2002-04-22: Letter to Allison

[nibot]

As always, it's great to hear from you! And, as always, sorry for the delay in responding. (-: Yes, things are winding down here, and I can't believe it!! Suddenly I find myself with only a month left before everything's done, and suddenly there's this great urgency to everything. Actually, everyone sort of has the same feeling about getting ready to go, and every encounter's starting to have a taste of a final farewell...

I plan to make the most of the coming weeks. My classes are pretty much all over. I'm taking this quarter off pretty much. (-: I have to learn Swedish this month, take the TISUS at the end of May. And oh what a month May will be, beginning with Valborg on the 30th of April, apparently the biggest holiday of the year! Then of course Mayday, and then a week later, on the 8th, we're having a HUSFEST here in the legendary B/C building at Delphi.. that's right my dear Allison, four floors of fun: four double korridors and eight single korridors... beer imported by us from Germany, two floors dancefloor, live band, pub, sittning. If only you could be here for this Swedish madness. (-: About the time we might be recovering from the husfest, the KARNIVAL begins and one of my friends from the U.S.A. is coming for the spectacle. And in the meantime, the name of the game is picnics in the quad, days in the sun.

Yes I'm going to Israel. The town is Rehovot, it's about 30km south of Tel Aviv and about 40km west of Ramallah and Jerusalem and the main industry is Oranges; the Weizmann Institute of Science, where I'll be working, is surrounded by vineyards and orchards of citrus and almond. I think I'll be okay, but I certainly appreciate your concern. I'm quite excited actually. I'll be using electron microscopes to look at the process by which DNA is transferred by a particular bacteria that attacks plants, i.e. with the ultimate goal of improving agriculture. I think it will be quite interesting. I don't know how I'm going to deal with the weather though... today it was a hot day at 14 degrees here, and it's to be like 40-50 in Israel. Yikes! But, anyway, my All Purpose Backup Plan, and, indeed, my new career ambition, is to work at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Copenhagen, where Denmark's best and brightest toil with the most advanced biology research apparatus of modern times, all in the pursuit of better beer.

Your plans sound great too... the southeast Asia thing will be awesome! I wish you the best. (-: I too see South American adventures in the future, and I definitely need to learn myself some Spanish! I have a friend ("The Bee Guy," maybe I told you about him?) who *drove* to Panama when he was 16... and I've long fancied such an adventure myself. Also I feel I should return to my Portugese-speaking "homeland" for a time and see how things are down there in the Amazon. Good to hear that you're gearing up for the LSAT, sounds like you're doing well.

Still love you Allison, hope you're taking good care of yourself. What's there for fun in DC? I've never been there.. Need to go sometime. (-: