where has the time gone?!

so its been quite a while since i last wrote... but i haven't abandoned the blog altogether. summer is almost over - my last summer, i realized, before i graduate. i have two days left of my job which is killllllller but not in a good way. i think thats why i havent been writing as much -- ive been so consumed in work and havent felt like writing about it.

but i have been doing lots of other cool things in my precious hours away from work, so ill just talk about that! living in the city was amaaaazing. i stayed in an nyu apartment AT union square which is the best location ever (and one that i will never be able to afford). i already knew lots of people in new york from home and school and everywhere so i didn't really meet many new people. but i did spend some real quality bintou time exploring and what not.

i will tell you that i have sipped coffee in just about every cafe on the lower east side (minus starbucks) and usually with a book or my journal. i read a ton (and still am) - my last few reads (in the past 2 weeks or so) have been 'the glass castle', 'the kite runner', 'a people's history of the united states' (which i havent finished yet), and 'half of a golden sun' which i'm reading now and its great. i also started running just about every day and had a nice little loop down by the east river that came out to 4 miles or so. go me! am i repeating myself? i think i might have written about this in the last entry. i did art and secret projects ;) to amuse myself and did spend a lot of time with my friends in the area... alex and david, ashley, danielle, and allison were all right in the lower east side!

poetry slams, concerts, oddly relaxing vegetarian indian food restaurants with only one option on the menu, live music in public spaces, intense west-african-dancing, long walks, a couple movies (hoooooly dark knight!), fruit to the nines, late night ted talks, afternoons in the park with jackie and ashley, sun sun sun!, etcetera etcetera.

i popped out of the city quite a bit too on weekends and such. got to see some family, including the PECKS (hehe uncle jim) and did some geocaching with jamie and mom and ben one day. beached it up at compo once or twice and scrabbled like a maniac with mom. we have an addiction.

last weekend was pretty cool. mom, dad, and i drove up to the adirondacks to go see what ben has been working on all summer. he's been interning for these 2 really great sculptors who both have pieces at the beijing olympics (only 25 non-chinese sculptors were chosen from thousands of applicants). it was really beautiful up there and nice to get away from the ussssual for a bit. the sculptors that ben worked for were having a show so we all went and met them and the art was sweet and we were all proud of ben because he did good (kid). there was some geocaching involved too-- including one that lead us on a beautiful hike through the adirondackian wilderness. i will tell you there was some bear skat involved.

work finishes up on thursday (thank allah) and im heading back to school on sunday. though im really excited to go back, i think the excitement is more to be done with work than anything. ive been having fun chilling with my family since i moved back home (im commuting for this last week) and it will be strange to up-and-out again.

then of course, the Clucemarie adventures begin and that will be a whole new section...

hErE (i miss my mali)
BINTOU