thanksgiving is here, and you know what that means.

a nice, big, green, lumpy helping of ginger ale saladé. mmmmm

thanks to / for you all from the chicago-o'hare airport.

when october gives you snow, make snow-narwhals (the work of l. gray)

a touch of zu swag

Q: what do you get when you add mason jars and swag?

A:

Occupy Val, Day 6

The Zu is in dire straits - this is our sixth day sleeping in a pile of cots in Lewis-Sebring. It was fun the first night, with "miniature tanks" and "places I've been fired from" and watching Space Jam on Maxwell's projector, but it's getting more than old by now. We even called dinner at 6:30 every night and marched into Val together and took an entire athletic team's table. It's been a weird week.

BUT! now we're even kicked out Lewis-Sebring! Our stuff is in a big pile in the middle of the floor, and we were awakened by the gentle roar of industrial vacuum cleaners mere feet away from our heads. Refugees again, lest our unwashed plaid discourage any parents (it's parents weekend! they must eat in lewis-sebring!) from donating to the college. Lulu and I are waiting for a shuttle to take our stuff back to the Zu now, where we STILL don't have power. But at least tonight we will walk our own unlit, freezing, incredibly-smelly hallways, under the watchful eye of a "guard" to make sure the house doesn't spontaneously combust. Long live the Zu!

Hot Potato

Our power just came on this morning after five nights in the dark. Last night we found a bunch of two by fours in the basement, dug a pit in the backyard, and finally made ourselves some delicious hot food. The Zu has been camped out on FEMA cots in Lewis-Sebring, which sounds awful enough to make our cold little house seem pretty wonderful.

In case you were wondering...

..this is what Andy meant by arts and crafts.

I believe the situation came about more or less like this:

Lyon, a local cafe, 16h on Sunday, sipping coffee, discussing what to do next:

Lizzie: Well, our options are little limited since almost everything in France is closed on Sunday.

Andy: We could decorate your apartment.

Lizzie: Okay, what sort of decorations?

Andy: mumblemumble...paper flowers!

Lizzie: Okay, let's do it!

And the idea was born. The one flaw in the plan was that I thought Andy knew how to make paper flowers and he (for some craaaazy reason) thought I knew how, when neither of us actually knew how, and we only found this out after Andy had meticulously crafted half a dozen paper stems for our non-existent paper flowers and arranged them delicately in a vase.

As it turns out, the "mumble mumble" I heard was actually Andy saying that if his grandmother were here, she would make paper flowers. Or something. Apparently I stopped listening for a few seconds. And my brain naturally filled in the blanks thinking Andy was proposing to make me a beautiful bouquet.

But it turned out okay because we made paper airplanes and cutout snowflakes instead.

Life in Lyon

It can be really difficult when your croissant is over-done.

I just got back to Kosovo after a week and a half with Lizzie in Lyon. We made tons of food, ate lots of cheese, drank some wine, wandered around the city, consorted with a professor, and did some arts and crafts. It was like the Zü with fewer people and higher ceilings.

For more details see her blog; she's the English major and writes much more poetically than I do.

hi from new zealand!

So against all expectations I seem to have actually made it here! I spent this weekend in a hostel on a small island called Waiheke and it was scarily reminiscent of the Zu...or what the Zu would be if we rented out half the rooms and had a staff of professional Lailas cleaning up after everyone all the time. In other words everyone who worked there was insane and it was wonderful. Anyway I posted a link to my NZ blog on facebook but if you missed it and you're curious about what I'm doing over here: http://kiwicubed.tumblr.com/
And if you want a postcard, give me your address and I'll see what I can do!

sailin' on

boston zu lives still:

apartment 2
83 day street
jamaica plain, MA 02130

eric, cara, chelsea and i are starting to unpack all our kitchen things. i miss you guys. come and visit us soon.



-max

Zu babies

The new Zubies just made their first meal together; it's adorable.

(yes I am working very hard on being the creepy alum)

bulk

I just got a call from our friendly British bulk driver. The guy who can't really drive the truck and trapped Austin's wife in her driveway for 10 minutes. And then the police had to come direct traffic. Anyway, I'm bracing for a lifetime of bulk calls but no more bulk food.

i went back to visit the zu today and it was the worst.

oh hey guys

i'm leaving tomorrow! and i made a blog thing. and here it is: http://shkosrae.blogspot.com/

come visit if you win the lottery. i miss you all.

zu loooooove

Jetpacks!

I'm watching minority report because I'm unemployed and have way too much time. of course that led me to google jetpacks. OMG YOU CAN BUY A JETPACK. we should all get jetpacks for the zu-union. they fly for 30 min and run on regular gasoline.

http://martinjetpack.com/

i'm dj-ing the great books dance. #nerds

it will be like this:

cambridge outdoor dance party < zu rave (any edition)

BUT, we (eric, matt, cara, laila, and special guest kate eisen) sighted "zuzubar" on our way to "the asgard" bar and lounge. successful evening all around. we also brought our own glowsticks. ZL

I got my last zu reimbursement check yesterday. i guess that means it's really over. how sad.

great books

i'm beginning my counselor training at great books camp tomorrow. anyone with suggestions for what books to teach to kids please send them my way. also, garrison keillor is a guest speaker!

Surprise

So in a totally hypocritical move, I'm doing a graduate program in Western Mass next year.

Also, my cousin with the biggest nerf gun ever.

found this today. hilarious.

the man comes around

tomorrow i'm leaving for a two-day drive from my parents' home in neenah, WI to cape cod and then to amherst. i will be live-tweeting as much of it as possible on my twitter account (http://twitter.com/#!/struckbythewild) under the hashtag #clowncar.

Seattle Swag

"that boy needs therapy"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWBn26bX0

time to play the "which zu person is which character" game with this video.

if only

zl

where do we go from here?

practically anywhere.
fresh faced and open eyed.
I have a mind to peace out until I can come back capable of saying that I've done something.



(still from Fellini's La Dolce Vita)

still choking up over this

https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/magazine/issues/2011spring/zoostalgia

We were playing at something—but then, also, it was real. We were learning how to take care of each other, how to be part of something bigger than ourselves, how, in many ways, to be human. We’re nostalgic for what they have now—youth, idealism, the future spread out before them like it’s a glassy turquoise sea of possibility and they’re hopping into their well-stocked little sailboats. And we want what we had then, too: arriving at the dinner table late and rosy-cheeked, our hair a mess of damp tangles. But mostly we want this, what we have now, which is all of it together, somehow—community and lasting friendship, love and gratitude, and devotion expressed now, as we expressed it then, through huge and tenderly prepared meals.

moments from east blue hill

this is more about the video than the song itself. though i find both appropriate.

let me in