No longer in the land of good weather and good burritos.

Nov 6th, Saturday.

Well, today was another first for me. First time to the east coast. This past year and a half I have experienced a lot of firsts - first time out of the country, first time to Asia, first time to the pacific northwest...and now, this is the farthest north I have EVER been.

It's cold here and it's been a long day. I arrived in Boston, MA at 7 after a semi-grueling red-eye flight and took a bus to meet Nate, my adviser, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The bus ride was 3.5 hours and more pleasant than the flight. I slept more than on the flight. Pretty trees and autumn colors.

Hanover NH is a lovely, quaint little ivy-league town, seemingly. Every place I have been to so far has been pretty, simple, and very intentional. Every little thing is in it's place. There are no dirty sidewalks...gutters. It makes me laugh - even the nicest parts of Los Angeles have dirty sidewalks and gutters even though you get a 65$ parking ticket for parking in spot on a "street-sweeping" day - where street sweeping doesn't even happen.

Subtle differences.

When I met up with Nate he was with Kirk Endicott and we went to the Canoe Club for lunch where I had a yummy little veggie wrap with dill havarti and a piece of lemon ricotta cake. mmm. After lunch we headed to the Salt Hill pub for some beers and caught up on life. Then we headed to Nate's place where I met one of his new students- Vivek, who is a delightful fellow from Ohio/Chicago. We headed to the Norwich Inn (Now in Vermont) for some beers and then on over to a dinner party. All at the party were Dartmouth geologists. We were the only anthropologists/biologists - we had a nice time despite a few funny/awkward moments.

After the party Nate, Vivek, and I met up with Gillian (Nate's student and my friend/former TA, who was in the Philippines with me), her boyfriend Mike, and their friend who was in town from Boston. I sipped fancy scotch and had a great time reminiscing with Nate and Gillian about the Philippines.

Long bath in my nice bathtub at the Hanover Inn (so cute). Slept well. SO well.

Nov 7th, Sunday.

Wake up, meet with Nate and have coffee/delicious breakfast with Nate at great little diner - Lou's. I had an omelet with Vermont cheddar, sausage, and apples. No complaints! After breakfast Nate and I spent a good couple hours working on my manuscript - hoping to publish in the American Journal of Human Biology.

Later, Nate, Vivek, and I had dinner at Kirk and Karen Endicott's house. We had a lovely time, despite me being slightly tired. Kirk and Karen are really interesting cultural anthropologists who worked with the Batek hunter-gatherers of Malaysia. They were very warm and gave me a copy of their book "The Headman Was a Woman: The gender egalitarian Batek of Malaysia". I'll be excited to look through it for sure.

Tomorrow I meet Nate and another Dartmouth professor for coffee and then I catch a bus back to Boston, where I will be reunited with a friend and also former student of Nate's. After much anticipation, I will be meeting with Peter Ellison at Harvard, a prominent professor in my field who would potentially be my PhD adviser.

Yesterday I was in 3 states in one day.

I feel thankful for Nate, all my friends/family, and for myself/abilities in being here. I feel independent, happy, and healthy. I feel busy and tired and good. Goodnight everyone :)