Mountain Day!

sent:

[sadly, this isn't from mountain day, but a trip the B2 girls & company made out to vermont for Fall Break our senior year. in a similar way to Mt. Day, there was lots of bonfires, apple-picking, sheep-shearing, and maple syrup eating and canoeing to be had]

reasoning:

Happy Mountain Day! i still remember my first year of college, when the bells rang at 7AM, and Lizz and my neighbor, NaLee – who we love – ran around the halls, banging on everyone’s door and signing her “it’s Mountain Day” song.  i have no doubts she was adorable doing her little dance, but we wanted to kill her even though we were too tired to actually get up and do so. during my time at Smith, i was always swamped with work, and suffering from sleep deprivation that i didn’t actually do much on the days of Mountain Day. but now that i’ve been out for almost 2 years, I miss having Mountain Day so much. Just over the weekend, I was thinking of how good some apple cider & cider donuts would taste right now. there’s talks of a trip into Maryland for some apple picking this weekend. this is probably going to be the closest and best opportunity for me to pretend that i’m still in school, and idyllic New England.

B2 reunion in Colorado

just came back from a long weekend in Winter Park, Colorado.

Jen and I went to visit our rockstar culinary Shana who’s cooking in kitchens and snowboarding every chance she gets. [photos by JH]

we went for her 23rd birthday

along the way, we fought off nature,

warmed ourselves by a bonfire,

attempted to bake,

and french-braid,

but mostly caught up on sleep.Indy, the cutest dog ever, joined us one ridiculously lazy afternoon

but quickly resume drinking.

one great thing about winter park, CO: $1 shots

there are perhaps too many pictures of these, i claim the right one, jen has the left

it was a good time had by all.

Colorado was beautiful, it was nice to go someplace where everyone knew everybody, food was delicious (homemae bagels, which you can’t even get in DC!), drinks were cheap and people just hung out to chill and have a good time. it was a most relaxing, gluttonous and fun reunion. i really like how much we’ve stayed in touch, and made an effort to see each other after graduation, despite all of us living in different places of the country and the world. these are the girls i’m hoping to open the B2 bakery/bar with – Shana in the kitchen, Jen having designed the space, and me being the bar, of course.

Smithie lifts over 110G from NY millionaire

sent:

New York Post “Banker Beauty in ‘Inside Job’“

reasoning:

ouch. what can i say? smithies > we work hard and party hard, too? this picture on the NY Post page is very smithie: cute, she loves to bake, but she can steal yourmoney or balls right from under you, and is ruthless in her reasonings why. BUT i must say that robin katz isn’t representative of most smithies once in the real world? i think robin katz’s behavior isn’t representative of what most people once in the real world. thievery of this expensive proportions is almost always tied to compulsive lying > the first excuse is ‘i need to pay my bills”. lifting over 110G from an account to pay your bills speaks to the ridiculous cost of your bills.  while excessive debt can be for student loans, bankruptcy, or a bad business deal, more often it’s that you are spending beyond your means towards luxury. we can get so greedy and feel impervious when we are so young. it sucks she’ll be going from glam NY-investment banker life to jail and fines very soon. thanks to TSC for the story.

philadelphia set me right

recipient:

American Express/ PO Box 31511/ Salt Lake City, UT 84131-9934

sent:

Postcard for Tattooed Mom’s in Philadelphia

reasoning:

went up to Philadelphia this weekend for another Smithie-reunion. this was with a different group from my usual, but one of my favorites. i stayed with GS in her beautiful colonial house in the suburbs, just 20min. outside the city. her mother said i could stay with them, if i ever moved back into the city. i had a particularly difficult week in DC, and was so tempted to give up and move into their cozy home. as soon as the bus landed in philadelphia, it felt friendlier. i know that i can’t expect to have DC to be home right away, but i guess i was hoping for an easier transition into this new city, and new life. 

anyways, a rundown of the weekend with RB, GS, and AHH ” smithies-in-philly-style”:

• Tattooed Mom’s – favorite new bar on south street. dum-dums on the table, solid drink specials, pierogies, and funly decorated. bartender was an ass, though. 
• The Expressive Hand – paint your own pottery. i have an adorable hippo and a small transformer robot  being fired in the kiln as i write this. 
• Shooting Range – yeah, we went from painting our own pottery to giggling while we attempt to shoot the male target in the balls. oh smith lesbians, how i love thee. never shot a gun before, definitely need more practice, but i think i like it….
• Tamarind Thai Restaurant – vegetable green curry on rice, yum.
• every sex shop on South Street: condom kingdom, the mood, erogenous zone. slutty halloween costumes everywhere. 
• Woody’s – right across from my favorite martini bar, Bump. strong drinks, euro techno neon 80s videos everywhere, and men with 8-packs swinging from side to side in brightly colored spandex boyshorts. 

this was just what i needed to rejuvenate my spirit and make me trust in humanity again. seriously. while it is tempting to just pack up and move into philadelphia already, the city gave me a good enough break to give this city of DC an honest chance. i’m going to help paint a community mural, sign up for capoeira classes, and start riding a bike around. i’m going to learn to like this place! at least for the remainder of my lease. and then maybe move back to philadelphia.

Dora Chen ’38, AC ’73, Smith Medalist ‘81

***i’ve made it to DC! woo – interning at the Migration Policy Institute, sleeping on a friend’s couch, eating frozen dinners, ogling bike messengers, finding independent coffeeshops, and walking everywhere *** 

recipient:

Relevant Magazine/ PO Box 11687/ St. Paul, MN 55111-9913

sent:

Dora Chen’s story from the Smith College Grecourt News Gate

reasoning:

usually much of the Smith Grecourt News is ‘cheesy, smithie love, we’re so great and full of traditions, young women who are changing the world’ ness Smith propaganda. but Dora Chen is as inspiring and admirable as they get. she got to go to college in the 1930s, but had to leave when her mom married her off to a history and political science professor at St. John’s University in Shanghai. but then the cultural revolution happened – her husband was sent to prison, her sons sent to work, and she found herself living in an apartment with lots of other people, and completely poor. but the goodness of smithies gathered to bring her back to America, and she finished her degree as an Ada Comstock scholar in 1973. said for what Smith did for her: “To think differently, to not restrain myself. I am in America, I am free. The chains that bound me as a Chinese woman are gone. I don’t think I would have liberated myself. Smith did that for me.” as if she hasn’t been through enough, Dora now has lung cancer. but somehow her outlook speaks of a wisdom only someone who has gone through what she has can say, “how many people can boast such a wonderful life?” stories like this always humble the young, cynical and emo me – i complain a lot and my my life really isn’t that bad, and probably will never be that bad.  this makes me believe that the Smithie resilience and spirit does exist in some of us.

the chef who was a spy

recipient:

Honda Information Center/ 1152 W. Lake St, Ste B/ Salt Lake City, UT 84119-9803

sent:

Postcard from the National Women’s History Museum, along with NY Post article “Julia Child a Spy“

reasoning:

my brief internet search has been giving me mixed results, so i’m not sure if this is breaking news. but tomorrow, the CIA is going to release about 750,000 pages detailing the names of military and civilian operatives who were involved in an extensive spy ring for the US during World War II. they worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), an earlier form of the now CIA, studying military plans, creating propaganda and infiltrating enemy ranks - the very definition of a national spy in a wartime situation. 

while I’m sure the “French” chef, Julia Child, wasn’t exactly trading secrets b/w the US and France, that would have been the perfect cover b/c it’s so seemingly obvious that no one would suspect. i think this only adds to her legend, and her grandeur.

my date with the city

recipient:

O, the Oprah Magazine/ PO Box 7831/ Red Oak, IA 51591-4831

sent:

Taqueria Nacionale business card

reasoning:

there’s an episode of sex and the city where all of carrie’s love relationships are going wrong, but one thing she can depend on for company is New York City, her constant boyfriend. while the dry cleaners are never open, there are movie theaters, museums, beautiful parks, and cheap but delicious food to take part in. by yourself. you definitely have to be in a comfortable and confident mood to take on seemingly social activities alone, but when all the components are there, it’s a wonderful, warm and fuzzy feeling. i like the anonymity of cities, but also if you seek out the cultural opportunities, and talk to random strangers, the city can embrace you, like an old friend. it can also screw you over royally in so many ways, but i had a good day today, so let’s stick with the warm and fuzzy.

i made a new friend in AG today, she’s the friend of Lost with Eve’s older sister and works at The Campus Kitchen Project. she bought me lunch at Taqueria Nacionale, one of the local joints right by the Capitol and Union Station. simple, cheap, and tasty. small corn tortillas, topped with either beans, chicken or steak, a bit of cilantro, add some spicy tomatillo green sauce and it’s scrumptious delicious. their fish tacos and yucca fries are awesome. we sat on the grass underneath a tree, and AG told me about her past job experiences, and gave me recommendations on job search books.

Cafe Spice, Philadelphia

recipient:

TIME/ PO Box 61120/Tampa, FL 33661-1120

sent:

Cafe Spice business card/35 S. 2nd St/ Philadelphia, PA 19106/ (215)627-6273

reasoning:

on my night in the city with my Smith girls, SL, elizadoessmith, and theonlylivinggirl, due to some traveling difficulties, finally managed to get dinner at 10PM. we were in Old City, i found this sweet Omni hotel, right by Independence Hall and Liberty Bell. too starved to travel, we ventured outside to find all the young beautiful people out, walking the street in nicely ironed collared button-downs, or 3-inch heels. we couldn’t decide where to eat – it was a combination of being desperate to just have food to scarf down/make it a good experience that we’d go back to again and also be outside in the city with all the beautiful people we, one day, aspire to be. the weather was amazing, probably 70 with a warm breeze, i’ve never known summer night weather to be so nice.

we decided upon this place with some outdoor seating under some wood scaffolding. looked a bit renovaty, a bit warehouse-y, i figured simple, good clean food with a modernist touch. it turned out to be Cafe Spice, a delicious Indian food restaurant where the plates are huge, and loaded with tons of tasty dishes on each, no matter what you get. the only problem was with drinks, water glasses, and the enormous plates, our table was too small to hold everything. but we juggled and moved items around, . anything would have tasted good at that time of night, but i’m certain this place is delicious at normal mealtimes as well. nice list of specialty cocktails and drinks, they came in gorgeous, large flute glasses, and followed the essential rule of a good cocktail: tasty delicious with just a hint of alcohol. mine had gin, guava, and mango juice. at 11PM, the whole place changed, the restaurant closed, and the bar became the primary business, it was a bit awkward to sit amongst barfolk while trying to sip your cocktail and eat saag paneer at the same time. they have locations in NY right by NYU, NJ and this Philadelphia one. this place made me want to move into the city even more. i’m excited about DC, but i almost want to get the DC experience out of my system, so I can live and grow old in Philly. my only real issue is figuring out where the ideal place to live is: Old City, Chinatown, or Northern Liberties.

classroom teaching

recipient:

American Express/PO Box 31511/Salt Lake City, UT 84131-9934

sent:

Margaret Edson(‘83) 2008 Smith College Commencement Address

reasoning:

I finally graduated this Sunday, a day I honestly thought would never come, there were too many times when I considered dropping out, taking a year off, packing up and leaving. so that sunday, may 18th came, and i was allowed to sit in on commencement exercises, my name was in the booklet, and there was a diploma with my name on it, was amazing.

margaret edson’s commencement address started off slow, with almost too many dramatic pauses, probably given that she wrote Wit and is a kindergarten teacher.

Here’s an excerpt. from all the previous commencement speeches i’ve read, it definitely takes a fresh, different… and welcome approach.

We bring nothing into the classroom — perhaps a text or a specimen. We carry ourselves, and whatever we have to offer you is stored within our bodies. You bring nothing into the classroom — some gum, maybe a piece of paper and a pencil: nothing but yourselves, your breath, your bodies.

 Classroom teaching produces nothing. At the end of a class, we all get up and walk out. It’s as if we were never there. There’s nothing to point to, no monument, no document of our existence together.

   But the work you graduates have done was in the classroom with your teachers.
That’s the miracle of today.
Why don’t we talk about it?
Because it doesn’t show up.
There’s not a bar graph for classroom teaching. There’s no data for classroom teaching, and yet it persists this year and the next year and the year after that.

 But the reality that is neither shouting nor training is classroom teaching.
Nobody can touch it because nobody can point to it.
You have it forever.
When it grows inside you, it’s doing its work.

vacay with the Vanderbilts and Oprah

recipient:

O, The Oprah Magazine/PO Box 7186/Red Oak, IA 51591-0186

sent:

Guide to The Breakers, and a map of Newport, Rhode Island

Reasoning:

this is the first vacation i’ve ever really had, where i’ve felt like i’m on vacation.  i guess all my other times i’ve been with my parents, or i’ve had books, school, and impending work to think about.  but this has been the first time where i’ve felt like i could really relax, for more than 2 days. it’s an amazing feeling, i want to get a job where i’ll work hard, but make enough money to take time off to do this. again. on, if anything, a bi-annual basis.

The Breakers are the most famous of all the Newport, Mansion.  it was built for Cornelius Vanderbilt II, great-grandfather to Anderson Cooper. it’s an amazing house, just talking the tour makes it hard to deny that money can buy you fabulous things, and it made it just a bit harder to hate rich people because while the Vanderbilts lived well, they earned that money, worked hard during their life, and gave considerably.

The mansion was built by Richard Morris Hunt in 1893, it took just over 18 months to complete, and has 70 rooms.  the coolest part are the two levels in the back of the house that open up to the atlantic ocean. Amazing.

We want to have a Smith reunion there, where we’d throw a grand ball in the front lobby, and invite everyone we’ve ever met to sleep in the gabillion beds, and then take bikes and rollerblades around the second floor hallway, that circles around the first floor ballroom, turning it basically into a roller rink track. the butler used to give the children the silver serving trays, so they could ride down the stairs, we’re going to do that, too.

I think Oprah should do a travel show to Newport, she can eat some Quahog clams, dance on the pier, shop in all the boutiques with $500 dresses, and then Anderson Cooper, who has an almost disturbingly remarkable resemblance to his great grandfather, can give her a tour of his family’s summer home.