The Riverlands

So this is the first official posting of my new blog, the Riverlands. I decided to name it after an old website I had in middle school, back when I had the time to do things like maintain personal websites. It was and is a sort of joint reference to the Tucson valley (hey, they’re _sometimes_ rivers, sort-of rivers, in a deserty sort of way) and Rivendell from _Lord of the Rings_.
I am safely ensconced as of Thursday evening with my old high school friends Allison and Susannah at Pika House, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they are currently both studying to be geeks. Just kidding!!! Actually, Pika House–a kind of cooperative student living project–is pretty cool. The people here are really nice and _impressively_ studious–I mean, seriously, guilt-inflictingly, all-day-Saturday-and-most-of-Sunday-hitting-the-books studious, and it’s been very inspiring. I’ve actually begun working on that Altaic paper I’ve been neglecting all summer! I’m planning to get up early tomorrow and just write all day until the thing is _done_ with. Then I will actually be able to enjoy Boston.

I have, by the way, I think, developed a very deep and lifelong friendship with this city, and I have officially added it to my list of “cities to live in for at least one year” (along with Saint Sebastian in Spain, Portree on Skye, London and maybe Budapest and one of an assortment of small villages in the mountains of Transylvania.) The culture here is _fantastic_, which comes, I suppose, of having like 30 colleges and universities. Or maybe it just comes of having a population of 3.5 million (maybe more, I don’t remember,) not counting tourists. At any rate, there is _always_ something going on–concerts, ballets, museum exhibits, plays–and I have decided that I _have_ to be here for at least one Independence Day, the celebrations of which rival even those in D.C. After all, the Revolution _started_ here.

I say MIT has been just a little bit depressing, mostly because walking around campus with my friends has made me realize just what it means to go to a university with _money_. It makes such a huge difference. I mean, you can argue that the U of A isn’t a bad school, and in some areas it isn’t, but the fact simply remains that MIT’s _History_ department is never going to have to hold a used book sale to raise funds, is never going to have three years go by without a Medievalist because they can’t afford to fund one. Their English department is never going to be lacking someone to teach Victorianist classes. And MIT doesn’t even specialize in those things–they’re basically just extras they offer for broad-minded students! And then there’s just the plain fact that _nobody really cares_ that you are studying Medieval history at the U of A. You’re not going to get to make a presentation on the Galapagos to the President of Nicaragua just because your U of A undergraduate class did a research project on the topic. Having the name of a major institution attached to you just opens all kinds of doors. The point is, school in Arizona suddenly seems very limiting, sort of stifling and depressing, because I keep thinking, “You know, I could have gone to the University of Virgina, or Boston College. I could have had this.” Of course, I _also_ could have been in debt up to my eyeballs and probably not gotten to travel nearly as much, which sort of makes up for missing out, but I find the internal pressure is beginning to mount to get into a decent, probably privately-funded, Ivy-League-type grad school, if for nothing else than the opportunities it’ll bring. (I’m still aiming for Oxford, of course; that’s never changed. But even if I don’t make it there, I have _got_ to get away from institutions like the U of A which is increasingly beginning to seem _very_ mediocre. Optical Engineering Department excluded, of course. <a wink to Awshie>)

This morning I went to church with Allison and Susa, and it was _really_ cool. I couldn’t believe the building when I saw it–it looked like some kind of small Gothic cathedral. Apparently it used to be owned by the Catholic Church, and when they decided to sell it, they had all kinds of very powerful and rich bidders on it, including both MIT and Harvard. But at the last minute, they decided they wanted it to remain in the hands of a religious institution, and sold it to the Vineyard (which had far outgrown the cafeteria it used to meet in) for a pittance. It was absolutely gorgeous–stained glass, frescoes, sculpted paneling, huge pipe organ, the works. I love churches like that. It was also really neat to be at a church where 75% of the congregation was under 30. I have _never_ been to a church with so many young people.

Then, this afternoon, Susa took me out boating on the Charles River. She and Allison are both on the MIT sailing team. It was _tons_ of fun. We started out with her steering and me working the sail, and it was a little scary at first, even after she explained that yes, the sailboat is _supposed_ to list to one side, as it increases the speed. Then it got exciting. Then we switched and I took the rudder, and it got…shall we say…_really_ exciting. A little over-the-top exciting, actually, especially when we crashed into that other boat–embarrassing, for that matter–and then a little dull, since I don’t seem to have any kind of innate talent for finding the wind, even with little strings on the sail lines to show you which way it’s blowing. Well, it was a really calm day, too, so it wasn’t _entirely_ my fault how much time we spent dead in the water. But I learned a lot, I think I actually _sort_ of understand how sails and rudders work now, or at least I have a vague inkling. And it was really beautiful–you get a great view of some of the best architecture in Boston and Cambridge from the river. I’m going to see if I can badger Allison into taking me out again tomorrow.

Boston, by the way, is cold. I am already wearing what I would consider January clothes, and it’s only September! I mean, the _leaves_ are changing, for crying out loud! What’s up with that?! And Spain is roughly the same latitude, so it gives me a pretty good idea what to expect from _there_, if not worse, since it’s also much higher in elevation.

My visa came, by the way, two weeks earlier than the Consulate had told me would be possible, so praise God! I’ll be leaving, then, a week from today, on Saturday the 22nd. My first class starts the 24th, although it’s basically just a seminar for international students; official classes start a week later, so I’ll have time to get settled in. (I need to bug them again about whether or not the dorms will be open. So far they haven’t answered my last inquiry. I think they’re all on vacation.) In general, I feel like I’m growing a lot, spiritually, already on this trip. There have been so many potential disasters just waiting to happen that it’s been a real exercise in faith, and for the first time in my life, I feel really able to trust God to take care of things. It’s kind of strange. I find I don’t know what to do with my brain when I’m not worrying about something.

I guess that’s about all the news from this end of the continent. I’m not reading anything particularly worth mentioning–actually, I’m trying to finish up Elizabeth Haydon’s rather disappointing second trilogy. I don’t know _why_ so many authors in general, but of fantasy in particular, feel obliged to ruin a very good, original story by dragging on with sequel after sequel, long after the characters have developed beyond any hope of further development, and usually resurrecting old plots that become very boring after a while. I don’t think I will read anything else of hers unless she gets some new characters. (Her world has so many potential stories! I don’t see why she couldn’t just leave her original set of characters be! The first trilogy ended very happily!) Other than that, I’ve been mostly immersed in Lonely Planet’s guidebook to Boston. And I don’t have my camera yet, so no pictures, but I should be getting it tomorrow and then I will show you lots of little images of life at Pika House and around Boston. I plan to walk the Freedom Trail on Tuesday, if the weather permits. (The Freedom Trail is a path through the city of all the principle historic sites relating to the Revolution, starting on Boston Commons and ending at the U.S.S. Constitution.) Wednesday I will try to go to Lexington and Concord to see where the war started and also Louisa May Alcott’s family house up there. Thursday I’m thinking Chinatown, the South End (the Irish quarter,) and shopping for a good winter coat. And Friday, who knows? (I’m saving the museums for when I come back in February and it’ll be far too cold and snowy to do anything outside.)