Maiden Voyage

college

internet access has been sketchy, not that there has been a moment to blog...days full of explanations, presentations, dissections and discussions of the minutae of the program. Haggith, my Israeli roomie, delighted to point out that this program, is critical pedagogy. it is an amazing opportunity to construct learning that is socially relevant, and personally meaningful. but what a headache to actually make it happen.

I am longing for the peace I'd foolishly thought 10 days in Vermont would provide. I wake at dawn to the sun lighting up the sky over the mountains long before it is visible. This morning, as I was walking into town, head down, absorbed in serious scholarly thinking, I was startled by a loud clicking noise on the pavement directly in front of me. I looked up in time to see a deer, not two feet away, dashing from behind a house, across the street and into the woods. It wasn't until later that I realized that the deer had crossed the empty morning street, properly, in the cross walk.

college

it is really college...dorm room....computer lab....cafeteria.... beautiful drive through the mountains to get here, Rita A. in the passenger seat, and I talking non stop about movies and education and Union and visual culture. I am now bleary eyed at 7:13 and ready for bed. must be the mountain air...eight other learners in our group, several teachers, one women teaches self defense and lives in Vermont, two came from as far away as Hawaii...but the best, the absolute best part of college life, so far is the cafeteria...run by interns from the near-by Culinary Institute, there was amazing food: some kind of cream of apple soup, gourment salads, pork spring rolls, chicken, lasagne, and tons of deserts-cookies and brownies and ice cream sundaes, and fruit and best of all...creme brulee! I could start to get used to this....

autumn

walking along the charles yesterday I was struck by the essence of autumn. its about death, but yesterday as the saturated colors filled me up, I thought that just maybe, if one had an opportunity to reach the end relatively healthy, relatively lucid, that perhaps it would be like fall on a day like yesterday. brilliant, hyper-real, saturated. the grand finale.

we are going to truro today to empty and the clean the house. the closing is on the tenth and while the money will help defray the cost of grad school, there is nothing that can replace the land....what a special place that is.

the leaves have fallen off the tree outside my window, but the clematis on my neighbors fence goes on and on....if only I could do a scratch and sniff, it'd bring a smile to your face.