graduation

Graduation was a blur, albeit a lovely one. My mother and DWE were both there, along with my dear friends/fellow graduates, including E, M, H, JSOC, and many others that haven't been mentioned specifically on this blog but are wonderful people with whom I greatly enjoyed sharing the past two years. The ceremony was (mercifully) less than an hour and a half long, and the name-calling and stage-crossing part happened very quickly. All I really remember is that my friends cheered (and I cheered for them, of course) and that the woman reading the names pronounced my last name incorrectly (she made an "i" sound where there is clearly an "o"...it's a subtle difference, but it drives me crazy, as many of you know).


Most of the good pictures are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to wait until I get them from her to post them, but in the mean time here's a nice one of her and me, posing in the midst of the post-graduation mob.

The next day my mom and I did the tourist thing on one of DWE's double-decker buses (you know, 'cause he hooks me up with free tickets), did some quick shopping downtown, and had lunch at Pier 39. She headed back to Bakersfield that afternoon, at which point I transitioned into my Completely Unproductive and Inert phase, which lasted until late Sunday night. Since then I've done a couple of hours of grading (Intro Macro finals...my last USF obligation, if you don't count Ghana) and not much else. Tonight I went to a little shindig at a bar down in the Mission thrown by my pal and fellow IDEC-er JP (not to be confused with B's JP, although this one is French as well). JP and I are doing essentially the same research project this summer, only he's working in Chennai with IMED (he also spent Winter Break in Chennai doing yet a different project).

So once I finish grading the finals it's just packing up my apartment and getting ready for Ghana. In addition to travel preparation, JP and I need to come up with a draft of our survey, and I need to talk to the 1st-years that I'll be in Ghana with about logistical stuff. 3 and a half weeks to go...