as promised....

Hank Scorpio pic that Jess drew for me. You rock, Jess!

back at school

got moved back in yesterday. Unpacked and took Jess to dinner at Julian's. Trying to organize myself here in prep for first day of classes tomorrow and my Senior Project. Still a few things I'll need to pick up next time I go shopping.
I nowe have more calanders than know what to do with: three daily calenders-new word a day, word origins, and "knit-bits"; and three monthly wall calenders-one from the school, one from USAID, and one from that arrivred in the mail from America's Rivers.
Jess got me presents! the aforementioned knitting calender, some jellybeans, Oddball Knitting, and Forbidden Knowledge from Mental Floss. Also a cool picture of Hank Scorpio she drew. I'll scan that in later and post it for everyone to see.

(6:00pm local time) So I've got ~24 hours before we leave for the airport to fly back to the States. My folks are coming with me. Dad will split in NEwark and head to D.C. for work-related meetings and to see Grandma, his brother, probaly Adam... you get the idea. Mom and I will go on to CLeveland, and from there to Erie. Spend a couple days at Nana and Pop-Pop's, maybe go skiing (that word always looks weird in print... two 'i's next to each other...). CLasses resume in a week, but I want to get down to Meadville on Monday. Get settled in, see Jess, catch uop on sleep, etc before classes star again. I'm looking forward to the semester, it should be a good one, I hope. I'm only taking three classes (thank you, IB English from High School!), and one of them is my Comp , and another is an Art History with Schindler that I'll take Credit/No Credit., so hopefully I'll have enough time to work and still not feel overwhelmed by everything. Hopefully.
IT's been nivce to be in ISreal again, but I think three visits is plenty. 'm ready to go back.

Magic:the Gathering geekery

Guildpact, the 2nd expansion in the Ravnica block will be available next month, so previews have started on Magicthegathering.com. I don't think I'll have a lot of use for the cards in it, since the three guilds are color-combos I don't really play, but there may be single-color cards that I could use, so you never know. Can't wait 'til the sortable spoiler is available so I can get a look at all the cards. Looks like the Izzet may have some artifacts I could use, too as they're inventors and experimenters.

Linda Morse

Linda was the USAID director in Delhi when we first arrived there in 1998. This means she was my dad's boss. And that she lived down the street from us. She was a fair manager, but firm. SHe got the most out of the people who worked for her, and they respected her. I respected her. The point of this tale is that she died recently, after major complications from a heart attack (I think?) she suffered a couple weeks ago. She will be missed.

Grades

checked those today, as now WebAdvisor is the only way for me to see them. I'm happy with what I got.
Religious Studies-CR (I took it credit/no credit. no surprises here)
Eng 301-forms of fiction- B+ little better than I thought
Eng 401-advanced poetry workshop- B about as expected
Art 197- Aart and the occult- B-

THis makes my semester GPA exactly 3.0, and my overall GPA 2.919. I can't help but wonder how I would've done in Religious Studies had I taken it for credit. Oh well. Just gonna try next semester to bump that Cumulative GPA past a 3.0

From Isreal

Happy (belated) New Year!
Have been travelling around a lot. A Honda Civic is cramped with 5 adults and luggage in it. Thankfully, this isn't a very large country, so rides are never more than a couple hours. Lots of walking. My feet are sore. Dead Sea mud still feels good on my skin. Seems to have helped my hair, too.
Have seen a lot of the things I saw last January, but its okay, because those were for Adam and Emily anyway. Its been good spending time with them. And there were new things, too: Meggido, parts of Jerusalem I didn't see, the place they found the Dead Sea Scrolls. Fun stuff. It's a lot warmer thios year then it was this time last year.
I have been writing. A lot. This is good. Am Enjoying reading Whitman. Have also started Richard Adams's Shardik. It's very different from his first and best known novel, Watership Down, but excellent in a different way so far.
Have been knitting gifts for people. Will get them to you when I'm home again and can finish them properly (they need stuffing still).
In any case... yeah. My dad had wanted to try and go to Petra after Adam and Emily leave tomorrow night. As much as I want to get there, I knew I wouldn't have the energy for it. And now he's sick, and will be super busy as Israeli Prime Minister Sharon is hovering on what seems to be his deathbed. Which is a Bad Thing for any kind of peace efforts here. So that won't be happening.
I have a whole bunch of stuff I need to figure out how best to pack. My parent's were very generous with the gifts this year. Many of them are kinda fragile, so I need to be careful packing them propery. I had foolishly thought there would be less in my suitcase coming back then there was going since I was bringing gifts for people.
Silly me!
In any case, I leave here Thursday night so I have down time until then essentially. WHich is nice. School starts the next Wednesday, but I think I'll come back down to Meadville on Monday. Just get settled in. And see Jess (I miss you!) and other people before classes start and we all get busy again.