photos - Washington - a view to the monument down the Mall and the Reflecting Pool; Abraham Lincoln; the waterfall at Falls Village (twice) and Aitan Mizrahi from the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center (who organised the Hannah Frank art exhibition there) with his favourite baby goat (!)
well, we leave tomorrow, having got back to Boston yesterday from a whirlwind 5 day tour of Gettysburg, Washington, Philadelphia, Cherry Hill, Hartford and Falls Village. This was doing some uni work (Gettysburg), some tourism (Washington), seeing some long lost cousins (Washington/Cherry Hill/Hartford) and doing a talk about my aunt's art - which has been on show at the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center in Falls Village.
The flat is on its way to being cleaned and the suitcases are on their way to being packed. I'm catching up with the last long-lost cousin tonight and Anna has done her scrapbook of all the places we've been, things we've seen, and stuff we've done. We're both finishing off our 'holiday assignments' - well, Anna is - I'm a bit worried about how I'm not quite doing that at the moment. I am taking 13 books back to Brandeis Library this afternoon on my way to see Marilyn French reading from her latest book.
Looking back to my 'targets':
I was meant to be
- writing a new intro chapter to my PhD
- writing an essay for my Strathclyde Uni 'Social Theories for Historians' course,
- having a great time with Anna in the evenings and weekends and take in lots of music, films and shopping
- making a pilgrimage to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington-
- not to be too stressed about my academic goals-
- to remember I'm being paid to do at least half a day a week's Lancaster Uni work here :-
(and- to only eat half of every meal we get given in restaurants!
well, I've done LOADS of reading and note-taking for the PhD and found some really interesting connections.
I've done a little reading for the Social History essay (and got myself an extension!)
Anna and I have done LOADS of shopping and cinema (we can recommend The Notebook and Reign Over Me, and Spelling Bee as a light Broadway show)...
YES we saw the Lincoln Memorial and walked all the way from the other end of the Mall - where we also saw the Cherry Blossom Parade
NO I haven't been at all stressed about my academic goals! but Anna's school didn't work out, otherwise I would have had more time for all that....
I have kept up with my Uni work so I won't have to take too much time as holiday at the end of this trip (and I really enjoyed the trips to Gettysburg College and Boston College being an 'ambassador for Lancaster')
and we have CERTAINLY stuck to our goal of taking half our meals home in doggybags. I have definitely not put on weight while I'm here...though we have eaten A LOT of bagels and cream cheese and salmon through the 4 weeks!
It has been wonderful to meet long lost cousins - it's like having the best of friends, even though they're complete strangers. I'm hoping to organise a big Frank/Farber/Schulman/Lipetz reunion next August in Glasgow to do it all over again. We have another Hannah Frank art show happening in August in Michigan which is great - so I might even come back in the autumn for a re-run!
all is well; we fly home tomorrow; there's only 30 minutes change-over time at the hub airport, so it may be that we miss our onward flight, but American Airlines assure us that we won't...
thank you for listening and for your responses - it's been fun doing this and a real privilege to be away for a whole month. I can highly recommend it - it's interesting travelling with a 15 year old, keeps you on your toes....
ok, the homework assignment on Romeo and Juliet (not mine!) calls. I'll put some photos on here, do some more Anna-support, then I'm off to Brandeis. Over and Out - and looking forward to hearing from you all.
lots of love,
Fiona
