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.

Exam Week

At that point I decided to take a few days off, making the rest of Friday and Saturday mostly uneventful. My parents arrived in Hamilton that Sunday, the day before finals week. Somehow I had been aware of this without realizing it would really happen, so I was going about my usual business in 310 McGregory when they walked in. This was my first indication that I was, in fact, graduating. Up until that time, I had mostly been able to ignore that.

I still had two exams to study for -- Linear Algebra on Tuesday and Astronomy on Thursday. Math turned out to be a day job (it took me from 9:00 until 17:00), but it went well. My parents left for Canada on Wednesday morning, giving me a full day to study for Astronomy. That took effort. Fortunately it was machine-graded, so the grade came back later the same day. Then I was truly done -- time to start cleaning out my room.

Senior Week

By the time Sunday morning came around, a lot of my stuff was boxed. After a bit of a cleaning frenzy (with help from my parents), we managed to cram most of my stuff in the car. We proceeded to drive to Charlottesville -- off to find an apartment and to dump an SUV load worth of my stuff. The drive was mostly uneventful. Pennsylvania took a long time to cross, just like the last couple of times. We arrived in Charlottesville during a huge thunderstorm + downpour.

On Monday we visited Eagles Landing, which was decent enough. Our second visit took us to 1712 Jefferson Park Avenue, right by the campus. The place itself was pretty awful, and the person who showed it to us was remarkably unhelpful. In my non-expert opinion, the place was a fire hazard too. Good job.

It was time to put my stuff in storage. After some searching we found a self-storage place that had a 5x5' + AC available for my precious belongings. The car looked a lot less like a truck without all the stuff in the back. After two days of hauling everything around it was quite nice to be rid of it.

On Tuesday morning we visited UVa to pick up a copy of my acceptance letter (to serve as income verification). We then had a look at University Place. The place turned out to be similar to Eagles Landing, offering shared apartments with private bedrooms and bathrooms. It was slightly cheaper, however, and a tad easier on the paperwork. The kicker was that University Place offers graduate-only housing. So there -- a few hours after the tour I signed a lease.

Wednesday mostly consisted of The Long Drive Back, from Charlottesville to Hamilton. On Thursday it was time for my last Colgate trip; a wine tasting class generously sponsored by the Mariani family. I had to get up early for this one; the bus left Colgate at 7am. We tasted between 25 and 30 wines, under the guidance of Professor Mutkoski. It was a great experience -- not something I'd be able to do by myself (obviously).

Graduation Weekend

Aside from the wine tasting, Senior Week had been all business -- my room was mostly empty at this point, except for what I needed for the summer. Somehow graduation still managed to sneak up on me. The first official event was the Senior Class Luncheon on Friday. I didn't expect the event to be all that exciting. The Sodexho food was not great. The speakers, however, were surprisingly good.

Doug Klein, the class orator, was decent. Guest speaker Jim Elrod '76 took the cake, however. He showed off a 1973/1974 article from the Oneida Dispatch, along with the weather report from a few days earlier. The article described the arrest of two Colgate sophomores; the weather report showed typical winter temperatures. The story served as an example of that colossal mistake we all tend to make around our sophomore year in college. The grander theme: It All Works Out (for Colgate Grads); Jim Elrod now serves on Colgate's Board of Trustees. Amusingly, the May Colgate Scene featured an article on Colgate's Sophomore Year Experience program, subtitled 'Colgate turns sophomore "slump" into a galaxy for exploration.' Who knew

The rest of Friday was spent catching up with various family members. My brother had arrived the day before, and my sister + brother-in-law were making their way up to Rome that afternoon. We met up at The Beeches, which is where I had made reservations a year earlier. I was quite content with myself for being able to find the place; I hadn't been up there in quite a while. My brother, sister, brother-in-law and I then drove back to Hamilton so I could show off the campus. We had dinner at Numero Uno before heading back up to Rome. I spent the night in Rome, finally giving up my Dearly Beloved Single (DBS) to Najat.

Saturday was a busy day. There was the faculty reception, the arrival of Bridget, Annabel, and Kaleena, Senior Supper at Frank, and dinner at the Tuckers'. It was great to see some familiar faces at this point, and by 'great' I mean relieving. Supper at Frank was fun, albeit a bit brief. We sat by the bay windows, just like I did for most of my freshman year. Mrs. and Mr. Tucker's food rocked; it was a good pre-graduation day meal.

The Missing Paragraph on Torchlight

Almost forgot torchlight, the very reason the preceeding paragraph is short! The torchlight ceremony was impressive, much like the last three years. The main difference was that I had a torch this time, obviously. That was exciting. I was slightly nervous I'd completely miss my friends and family. I did miss a lot of people; too busy wielding the torch without killing anyone. Fortunately I did find my family in the crowd (handily positioned next to Professor Saracino). My 'visit' was brief, though; I didn't want to lose my carefully crafted position in the queue.

At Taylor Lake, some of my neighbors and I organized some torch waving, which was entertaining. Like every year, someone walked straight into the lake (intentionally). I missed that completely. As it turns out, the best place to see torchlight is to participate. Standing there with all the torches reflecting off of the water, while feeling the heat of the fire, was incredible.

Graduating

Sunday morning was an early one, because I insisted on attending Baccalaureate at 9am. After a rainy drive from Rome to Hamilton, I found the service to be worth it. Sorely lacking, though, was a speech by Mark Shiner, the Catholic Chaplain. By 'lacking' I mean it didn't happen. Mark's address last year was so good that last year's Commencement Speaker, Marian Wright Edelman, incorporated it into her own speech at the actual ceremony. Nevertheless, I was happy to be there.

The Senior Brunch at Cotterell Court was marked by uncertainty over the weather. It had been raining for a good chunk of the morning, but we were expecting the ceremony to be outside. When the sun broke, word quickly spread into Reid and many people seemed relieved. False hope, it turned out; much of the ceremony would be cold and wet.

Graduation was surreal. I got my hood and walked around aimlessly for a bit before joining my queue and picking up my card. Lining up (in order) was fairly straightforward after I located the people immediately before and after me. Shortly after that -- I was somewhat late getting there -- we started to process in.

And so the long sitting began. I don't remember the various speeches very well, although I think President Chopp did well. As she indicated, she came to Colgate four years ago, together with our class. Eliot Spitzer was much less inspiring. His speech focused on why we should stay in New York. During his ten minutes, he used the words 'New York' nineteen times -- wow. That's counting derivatives like 'New Yorker,' but still. To put it mildly, his address lacked balance. The irony was, of course, that it started to rain heavily during his speech. I remember sitting face down with the rain pounding on my hood, with Spitzer singing New York's praises in the background. It was surprisingly amusing.

Crossing the stage was about as surreal as I had imagined. I handed my card to Gary Ross, he read my name (brilliantly), and off I went. I remember Raj Bellani predicting I would lose track of my surroundings at this point. True -- I managed to make it across the stage, down to the flag, and back to my seat. I didn't see a thing of what happened around me in the meantime. My brain came back online during a quick peek at my diploma. First coherent thought: "Four years."

The ceremony came to an end after 400 more names and several more downpours. After processing out I looked up Kaleena and the gang, and handed back my cap and gown. At this point it got cold and windy, putting an abrupt end to any further socializing.

Post Graduation

Kaleena and I regrouped at Parkside for a quick bite to eat with Annabel, Bridget, and Michael + girlfriend, which was fun. After a few more stops Kaleena and I went back to Rome. It snowed briefly when we got into the car; a fitting end to the graduation festivities. Dinner was at The Savoy that night, a great place in Rome that was surprisingly quiet. Notable decoration: a VIRGINIA banner in my future school's colors. After dinner, Kaleena and I visited Bridget and Annabel.

With graduation over, I was officially out of ideas regarding what to do. On Monday we all checked out of our respective hotels and moved to Hamilton. Kaleena headed for Cleveland, while we The Hooimeijers headed for the Tuckers' and packed the remainder of my stuff. On Tuesday we split into teams: my parents stayed in Hamilton for the week, my sister + brother-in-law went off to Niagara Falls, and my brother and I drove to DC.

AJ and I had a great time driving around trying to find a hotel in DC during conference season. We eventually ended up at Panera Bread (the one I went to with Kaleena back in the day, actually). We booked a room in Manassas on Orbitz, which turned out to be decent. The next day we visited the memorials in DC by Metro, followed by some badass dinner at an Outback Steakhouse. The next day we drove to Atlantic City, which was sketchy. On our way there we received word that we would be joined by Kim and Kees the next day. We went up and down the boardwalk for a bit, both days. It was fun seeing the ocean from that end -- AJ's intent when heading for AC.

On Saturday, I hitched a ride to Newark with Kim and Kees, while AJ went off to enjoy himself for another week or so. The next day we all took the shuttle to Newark Airport. I got a taxi to JFK while Kim and Kees waited for their direct flight to Amsterdam. I had a horrendous dinner at JFK, which made my flight fairly taxing. My transfer at Heathrow was smooth; I didn't get stuck there this time. On Monday I finally got home. First order of business: cheese!

At Home

My summer is a little longer than usual; normally I spend half the summer at Colgate to work. The extra month or so has made it a little easier to plan visits, which has been great fun. I've visited a bunch of people, including high school classmates and my former mentor, Mr. Krommenhoek. It was great to be home for the World Cup. I had been looking forward to that for years, literally, and being home for the craze was awesome. Too bad it ended prematurely :-p

At the moment I am slowly getting back into the swing of working for a living. Cheers.

P.S. The bottom picture shows Professor Balonek's magnetic core memory. Find out all about how it works here...