This has been a crazy week of highs and lows, and I'm not just talking about the weather! Now that I've typed that, I realize that you can't actually see me leaning forward and winking. It's a joke that really only works with the visual effect. And, with being present in Boston....Well, I guess that's one way to start my fifty-first entry.
Despite that bad joke, it really has been a week to remember. It started fine with me kicking my training into high gear. With only 63 days until we hit the road, there's really no time to waste (and that goes for fundraising, too. If you haven't yet, will you please consider donating to the cause?). My training schedule has me either cycling or running six days a week, which has kicked my metabolism up a notch as well. Basically, I've been eating anything and everything constantly. Lots of black beans in this girl's diet at the moment.
My coursework seems to have entered a particularly intense phase lately as well. I spend almost the entirety of my weekend reading and writing for class, followed by a whirlwind of a Monday through Wednesday shoving information into my tiny brain. I'm enjoying the majority of my reading and almost all of my class time, but it has definitely lost the shiny quality school had a few months ago.
At the height of the intensity of courses and training on Wednesday morning, I got a flat tire. On my new bike. While my other bike was in the shop for a flat tire. I was devastated. There is something about the way a bike with a flat makes that dull thud sound that just rips my soul open. I cannot even begin to describe the utter horror of that moment of realization--not a flat! Of course, I had waited until the absolute last second to leave my apartment to go to school, so I was completely stressed out of my head. Piled on top of that was my general exhaustion from training and the long trek toward spring (every time I think we've arrived, it seems there is another snow storm around the bend. I've come to believe spring doesn't exist in Boston).
In the midst of juggling classes, training, and work, I got involved with a protest. This weekend a conference was organized on Harvard's campus that featured some of the most virulently homophobic and Islamophobic speakers I've ever had the great pleasure of meeting. I stood alongside many peers and friends from the Divinity School, the Extension School, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences to educate, raise awareness, and hold the speakers and the conference organizers responsible. We even got our letter published on Change.org. It was a hugely challenging and monumentally rewarding effort that involved a less than friendly interaction with the police (but I guess that's what happens when you represent a threat to the authoritative structures).
Now that I've drawn the concentric circles of my week, I can tell you about the nugget in the middle. I was awarded a grant to work in the UK at the East of England Faiths Council from mid-June through the end of August! I am so excited about the work I will be doing there (which includes research and outreach, duh, my two favorite things) and the people I will be getting to work with. Furthermore, I think spending a summer trying my hand at this will give me a chance to see if this is work I could do on a full-time scale. And, who doesn't want to spend a summer with the Brits? Think of all the tea I'll drink!
Don't worry about Ace. He'll be spending the summer learning and growing in Colorado with Aunt Chloe and Cousin Barney. I think he'll be glad to be away from the Bostonian humidity and heat (if we were both going to be here for the summer, I was going to shave him...which probably would have been hilarious).
I've got quite a summer ahead of me it seems. There's a lot to do between now and then, but for the rest of this weekend, I plan on basking in the excitement. And, maybe looking up the rules to Settlers of Catan so I can beat Hunter and Tex next time we play.
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