UMass Haitian Creole Institute

I could alternately title this post my three weeks of self-imposed insanity. I love the Kreyol course, but juggling two jobs and a husband while taking a 3 1/2 hour class that is every evening M-F can be pretty stressful. But yesterday I think I found a way to recharge.

UMass never has chalk for the classrooms, there is no food on campus after 3 PM, and the architecture is stern brick and suspended walkways. But the views are spectacular. The campus is on a peninsula that stretches out into the harbor. A harborwalk winds its way along the edge of campus, providing a space to run, bike, or just relax.

Across the way you can see what I think are expensive apartments.

And here was my little study spot. Sea breezes fought off the summer heat, sea gulls played tag in the air, and waves created an ambient backdrop to studying.

The only thing that marred the scene were the airplanes flying in towards the airport. They get so low you can make out which airline they belong to. Still, it is a lovely space to study and just spending thirty minutes there works better than any coffee. That is, if I could find coffee on campus.

Monterey

Last semester I received an email from the SAR listserv that a professor at another university was looking for students to participate in a graduate student discussion panel for the Society for the Anthropology of Religion conference. I sent along my abstract, was accepted, and thanks to BU footing the bill I flew out last weekend to Monterey, CA to present at the conference. It was held at Asilomar which is a conference center/nature reserve. Other than the bland and sometimes unusual food choices, Asilomar was a really wonderful place. Deer wander around the protected dunes and it is a short walk down to the beach which was just breathtaking. I won't bore you all with the details of the conference, but I wanted to share some of the photographs I took of the area.

I shared a room with two other girls who were presenting in the panel (and Amy joined us the last night we were there so she didn't have to camp in her car again.) The rooms were pretty decent - this is only half, there are two other beds on the other side. And outside that glass door is a nice porch.


Deer grazing outside one of the cabins


The path along the protected dunes


Menzies' Wallflower - an endangered and quite rare species


A short walk down the path leads to this beach


Another beautiful beach scene


Swirling around the rocks


Surfing out here must be beautiful but scary. Imagine hitting these rocks



More beach


Walking a little further up the beach


The view right before I headed back in for dinner


Saturday morning my roommate Saiba and I walked down to check out the beach before breakfast. There was still a little color in the sky from the sunrise


There was a lone surfer


But no one else was out on the beach yet


Sunday after our talk, Amy graciously offered to take me to the airport for my evening flight. We decided to explore the area a bit first and James, a professor with similar research interests as Amy, joined us.
We first wandered down the beach paths, enjoying the view.


Amy taking it all in


The water lapping at the rocky shore


James


The view from the path


Amy again


We stumbled upon some loose rock sculptures that some visitors had made. James decided to contribute to the art.


His "masterpiece"


After being windblown around the beach, we grabbed some coffee and then wandered around the Fisherman's Warf sampling nine different clam chowders. We had a great time exploring and thanks again to Amy for the ride to the airport!

I'm glad to be with my husband again, but the wet and nippy weather of Boston makes me long for the beaches of Monterey. The conference was of course academic and all of that, but it was also a nice little getaway. Now back to end of term papers... Sigh.

PS I added a few more pictures. I still have tons more but I have to stop adding at some point. For those of you who were at the conference if there were any specific pictures you wanted just let me know. And as always, for those who are visiting you're welcome to use my pictures as long as you give me credit. :)