Officially a Master!

Dear Familia,

I cannot believe it's been two years since I first started at HKS. Side note: in October we will have been back from Peace Corps for three years, crazy. Time is moving at warp speed these days. Seriously.

The official graduation picture

I originally didn't want to even go to graduation. I wanted to either spend more time in AZ or head back to DC to prepare for the summer visit from the kids. Even after I decided to go, I really didn't want anyone to travel to Cambridge for the ceremony. Luckily, it worked out to bring a few of the girls back with me when I came from AZ. I am VERY happy that Zane and three of the girls were with me to celebrate. It was super emotional for me to look back and see them cheering me on as I received my diploma.

Walking through JFK Park after the ceremony

A big thank you to all of the family and friends, and especially my husband, that have loved me and helped me throughout the past two years. I know that I was perma-stressed, but I am so thankful for the experience. Now it's time to find a job! Will keep you all posted.

Love,
Jem

PHX to BOS

Dear Familia,

We have officially started our summer trip. First stop: Boston! Kiki, Abbi, Madi and I left to the airport at 3:30 am AZ time. Not fun. We had a layover in Houston before arriving at Logan Airport around 4 pm. This was Abbi and Madi's first flight (Madi flew when she was three, but obviously doesn't remember) and they were a little nervous in the air. But it all worked out and we arrived safely.

From the iPad: At Sky Harbor waiting to board

We had to make a quick pitstop at Harvard Health Services when we arrived because I had a major allergic reaction. We were in and out within 30 minutes prescription in hand and itching relieved. By the time we got to my apartment and had dinner the girls were exhausted. They ended up falling asleep by 8:30 pm and not waking up until after 9 am the next day.

These lovely hives were all over my body!

The girls especially loved riding the train. AZ is not known for their public transportation so the T was a grand adventure for everyone. It was probably good for them to have exposure to a system a little less hectic than DC's before we get there in a couple of weeks.

Alewife Station

Next stop: DC! We are all very excited.

Love,
Jem

GPR

Dear Familia,

I'm lucky enough to have a husband that loves family as much as I do. Since we don't live in the same cities as our families, we do quite a bit of traveling to see our loved ones. While Zane's family has been very smart about combining vacations with trips to visit family, we usually just travel to AZ when it comes time to see my side of the family. Recently, we've been trying to change that. The first Garcia/Pattea/Ramadan or "GPR" trip happened spur of the moment while we were in AZ for the holidays.

They all want to be like their big bro Zane ;)

On December 30th, we took a spontaneous road trip to San Francisco with my six younger siblings. We rented a van and Zane drove the 11 hours to get us into the city. It was great because we got to start the tradition of celebrating our anniversary in a new city every year AND we got to hang out with Dean!

1st Anniversary: San Francisco, CA

WE LOVE BEGOOD!

One of my 30 before 30 goals is to be able to bring my kids to the different cities I live throughout my life. None of them got to come to Guatemala, which I did not like. So this year they are coming to visit DC! Kiki, Abbi, and Madi are going to come to Boston and see me graduate. Then Cassi, Rudy, and Johnny will join us in Virginia for a week at Zane's parents house on the Rappahanock River. Then we'll head to DC for 10 days to check it all out. Very excited. We'll be sure to get some pics and such.

Love,
Jem

PS Sam get on board.

Sneak Peak: Winter

Our Pre-Heat Uniform...we wore gloves to do homework!

Dear Familia, 

It's Winter! Ok, technically I think it's still Fall, but the Northeast got hit with a big snowstorm this weekend that definitely screams Winter more than Fall. Anyway, early this week it started getting pretty cold and seemed like time to think about turning on the heat in our house...see poor Amanda in my opening photo. I did a lot of research because we have a gas heater and I definitely don't want to be wasting energy. I did a few things to get ready and luckily our landlord is pretty amazing and he came up and did a few things around the house to get the house ready as well. 

MYSA RONN, Warmth Rate 4

Way back in August, I hit up Ikea to get a legit down comforter. Definitely the best purchase I made because it is super warm and I stay comfortable all night long. I went back and forth between the warmth rate of 4 and 6, and I ended up getting the 4. It was a good choice because I can add lighter blankets to heat it up on super cold nights or take them off if it's too warm.

Before

After

I checked out our gas company's energy saving tips to see what we could do to keep our energy usage (and costs) down. We tried to follow as many of these tips as possible. Our landlord, Tom, came up on Thursday night and tightened windows and checked doors for air leaks. He was also great enough to install a programmable thermostat that be great for those days when we forget to turn the heat down when we leave. Right now our plan is to keep it at around 65 when we are home and then really low around 50 when we are not home. Normally, it's not a good idea to let your air get too low while you are away because it takes a lot of energy to get the temperature back to a livable level. However, Tom installed an energy efficient forced air heating system a couple of years ago so it literally only took 15 minutes to get it comfortable in the house after he came up and we switched it on. Obviously, it was not a moment too soon because it actually started snowing when he came over.

My window about 30 minutes after the snow started falling

That night was actually the start of what is being called "Snowtober." Although it's not unusual for temperatures to dip, the big snowstorm  was definitely a surprise for this time of year. We only got about 2 inches here in Boston, but some spots in New York received 2 feet! Craziness. It was really weird because it was a rain storm (with thunder and lightning and everything) and a snow storm. Yesterday when I got onto the train I was using my umbrella and when I got off the train less than 10 minutes later it was seriously snowing. I am going to have to get my snow jacket and gloves very soon!

Backyard this AM

Backyard Pt. 2

Looking out the Front Window

Right now it's sunny and beautiful outside but still very cold. The snow is not melting very much at all. I thought about going out to make a snowman this morning , but then I decided to stay in my warm bed. Haha. Now it's back to homework.

Love,
Jem

5 Randoms

Dear Familia, 

There are quite a few things that I think I would love tell everyone about, but I just never have time. So here are 5 random things that you might be interested in hearing about:

Farmer's Markets- super expensive, but I try to go as often as possible. There was a 2 week stretch when I didn't get food for the house once. It was not good. 

My 1st Haul

Hurricane Irene- by the time Irene got to us I'm pretty sure she had been downgraded to tropical storm. There was a lot of wind and rain. Since I wasn't in the ramshackle structures of Guatemala, I survived just fine. However, the tree across the street did not. 

Taken from my 2nd story window

I miss these guys A LOT. Sam didn't come to the bridal shower, otherwise he would have been in this photo as well. 

So cute!

I make a pretty mean Gold Star (think Gold Fish cracker)...Deb from Smitten Kitchen strikes again :)

GoldStars...Yes, I am a nerd. 

Busted out the cool weather comforter I bought from Ikea. Not ready for the sub-zero temps, but at least by bed is ;)

Yes, I need to decorate the walls

Love,

Jem

Boston Local Food Festival

Dear Familia, 

I think I can stop apologizing for my lack of updates. Y'all understand that grad school + wedding + long distance engagement mean that I have zero time for fun things like blog posts. 

I really haven't been up to all that much other than school except for a couple of things. One: Alysha's wedding. Post to come very soon on that one. Two: Boston Local Food Festival. Saturdays I usually try to do at least one thing that doesn't fit into the "grad school + wedding + long distance engagement" equation. A couple of Saturdays ago, I hit up a Boston food festival. It was a festival devoted to food so you know I loved it. Haha. 

This Saturday I am going to do another something VERY fun, but it's a big secret so I will wait to tell you about it until Monday. Anyway, some highlights from the food festival:

First Buy: Pita Chips to go with the gallons of hummus I eat these days

Grilled Cheese Truck. Done and Done. 

2nd Lunch...the market veggie sandwich

Happened upon the beginnings of Occupy Boston on my way home

So there you have it. A quick fun post. Hopefully I can do some posts on my classes soon. Basically they rock, so I definitely want to tell you all about them :)

Love,
Jem

Orientation 1

Dear Familia,

Yesterday I had my first official day at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government(HKS). It was our first day of orientation :) We were at HKS from 8 am to 5 pm doing various activities, but I was pretty happy because we finally got a better idea of what the program entails. In the morning the large group (MPPs, MPAs, MPA-IDs, etc) got together in the forum (where the most ridiculously amazing speakers come every year) for the Dean's address. They had displayed all the flags of the countries represented by this year's incoming class and it looked very cool. I think there are over 40 countries in our class!

It was definitely a full day...we were at the school from 8 am to 5 pm. I stopped back home for a bit before I headed back to meet up with about half of the class (100+ people) to go on a boat cruise down the Charles River. I definitely had a lot of fun...I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, but here are a few :)

A couple of shots looking over the river from the bridge that meets up with JFK street.

Our boat and the bar on the boat. Still not a drinker, but they set up a snack station after this so you know I was definitely all over that!

The sunset was completely gorgeous!

I got home a little after ten and went to sleep shortly after b/c we had another long day today. Luckily, we had a long break in between the massive amounts of information. A couple of my classmates and I checked out a Harvard staple, Mr. Bartley's Gourmet Burgers.

I got the "Drew Faust (Harvard Prez)" which was a veggie burger with feta and red peppers. It was pretty decent, the bun was buttered and toasted which I definitely liked. It was really nothing too great though and at $10 even for the plain jane burger, I probably won't be going back anytime soon.

At the end of the day all 215 MPPs (master of public policy) got up in front of everyone to do a 15 second intro. Some were funny, some were awkward, most were just normal (mine included). We learn all about registration tomorrow and we have some other fun things planned for the rest of the week so I will be sure to do at least another post about orientation before the end of the week.

Love,

Jem

Thrifty Thursday

Dear Sarah,

I've finally taken the plunge and become a bonafide used store patron. I know you would be proud that it's only taken about, oh, ten years for me to discover what you've always known. Haha. Anyway, we live in this area of Somerville called Davis Square (i'll have to do a post on that at some point) and when I went exploring on Tuesday I happened upon a Goodwill and a Buffalo Exchange. I went in with pretty low expectations and I walked away with:

1. An REI rain jacket for $28 from Buffalo. It has three small (pencil eraser sized) bleach stains on one arm, but they are not very noticeable and it was a steal. I think retail price is around $120. It poured on Monday and I definitely knew I needed one of these asap.

2. A pair of rain/snow boots for $7.49 from Goodwill. I actually saw a girl try these on and walk around the store deciding whether to buy them or not. I quasi stalked her till I saw her put them down and leave. I was super happy. They have a rain boot bottom and then "thinsulate" and suede top. They may or may not be a bit small, but they will definitely work. Also, they look pretty ugly in the picture, but the girl had them laced up over her jeans and they didn't look bad. No idea on the retail price, but I know even Walmart rain boots are at least $30.

3/4/5. Two glass jars for bulk purchases of grains and the like for $.99 each from Goodwill. I discovered when I got home that Amanda has these exact jars from Target. Do they look plastic in the picture? I got the woven basket for $1.99 and I think it will be great for keeping things above our fridge. We have a decent amount of storage space, but with 4 people's food it can't hurt to find other places to stash things.

6. I eyed these babies on that first trip to Goodwill Tuesday, but didn't end up buying them b/c I had already bought some from Ikea that I planned to take back since I didn't have a real need for them. I originally bought them for my desk supplies, but my new desk has 8 drawers for all my supply storage needs. Then I realized later that day that they would be good in the bathroom so I went back today and bought them. They normally retail for $3.99 for 4 and I got 7 (couldn't find the lonely 8th) for $2.99.

7. I don't have a picture of this, but I found a Liz Claiborne leather hand bag for $4.49 at Goodwill today also. It needs to be cleaned so I'll post a picture when it's all pretty.

Anyway, I've been pretty proud of myself for not being the super consumer that I usually am. So far the only brand new things I have purchased (that are not getting returned) are some pots and dishtowels for the kitchen, a shower caddy, and a comforter. Yay for re-usng...remember the 3 Rs? Oh ya, I know you do.

Love,

Jem

Boston Baby- The Move

Dear Familia,

So sorry for the lack of communication as of late. It was a little crazy getting everything ready for the move up here to Boston. Zane and I had originally planned on asking Dean to use his SUV to make the 8 1/2 hour drive to bring my stuff up here. I didn't really have a lot except clothes, books, and a ton of random craft supplies. Then, my roommate Amanda asked if I wanted to go in on a moving truck. She was coming up from North Carolina and would have to go through DC anyway. I thought it was a great idea so that Zane wouldn't have to make two 8 1/2 hour trips in one weekend. I decided it would be a good idea to see what other big items I could procure so that I didn't have to find a lot of stuff up here. I found a bed on craigslist, Mrs. Ramadan gave me quite a few things, and I made an ikea run before we left. I was majorly stressed about finding parking for the moving truck in Georgetown, but it all worked out pretty perfectly (thanks to some hard work from my lovely fiancé). We loaded up on Friday and hit the road at 5:30 am on Saturday morning. Then the fun began...

It was pretty smooth for the first few hours. We stopped somewhere in Delaware for gas and breakfast. We of course went to McDonald's because I think it might be an unwritten law that you have to stop at a McD's at least once on a road trip. Haha.

We made it to New Jersey with no problems. They have ridiculously expensive tolls, but I can't really say that there was anything else of note while traveling through. Oh, it did smell really weird for a 30 minute stretch somewhere in NJ (wait, is that the state abbreviation??).

Really up until we got to New York it was smooth sailing. No traffic even. We should have realized that we were due for something crazy to happen. And it did. We got to the toll to go over the George Washington Bridge entering NYC and there was a sign that said "trucks use upper level." Because we had been warned that these signs usually meant semis and we had had luck not using the truck lane back in New Jersey, we decided to go to the lower level. We were definitely wrong though and the lady at the booth said that her manager would have to stop traffic so we could cut through the lanes and loop back around to get on the right level.

The photo above makes it look like perhaps there wasn't a lot of traffic and it wasn't a big deal. Well the manager had actually made an announcement that we needed to pass and for about 30 seconds people didn't go...and then they went...and we hadn't made it through! There was a lot of honking and near accidents, but we somehow made it in one piece to the other side where the was a police officer waiting to check out cargo. For what? I have no idea, but he must not have found anything good b/c he let us pass through.

Then we were able to cross the GW bridge and it was gorgeous and the views were amazing. See exhibits above and below :)

Anyway, after the bridge snafu, things were good through New York and into Massachusetts. We stopped somewhere outside of New Haven I believe to get subway. They were not stingy with the veggies which always makes me happy since I'm ordering a veggie sub. It kills me when they put literally 3 slices of green pepper across my sandwich or 5 olives or what have you. So annoying.

Massachusetts definitely gets the best sign awards. Their interstate signs have pilgrim hats on them! What the heck adorable. Amanda had to kinda pull over/drive really slow so I could get this shot. I'm sure the other cars on the road loved us ;)

We made it all the way to our exit off the interstate without getting lost, but we got lost pretty much as soon as we got off and got into Cambridge. I thought DC was a mess road wise, but Cambridge is ridiculous. It would have been a lot easier if we had known that even though we were heading East on Mass Ave that would still somehow get us to Somerville (my town) which is West of Cambridge. Don't ask me. Pure craziness.

We made it to house in decent time even after the detour. One of our other roommates (there are 4 of us) Thomas came over to help us unload and pick rooms. That took a long time and we were sweaty and nasty and tired when we finished. We ended up eating at the closest non-fancy restaurant...Chipotle. It was delicious and definitely hit the spot. Did you know you can get brown rice?? After we got home, I put my bed together, took a shower, and went to sleep. I was tired!

The next morning we went to Thomas' house (he lives in Cambridge right now) so that he could move his big stuff while we had the truck. On the way we stopped by this furniture store near our house and ended up walking away with a free desk and chair for me. I was super excited. Amanda also found some very cheap chairs for her room and a screen thing that she is going to get crafty with and do some sort of photo display. I'm excited to see it. Thomas didn't have that much (boys definitely live light) so it got done pretty quick and we then we decided to make an Ikea and Target run. I loaded up the things I needed to take back (since I ended up with the free desk and chair and had picked up some other things we really didn't end up needing) and we hit the road. Of course we get there and I realize I didn't have my dang receipt! Ikea can't look up receipts so I was a bit angry, but then I let the wave of mass produced cheap furniture euphoria wash over me. We spent far too much time there (is it even possible to get out of Ikea in less than 3 hours??) and I was so fried at Target I ended up getting 2 things...one that I didn't even need.

On the way back to get one more thing from Thomas' house we were asking him why exactly he wanted to leave since his place was nice and close to his work. And then we turn on to his street and see...

Some sort of drug bust type situation. Less than a block from his house. We understood completely after that and were happy that he decided to stay at the new place that night. When we took the moving truck back and witnessed a possibly bike theft. A nice enough looking girl and guy were very rapidly disassembling a bike that was locked up. I asked them what they were doing and they said they had lost the key, but I'm still a little sketched out. On the way back I got to take my first official ride on the T as a Harvard student from Harvard Square. Oo la la, no??

For dinner Sunday we wanted to step out of the big chain box and used an iPhone app (not sure which one since I don't have an iPhone but two of my roommates do) to find a delicious Thai restaurant called...Yummy Thai!!! It was indeed yummy. I accidentally left behind a piece to my bed that had been in the truck when we dropped it off and it was pretty hilarious when I called back trying to explain it to the server that didn't really know that much English. Amanda was laughing really hard as I said "It's a silver stick thing" when he didn't understand my first description.

So that was moving-in weekend. This post was entirely too long, but I hope you enjoyed it. Miss everyone very much!

Love,

Jem