Before taking off for Chuuk, I decided to squeeze in a little jaunt up the east coast before I left the country again. The trip wasn’t directly related to the scholarship. It started off with my friend Alix’s wedding which I had been invited to months ago, but until recently hadn’t committed to attending. Once I had decided that I didn’t want to miss the wedding, and would be driving up from Virginia for it, a whole weeklong adventure seemed to spontaneously coalesce around the trip. Slowly but surely new pieces began to fall into place. One of my best friends that’s been living in Beijing for almost year decided to come back for a visit to Philadelphia at the end of January. Another friend who flies for Continental Airlines was transferred to Newark, NJ. I also had a professor and several friends on Long Island who I couldn’t imagine not taking some time to see after having driven 5 hours up there.
By the time I hit I-95 I had a pretty good plan drawn up in my mind as to how I was going to squeeze the absolute life out of the week, and I have to say that it went far better than I ever could have planned. I watched Masters of the Universe and erged at Vesper with Delux in Philly. I got really lost and drank amazing milkshakes of death with Andrew in New Jersey. I went to B & H, the worst surf shop in the world (no wetsuits or boards, really? I'll give you a hint, it was near times square and started with a 'Q') and some awesome bars with Matty in New York. At the insistence of the father of the bride, my friends and I ate too much, had a little too much to drink and even cut a little rug at the wedding (congratulations Alix & Brad!!!). I made some very tangible progress towards solid plans for my immediate future with Dr. P, caught some wicked waves and even managed to squeeze in a chill session in Hudz basement before heading south. It was a week of weeks.
Also: I'm now in Chuuk, and will be here until the middle of March. I only have internet on weekends and very limited bandwidth, so unfortunately this blog is now text only until further notice!
