The shortest and longest summer ever (part 1)

Despite being my longest summer break ever (May 10 - September 13th), I can't believe how terribly quickly this summer is flying by! Here are some pictures to hit the highlights so far.

Karen's wedding in Buffalo! So nice to see her again.
Elise and I took a very random trip to Norwalk for some Shakespeare on the Sound, outdoor theater.
Steve and I spent the 4th of July weekend in Otis, Mass. with a bunch of the Parlos+ family.
Kate's wedding shower was on July 11th. Elise and I are excited about having another sister!

Steve and I took a spontaneous trip to Boston to visit his friend's church. It happened to be when the tall ships were in town. We took a lovely sunset harbor cruise!

We spent a lovely weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. Steve showed me his old apartment (from his days stationed there in the Coast Guard) and we read for a while in Breton Reef park while lots of people flew kites. We decided I should grow up to be an economics professor at Salve Regina so we can more there.

I'm finally starting to prepare for England (packing, buying stuff, etc.) I'm finishing up my research with Susan Randolph and hopefully I'll have a chance to skim my old textbooks before I set off on my next great adventure. I'll try to put pictures up of the coming month and a half (California, Steve's birthday, Steve & Kate's wedding, my birthday... crazy but good!)

Some thoughts on orthodoxy

Today, after starting it almost 3 years ago, I finally finished G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy.

First let me start by saying that if you consider yourself a thinking person at all, you owe it to yourself to read this book. You may (like me) not quite catch all the references to the people and lingo of early twentieth century Britain, but that should not in any way detract from Chesterton's surprisingly insightful discussion of belief and meaning in the world.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of his writing is that he spells every argument out so sensibly and simply that he makes so many of the intellectual prepositions of our modern era seem so obviously backwards and contrary to common sense. I would love very much for someone who does not consider himself a Christian to read this book and tell me his opinion of it. As for me, I perhaps can not describe what an immense happiness reading this book produced in me, as it said my own thinking is rational (which I have always considered it to be despite being told the contrary by many whose intellects I respect) with perhaps the smartest and best arguments I've ever heard (from either camp). Normalcy is not something I strive for, but every once in a while it's nice to hear that your whole conception of life is not so crazy after all.

Now for my own sake (since I essentially use this blog as a journal I can go back to) I'll spell out some of my favorite take-aways while it's still pretty fresh (the end of it anyway).

The ideal is not compromise (a dilution of things) but rather an equilibrium which occurs between fiercely opposing things (such as love and wrath) in their pure, intense forms. Christianity is built out of these paradoxes.

"We do not want joy and anger to neutralize each other and produce a surly contentment; we want a fiercer delight and a fiercer discontent. We have to feel the universe at once as an orge's castle, to be stormed, and yet as our own cottage, to which we can return at evening."

"Rational optimism leads to stagnation; irrational optimism leads to reform."

The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man who loves it with a reason. The man who will improve the place is the man who loves it without a reason. If a man loves some feature of Pimlico (which seems unlikely), he may find himself defending that feature against Pimlico itself. But if he simply loves Pimlico itself, he may lay it waste and turn it into the New Jerusalem."

Having limits enables freedom. "Every act of will is an act of self limitation. To desire action is to desire limitation"(something dostoevsky would have agreed with) "When you choose something, you reject everything else" (sounds like economics now)... chiefly he is arguing that you are not enjoying freedom when you take away all limits because limits define and provide meaning.

"As long as the vision of heaven is always changing, the vision of earth will be exactly the same. No vision remains long enough to be realised, or even partly realised. The modern young man will never change his environment, for he will always change his mind. This therefore is our first requirement about the ideals toward which progress is directed, it must be fixed."

"The man of the nineteenth century did not disbelieve in the Resurrection because his liberal Christianity allowed him to doubt it. He disbelieved in it because his very strict materialism did not allow him to believe it." (this part of the book sounded a lot like Tim Kheller's book, The Reason for God, which I also recommend)

Okay perhaps I will add more later but now I am exhausted and must get to bed!

the start of a beautiful summer

May 10th has come and gone, and I can't say being a college graduate feels any different than being a student, but perhaps that is because grad school awaits me in the fall. Then again, if I had to describe the way I've been feeling the last month or so I would use the words "free" "content" "relaxed" and "happy". I suppose two of those words are less applicable to the past 4 years so that the current situation is in fact quite different from the previous.

On the days when free time abounds and social engagements do not, I often feel the need to create something. So far I've worked on my 1940's dress, started knitting a blanket, had some fun with photo editing, and tried to decorate "my" room (formally my brother's and a space which until recently has not felt like my own). A very random concoction on my desk now is an old gumball machine filled with colorful spools of antique threads. On occasion I even feel stirred to write poetry (and often to write music, if only I could play!) and include a short poem here:

A dreamer in a white dress,

dreaming dreams of white dresses

a summer afternoon

sitting contented on an expansive green lawn.

Cream in her cup matches

the Victorian mansion she calls home.

The sound of waves crashing softly on the beach;

she stands,

a line of pearl-white cloth-covered buttons

winds down her delicate back,

the moment is pure.

I love beginnings. The beginning of summer is especially wonderful because a long stretch of warm long days is still to come and the anticipation for what great adventures await is almost as satisfying as the adventures themselves. We humans love having something to look forward to. I try to set my sights on something in the not too distant future, less I risk missing the present joys because I'm too busy looking ahead. This summer has so much to offer I have barely begun to anticipate the England move. I am however on the quest for the perfect trench coat.

Stephen's house renovations are coming along really well. The new front steps are in, surrounded by all new landscaping and fresh mulch. The living room is coming together after new sheetrock, paint, curtains, etc. Now it's about time we had some people over there. I'm really hoping we can get our families together there sometime in the next month or so.

This is my first summer of multiple weddings, and I'll be surprised if it isn't the start of a new wedding era when it seems like everyone I know is getting married. June belongs to Karen and Chris, August to Jenny and Joel (hello California!), and September to Steve and Kate. I am so happy for all of them.

Elise and I took our first Waterford beach trip a couple weeks ago and visited with Nana and Yiayia; a nice day as always, complete with picture taking.

A mid-homestay update...

Some mornings, like today, when I check my email and read the international news I find myself really missing Uppsala and all my friends there. Perhaps because at this time last year I was finally getting comfortable riding my bike around town, grabbing fika with Hannah or Kayla and Karina, and I knew my corridormates a bit. I miss walking down the fashionable streets and shopping in the middle of my school day. I miss all the countless hours I had for reading whatever I wanted, for watching old movies I rented from the library, and going out with new friends. I miss the International Bible Study (from whom I still get weekly emails). But alas, I am returning to Europe so perhaps these memories can be made new.

Last year on this day, Valentine's Day, Stephen had a beautiful bouquet delivered to me in Sweden. This year I am so glad we can spend it together. Just got the word I should dress up for tonight's dinner at a surprise location. Que divertido!

I called this entry a mid-homestay update because like it says, I am currently in the middle of a stay in my home country. I returned from Sweden in June and will be flying off to England in September, so this is somewhere around the middle of my time at home. It has been great to be home and I am not in a hurry to leave this time, though the adventure that awaits me is as exciting as they come (for an obsessive academic like myself).

My school here has certainly been supportive of my scholarship. The provost and president of the university threw a little reception for me and I've had the opportunity to interact with both on several occasions since. (It's crazy to me how things just snowball - I know there are plenty of equally (if not more) accomplished students at this university and I wish I could share all the positive fall out with them). One cool thing that even the non-nerdy sports fan can appreciate is that they recognized my award during a time-out at one of the Men's basketball games (while we are #1) and gave me a game ball signed by both the coaches.

Of course now the pressure is on, or at least that is how I feel. It used to be that my own standards for myself were leagues above everyone else's expectations of me- now they're catching up. Even though I'm taking one math class as an audit, just to learn the material because I'll need it next year, I'm ashamed to hand in work that isn't perfect to my standards, despite the grade I earn being completely irrelevant.

This entry has little form but that's representative of how things work, life never takes the essay form where you introduce what will happen in the first paragraph and then it proceeds to take place just as you spelled out. God knows what He's doing though. I'm reading in Exodus right now, about the construction of the Tabernacle, and He knows exactly what he wants (right down to the blue, purple, and gold linens made by expert weavers). It reminds me that God really does care about the details even while he cares about the over-arching story. Resting in his plan is something that doesn't come completely naturally, but I can see His hand in orchestrating my past and so that helps me rest about the future. I am so thankful to God for my opportunity to study in England for the next two years. I will miss my Stephen terribly, but I trust that all things work together for good for them who love the Lord.

Okay I've got to wrap this up because a day packed with research projects is calling. I feel incredibly blessed to be living a life filled with adventure and love, especially as I consider the tragedy and injustice that is happening in such abundance simultaneously around the world. I challenge myself to do more about it.

A little puzzle for you

Which word is not like the others and why?

A) console
B) bow
C) lead
D) sow
E) run

tricky tricky leave your guesses in the comments

au revoir... almost

It's been a busy week of sorts. Last Saturday Kayla, Karina, Katie, and I started our adventure at 6:00 am and flew to Paris. We saw the Notre Dame and went to the Lourve (we happened to arrive on the one night of the year that Paris' most famous museums are open and free). We spent most of Sunday at the Muse' D'Orsay (which I liked better than the Lourve- some really lovely Monet's) and had a late lunch in a quintessentially Parisian cafe. Monday we climbed the Eiffel Tower (lots of stairs! but we had to take an elevator to get to the very top), saw the Arc de Triumph, walked with style down Champs Elysées (Sarah Jessica Parker was making an appearance at the huge Sephora about an hour and a half later but we didn't stick around), enjoyed the lovely Montmartre area over looking the city while eating gelato and crepes, and shuffled through the lovely Sacre-Coeur basilica. Tuesday we visited the epic and exquisite Château de Versailles (aka the very large French palace and estate), complete with Marie Antionette's own little "country cottage" where she could go feel like a country girl without ever having to see any. The palace and grounds were truly beautiful and we considered taking a row boat out on the cross-shaped man made pond. At night we went back to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. Wednesday I did a little vintage shopping and we ate lunch at a great Turkish restaurant. We saw the Latin Quarter and wandered around a bit until Kayla found a cute salon and decided to get her hair cut. After watching her get hers done, I decided my locks could use some love as well. We both loved our new do's until we found out that we had misunderstood (or perhaps they had misled us, more likely) the price and had to pay twice what we were expecting. An unfortunate twist to an otherwise frugal french holiday. We stayed in a cute studio apartment in the 3rd district, right in the middle of the city, and cooked most of our own meals to keep costs down.

All in all it was a grand time. I must say though, that I think I'm done traveling for a while. Considering I've spent more time this past year away from home than there (Peru from May to August, and Sweden from January to June) I am definitely due for some staying home, or at least in my own country. And I'm missing some people quite a lot. It makes me happy to think that in only two weeks from this moment I'll be home, hopefully with my head on Stephen's shoulder- exhausted from my 10+ hours of traveling but content.

There will definitely be things I'll miss about Sweden. Uppsala is a great town (4th largest city in the country?) Fika is a wonderful institution. Nation-centered student life is fun and easy. The majority of people walking down the street are fashionable and making some sort of intentional statement with their look (other than "abercrombie" of course). It's really easy to slip in and out of places without having to interact with people: this is great when you don't feel like talking to people, but bad if you're right off the plane from America and think everyone is being rude or hates you. Biking is the prefered mode of transport and there are bike lanes to keep you safe (and fit!). Hugo's is a fun cafe that sometimes has great latte's, it's a bit hit or miss but that's half the fun of a place like Hugo's. I'll miss my chats with Hannah and Kayla, but hopefully those don't end completely. I'll also miss the lack of busy work and papers for my classes. Can't beat a 3 minute walk from your room to the grocery store and some very loveable corridormates.

Surely this has been a time of personal growth and reformulation of a lot of perceptions and views. I don't feel like going into specifics now, but perhaps another time.

Here are a couple of pics from Paris:

happy anniversary to my blog

I just spent the last hour reading old blog entries and realized that I started this thing a whole year ago (May 1st 2007 to be exact). I'm glad I started it; it has served the exact purpose I had in mind, which was to mainly help me see how I'm changing over time and to be a record of my major experiences.

For those who've been around for a while, thanks for reading. Life is about the journey, not just the destination.