An End and A Beginning

Hello everyone, and apologies for my long absence from writing. The second half of the semester had considerably more papers than the first, and I had to direct most of my writing impetus to that end. However, it is now Christmas break and I have no responsibilities for several weeks. My desire in this post is to review the latter half of the fall semester, but I'm afraid I'm too far removed from it to recall it really well. Gosh, that makes me sound like I have amnesia. However, I will try to recall some events from the semester. For our Fall Tour the Glee Club took a rather convoluted route between stops in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. It was certainly not the most inspiring itinerary, but most of that can be blamed on the football schedule, which had two home football games on the Saturdays of Fall Break. The tour began with a day trip to Warsaw (I think), Indiana, where we performed for an elderly but appreciative audience. Then we returned to Notre Dame for the night, an odd interlude that made it seem like the tour hadn't really begun. The next day we drove to Wisconsin, where Pete Dolan impressed everyone with his knowledge of local history, most of which was actually very interesting, keeping in mind that I came to college a history major. We also were treated to a tour of the Miller brewery, capped off by three free samples in their tap room. The volume of beer produced there daily is astounding.

After that we began criss-crossing the upper Midwest, I believe we drove by Chicago three times without stopping. Nothing too special stands out, except for a swine flu scare in Illinois and nice day touring Grand Rapids, Michigan. They had a competition that involved artists using public space to display their work, with some surprising results, like the giant table and chairs on one of their bridges.

The rest of the semester went very well for the most part, as I realized that I was entering my final weeks at Notre Dame before leaving until next fall. The football season, however, went downhill fast after our "home" football game against Washington State, which in fact took place in San Antonio. I'm not sure about the new policy of playing one game a year at a distant location, I would rather schedule another home and away series or a neutral site game against a quality opponent. At least we won the game, but then promptly lost the next four games, including our second straight senior game loss, this year to Connecticut. I'm a bit worried about my last home game as a student, which will be against Utah next November.

Although we lost our second straight home game to Navy, the rest of that weekend went very well. My parents, grandparents, and sister all visited, the Glee Club had their triennial reunion, and on Friday night I went to the Navy Ball with a lovely young woman named Maya, who proved herself to be an excellent dancer. I suppose that isn't too surprising for someone who grew up in Rome. Unfortunately I had to miss the Reunion concert that night, but it was certainly worth it. Then on Sunday I visited Chicago with my family on my sister's birthday, where we ate a wonderful but huge Greek dinner that left us barely capable of waddling back to the hotel.

I wasn't able to return home for Thanksgiving, but I still had a great time in South Bend. On Thanksgiving day I joined Robbie, Jessica Mannen, and some other friends for dinner, followed by Monopoly and the first two Lord of the Ring films. Then on Black Friday I went to Chicago with Ashley Elias, as well as her mother and brother. We visited the Field Museum, ate some Chicago-style pizza, and looked at some ridiculously expensive cars, the details of which Nicholas was surprisingly familiar with. The entire day was a nice opportunity to get out of South Bend for a day, and the Elias were a most welcoming family. On Saturday night, or actually very early Sunday morning, Robbie, Tom, and I finished the break's work by seeing Return of the King. I forgot just how long the extended version of that film was, I think I finally went to bed around five in the morning.

The weeks after Thanksgiving are both some of the most hectic and most enjoyable times of the year at Notre Dame. On the one hand there are more papers and tests, with the prospect of finals on the horizon. On the other, it is the Christmas season, which means a lot of caroling (about 10 hours worth spread over two nights) and the Glee Club's most popular concert. As always both the concert and the caroling were a blast, from the timely snowstorm at St. Mary's to the reappearance of Chubby Santa.

Meals provided a setting for some of the best times of the fall. On the weekend of the Purdue game Will Docimo, Matt Drummond, and I all had lunch at North Dining Hall, followed by a great afternoon that included making t-shirts and inventing two great dances. That began a tradition of Saturday lunches that I hope continues next fall. Several of these lunches included trips to Five Guys, and I must say that they are the Willy Wonkas of Burgercraft. That's a bit of an inside joke, but its also true. I also had a series of great goodbye dinners with friends I won't see for 8 months (or in a few cases, perhaps much longer), including a long, delicious dinner at India Garden and a little brunch at Greenfields that relieved me of my remaining FlexPoints.

Finally it was time to return home, this year via I-80 with Jon Asbury, a trip of over a thousand miles. But despite its length the drive went quite well, with good weather, a bit of fast driving, and cheap iced tea to sustain us. Finally I pulled into my driveway on the 19th after listening to the Wyoming Cowboys pull off an exciting victory over Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl, and was greeted with the familiar row of lighted milk jugs that says Christmas like nothing else.

Now in a couple of weeks I will be flying to Egypt, finally beginning the journey that led me to began this blog in the first place. I also suspect that the readership may increase quite a bit, since I'll actually began to advertise its existence. I've been anticipating the trip to Cairo for well over a year, so it seems odd that I am actually so close to taking off. I know that it is an opportunity for adventure, for going into the unknown, that rarely comes across us. This uncertainty, which makes the semester exciting, also makes it a bit nerve-racking. Especially the prospect of the first few days, when I will arrive at Cairo around 2:00 A.M. local time after a day and a half of flights, alone in a foreign place. Most of the rest of the Notre Dame students will be arriving on the 22nd, three days after me. But I'm confident that I'll be fine, remember that I've had worse (2009 began with the Rome airport fiasco, which involved staying there overnight with very few Euros and even less communication with home), and enjoy my first taste of the city that will be my home for the next four and a half months.