Friday, June 14, 2013

When the Parents come to stay

This is a story about all the pranks our unruly parents played on us when they came for graduation...

Uhhh, scratch that.

In case anyone was worried, French House will be intact when you return to it in the fall, and I really would just like to give an account of the events leading up to (and through) commencement from my perspective.  I will say however, that having a bunch of parents wandering around the house certainly gave the place a different feel.

The week after finals hosted lots of moving, packing, and cleaning, but even more Carcassonne and eating of leftover food.  Adrienne and I finished the mural, and the spy movie is complete (don't worry Adrienne, as long as my computer doesn't die more the converted version will be available soon).  We treated ourselves to ice cream, watermelon, and ever more root beer floats.  People came and went, going to fun places like Maine and Cape Cod, and with so few of us the house took on a kind of family atmosphere.  As a family of college students we decided we would feel sorry for our collective  mother...  I consider the greatest accomplishment of the week to be teaching Rashed how to play MASH, and feel I can take credit for dooming his future self to commute to his high-paying job in an Apple Barrel!

On Monday morning my parents were due to arrive (most of you will remember that I have been very excited to have them visit) and I was supposed to meet them at the airport at 7 am.  Of course, I was just a teensy-weensy bit late... but they didn't seem to mind, and after they recovered a bit we began a whirlwind week of fun and adventure.

We went to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the MFA, the MIT Museum (which is much larger than I remember), and the Harvard Natural History Museum.  I think I have succeeded in convincing my parents that froyo is da bomb and we were much more impressed by our dinner in the North End than by Legal Seafoods.  Basically it was all exhausting awesomeness.  My parents really liked the Curious George store too (and someone please either get Lizi some pink madlibs or at least tell her they exist)
Green Tea with Mochi & Mango... mmmmm

My schedule was:
-Get up in the morning (theoretically earlier than my parents) and try to get some packing done.

-Eat breakfast, shower, and head out to show my parents around/use them as an excuse to do all the things I've been meaning to do in Boston and haven't gotten around to.

-Come home kind of late, let parents do their thing while I crashed with LMF and usually stayed up too late (good times guys).

-Repeat.



Powder Room of USS Constitution
(gunpowder not make-up in case you were confused)



I'm on top of the world!!!  @ The Middlesex Fells
Finally finished it after 4 years...
























 It was tiring and fun, and with a little bit of freaking out on Wednesday, I actually managed to pack up and ship 7 boxes of varying sizes off to Laura's house.

Then suddenly the day was here.  Our gowns were ironed, our tassels were hung, and we were all very official, at least until the rain got us.  Jeremy managed to position himself quite well to say hi, and Rashed claims I whacked him with my tassel... I guess I'll have to take his word for it on that one.  Other than the weather, and the fact that now that I've graduated both my phone and laptop battery are dead, I think graduating was pretty much everything I thought/hoped it would be, not too anticlimactic or anything.
Wet
More Wet


That afternoon, we all tried to remove the gown-stains from our clothing, with varying degrees of success.  I took my parents to Pho Pasteur (soup sounded really good) and Denzel Washington's driver paid for our dinner... What?  

Then the final packing and goodbyes: some short and hurried, some long and drawn-out, some occurring multiple times.  On Sunday after everyone else was gone, Sarah and I went on a walk and to the Garment District and had a good old time.  Now I'm at home and my family has a new fridge... it's really confusing.
I can't quite place my finger on it, but I think I've seen this somewhere before...








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