the closing sentences

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

one week later...

nice house which looks like a face! a row of bronze ducks with Anna and my
New York cousins (they're big on ducks here)




Anna on the roof in the snow...view from my cousin Jonathan's fab weekend house in Plymouth (where we're off on Sat, to go canoeing)...Macys in New York- well, you now know our big secret - we're only really here for the shopping...and that is the BIGGEST DEPARTMENT STORE IN THE WORLD...and our fab apartment here in the North End of Boston

hi, we have had wall to wall Friends, Everyone Loves Raymond, and this is the SECOND time that Legally Blonde has been on. But life isn't all TV sitcoms. I did my talk at the Art Exhibition; we've confirmed the next exhibition in Connecticut (though there may be a hiccup about insurance, watch this space; we've been to New York and had two fabulous Passover Suppers with my family there as well as going to a Broadway musical (Spelling Bee) and visiting Ellis Island. I've been looking at a whole new load of phd related literature from Brandeis library (they have great books about US Jewish history and interesting feminist stuff as well as more volumes of the (English) Jewish Yearbook from the 1920s than they have in Glasgow (yes, I'm easily pleased aren't I). I've set up meetings at Boston College and Gettysburg College to talk about Lancaster University Year Abroad stuff (which is how I'm 'earning my keep' here), and have booked a hotel in Washington for next Thurs and Fri (near an airport and handy for the metro into Washington, but unfortunately nowhere near the airport we will be flying into :-( )

I have made contact with not less than 3 lots of long-lost distant cousins that I didn't know I had, two of whom came all the way from Detroit (wherever that is) to Boston, to see my talk and the Hannah Frank exhibition. And the others of whom we'll be seeing next weekend, variously in New Jersey near Philadelphia, and Hartford Connecticut.
And we've just got back from having dinner round the corner in this wonderful Italian Section of Boston with Kevin Cole - who formed a FOLK GROUP with me, my schoolfriend Karen and my flatmate's boyfriend Roger, and our friend Dave, when we all lived in London when we were 18.

Actually watching Legally Blonde the second time through along with Anna is amazing, because last weekend we walked through Harvard grounds, and Anna's going 'Wow, we saw that' - 'Wow, we were there last week' 'Wow, we just saw that' - (post-modernist culture?)

I think we have all our bases covered for the next 2 weeks, very little time to manoeuver but lots of things to do, including an AIRPORT WATER TAXI EXPERIENCE!, and, if I can get out there, get this, MARILYN FRENCH doing a reading from her latest book at Brandeis Womens Studies Dept (where I now have a STAFF CARD) on our last afternoon!

I have the computer for another 15 mins apparently so will put a few pix up and then send this off to you all guys.... lots of love and looking forward to seeing my newly decorated living room, newly housetrained cat, newly sanded living room and hall floors... thanks Rae!

and would just like to announce that I had a fab Co-counselling session with a lovely Jewish woman in Somerville last week, and during that time had a brainstorm during which I realised that 'academic books' aren't 'horrid heavy things that take up space in your luggage and that you would never read during your holiday' but are actually 'the very best attempt by lovely intelligent people to talk directly to ME through the medium of print so I can use their ideas in my own thinking' (I expect everyone else in the world knew this but I have only just realised it. It's so exciting!)

lots of love, and please write back!
Fiona

ps also there's a really nice art shop down the road who is going to stock Hannah Frank prints, plus various places that might take the Show after Connecticut, if we can sort this insurance problem out... so things are improving on that front too.