5.30.2008

whirlwind of senior week and beyond

since the conclusion of the spring semester a few weeks ago, my life has been surprisingly busy. while no longer in class, the days have been filled with work, moving, and random other obligations. that, and exploring the neighborhood of hampden in baltimore city, a charming and historic area of town where many of my friends have recently moved.

one of the highlights of the past weeks was going to a small gallery in the fells point neighborhood to check out a style writing exhibit curated by adam stab. i’d run into the work of stab, an aerosol artist, at the painted screens workshop in early may. we had a nice chat at the beautifully composed exhibit, discussing the politics and cultural value of graffiti in baltimore. i would like to get more involved in that movement.

commencement was slightly overwhelming for me, and i’d imagine more than that for the graduates. keynote speaker matthew modine was pretty good and all went as smooth as possible. i’m pretty sure i got the worst sunburns of my life that morning. goucher will not be the same without the class of 2008 on campus this fall.

over memorial day weekend i went back up to massachusetts very briefly. it was a very nice visit to central mass but i hope to stay a little longer next time i’m up there in order to see more old friends. i took a greyhound back to baltimore in order to attend a global health conference in washington dc on tuesday. it was the 35th annual conference of the global health council, an international foundation led by (goucher parent and father of my cousin’s ex-girlfriend) nils daulaire. my friend and classmate laura and i shared a ten-minute presentation on our experiences in south africa at a peace tiles workshop. it was intimidating and humbling but ultimately, a really inspirational experience. those people are doing amazing things for the world right now!

i forgot to mention that i was homeless for a few days, between graduation and the middle of this week. my gracious friend tatiana let me store my mountains of crap in her living room during this time; i stayed at the friends’ place in hampden. on wednesday i moved into a suite in a new residence hall on campus with tatiana, laura and a friend named jaime. the place is huge and very nice. we’re still settling in, but we’ve had a good time so far cooking together, doing dishes, watching movies and making coffee so we can function at all of our various odd office jobs. speaking of which, i started a new job at goucher’s career development office last week. it’s going really well so far, largely because those women are extremely friendly and accommodating.

i think this summer will be really fun. not as exotic nor as relaxing as some, which is just fine with me. i like all of my jobs at this point and think it’s still pretty exciting to play house both here on campus and in hampden. cooking isn’t my forte, though, so we’ll see how well that goes…





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