The Most Valuable Cargo

Tuesday we shipped all of our possessions, but today I shipped the most valuable piece of cargo. Jessee is on her way. I dropped her off at the airport shuttle just about an hour ago. In all the commotion, however, I didn't get a tracking number or delivery insurance and completely forgot to thoroughly tape her to withstand rough handling!

Even though we're starting on this big adventure, it was really sad to take these steps. Our apartment is starting to look like people don't live here (because most of our stuff is packed up), and 5 weeks apart seems like a really long time! Luckily, Jessee's flight is late tonight, so we had the entire day together. It was a beautiful day (which makes leaving even harder), so we spent much of it outside. First we went out to lunch at the Russian dumpling place - we've been meaning to go there for a while and this was our last chance. The menu was simple. Really simple: meat or potatoes. We got one of each. They were good, but I'm not sure they were that authentic - they had curry power and cilantro on them - we'll call it a "mexindianski" flavor.

After that Jessee wanted some frozen yogurt from the dentist-office-sterile yogurt place. It's supposed to be really fancy (and healthy), but the place is so clean, white, and florescently lit that it feels like an operating room. I didn't have any. We sat in the sun on the patio, and I thought about how even at 45º north latitude my pale Lithuanian skin was cooking. For some reason, my Jewish blood doesn't seem to help - aren't they desert people?

We spent some time wandering aimlessly around the city, saying goodbye to some of our favorite places. The dumplings weren't much, and I hadn't had breakfast, so we decided to check out another restuarant we had be meaning to try: Best Chopsticks, a Chinese place with a $6 lunch special. Usually when you first move some place you tour around and sample the restuarants. We did it on our way out.

On our way home, we walked through the park and salmon hatchery. From the bridge we could see dozens of young salmon futilely trying to make it up the falls. We couldn't figure out what they were doing. They were too young to be going to spawn - 4 or 5 inches long, bigger than fry, but smaller than adults. The Parks & Rec. employee wasn't sure either. It was hysterical to watch though. They would shoot out of the water at all different angles, rarely in the direction that would give them progress. Some made it to a small pool above, but there was no where to go from there. Even adult fish struggle to make it up the stretch of river higher than that. Maybe they were looking for food higher up, but at that age the salmon should be headed for the ocean. Poor confused little guys.

The time to go finally came, and I walked Jessee up to the bus station. We were both especially sad to leave our wonderful apartment. I'll be here for another two weeks, of course, but it won't be the same. She's on the shuttle now, and by tomorrow morning, she'll be in Philadelphia. She'll stay there for few days with her parents before heading up to Boston for training (did I mention the School for Field Studies is affiliated with Boston University?). On 4 June, she'll head down to TCI and start work almost immediately.