Apocalypse of Light

 Last night Amanda and I heard clicking, hitting the glass. I opened the window and looked down. “Oh sorry, I was throwing stones at the totally wrong window”. After that we went to the annual surrealist circus show. Hordes of people sat on the grass on the hill sloping down from manor. Our fellow students biked and did contact dancing naked and half-naked to the rhythms of strange music, fiery glows and stories about the Apocalypse of Light.

Today I went to an Orcapelicans concert (Bard a capella group) because Megan and a few seniors I know were singing.  Wednesday Britt came.

A week ago I had a dream I was in the Midwest. I could feel that I was far away from the ocean, I saw a view from a above and suddenly I came down and was in the car with Папа, on the way to pick up my brothers from someone’s house. Then I thought “where is Мама?” and suddenly remembered she was dead. It made me so sad I woke up. But then a few minutes later I was asleep again. I was back in the car, and it happened again. And again.

Two Flights

Saturday I spent a lot of time looking up flights to Moscow (and doing work), and then I went to the first floor of the library. I found Jack and we went to a show at the Root Cellar. Sycamore, a Bard punk-pop band was playing.  Adrienne/Alana/Cat+ were there as well; mason jar of something strong in hand. They had a good energy.

Jack and I we headed to Manor after picking up the emergency driving phone from security and our things from the library, and Jeff at Manor Annex. We heard that the Social Club and the Formal Club had pooled a lot of money and had fancy food. Jeff entered and scurried out as quickly as he could.

When I entered I felt disoriented. There was a girl in a leotard suspended by a ribbon from the ceiling, and a few other girls around her, blowing bubbles. Everyone was dressed up; top hats, spectacles, flowing dresses, ruffled shirts. The music reminded me of the Great Gatsby, to the point where I felt a flash of the misery under all the drunken partying, and could almost see the flash of green across the water. In reality everyone was actually having fun, this wasn't the constant partying of adults in the 20's. The food was gone so Jack and I drank some St. Pellegrino and ate what was left of the grapes, but I heard rumors of quail, consumed ravenously. Ajax (the boy from the train) Kelsey and Zappa and co. were there as well. Then this girl came out and started doing an old-fashioned strip-tease (she was wearing with a garter belt and a corset). Soon after a tall guy came out in his underwear and clown face-paint and danced for us too¹. Then the back room was opened and there were tables loaded with candy. A giant gummy bear lay in a bed of truffles, bowls filled with licorice and tootsie rolls and people swarmed. After that the dance floor was open to all. We danced; the music demanded foxtrot, samba and the twist.

1 This is when I realized that the party had a lot of overlap with the Surrealist Training Circus and the Burlesque Club.

Sunday there was Midnight breakfast, which involved karaoke. I left as soon as I had my French toast though, I had to paint. At some point I was working at the library and the beer ninja’s came, handing out free cans of cold Budweiser. Slowly everyone left campus. Friday Mama bought my ticket to Moscow. Some girl from Ukraine hear me talking on the phone and started talking to me in Russian, and then asked me if I knew anyone who would write her essay for her if she paid them, and talked about all the fur things she owns.
My last night Hannah and I read Wallace Stevens out loud to each other while drinking tea. Saturday morning I dropped by Adrienne dorm to say bye; she’s going to Ghana for a semester. Eames drove me home and that’s where I was until now².  

2 Hint: I’m currently at the JFK airport, waiting.

At 12am on Monday night my parents and I got to the Christmas scene in the movie Meet Me in St. Louise. Osya had really wanted to do the American-Jewish thing of getting Chinese take-out and going to the movies, and though we didn’t do the former, Mama took all of us to watch the Hobbit. Christmas Day we went for a walk around Newbury St.

Last night around six I finally started packing. I feel like I'm going bearing gifts to half the population of Moscow. Osya said that the balance of the family is off when I’m gone (and then proceeded to repeat the word ‘guilt’ over and over). Shimon was being troublesome about going to bed until I realized that I was leaving, and he wanted me to go through the night-rituals, rather than someone else. Stubborn sweet.

I finished packing after one and woke up at four. Папа kindly drove me to Logan Airport to be on the plane by 6. 

The Vote! so far.

The results are coming in! This is what I've been keeping track of, mostly because this is where my vote counted. Plus electoral count. It's 163:163 now.
Manor Hall is filled with people and food (cookies and chips and ice-cream) and Walter Mead and a projector screen which has been flickering between different news sites.

черновик

I'm currently working on my first history essay. The rough draft (isn't черновик such a good word? I know it comes from черно but I always think of черви; worm-eaten version) that's due on Wednesday. I should also start studying for my first exam; child psych, on Thursday.

I have all that to do so of course I'm writing here. Alana and I and a friend of her's broke fast for Yom Kippur at Tastebudds. Adrienne came too. It  had been a while since I'd gotten off campus, except for  when I went to Redhook to go to the farmers market, only to find out it's on Saturdays, not Sundays.

Saturday I went to Tivoli to the street painting festival. They blocked off a street and used a paint-roller to make blocks of white and black, which were then drawn on with chalk pastels. I think what impressed me the most was the fact that all age groups came out. Little kids, pre-teens, teens, middle-aged and the those with more white in their hair. I tried to do work with Amanda and Lila at Murry's (mmm, food, simple grilled cheese and soup). After Amanda and I went back to her place, I had a headache and fell asleep on her bed for two hours. It rained soon after, and it was the full moon on Saturday.
When I was leaving from Tivoli, Amanda mourned the chalk drawing that were now becoming clouds of dust under the wheels of the trucks riding over them. "But imagine" I said "how pretty the rain first drops will be."

There was something going on at both Manor and Smog Saturday night, I barely stopped at either but many many other people did. Jeremy Gardner was right in his "How I Learned to Stop Hating and Love the Shuttle" article: the fact that the shuttle to Tivoli is less flexible has left Bard campus a more lively place. 

home again

yesterday's lunch

few things that happened at Bard that I hadn't mentioned: I went to the clay studio with Sumedah, attended Page's birthday party, went to the block party (second night of Spring Fling), had a lovely birthday brunch with Clea and Britt, and the night before it rained so we sat around, dressed up watching Daria. Adrienne organized a birthday dinner, Hannah Jo Will and Suyog came over, and it was really nice. I watched Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with Page and Eames one of my last nights, when most people had left. 
Baccalaureate was sweaty, the chapel isn't meant for that many people, but otherwise the weird mixture reading from the Torah, Koran and Bible, along with Jazz singing, modern dance and speeches, made for it to be a lot less boring than it was traditionally. The recycled polyester robes were compensated by the fact that the majority of the people there where seniors excited to graduate.




But otherwise I am home.
Home as in went with my mom when she dropped Shimon off at wrestling, and helped my dad carry bed frames up and down the stairs from room to room. Listened to Yosef complain about how tired he is and how pointless middle school is, and spinning Shimon upside-down.

cuddle

So last weekend was finished off as follows:
I met up with Amanda and Lila/Lia/Liz at a party Lia's suite-mate was having.
Proportions: 20 girls and one gay guy.
We didn't stay for long.
We stopped by Kline because there was a weird speakeasy-themed party. People were dressed up: female performs in lingerie and males with tilted hats. Enough of the guests were dressed up that I felt a bit like the guy from Midnight in Paris with my modern-day-dress.
We briefly bumped into Clea and Britt, who dropped us off back in Lila's new dorm (she moved, and currently has a dingle (double used a single because only one person is living in it)
and star-gazed at the glow-in-the-dark stars on her ceiling and cuddled.
Amanda and I went back to the village around 2am.

additionally: Had breakfast with Jo yesterday, which was nice since we don't see each other often...Went to do hw with Ari's (was in her dorm in Manor for the first time)....Amanda dropped by to say goodbye last night and the night before I had a late-dinner with Andres (finally! he is elusive sometimes.) I also went to the freestore with Britt and found a pair of gray skinny jeans, after that we went to CVS to get floss, the most exciting item in the world.

drew landscapes outside for drawing when it wasn't windy. Really nice to just sit outside and draw.

We were supposed to watch Magnolia with Clea, Shivi, Armaan and Britt, but I left because it seems like a really good movie and I was just too tired to process it to the extent I want to, so I only saw the first 10 min.

leaving today at 7:30 with Jack. Still have to pack/clean my room but I have enough time.

this was fun

Last Thursday I took out my braids, and Britt dressed me up as if it were the 90's, crimped hair and plaid, and we watched Clueless. Then at some point later in the week  I made banana bread,

which turned out really well (I doubled the recipe and made it in a cake pan.)  

Friday Anna organized an ecoreps event where we made a really good salad. There was also a screening for a movie, but since the salad was my lunch and dinner it needed to be supplemented with something else, so I went to get more food. Here's the recipe:

Lentil Salad:

(on the recipe it said it should take 30-40min to prepare, and this is a recipe for 6 servings

Ingredients:
1 cup lentil
2 cups of water

1 cup of dry bulgur weat
2cup of boiling water

The dressing:
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 medium garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of oregano
2 tbs freshly minced mint
2 to 3 tbs freshly minced dill
fresh black pepper to taste

(Ingredients to chop
1/4 cup freshly minced parsley(packed)
1/3 cup red onion
1 small bell pepper diced
1/2 stalk celery finely minced
(half a cup crumbling feta)
1 medium sized tomato, diced
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
(+squeezable wedges of lemon for garnish)

cook the lentils and the bulgar, let them cool.

Chop everything else. Add all the chopped ingredients (apart from the tomatoes) to the bulgur. Add the lentils. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together and add to the mix. Add the tomatoes.



Then Saturday we tried to track down a party (Shivalika, Clea, Britt, Tamding, Armaan and a few others). We went to smog at like, 10:30 because Shivi had a friend who was djing there, danced it up in the empty space. When we tried to go to manor around 1am the party had already broken down, and we headed back to smog (just me, Britt and Cindy, who we kidnapped from her dorm on the way) it was totally empty, just the djs-very eery. So we didn't find anything, but it was still fun.

Tuesday I had breakfast at Manor for the first time, and my shoe broke on the way to neuro so I went to nuero and research methods barefoot. Amanda and Meg kept calling me a hippie, I had a long flowy skirt and everything.
Two nights ago I went for a night photo escapade with my tripod. I've always had this frustration with night photography that the camera can't capture what you see. It goes like this: Camera! You know there's a face there! stop being so blurry!
But with a tripod it can compound all the information it is getting, and see more than a human. It's awesome.

Stargon at night

also last night when I was walking back to my dorm, I saw a couple guys go into the woods. I was really confused as to where they were trying to get to that way until I heard peeing.