school again

eek! i can't believe it has been a month since i wrote last. it has been a crazy couple of weeks, as usual.

i went home labor day weekend to attend my grandmother's memorial service. that really felt like it brought some closure to her unique and accomplished life. it was also an impromptu reunion as a huge number of relatives and community members gathered for the event. longview is such a small town and she was such a mighty woman-- her passing really affected people.

school began right after labor day and i have pretty much been in overdrive since then. big shock, right? i am taking my first 300 -level class, qualitative inquiry, in which i am conducting some research on restricted diets in college; i am really enjoying but am constantly challenged by my performance studies class; intro to social work isn't getting me a really clear picture of the profession but is certainly an interesting topic; i love almost everything about my culture of india class-- except for that it is highly unstructured and chaotic, in "indian style," as my professor says; digital imaging is going to prove very useful.

newspaper staff has been going pretty well, although we have been taking this issue very slowly. we'll see how we fare when the real test of too much schoolwork AND newspaper stuff comes up. i have been swamped in other extracurricular administrative duties in heading up a new anthropology & sociology club at goucher, joining our student health advisory committee, serving on the alcohol policy review committee, managing money for the community service club and running the suicide awareness and prevention group.

i am happy to report that work has been going swimmingly. i am creating animated online tutorials for using our education platform, blackboard, through the graduate studies program. i'm also having fun being the t.a. (or, at goucher, a "supplemental instructor") for the methods of sociology course. working in the career development office has been great too. i honestly really enjoy going to work in the administration building at 9 a.m. three days a week because it is in those morning hours that i feel like i get the most tangible work accomplished. producing pamphlets, updating the website, making copies, getting small tasks done...i suppose it's not too intellectually challenging, but the staff is awesome and i feel like part of the legitimate workforce in this job.

of course there have been a smattering of campus events that i have and have not attended. tonight i went to the president's house for a (very fancy) dinner in honor of the awesome baltimore journalist/author/tv producer (of homicide & the wire) david simon, then went to hear him speak. his thoughts on our country's current situation were both alarming and bleak, but raw and honest as well. he's a straightforward guy. he claims to be terrified about the future of our country, our economy, our city and the field of journalism-- and i trust him.

my living situation has been working out very well. my roommates and i all tend to be pretty old-fashioned and tame, in a good way. this evening we were talking about how we don't understand how people take notes in class on laptops (paper works better!). we're usually all in bed by 12 and up by 8. i love it. we try to have roommate night once a week, which so far has consisted of baking a funfetti cake and going to play racquetball. it's only for a semester, but i think this is going to work out nicely.

this year has been really odd in that i feel like so many people are missing. a lot of my close school friends are abroad right now-- in india, south africa, mali, england, etc! three of my best friends from home are in europe for the year as well. it's also been tough with my boyfriend and his crowd of wonderful friends graduated and moved on from goucher. while they are just down in baltimore city, it's a bummer knowing i'll probably never run into them around campus ever again. i think my housing situation also factors into the weird impersonality of this fall so far. now that i live in an apartment, i rarely go to the library or dining halls to hang out, so i typically only see people i have classes or live with. i'm not sure how i feel about it. i just need to work on being assertive and making an effort to maintain ties with people i don't see on a regular basis.

some recent photos: of my grandmother's house in willow grove; my room, our lovely cake, and my and apartment-mates. also, i started a flickr but haven't had a chance to do much on it yet: http://flickr.com/photos/aunihusted.

end of summer

summer is certainly winding down and i am headed to the northwest for a few days before beginning my classes. a memorial service for grandmother will be held on saturday, august 30 at the lower columbia community college in longview, washington — it will be a relief to get some closure and to celebrate her extraordinary life.

since i really haven’t updated in a long while, here’s a recap of what i've been up to lately. this past saturday i took a little jaunt to new york city. that's one thing i love about the east coast— you can go through four states and spend a reasonable amount of time in another city all in literally one day. we left baltimore around 6 am and returned at 10 pm…it was a long day, but a worthwhile one. i really do enjoy visiting the city, even on a tight budget, because there is just so much for the senses to absorb. i always stumble upon some cool art, design, architecture and graffiti— among my favorite things in life— while just wandering around town. and the people-watching is amazing, whether it is a fabulously coordinated man carrying a little dog under his arm, a teenybopper wearing a low-slung miniskirt and cowboy boots (see above), or elegant french travelers. however, this trip reinforced my understanding of new york as a great place to visit but not a place i’d ever want to live. we saw several people moving (and didn’t get a chance to visit two friends in the city due to the same reason) and it just seemed like a logistical nightmare. while i have been more and more enamored with the concept of urban living lately, new york just seems completely over-the-top. i much prefer a city like baltimore, where it is still possible to get around easily without a car but there is also space to breathe and move freely.

on the topic of cities and city life, i've been thinking a lot about the whole urban versus suburban living thing. it has been really refreshing this summer to be able to get out and about relying on public transportation and my own two feet (although, ironically, this was the first time since moving east that i've had regular access to a car, thanks to the generosity of my second-cousin randall). while this can be difficult during the school year because of goucher’s location in the suburbs (baltimore county is NOT baltimore city) and my usually limited time frame, i have really enjoyed these modes of transportation this summer. considering the cost, responsibilities and environmental repercussions of having and maintaining a car, it makes a lot more sense to live in a city and have access to all one’s resources without one. so, at this point in my life, that is what i'd really like to do.

yesterday i went to the maryland state fair, which was quite an experience. i went two years ago as part of freshman orientation and was not impressed by the amount of fried foods, the size of the rides, or the stench of the farm animals. this time, however, was quite different. i'm not sure if it had really improved or if i was just more open-minded, but i had a great time seeing the animals (see above), eating a fresh peach sundae, watching a chain saw-carving contest, and really embracing all the crafts and handiwork of maryland residents. it was also awesome to see the range of people there. in addition to seeing more orthodox jewish families than i have ever seen in one place, there were a ton of teenage 4-H participants, twentysomething hipsters, a group of disabled adults, and many families feasting on corndogs and french fries while speaking with a thick mid-atlantic accent.

i am back at work on september 2 and begin classes on september 3. i am taking some interesting courses— performance studies, intro to social work, history & culture of india, qualitative methods of sociology, and digital imaging— and will be working about 20 hours a week in a variety of offices. another huge challenge for me will be serving as managing editor of the newspaper, considering i’m not the enthusiastic news reporter the former editor was, but i hope to do the best i can for the fall semester. i am really, really looking forward to going to copenhagen in the spring; i've heard only wonderful things about the program and i am going to be able to travel around both eastern and western europe using copenhagen as my home base. i also recently decided to graduate early, in december 2009, and (hopefully) get a jump-start on joining the working world. i have really enjoyed the routine of going to work, coming home, making dinner, and having the evening to explore/hang out/work on my own projects/etc. this summer and, for the first time, am not whole-heartedly looking forward to returning to school. (i suppose technically, i never left campus, but i’m referring more to writing papers and doing hundreds of pages of assigned reading each week.) working this summer has been surprisingly rewarding and enjoyable considering i held three part-time, clerical positions, so i am really looking forward to having a career in a field of my choosing.

donna dejarnatt, 1924-2008

my grandmother was a pioneer, an activist, a free spirit, a fireball, a burst of creativity with hobbit hair. she was steadfast and unconditional in her love. she radiated wisdom and insisted on prudence. she had tact and patience. she taught everyone something.

i remember really, really looking forward to spending a week at her house in willow grove in the summers. i knew we'd do art projects all day and then walk to the beach and get prickly plants in our socks. we would make s'mores in the firepit by grandpa's tree and bats might fly around the house. we'd watch boats go by and wear old ratty clothes. i'd type on her typewriter and pretend to learn to sew. i opened random cabinets in her studio, upstairs, by picking through layers of cobwebs. she was confused why kraft macaroni and cheese contained no actual cheese. the only thing i didn't like was going to the grocery store in town with her, because everyone would know mrs. dejarnatt and stop to chat-- i wanted her all to myself.

she will be so sincerely, sorely missed by us all.

eastern shore/delmarva

summer/campus life continues to bop along at a rapid pace. i've been giving two tours a day during my morning shift in admissions...eek...but really enjoying my increased responsibilities (designing handouts for the career development office, proofreading proposals for the graduate studies dept, scheduling interviews in admissions, etc.)

last weekend was spent exploring the delmarva peninsula, a marshy, largely rural region encompassing the three states in its name. the chesapeake bay divides the "eastern shore" from the rest of maryland and virginia; one typically arrives via the insanely long bay bridge by annapolis. last friday evening i left baltimore with three of my good friends; we made it to the town of onancock, virginia, in about four hours. the next morning we backtracked a bit, going north and then west to crisfield, maryland. along the way we saw a surprising amount of chicken "farms"-- similar to the ones described in fast food nation, owned by the tyson corporation-- that smelled absolutely horrible. we took an hour-long ($25?!) ferry from the sleepy, crab-themed town to smith island, a place i learned about two years ago after reading tom horton's an island out of time (which happened to be the assigned reading for all students entering goucher in 2006). what i learned about the island seeped into the back of my brain until recently, when a fabulous folklorist friend/mentor of mine, elaine eff, told me about her work there. she helped create a museum to preserve and stimulate the unique, and somewhat odd traditions of the island. the population-300 archipelago of marshy land has been almost entirely isolated since a few families from england established a post there in the early 1600s. the chesapeake has been the lifesource for generations of smith islanders, its crabs providing food, opportunity for trade, and a focus for their culture. the watermen lead a weathering lifestyle that less and less chose to lead. women of the island are famed for baking 10-layer cakes and picking crabs faster than you can imagine. the united methodist church acts, unofficially, as the government, social scene, and driving force for many islanders. it is a very interesting and very endangered place; elaine estimated that a combination of erosion and rapid depopulation (many of the younger islanders move to the main land to study and find work, seldom returning to the isolated, traditional community) will leave smith island bare within our lifetime.

the ferry schedule left us only two hours on the island, but on smith island time passes so slowly that we felt reasonably acquainted with it by the end of our afternoon. we ate a lunch of cake (first) and, for my companions, incredibly fresh crabcakes. we followed lunch with a trip to elaine's exquisitely composed museum, which we sped through near the end in order to allot enough time to wandering around the neighborhood of ewell. some of the houses looked artsy, most neatly maintained, and a few were definitely fixer-uppers. we didn't see as many families as we had hoped; however, there were several other tourists walking around. i honestly cannot fathom living in a place so far removed from mainstream society. i am fascinated by it but would personally go crazy after a few days. it is no great mystery how the church holds so much sway over the island residents; the church plays many roles, as mentioned above.

our lovely and relatively insect-free afternoon was completed with the ferry ride back to crisfield and the drive, again, down route 13 to onancock. our friend sally shared her family home with us, acting as a gracious host and allowing us to enjoy her 300-year-old house. the building itself was a serious highlight of the weekend. 300 years old!! that is outrageous. she said they have found native american arrowheads on the property, as well as a mortar and pestle-type tool. traders and other settlers must have come down the "creek" and staked out the land; her six acres are today covered with the spacious house, a guest house, a gorgeous garden and many many rows of feed corn. her parents have done a marvelous job of restoring and maintaining the place, filling it with artifacts from their world travels, interesting local art, and thousands of books. it felt so good to be in a real home, to cook wholesome, slow food, and to relax without checking my email or voicemail at all. i can't thank sally enough for having us.

we spent sunday morning around the house and then ventured into the town of onancock. once a bustling trading town, the decline of the railroad industry has left it quaint and also a bit isolated. we window-shopped the main street, unable to go into any stores because not a single one was open on sunday morning. we then made a stop at her grandmother's house in town and had the pleasure of meeting her. again, the change of pace was refreshing for us all.

beach traffic wasn't too bad and we made it back to baltimore just in time for a giant, almost violent, thunderstorm. it was a very memorable excursion that i will remember for quite a while!

new blog!

hey- i started a new blog, mostly targeted at current goucher students, to connect people to baltimore city. you can check it out at www.charmcityconfidential.blogspot.com. please let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas.

charming city

i can't believe it is already the sixth of july! this summer is flying by. our fourth of july was rainy but turned out to be a quirky adventure. there were a few fireworks shows going on simultaneously, which was a bit off-putting, but we had a good time. last weekend i went to harrisburg, pa to bid goodbye to my good friend maura before she heads off to south africa for a few months. work is going well-- i really like working in admissions-- and i am always happy to spend time with my friends in the area.

i went out to coffee with some of my roommates this evening and they balked at the thought that they'll be leaving in less than a month. the whole point of the summer was to take advantage of not having work in the evenings and being able to explore, but by the time we all come home from work and manage to cook dinner in the common kitchen shared by about 50 people, we're all pooped.

living on campus over the summer is really quite strange. the campus is eerily quiet in many respects but absolutely abuzz in others-- such as construction. they are gutting and totally revamping a lot of the dorms, getting rid of asbestos-y carpets and putting in networked sprinklers. the bunny population seems to be out of control in the summer, and fireflies are in great abundance. working in the administrative building has opened up many new channels of previously unknown (to me) information-- people, corners, paperwork. there are always faces i've never seen, despite the small size of the school. i've heard it can get lonely over the summer here, but it always seems like there's too much to do and so many people to see. i'm not sure i'll accomplish all that i want to this summer.

i think i'm going to look back on this summer and think about how enjoyable it was to work during the day and hang out with a bunch of close friends every night. i thoroughly enjoy my weekends in hampden, spending time with my friends who have now entered the real world of work and apartments.

other things that make up this summer: going out for coffee on saturday mornings, going to the waverly farmer's market, coloring my giant map of baltimore neighborhoods, impromptu thunderstorms, grilling veggie burgers, waving down the soft city ice cream truck, trading cardigans with my roommates, walking to the grocery store, taking the light rail, marveling at the charm of rowhouses, talking about denmark.

june #1

summer life in baltimore has been, so far, really wonderful. i am so fortunate to have the opportunity to stay here over the summer. a lot of my friends and acquaintances are here, and it has been awesome to see so many familiar faces in the area. i really enjoy hanging out in their houses and getting to know baltimore much more intimately. we've been going to farmer's markets, festivals (honfest in hampden was this weekend), grocery stores (cooking and shopping for groceries is still exciting), random events (like last night's charm city roller girls "roller derby knockout"), and the occasional bar or restaurant.

my living situation is working out swimmingly. i am on campus in a very sizable suite with three good friends of mine. it's too bad we're only living here for the summer! i like our arrangement a lot. the only downside is being stuck in the suburbs. that, and feeling overwhelmed and weirded out by living, working, and going to school in the same space for years at a time... work is going well-- nothing too earth-shaking, but it's kind of fun to have coffee and swap cardigans with my suitemates at 8 am every day. office jobs certainly demonstrate how much work is put into running the small details of every organization.

in short, i am very content here despite the inescapable humidity. i am thrilled to be in baltimore at this exciting time in the city's history and am feeling more and more like this is what i want to call home.