Schleiermacher paper, that is)

So... what have we been doing for the past two months?

So this picture pretty well describes what Sameer has been doing for the past two months. Literally. He didn't have that beard when he sat down, and you can't see it here, but there is actually a bucket of food and a catheter under the desk. Yes, it's THAT important not to break the concentration. In all seriousness - for all you hangers-on who are still checking the site - we do apologize profusely for our negligence with the blogging.

School has kept Sameer very busy -- in addition to his classes, he's working on Ph.D. applications, all of which are due this semester. So there are papers to finish early, professors to impress, and a grand unifying theory encompassing all of reality to invent. Right now, he's particularly engrossed in Schleiermacher and Kant. The former is widely regarded as the precursor to modern liberal theology, but he is really too complex to be shoved into that category, and I (Sameer) am finding him to be an innovative and brilliant theologian, albeit methodologically misguided in my opinion. Kant, too is usually thought to be all about reducing religion to morality, but my views about him are changing too - I am becoming more convinced that he has not completely broken with his pietist roots, and that his attempts to do philosophical theology ("within the limits of reason alone") are not an attempt to either dismiss or encroach upon the task of the biblical theologian.

The issue which has been occuyping most of my theological reflection since I've arrived here is the intersection between religious experience and ecclesiology. How, precisely, does God make himself known through the corporate life of the Church? On first blush, it doesn't seem like all that complicated a question, but when we really think about it, we come to see that the "how" is a BIG question. When we understand what we *are* as the people of God and when we do whatever we *do* as a result of that, what should we expect it to look like for God to be in it, and outwardly *manifested* through it? We shouldn't confuse who we are and what we do with the presence of God which comes through those things - so what, for us, *is* that presence? This is crucial not just for our participation in Church, but also for how we think about our engagement with the world. How does the God who is for us make himself known as God to *them* through us? Schleiermacher spells out the manifestation of God in terms of religious feeling, whereas Kant stresses the experience of God as a practical postulate of the moral life...

Anyway, take a deep breath and pick your brain up off the floor...

Whitney has found a temporary full-time job at the Yale School of Management, which is in walking distance from our apartment (she walks a mile every morning - once the snow flies, we'll have to buy ice-skates). Anyway, I guess I should mention what she does there. She teaches advanced courses in corporate finance. Just kidding. Actually, she's doing Internet research and editing of reports that describe the compliance of 83 countries with international standards and codes. It's so great! That's just what she's always *wanted* to do! Anyway, she *does* get to be involved in Yale's contribution to globalization (look out, Thomas Friedman). So anyway, it's causing tension in our marriage. I jest - in reality it's harmless (unlike Thomas Friedman), and it's just for the paycheck. Which reminds me... she's been working for three weeks and hasn't GOTTEN one yet. We can't decide whether to chalk it up to the shabby mail system we've experienced here so far, or whether she accidentally accepted the position as volunteer work. She'd really rather be working at an animal shelter. Actually, she would like to find a permanent position at Yale somewhere closer to the liberal arts, in order to keep her job from draining the assets of her soul. Something in the music dept. would certainly keep it in the black...

We are thankful to have found Christ Presbyterian Church, where we have been regularly attending since school started. As members of the Deprived of Motor Vehicles club (DMV), we were very happy to find that the church was in walking distance from our apartment. Don't worry, proximity was not the deciding factor - we pass several OTHER churches on our way! ("Yeah, but the First Church of Zoroastrian Midget-Wrestlers is *right there!*" ...). Anyway, Christ Pres. seems to be a vibrant community of believers whose lives really are connected with one another, and we have enjoyed fellowship with a group of graduate and professional students. We have lunch every Sunday after church, and some relationships are beginning to develop. One of the girls is a harpist at the School of Music and she recently got us free tickets to a Yale Philharmonia concert at New Haven's Shubert Theatre. We enjoyed a Debussy piece and a Shostakovich symphony, but we were absolutely MESMERIZED by a Saint-Saens piano concerto featuring pianist Ryo Yanagitani.

In addition to our fellowship with the grad group, there are small groups that meet weekly and right now we're just trying to figure out which one we ought to attend. For those of you who are at Faith Community in Santa Clarita, our groups seem to be intended to accomplish much the same thing as the fellowship groups at Faith. Outreach also appears to be a priority. An example: they have weekly community dinners open to the public where some controversial social issue is posed as a topic for public discussion, with the intention of drawing unbelievers into relationships with us through issues they care about.

Whew! For those of you who are actually still reading this, the last thing we can tell you about is our 2nd anniversary, for which we took a fantastic weekend road trip (no, we didn't hitch-hike; we rented a car). It was utterly spontaneous, and quite refreshing, but don't worry, we shan't turn a long post into a novella. We'll let some pictures do the talking (along with some captions where...uh... we do the talking - again, I guess. Blast - that sounded better in my head).

Before leaving New Haven, we drove to the top of East Rock Park, where we surveyed our quaint city from on high. The leaves are just beginning to change here in what is locally called "foliage season." Note the road on the left - it's called "Whitney Ave." I like to call the river, "Sameer."

We drove an hour north to Mystic, CT. The pizza is much better than the movie. (Whitney: "I LIKE the movie" -- Sameer: "Ahem. The pizza is MUCH better than the movie").

We then drove further to Watch Hill, Rhode Island and found a romantic beach. New Haven is on Long Island Sound, but this was our first trip to the Atlantic since moving here (and Whitney's first sight of it by land, EVER).

Instead of springing for a chartered sailboat ride, we just took a picture of one.

We did, however, spring for a night at the Admiral Fitzroy Inn on Thames St. in the heart of Newport, RI - the first resort town in the U.S. We happened upon this place while wandering around the city looking at shops near the wharf. It was a very charming place with a lovely room and a delicious breakfast.

The Inn had a rooftop patio and we enjoyed our morning tea together with a beautiful view before heading out to explore for the day.

We took a jaunt along the "cliff-walk" in Newport, where we saw several mansions along the coastline. Built by wealthy southern plantation owners as "summer cottages" after the revolutionary war, these massive structures were only lived-in for about three months out of the year. Beautiful, but a bit disconcerting having spoken to a homeless person just the night before.

Penguins! These little guys are indigenous to Rhode Island, where they are contracted by the state to care for the above mentioned mansions. Their bid won out against the seals, probably because they showed up to the interview in tuxedos. Fooled you! On our way back down toward New Haven, we stopped at the aquarium in Mystic and were entertained by these fellows, along with some spectacularly trained sea-lions, who regaled us with what was practically a magic show.

To get a feel for what has been happening since then --- see the first picture and paragraph above.