I am back on the Women's Crew team and I couldn't be happier! It was a tough decisions about whether or not to go back but I just couldn't stay away. My coach told me that there was about an 80% chance that I wouldn't come back -- you're a senior, really busy, writing your thesis, you're a year in the hole, you're OLD -- well, this miffed me, as I think he knew it would. SO, I'm back in a blaze of glory -- or, rather, a blaze of sore muscles.

This fall season, which is only five weeks, we are going to be focusing on skulling. Which means that we will be out in singles, I love this! Skulling is what you see in the cartoon above, using two oars, and sweep rowing is when you only have one oar each (what is normal for long boats). Being in a single really hones-in on your technique, it is much harder to stay balanced, therefore, requiring perfect form. They say with singles that there are those who have flipped and those who haven't flipped yet. I am terrified of flipping, mainly because I dread dark water. If you flip we say that you have joined the Chester River Swimming Club : )

I erged (rowed on a rowing machine -- an erg -- also what you see in the picture above) for the first time in a year and a half on Monday. Boy, that opened some old wounds. It's odd how you can keep in shape doing lots of things, running, biking, etc, but none of it will keep you in shape enough for erging! I'm all achy but happy.

Let's go WAC!

Flag on my campus green

Other states indicate themselves in their deputies...but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors...but always most in the common people. Their manners speech dress friendships -- the freshness and candor of their physiognomy -- the picturesque looseness of their carriage...their death-less attachment to freedom -- their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean -- the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states -- the fierceness of their roused resentment -- their curiosity and welcome of novelty -- their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy -- their susceptibility to a slight -- the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors -- the fluency of their speech -- their delight in music, the sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul...their good temper and openhandedness -- the terrible significance of their elections -- the President's taking of his hat to them not they to him -- these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it.

-Walt Whitman
Introduction to Leaves of Grass, 1855

Beauty that made this heart adore you!

What a glorious day, what a beautiful evening.

The sky was radiating blue and light, the sun was warm and the air was fresh and cool -- all sounds were muted and still. I went out to the campus green to indulge in some great literature. I am trying to rest and worship on the Sabbath this semester -- this means no work, meaning no procrastinating. God is so wise and creates these things for our own good and yet it is so hard to do them! So far I haven't had too much work yet I still feel the temptation to get some work done on Sunday. But what a relief and joy to just rest and breath! It took me nearly 2 hours to track down something readable in the library, that cozy haven.

Poetry: I love poetry and yet never read it. I think I was in a mind trap where I imagined I had to have sufficient time and energy to really absorb it and benefit from it. Thrown to the wind are all my cautions now -- just read. So I began Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. One word: brilliant.

I took time to breathe in the air: "strong and healthy!"

George and a lamppost



Still green tree
My kindred spirit, Tonie
The International House


"One thing I ask of the Lord,
this is what I seek: that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days
of my life,
to gaze upon the BEAUTY of the Lord and
to seek Him in His temple." Psalm 27:4

All four of us are in college at once. This must be a phenomenon.

The Day of the Grandparents

Isn't it fascinating how switching words changes the sense of a phrase? Grandparents' Day sounds so fifth grade sweet while The Day of the Grandparents sounds like a black and white horror film, "They're coming!!!"

Anyway, I am here to expound on the brilliantness of my Grandparents.

Unusually, I was able to spend Grandparents' Day with my Grandparents, my mom's parents. Even more unusual is that I knew that it was Grandparents' Day. If you're not careful it'll just sneak right by you, or in my case if you don't happen to be randomly reading the small print on your calendar then...another year passed. I went home for the weekend for some relaxation and peace. Sounds enchanting, no? Well, I arrived at my blessed home just as the sun was setting, the air was cooling and my delicious dinner was next to me on the car seat in a Food Lion bag just waiting to be prepared. Then, as I pulled into the driveway that lead weight, I- just-did-something-stupid feeling hit me. Some of you Prissies out there might not know what this feels like but, whoa, it sucks. What had I done? Not checked to see if I had a house key and I already knew that I probably didn't have one.

Sure enough, no amount of dumping my purse out and shifting through its contents would reveal a house key. I had not put it on my car keys because my father had expounded on the danger of keeping them together. He had failed to mention the emotional damage caused by not securely attaching it to your car keys. Second option? Check all the doors. Results? Unsuccessful. Third option? Check for hidden keys. There should have been one but my family is the type who uses some useful resource like that and then forgets to returns it for future victims of memory lapse. Frantic calls then ensued to all my family members, barring the one in North Dakota. However, true to form in an emergency, none of them answered. It wouldn't have matter though since I learned that all of them were out of the state! You will be pleased to know that I won't be entering a life of crime any time soon, at least not without some intensive training. I failed to remove the screen from my bedroom window (I knew my window was unlocked) and instead broke my car key. A broom stick through the cat door managed to turn the bolt key in the lock of the back door but since it would neither remove the key or turn the bottom lock this only left me bruised and tired.

Last option, cry hysterically. This was the only option that performed its purpose to the fullest.

An opportune call to Greg Sherwell was what saved the day. Of course, my Grandparents had a key! My dedicated and loving Grandparents happily dropped all that they were doing to drive their key over to Sarah Harr who was already coming down to stay the night. I had a Budweiser from the garage fridge while I was waiting which helped me to see the humor of my situation. The greatest sufferer in this episode was Flossie who ended up being in her kennel a total of 12 hours and on top of that thought that her house was being burgled for the last 2.


O.K. this was getting too wordy so I decided to inject some color interest.

Sunday, Grandparents' Day, is what I am really here to talk about. I went with my parents and my grandparents to a benefit for the Wellness Center. I love benefits. They are so chatty. This day just made me appreciate my grandparents over again. They are such neat people. They both love to learn knew things which isn't a small thing when you have experienced as many things as they have and know so much and yet they are always eager to learn. Also, they are amazingly generous -- they bought my ticket for the benefit! These pens, Flares, remind me of my grandpa. They have always had some of these lying about their house, or strike that, neatly sticking out of the pencil holder, and I have always loved to use them when I was visiting. I used to use them to write really "challenging" math problems for my grandpa which, no matter what, I always gave him a big, fat F for. He took that rather well.

So, they are marvelous. Lovely conversationalists which is a dying art. I love them.

NB: The top photo is just a random one that I took of a statue, I don't have any photos of the famous Mr. and Mrs. Harter.

Colored People

We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a holy grace

Meet the International students of Washington College. They are a "skin kaleidoscope," a sampling of the world. They are brimming with talent, personality, cultural habits and beautiful adventurous spirits! (Leah, Katie, Akin and I are the American student workers).


Sam's Played it Again café

*Leah, American *Jaques, South African * Katie, American *Carla, Peruvian *Zubair, Pakastani

South African wine. Sam's loves diversity, too

Katie, half Swedish and half Japanese

Jaques and Zubair

*Meryem, Moroccan. She speaks French, English, Spanish and her local Arabic dialect

*Min joo, South Korean

*Shota, Japanese

*Akin, American (from Libya) and Shota

All-Campus picnic

*Slavina, Bulgarian but lives in France *Maria, Italian

*Carla *Verena, German

*Zubair *Pierre, French

*Me, part outlaw hunter and part runaway aristocrat, according to legend

*Leonie is the other German girl

Rowena, English

There are others but I haven't got good pictures yet.