update

hi sweethearts:

guess where i am! boston! i came back on thursday night and was busy all weekend with an "interview event" for the "jewish organizing initiative" which matches young jewish leaders with organizing positions in boston. i didn't make it to the final round! was pretty down last night and this morning about it, but now i'm feeling relieved. if only because i can stop pretending to be jewish and go back to pretending not to be jewish. yesss

fortunately i have another interview on thursday - this time with a charter school in the city. hopefully the hassle of getting off the trail will be worthwhile job-wise.. it's certainly worthwhile emotionally. i get to see rose and hopefully everyone who's around amherst when i go to stay with dan this weekend! and maybe megan somehow? and my family in philly before i return to the south.

i re-read my original post about the a.t. and regretted it just a few days later. i was on the path to making some unfair generalizations about menfolk. by my third or fourth day on the trail i was spending lots of time with three (and sometimes more) really sweet men who were more "human" than "man" .. when i rejoined with the group of men from my first couple nights i realized that they were particularly and subtly macho... needless to say, i felt much more comfortable with the second group and rejoined them immediately! i also have one wonderful female friend who's kindof a mix of megan, destry, rose and carmella... (family runs an organic farm, she studied abroad in west africa, knits and rocks short hair, obsessed with her home state of maine, studies ecology, and... is a wilderness woman). her trail name is kumquat. my trail name is "whip-poor-will" like the bird.

i love the trail! i miss it! not getting into this program makes me feel a little guilty for taking so much time out of my life to meander through the southern united states... but i love it! i've met so many interesting people from all over the place! i spend time with birds and animals and bugs and plants and sunsets. i'm always dirty. gobs of dirt under my finger nails. so good.....

i love you all! i can't wait to see bunches of you this weekend! going to send an email about that right now...

big kisses, rachel