August/September Update

We haven't posted anything in over a month! Here is a brief update:

We got to Chicago after leaving Shannon and were picked up by our friend Tom and spent a day or so with Tom and Emily. Then we went to Boston to see Keith and go to Julia's wedding. The wedding was beautiful. Julia was precisely my idea of the ideal bride: dark gleaming hair, pale flushed skin and a radiant smile. It was lovely. Also at the wedding was my other roommate from Ireland, Erin! She's living in Cork now (amazing!) and I said to make sure she comes to London and we'll try to make it over to Cork this year. I'm really excited about it.

Hanging out with Keith was really nice too. We got to see Harvard and in Boston we saw the Kennedy Presidential Library, which I thought was excellent (but made only two rather oblique references to a certain incursion into foreign territory). We also went to what we thought was the oldest pub in America... 50 minutes later we walked out and Keith goes, "No, wait, THERE'S the oldest pub in America!" i.e. across the street. We made it back there though, because we walked almost ALL of the Boston Freedom Trail and made a pit stop there for beer (a great colonial American tradition, after all.)


We flew back to Chicago and were picked up by my sister and then drove back to Iowa City. Since then we have been having a wonderful time enjoying our hometown. It's really nice to see our friends and families again. We have been to Minneapolis once to see Knifeblade and Erica and stay in their new house. We also had the amazing good fortune to be up there at the same time as and get to see Rob and Aaron from the old ISU days. It was a great time and we had some great food in various restaurants KB and Erica took us to.

We also attended Tom and Emily's wedding which took place out at a farm south of Iowa City. The ceremony was on the front lawn, and it was a very small ceremony, and of course Matt and I were late and had to drive past the whole congregation in the middle of the ceremony. Very embarrassing, but we were driving my mom's red convertible which everyone afterwards said made for quite an entrance. The ceremony, once we joined it, was absolutely beautiful. It was a Quaker ceremony (T and E are not Quakers, but their good friend who officiated the wedding is, so they did a Quaker ceremony) and it included a segment where people got to shout out and say stories and offer good wishes to the couple. It was absolutely beautiful. The weather was beautiful, Tom and Emily were very happy, and we were all very happy to see it and to be there. It was also fantastic because we got to see T and E of course, but also KB and E, and Peter and Patricia and Marcie and Anna, and we played Taboo with a drunken KB, which was hilarious and heartbreaking. (He actually gets better the drunker he is, how???!) Matt and I had fantastic night, and a cold drive home in the convertible.

Other than those outstanding events, Matt and I have mostly been working, working, working. I am in an LSAT Kaplan prep course, which I absolutely recommend, if you're interested. Matt is applying for jobs and sorting us out for going back to London. We are, by the way, going back to London. I am starting my master's degree in human rights. M is still looking for a job, but he's got at least one interview when he gets there! Matt is going back on the 17th, to look for an apartment for us and keep job hunting. I am not going back until the 23rd. The 24th is the start of an induction program for a week and classes start on October the 1st. That is the plan. This is Thursday and Matt leaves next Monday! I leave the following Friday!

We are excited to go back to London, especially to see Gary, Gareth and Gar, Kirsten, Deb, Micky, Julia, Evan, the economics kids, beautiful Cambridge, fantastic London, the river Thames, the english autumn sky, Tesco's, etcetera. But we have really enjoyed being home. We're coming back at Christmas this year though!

Matt is out of town today, he's in Chicago getting us our visas! I got to stay home because I'm a good whiner and I had work to do. And boy did I work. I spent all day at the Java House or public library hitting my books hard. Tomorrow is another day just like today and the next day and the next and the next, up until September 29th when I will take a test that will determine the rest of my life. I really should go study.