That Time Another Week Passed

First and foremost: HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!!  (I tried calling just now, but then I realized it's 7am in North Carolina right now, and thus, no one answered... hopefully I'll get to talk to you later)

At the beginning of the summer, I thought I'd be updating as much as I did last year.  But, since a lot of the historical and touristic points have been previously covered in writing, I'm feeling less compelled to record things.  I've still taken a boatload of pictures, but the literary extremism has died down.

At times, I feel like too much is happening.  There have been many frustrations associated with the workload and the lack of sleep, but I've been able to vent them openly and encouraged others to do the same.  In this regard, I feel much more relaxed than last year.  I also have encountered more personal issues, such as this whole falling-in-the-drain bit and a recent divergence in a long-standing relationship.  My fellow instructors, friends by now of course, have been with me and help me through.  I also came into this whole experience questioning how it would compare to last year.  I've never been one to repeat experiences if at all possible, favoring breadth over depth.  However, coming here again is like coming home after a long break.  It simply feels good to breath the air and see the hills and sleep in the parks.  Thus, all these factors combined have allowed this summer to develop into an incredibly worthwhile "repeat" experience.

My students this year are top notch.  They are calmer than last year's rowdy bunch by far... or perhaps I've merely grown more immune to them?  A summer of MEET, plus another round of TAing at MIT certainly would support the latter; though my intuition aligns with the former.  In any case, they are splendid, and I am quite sad that a week has already passed.  I've barely gotten to scrape the surface with them, and I worry that maybe I just won't get as close with them as last year due to the shortened MEET length (4 weeks instead of 5) and the added responsibility of being team lead.

I will condense the week into a shortened list as before...

Arrival of MEET students, familiar faces, hugs galore, excitement, iced coffee, kickoff event, projector fail, HelloWorld; corn pizza and Goldstar and dance parties; day two, primitive types, extended I/P bonding, recitation glories, parallel parking mishaps, Burgers Bar; 

one-legged cat,

 HP tour fail, sexy corn flakes, Indigo experience, 

poster acquisition, 2-hour return delay, Intro to Objects, the disappearing lab trick; Nutella warz, 

long walk through the city to reclaim serenity, Rabinovitz Park, 

monster slide,

secret pathway, full moon grass laying; 

English event, Using Methods, Yoyo/DoodlePad/Sandwich lab, 

double lab duty, alum TAs galore; Pharmacy run, 

Max pickupage, laundry entertainment, 

eXtreme shopping sans cart, 

din din dinnah; ODT, omega, schneppling, team building, 

inner ethnicity argumentation, phone and ipod collections, flower cup, 

end-of-day circle bodes well for end-of-day ice cream; 

OPENING NIGHT OF THE JERUSALEM FILM FESTIVAL!!!!, 

unexpected e-mail, middle-of-the-night call-to-prayer graveyard-sneaking-extravaganza;

 sleeping til 3:30pm, more parkage and wandering, communal dinner, night out on the town with yohanan et al, 

misti connection (EDITH!!), gent (polish butterfly) --> mias (omri) --> tuvya (kozel!);

dance/sandwich party sans Woody despite the greatest of efforts, foxtrot-on-feet, brushing-of-teeth because not-in-the-bed; J-town tour, 

cistern detour, lina cafe... and now.

See there.  I wrote it all. 

And finally, for those concerned with my little mishap of a leg, I can assure you that it feels SOOOO MUCH BETTER than even a day or two ago.  I even ran around the block a little bit yesterday without any complications!!

Miss you all... sorry I'm not doing a better job keeping up with everyone.  But I can assure you, I'll have ample free time when I return to the states!