It's been a busy month in Virginia. All of my classes are officially beyond the 'you probably already know this' point. As a result, I'm ever so slightly behind in some of them; I'm still waiting for a stray weekend to happen so I can catch up.

My weekends have been pretty eventful lately (see title). Please note that all of the following is in addition to my... er... usual weekend activities.

The weekend following my most recent post, I went hiking in Shenandoah National Park with Steve, a fellow grad student. The hike was mostly downhill for the first half, which turned the second half into some decent exercise.

It's been seven nine weeks since I got on a plane back to Newark, NJ. It seems like ages ago, even though it really isn't... Hmmm... *ponder*

The first week: August 8 - 13

My trip back was highly uneventful, until I got to Newark. I was worried about immigration -- I figured getting through on a new US Visa + I-20 might take longer. The good news was that I was wrong. Instead, my suitcase didn't roll off the conveyer belt until a solid 30 minutes after I got there. That's 30 minutes *after* I cleared immigration; usually my suitcase gets to the baggage claim before I do.

The short version: I missed my connection and got stuck at Newark for a bit. My original flight was supposed to leave at 1:20pm, but I didn't get out until well after 6pm. Fortunately the people at Continental took pity on me; I got my ticket changed for free.

I was booked for three random flights to Syracuse. The earliest one was a revenue stand-by for 6pm, and thankfully it worked out that way. I didn't find out until they actually told me to get on the plane, though, so it was a little hectic keeping Char (in Hamilton) and Michael (in NJ/NYC) up to date. The plan was to stay at Michael's if I didn't get a flight on that particular day.

At Syracuse I was met by Char and Allison, who helped me find my suitcase (which took a while, again!). I spent the next few days being taken care of Jabonskis, in terms of food and entertainment. Time went by rather quickly, even though Hamilton was at a standstill (like every summer). The library was even-more-finished than before, and the new Ho Science Center was remarkably bigger. There was basically construction all over campus, to the point where getting to McGregory was quite a feat.

Jetlag always makes the first few days on a new continent extra exciting. Fortunately this time around wasn't that bad, though. The Jablonskis made sure of that. I also had plenty of time to sleep

Friday came around quickly. I hung out with Annabel and her family in Rome for a day, and then all of a sudden it was... *drumroll* Saturday. Michael arrived that afternoon. Annabel, her siblings, and I were just visiting Curtis at that time, which made for an odd scene (since two of used to live in Curtis, way back when). After Annabel had left to return to Rome, Michael and I stopped by the Hour Glass for a drink (a first for me), and proceeded home to Tuckers' to get ready for our trip. This felt counterintuitive; I was sort of half-expecting classes to start and leaving Hamilton would be a bad idea if that were true.

On Sunday, Michael and I made the long trip back to New Jersey. It was an awesome day for driving, as it so happened, and Michael brought excellent music for the road. We took Route 20 East, stopping at Anderson's Hardware Store (run by Rob Anderson's family) on the way. We stopped at Bard College next, where we had lunch with Bridget. After a quick highlight tour of the Bard campus, we were on our way to Harrington Park, aka New Jersey Suburbs.

Michael's place, another couple of hours south, was much the way I left it four years ago -- warm and comfy. Unfortunately I started feeling somewhat nauseous at this point, and incredibly tired. Fortunately there was Mrs. Tringali with toast and tea, which helped a lot.

The second week: August 14 - 20

The next morning I woke up feeling a lot better. Next to me on the couch was Jake, the family dog -- he was new since my previous visit. After some breakfast, Mrs. Tringali and Michael dropped me off at the airport. The whole London scare had been that Wednesday, so I was at the airport a solid 2.5 hours before my flight. Of course, security ended up taking less than 10 minutes, so I got to sit around for quite a while.

My flight took me to Atlanta first, and then Charlottesville. Karsten, my student mentor, picked me up from the airport. After a quick stop to drop off my stuff, we went to dinner in Charlottesville. This was to become my first night of eating out in a very long series

I took the SPEAK test the next morning. It was approximately as entertaining as I had feared it would be. I spent the rest of the day taking care of paperwork and what not: getting my final transcripts from Colgate sent over, making sure the Engineering School was aware of the fact that the International Studies Office had allowed me into the country, that sort of thing. It was a good way to keep busy.

It's been ages since graduation! Unfortunately that also means it's been ages since my last pictures -- I still don't have a replacement camera battery + charger. Both got stolen from the outlet in my apartment. I suppose I should count my blessings though; my roommates were short two laptops and a PS2 if I remember correctly.

This is officially an uneventful summer. I go running occasionally. Sometimes I go for a bike ride. Occasionally my dad makes me practise driving stick (I never learned... and one could argue I'm not exactly learning now :-p). At the start of summer I paid some long overdue visits to old friends. It's been nice and quiet, and most importantly: free from any kind of obligation.

With a few exceptions of course. I found out that I needed to apply for a new US Visa, just tad bit late. Fortunately the folks at the consulate took pity on me, and a week or so later I found myself in Amsterdam, triple-checked forms in hand. I must say the process was a lot less painful than it was four years ago. Also, I had company this time. I ran into Andre and Eelco near the consulate -- completely randomly. They helped me hold on to my sanity; another improvement over four years ago.

It's been over five weeks since graduation -- eek! About time I get started.

The last week of classes was fairly busy. I participated in Colgate's 10th Upsilon Pi Epsilon induction on Thursday. During the ceremony Char and I spent some time commemorating Professor Sanchis, the chapter's adviser. Last year's pictures are here.

Friday was my official Last Day of Classes at Colgate Ever. I took my German final that morning, before my last class was really over with. Fortunately my last German class was really just a brunch, so I didn't miss anything by taking the final early. My last event of the week was a reception at Merrill House, where I got to talk with Professor Sanchis' sister and mother.

Ok I officially don't know what to do with myself. The talk went fine, my thesis is done... hmmm. Oh here's a link.

Update:

Here's those pictures, courtesy of Brian Traczynski: