watson

rejected in the first round. better now then later, right?

with hugs, and with my "wild case of wanderlust" still intact -

zu feels like chapman

last night i saw becky, carmella, cait, destry, julian, and jess, all in the zu. ok, i'll stop bragging.

as usual, my posting is kindof like procrastination. (from my thesis, obvi)

so happy to see hannah's post ! we want to hear more !

nothing else to update, sadly! i should get back to work.

lots of love..

Recent life changes

1. I'm out of Maine. The time to leave came. I knew I had to go when I was sleeping until noon every day and watching three hours of TV a night. (Except I am going back to visit this weekend, yay!) Thus...
2. I came to Amherst! The obvious choice. Somehow being surrounded by productive college students has inspired me to move forward with my life. So I ...
3. Got a part time job! I will be working in a diner two days a week, serving up pancakes and home fries, and wearing a little black apron. (No hairnet, yes!) (My interview: "Do you have your own apron?" "Uh, no, is that a requisite for the job?") I am told by people like Ian David that I have to refer to my clients as "hon" and ask if they'd like the "regular". We'll see if it comes to that.
4. I might also work as a woman artist's personal assistant. She can't move her arms, or something. So I might help her, you know, feed her cats, or whatever it is that personal assistants (aka servants) do for other people.
5. All of this is just until my full time work rolls around.
6. In the meantime, I'm also apartment shopping, which is super fun. I like thinking, Is this where my future life will be? (Future, as in, beginning in the next two weeks.)
7. Life is good and the trees are beautiful in New England!

Life in Northampton is proving pretty awesome. Things are getting more exciting as I get settled in. Recent highlights:
-Played banjo with some hippies that live right near me.
-Really cool old graves in the cemetery next to my house.
-It's fall and I'm in the Valley, so I am automatically happy. Best commute ever.
-Hanging out in the Zü is still cool.
-I can drive to pretty places like this:



Sadly, I am not going to be here on Halloween weekend, which just proves that my schedule and the schedule of anybody else in Chapman are always the opposite.

CHAKRA! what a great word!

hey ladies, check out this Chakra test and find out what's really going on with you.
my heart and throat chakras are over-active, something to work on for the future...

otherwise, i'm still loving my jessjoy original mural (sometimes I just sit and stare at it...!) and my sustainable agriculture class. yesterday afternoon, i spent 4 hours on a CSA farm in a GORGEOUS little valley in Conway, MA (Sosososo beautiful, with a river running through the land and a great suspension bridge!) and it's ALL HORSE-POWERED! isn't that so awesome?? no fossil fuels at all! too bad the farmer imports TONS of exotic minerals for his soil that get mined from all over the place. :(
also, I think I'm going to take a little class on medicinal plants in Noho with a kid from my class which is uber exciting! i love me some herbs!! aaaaaand, my momma is coming up for a visit in week - wish me luck! hahah (sometimes 2 people ar so alike it's scary... possible yelling may occur.)
hope everyone is enjoying these last remnants of late summer and those first fall breezes- i know i am!!
all my love, carma (? haha it just came out that way, and i kinda like it. it fits the whole chakra hindu theme i've been trying out in my life lately... hehe)

CALLING ALL CHAPMANITES

Reunion Halloween Weekend!!!!

I just bought my plane ticket for Halloween weekend and Rosie's coming for sure too. Megan?!?!?!! Hannah?! Wanna fly over from Lisbon?

Hi Dearests...

Chapman babies --

I am still the same... I am crazily studying for an exam on Thursday, and looking forward VERY much to Thursday evening when Rachel bean will grace me with her presence... (and I just remembered that my grandma is coming for drinks at 6:30, Rach -- can you make it by then? It will be fun! And funny! PS there's also a midwifery potluck we could go to, but it's at 6, which won't really work... ha.)

My days of nursing related activities are really really long, but in a good way, I guess. I actually think I am starting to learn stuff... as in, I think I know a whole shit ton more than I did one month ago, which is gratifying. Clinical is CRAZY, but I think I am really going to love it... I am working on an infectious disease floor, which is a little bit scary, a lot sad, and quite interesting. My patient last week was sad. :( I just have never been around so many really sick people all at once, and it can feel really overwhelming.

In response to Hannah bean (whose hair I love), I haven't been finding very much time for dancing -- only for furious runs at the gym to SUPER loud music, which feels AMAZING after these long long days... but I hope to start going to this african dance class I really like, and also to salsa! (with Milo!) hopefully starting next wednesday.

Okay, study time! Kisses and I am missing all of you LOTS! Come visit!!
Megan

Hello!

I'm sorry to have disappeared off the face of the earth! I'm still alive. I've been in Lisbon for over a month now, which is hard to believe. I semi speak Portuguese---as in, really no grammar, but I get my point across. 

AND, big news, I have a job!!!! A full-time teaching contract with International House Lisbon until the end of June. Can you believe it? I finished a pretty intensive one month teacher training course, and got the contract immediately after--the day I finished. I'm still stunned at how easy it's been. Then again, the hard part comes on Thursday, when I actually have to teach. I'm teaching 18 hours a week, to kids, teens, and adults. I think it'll be fun. I've also been researching some African dance classes (Megan & Rosie, are you still dancing? Do you have time to?), so I'm hoping to squeeze those in somewhere. Lisbon is actually really cool for African dance because of the huge Angolan, Cabo Verdian, and Mozambican (spelling?) immigrant communities. So there are mainstream discos here that play Kizomba and Fulana and all this other African music that I'd never even heard of before.

So, life feels pretty good at the moment. I can't quite get used to the idea of not being able to just pick and go anymore. I'd kind of liked the feeling of just "trying Lisbon out". But Brazil is in the future somewhere, and then there's always Santo Domingo...and Cuba...so many places to go!

Oh, and last little bit of news: I cut my hair! (That's why there's the huge photo at the top...) I know, it's silly. But I got this incredible urge to chop it all off, and it just wouldn't go away. So on the last day of the course I walked into the first salon I found and told them to cut it chin-length. The guy refused (typical!) because he said it wouldn't look good, so he cut almost chin-length (love that you have to compromise with your stylist...). It feels so good! And maybe makes me look a little more Portuguese...?

Anyway, love you guys. Sorry I'm so terrible at keeping up to date, but I do think of you all tons. In fact, I met Martin (Aguilera) yesterday for coffee, since he's in Lisbon on a Fulbright, and Amherst nostalgia kept trickling in to our conversation. Plus, our Christmas card is the only photo decorating my room so far, so you all know that you have a special place in my heart!

Love, 

Hannah

Pictures from the beach (I go almost every weekend, since it's only a 20 minute train ride away!) with my roommate, Nina, who's from Brazil, and a friend, Thomas, from France. 

got a loverly call from selena, who has inspired me to start inundating you guys with hilarious videos.
POST 1

Lashisse from Molly Sims

be your own hero

Hi guys,
So my apartment still kind of smells like mothballs (we are trying to get rid of our pantry moths). On the upside, I got loads and loads of sleep this weekend. Missing my kids at Amherst and not-at-Amherst a lot. It's true about city life being lonely amidst the crowd.
I found a pretty sweet Russian grocery store called Bazaar in allston which stocks decently priced fresh veggies and deliciously odd russian chocolates. I'm heading in to the office (on a Saturday!) to do some work that I had forgotten to bring home (but then again, they do say 'don't bring your work home with you', right?). And then, hell, I might even go to the gym (I HAVE to use it, it's free!).
Also, went to see Whip It yesterday with Emily...got a free t-shirt. It was nice, I didn't expect to be getting any more free t-shirts after Amherst.