PR’s Graduation

In a whirlwind visit to the States, M and I attended P’s PhD graduation from Harvard.

New Addition

We just returned from a whirlwind trip to the States. The first stop was Boston where we met the newest addition to M’s family, two-month old Ethan.

Boston – Graduation

In Boston, I met one-week old SM… the last time I was in Boston, SV was in her first trimester! It poured throughout most of the weekend, but the sun miraculously emerged by the end of graduation day.

The Defense

Last week I returned to Boston to defend my dissertation… and, of course, catch up with some old friends and spend some time with my brother who lives in Cambridge. I took advantage of my jet lag by indulging in early morning walks across the Charles River while the city was still sleeping. I met up with SV, a longtime friend of mine I met my first semester at NYU undergrad and learned I was the last one to hear the good news– SV’s 2 months pregnant! For dinner, WM, a close friend from SHS who’s making a difference kicking criminal a– in the DA’s office in Dorchester, joined my brother and I for Vietnamese food at Le’s followed by desert at Finale at Harvard Square. The next morning was the defense which turned out to be more like a long conversation about the work I’ve been doing these last 2.5 yrs. Following the defense we had lunch at Cafe Casablanca in Cambridge before making our way back to New York where I mistakenly partied like a rock star at Vong on the east side, innocently confusing my new standing as a recently-finished grad student with rock star status.

 

Boston – K&S’s Wedding

After a quick trip to BU’s campus, I visted Boston Commons, a section of Boston I sorely neglected during my three years of living in the city. Men and women dressed in colonial garb were leading packs of tourists around the park, and the cow sculptures that had greeted me in Edinburg, I saw, were also in Boston. Amidst a weekend of wedding-related activities, we managed to see PR and S for lunch at Scollay Square (they make a great raisin-pear-walnut salad) before exploring Salem, where its witch trial history has been commodified by the town’s museums, kiosks, shops and tours, making Salem a Halloween-themed mini-mall.