Saturday 19 November 2011
Charles and Dian's day:
Up at 9:15 -- no 8 AM leaf blower! Maybe because it was the weekend, also possibly because the dining hall (and restrooms) were closed (till noon). So we went to our fall-back refuge, the Tamoil gas station across the street and its eating area so popular for morning cappuccino and croissants with the local elder crowd. Oh well, there wouldn't be many more five buck coffees to buy while we wrote postcards and waited in line for funky community Internet access, when our new van gets us the heck out of $witzerland. With gratitude for the understanding of Dean Guggiari and the rest of Franklin College, we were more anxious to leave then they may have been to see us go.
Still wanting to keep a low profile and not cook in the van or even be there so much, we finally visited the deli store up the street for their highly-recommended paninis (sandwiches), and threw in a couple beers and even indulged in a very rare bag of chips. Livin' dangerously. The afternoon was spent with a massive sewing project for Dian (a new cover for "The Worm") and Charles going over all the "extra" expenses involved for our errant vehicle, in anticipation of The Arrival of Sebastian (sometimes known as The Second Coming). For dinner we really indulged: dinner out...at the student dining hall, a really good chicken curry rice dish (don't ask how much it cost). Then to sleep, with visions of sugarvans dancing in our heads.
Nicole's day:
Because of the state the community kitchen had apparently been in for quite some time, Lisa and her friends read a heart wrenching e-mail sent out by their RA: The kitchen would be closed for the rest of the semester, which of course would include Thanksgiving! This especially threw a wrench in our plans to make dinner ourselves that night and save some money on her student card for when her boyfriend Gio came to visit.
After unsuccessfully trying to search for a hot plate on the website of the local supermarket, Lisa, her friend Sonja and I walked downtown to hopefully find and buy one. We were successful, and they bought a hot plate with two burners for a reasonable price, and I bought the groceries for the dinner. They also had to buy Christmas lights and fake, snow-in-a-spray can to add to the holiday ambiance. Instead of lugging our supplies all the way back to the school, we opted for the bus, which got us there in record time. Strangely, we heard mostly Americans on the bus, and wondered what they were doing there, but Lisa remembered there was a Franklin College reunion going on that week, thus attracting all the old Lugano ex-pats.
Back home, we made an early dinner of pesto pasta with sun dried tomatoes, broccoli, tea and bread, and after we left Sonja's room we decided to watch "Death at a Funeral," a hilarious English comedy Lisa had never seen. Later on Sonja popped back in with peanut butter, chocolate and milk for dessert, and we enjoyed this immensely as we chatted.
Lisa had not Skyped with her parents for a while, and we got a request to video chat with them, which was nice. I could tell Lisa was comforted by their presence, and they hers. A little later we also had a video chat with Lisa's cousin and my friend Carolina, who was also in my film class at Samohi and helped run the film festival. She told us she was enjoying NYU immensely, but couldn't wait for a film class reunion with us.
My ingenious plan to create words in the "snow" with an expert use of tape, executed by Lisa and me.
Charles and Dian's day:
Up at 9:15 -- no 8 AM leaf blower! Maybe because it was the weekend, also possibly because the dining hall (and restrooms) were closed (till noon). So we went to our fall-back refuge, the Tamoil gas station across the street and its eating area so popular for morning cappuccino and croissants with the local elder crowd. Oh well, there wouldn't be many more five buck coffees to buy while we wrote postcards and waited in line for funky community Internet access, when our new van gets us the heck out of $witzerland. With gratitude for the understanding of Dean Guggiari and the rest of Franklin College, we were more anxious to leave then they may have been to see us go.
Still wanting to keep a low profile and not cook in the van or even be there so much, we finally visited the deli store up the street for their highly-recommended paninis (sandwiches), and threw in a couple beers and even indulged in a very rare bag of chips. Livin' dangerously. The afternoon was spent with a massive sewing project for Dian (a new cover for "The Worm") and Charles going over all the "extra" expenses involved for our errant vehicle, in anticipation of The Arrival of Sebastian (sometimes known as The Second Coming). For dinner we really indulged: dinner out...at the student dining hall, a really good chicken curry rice dish (don't ask how much it cost). Then to sleep, with visions of sugarvans dancing in our heads.
Nicole's day:
Because of the state the community kitchen had apparently been in for quite some time, Lisa and her friends read a heart wrenching e-mail sent out by their RA: The kitchen would be closed for the rest of the semester, which of course would include Thanksgiving! This especially threw a wrench in our plans to make dinner ourselves that night and save some money on her student card for when her boyfriend Gio came to visit.
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| Bus station |
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| College cookin' |
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| Chatting with Lisa's parents |
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