Cool and breezy, 50's and 60's

I am loving our weather right now. This is a dream for June!

Commencement Highlights

The rest of the album:

Commencement

Our Vacation Album

More pictures:

Our Vacation

Our Vacation: Boston, Salem, Martha's Vineyard

Busy Busy (a long, boring informative post)

We had an amazing vacation in the middle of May. It was a much needed bit of rest and relaxation before all the craziness that came after it and will continue for several months. (pictures coming soon) When we came home from vacation I went back to work and Sameer began looking for temporary work. We got our humble apartment ready for the arrival of Sameer's parents soon after that. They arrived on Saturday to be here for Commencement. Commencement at Yale is a long noble event. He actually got to don his cap and gown for three separate ceremonies between Sunday and Monday. (pictures of that coming soon too)

The day after Commencement the four of us took the train to Manhattan where we stayed in a fun little hotel on Broadway. On Thursday morning we saw Sameer's parents off at Penn Station where they boarded a train headed for Niagara Falls. We spent the day in Manhattan mostly looking for peaceful places to read. (By our 3rd day in the city we were in desperate need of quietness). We discovered the New York Humanites & Social Sciences Library. It had a huge public reading room and we spent 4 hours there. Then we went to dinner and finished off our last (6th in fact) New York trip of the year by seeing Les Miserables on Broadway.

We arrived home around 2:45am that night (morning) and then 4 hours later I got up to go to work. After work I went to bed early. Then on Saturday we began working on what we had long been putting off....

We're moving. In a few weeks. I don't remember if we've mentioned it specifically, but Sameer is beginning a doctor of theology program at Duke this fall (Th.D.). We're leaving our beloved New Haven and new friends and church to move to the south. We don't know where we're living or when we're going to get there but we do know we're moving out of this apartment sometime between June 29th and June 30th. We hope to squeeze in a trip to Idaho and California at some point but we also want to get to Duke soon so I can start looking for work. In between applying for jobs and writing cover letters we're also looking into buying a home in Durham. We're thinking of renting an apartment for a few months to get to know the area. Things aren't coming together as quickly as I'd like and I find it so difficult to just stop trying to plan things constantly. If you read our very first post of this blog you'll see how wonderfully God provided for us when we moved here. I'm sure He'll take care of us with this move too. I just need to figure out a way to let a few minutes go by without thinking about it.

I look forward to the time when we can get through a whole year without packing up our apartment and moving. We've never stayed in the same place for more than 9 months since we've been married. It must be nice (but maybe boring?) to be settled.

This town loves a parade

Yesterday after church we found ourselves in the middle of yet another boisterous New Haven parade. There have been quite a few since St. Patrick's Day. For some reason people here love to go out to the street and excitedly watch people, dogs, marching bands, trucks, anything. As we ate our lunch at Bruegger's Bagels we got to see Ronald McDonald standing on top of an ambulance waving a Puerto Rican flag. Now that's exciting! Our lunch with friends had just started to wrap up when we saw the commotion. We stared for several minutes trying to understand WHY. We were stunned really and ended up lingering for about 30 minutes because we were just fascinated by the cultural phenomenon that is New Haven and Parades.

Last week during Sameer's graduation his whole class from the Divinity School had to walk together for about a mile to join the rest of the university for the downtown ceremony. He said that pedestrians on the street began stopping and cheering for them as they walked down the hill. To them it was probably just another parade.

More Spring

Spring

I knew that when we moved here I would finally get to "experience seasons" for the first time. I was expecting a brilliant autumn and an exciting snowy winter. That was all great but I never thought twice about spring because I thought we had that in California. Well after the deadness of winter here spring is the most miraculous "new season" of all for me. I had been wondering how it could possibly ever happen and then it finally did. It rains enough here (except in the winter when it snows instead) that no one uses sprinklers. The grass and leaves and flowers grow when they're ready and it's breathtaking to me to watch all this stuff come back to life naturally. How kind of God to create seasons - I love them all but this season of rebirth is especially lovely.


I can't even begin to describe how gorgeous it is here right now. The birds are singing constantly and their song is so sweet and cheerful. There are adorable little robins hopping around everywhere. (I always see groups of birds and squirrels hanging out together on the lawn - it's very cute, like a scene out of Bambi) Daffodils appeared all over the place overnight....and then tulips of every color. The grass has come back to life and the trees finally have their leaves. It is absolutely delightful.


Sameer actually turned in his last paper YESTERDAY so he is done with studying for now. We're taking the day off and going to New York tomorrow to see Conan (a late birthday trip for Sameer). So, if you're up really late on Wednesday turn on NBC and watch the Conan O'Brien Show - maybe you'll see us. Apparently this is our month of fun (or should I say year?). We're going on a little trip to Boston and Martha's Vineyard this weekend! We have to get all the fun in now - we're moving to the South this summer and then maybe we'll become grown-ups.

Romeo & Cesare's

Today after work I walked to Romeo's - the best little corner store in New Haven. They have the most delicious fresh produce, bread and imported Italian groceries. Romeo is always around to give advice or teach people how to pronounce Italian words correctly. Since the weather has been nice I love to walk there after work to buy our fruits and vegetables. I'll miss it a lot when we move - I love little family run establishments.

I heard this from a customer in front of me in line today:

"Hi, I came here yesterday and got some food but I didn't have any money. I don't know if anyone wrote it down or anything but here's the money for yesterday..... thanks a lot!"

One more reason to love Romeo's......you probably don't hear that when you're in line at Albertson's.

Celebrations

On Saturday we went to Pepe's (a famous pizzeria in New Haven's Little Italy) to celebrate Ryan Pue's 30th birthday. Unfortunately Ryan wasn't able to join us. However, he did threaten our lives if we did not eat at Frank Pepe's at least *once* before we left New Haven!



After some amazing New Haven "apizza" we enjoyed a stroll around the lovely Wooster Square park and then had some delicious gelato at Libby's where we also bought some canolis to go (of course). After that we had to walk home again....and while the three miles there was very fun it's not always fun to have to walk another three miles to get home. Especially with a gut full of salami, sausage, pepperoni and bacon.

Time to Brag

I just have to brag about my amazing intelligent diligent husband. He got straight H's on his "report card" for the fall semester. We're definitely putting that one on the fridge. We've known about three of the H's for a while but he finally received his grade for the fourth class just last week. Apparently the professors can grade papers and turn in grades whenever they want. Now we just hope that his professors for SPRING semester turn in his grades in time for him to graduate on May 28th.

In case you're wondering, an H is good - the best, in fact. It was a little confusing at first. His first paper last fall had a big red H on it and we wondered if that was even worse than F but over here the grading scale is Honors, High Pass, Pass, etc......

strange sightings

The other week Sameer and I were walking to an evening lecture when we saw a frantic undergraduate running past us wearing a curly wig and carrying a large plastic cornucopia. A few minutes later we saw another one. Later that night as we were walking home we saw another student standing on the sidewalk blindfolded. We tried not to laugh. It must be that time of year. I think it was actually very fortunate that we didn't see anything worse.

Hey how you doin' ya wanna fried dough?

Boston...what a friendly city. This was only MY second trip to Boston - both have been far too short. I was there for about 3 hours a few years ago with Kasey. This time we were there for about 24 hours but unfortunately my experience was a bit tainted due to a bad throat/sinus infection that led to 9 days of incessant coughing. Thankfully, I am better now. My coworkers no longer sneer at me and suspiciously ask if it's contagious AND I am no longer sleeping on the couch.

So anyway, we had a delightful time once we reached our hotel. (Doubletree in Downtown Boston - my first experience with Priceline proved successful) Reaching it was quite a project though. You see, I had convinced my parents to rent a GPS system with their car. I thought it would be nice for navigating the one way streets in New Haven and it helped me to worry about them a little less when they were driving around without us. It ended up being great. We called her "the lady". In fact, I miss the lady. She guided us all over the place - from Mystic to Newport and home again through the back roads of Rhode Island. She's great for spontaneous excursions when you're already out and can't print up directions. All week she was a tremendous help. Sometimes she got impatient with us when we disobeyed her (every time we missed a turn she let out a half-sarcastic, half-exasperated "Recalculating...") but for the most part we all got along really well. But Boston - (the "walking city") has the most confusing roads ever. Even the lady couldn't figure it out, mostly because a lot of the roads are underground and she gets confused when we go underground. She sent us all over the place and we went through the same tunnel several times, swung around to Logan airport, paid several hefty tolls for roads we never meant to be on and finally found a nice person (who worked in a toll booth) who gave us perfect directions to our hotel. The lady seemed jealous. We put her in the trunk. (Note: I am not endorsing that you always and everywhere put your lady in the trunk whenever she disappoints you).


That night we had the best lobster bisque at a quaint little restaurant. I want to go back just for that bisque. The next day we had a lovely breakfast across the street from Boston Common, went to the JFK library then walked around downtown until it was time to leave. Everyone we came in contact with was SO friendly - at the hotel, at the T stations, on the T, everyone. Our favorite was the man selling fried dough on Boston Common. If you ever have the chance to eat fried dough in Boston do it.

Boston charm. I guess it must be the locals - they convey such warmth and chattiness and it seems to rub off on the tourists so everyone is happy and talkative. (At least it was like that for us) Every time we were on public transportation we were talking to strangers. Two girls on the subway even took our picture. That was a little weird but very funny. What a sharp contrast after having been in Manhattan the day before (there, they are more likely to take your camera). NY is fun but Boston, Boston is charming and lovely and friendly and sweet and I just can't wait to go back. The best part about Boston: the accent. It's amazing. A little of it trickles down to Connecticut so a few of my coworkers have a touch of it but almost everyone has it up there. It's pretty hard for me not to smile upon hearing it. We will be definitely be returning before we move.

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.