Boston, St. Louis...and Madrid

We arrived in Boston Friday evening, to be met by Elisa at South Station. We went to her house in Somerville (right next to Cambridge…a short walk from Harvard University) and dumped off our stuff, and went out for dinner to catch up with her. On Saturday, we caught a train out to our friend Joni’s house, and had a wonderful meal and chat with her.

When we got back into town, we went up on top of the Prudential Building (55th floor) for a drink and a look at the view.

Sunday, after brunching with Elisa’s two welcoming and charming roommates, Rose and Suzelle, I spent the day writing a talk to be given the next day at UMASS Boston, while Elisa and Luis shopped and hung out. On Monday, we caught the T to the UMASS/J.F.K. stop

and caught the bus to the J.F.K. Museum and Library. Luis and I spent a good 3 hours there, wandering around the exhibits, listening to various speeches given by John F. Kennedy, seeing coverage of his life as a senator, the presidential race, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the civil rights unrest –with Bobby and J.F.K. in serious talk—and the Apollo space program. There was a moment of déjà vu when we heard news reports of people's fear of socialism when Kennedy speaks on the possibility of a Medicare program. Some things never change! The location of the museum, right on the bay, is delightful.

Anne enjoying the view while talking on the phone to Diana...in Pasadena!


Then we strolled over to UMASS Boston and met Elisa there. I gave a talk in one of her professor’s (Dr. Lilia Bartolome) classes on child literacy development, presenting Ned’s work on Portsmouth Reads, and some systemic functional linguistic related work on visual and verbal analyses of storybooks. The audience was very receptive, and I enjoyed the experience greatly. Afterwards we went back to Cambridge, out for a Japanese meal at the Ginger Exchange in Inman Square. I had one of the best rolls I’ve ever tried…a Scorpio, with eel and all sorts of other yummy tastes.

Then back to St. Louis for a couple of days of packing and saying goodbye to Tower Grove Park…then back to Spain! I was a lot busier in St. Louis than I ever expected I would be (things not done: a book review –due in September, so I’m ok—and the data thingy for SLU and a clean-up of my email in box) in meetings with people from various Departments, sessions with my PhD student, Katie, preparing a talk which I gave at SLU, and furthering the research through visits to the SLU and Washington University libraries. The whole purpose of the trip around the world has been to disconnet from the familiar, get new perspectives and really dunk myself fully into research, and all of that certainly has happened. I know see some clear lines of writing about first-year writing teaching, which I look forward to getting into in the days ahead.