the last one to leave was Simon the sick. much fun dragging his heavy heavy luggage to the airport:) and the taxi driver was also very engaging in conversation about unlimited speed in German autobahns.



but at least we found the cows that had disappeared from the Boston downtown long time ago... well, two of them.



the skyline is beautiful from terminal E, where all European airlines operate... Alitalia, Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, Air France etc...



no snow in Boston for Christmas this year. it seems it all got delayed in Denver:) but the frog pond is full of people from dawn and after dusk.



in Boston Common on Christmas' Eve i found some protestors against the Izraeli wall and for the independence of Palestine. surrounded by homeless people and not politicians who make the decisions they were, though...



then i walked through the financial district, that was occupied by a crazy crowd of last minute holliday shoppers...



and back to the airport i went... exactly a week had passed from Simon's departure from terminal E and Deivis arrived with lost of gifts from the good old Lithuania.

the first semester at Brandeis ended exactly two hours and thirty four minutes ago when i handed in my last paper on Levi-Strauss' analysis of art. still difficult to believe... and not so easy to find a place... to decide what to do... i guess i could just go and sleep for a week. enough what to dream about. and my body really really needs rest. however, i have also printed out a bunch of texts about activist research and politically engaged anthropology, about doing fieldwork in dangerous places and reflexive social analysis. and, of course, i have some books to read...

but what were the last couple of weeks like? in my calendar they have all been marked red and circled because as long ago as september i knew these would be the days of hell. four papers in two weeks or so... it had seemed impossible and i was determined not to sleep at all. however (and here the story begins), on Tuesday afternoon, that is, when only two days and three nights were left till the deadline this Friday, i still had two papers to write and one to finish, which means that those last two weeks that were supposed to be dedicated to lonely nights typing my thoughts met a different fate. why? good question...



first, because of Sony Playstation 2. i had never played any computer or video games and the like before (except racing cars or changing the appearance of NBA players) and did not mean to, but one evening Schini just gave me one joystick and the game began. it was "Tekken". awful fighting game. the next to come was FIFA soccer, where Italian honor had to be defended even by such an unexperienced player as i am. so... we played every evening, before and after dinner, we even stayed late at night as i wanted to learn the special Xiaoyu moves from Schini, my teacher:) actually, the first time the "Tekken" box was opened, he stayed till five or six in the morning! later Stephan explained me "World of Warcraft", which they always play with Schini. but i will at least not join this... although i loved the "South Park" episode about it.



the last TGIF on Friday was at Heller school. i had not known that it is the third best school of social policy in the U.S. after Harvard and University of Michigan. Stephan met some new girls - one from Iran and another one from El Salvador. Quan got to know Mei-Mei... and i was awoken from casual daydreaming by some consultant from Uganda. don't remember anything about him because i think he was listening more than talking... expert in consulting.

we also watched a bunch of movies... usually, these were "Friends" or "South Park", "Futurama" or "Simpsons", sometimes stupid dating shows on MTV, during the Thanksgiving break, also a lot of old James Bond films. the last night before Stephan and Schini left we even watched "Batman Forever", since the vote was not in favor of more intelectual "Bolivia" or "Singing in the Rain". in fact, we did watch "The Doors" with Tathagata and Seyit after the Germans left and maybe more movie nights are yet to come. they are good for winter nights.



well, the majority of Germans left... Uli flew home already a week ago and Simon doesn't count as he has spent all this time in bed with a terrible virus called mononucleosis. he could not talk, he had to sleep while sitting and... finally they cut him with a scalpel so that now he feels a bit better and can breath more freely. we have been trying to take care of him as much as we could... with soups, movies, magazines, papers...



everyday (and i am not joking about that) around seven or so i used to leave Highland street to go to grad housing. and every night i used to come back with the last shuttle at two o'clock... or not come back at all if the shuttle did not come or i missed it. when a couple of days ago with Tathagata we were going to "Hannaford's" and passed my street, i thought "oh, i used to live here". indeed... recently i have spent more time in their place than in mine.

not only for video-games and movies... we also learnt. Schini was solving math problems even the last evening (because he didn't do that before, Simon remarks:)...



we with Jong-Hyun were taught to play Bavarian cards - "Schafkopf". i also learnt some useful German words from Stephan, like "ich bin uberfressen", "von dir lernen heisst siegen lernen" and the bad word for Uli which I have no idea how to spell:) Tatgahata learnt how to open beer bottles the German way... we with Quan also managed that but need way more practice... getting Germanized:) and getting boyish:) you would better not know what engaging conversations about hegemonic masculine society, the stupid girls or German social system we have!



but social activities were not everything. i also had responsibilities in class... a presentation on Chilean nation and student protests and the opening of the second exhibition of the southern Sudanese paintings from Kakuma refugee camp in Brandeis library (check out the website, which we made ourselves - http://www.brandeis.edu/projects/sudan_center/kakuma_exhibit/).



and on Monday again i went to Providence in Rhode Island. i was supposed to talk to one professor at Brown and i did, but the conversation lasted only twenty minutes, while i spent the whole day going there and back. anyway, i like Providence the same as i like Boston, so i enjoyed walking around the old streets and new skyscrapers with a cup of hot English tea in my hands.





these were very happy days. i had absolutely no time to write my papers, but i suspect that it doesn't affect their quality... one day with Uli we went to the science library, but otherwise i was not that hard-working. for the Armenian-Turkish negotiations of the Genodice i got an A and for time and space in Nuerland - an A+. still three more evaluations to come, but i don't really care any more. i have finished my PhD applications and whatever will be - will be. i really want to study more. but i really want to do many other things as well... so it doesn't matter too much. just i have absolutely no idea where i will end up next year... maybe living in Switzerland? or Sudan? Mexico? or Lithuania? in any case i know where i will be in winter a year from now. Bavaria! real white European mountains!



besides these sunny mornings and clear moon nights, one rainy day i realized how much all of my friends mean to me... it was Friday, i was angry and sad... i was walking in the rain for some hours, first with Luis, then alone... no umbrella. just me and the rain. but Stephan continued to call me every half an hour insisting that i have to come to his place. although i was sitting there speechless and still sad, it felt better. happiness through tears:)

tears remind me of onions... we also cooked a lot... Stephan taught me how to make delicious spaghetti with cream salmon sauce. Quan saved me from cold with some very spicy Korean soup. we ate Chinese. and we ate Indian. Tathagata prepared chicken curry for us, which was so good that i still get hungry whenever i rememeber it. we ate lots of American cookies as well... and we went shopping to Boston yet again, this time Stephan and Uli were looking for presents while i bought lots of nice sweaters and a skirt... and a terribly expensive Brandeis pullover, which i had always wanted. also... i got two enormous books for just twenty dollars each. Salvador Dali and Cosmos... unfortunately, i had no more money for an ancient maps atlas... but i hope some will be left till i get the scholarship.



that is it. final hugs so sad... and Uli, Stephan and Schini are in Germany. Seyit is moving out of Charles river and will live quite close to my place. Tathagata is leaving for Florida with his friends. and Simon will hopefully head for home on Sunday. we will meet next year... long time to go... i miss them already so much:) too much!

some more photos of the last days... http://picasaweb.google.com/ieva.jusionyte

katie, diego, tathagata, simon, seyit, murat, schini & uli eating risotto for the first time in my place. as we have no table in the house, the ground served well...



and last monday simon's friend from germany - rudi - cooked for us all in grad housing.

just eating like the big family:)

last May one Brandeis student who is herself Izraeli Jewish for her class of peace building through art decided to put up an exhibition by Palestinian children or teenagers from a refugee camp just near the wall of separation. it was named "Voices of Palestine".



however, the paintings hung in the library met a controversial end. the president of the university where half of the students are Jewish, most likely due to pressure from donors, ordered the paintings to be removed after only several days they had been on display in the far corner down the third floor. the official reason was that they were too insulting and shocking for Brandeis community... with a snake forming David's star, the wall and Arab blood spilt by Izraeli tanks. this was the reality the children saw around them, growing up in the camp. to some peoples' opinion, this was politics in the disguise of art. yet most welcomed the exhibition because the voices of the Palestinians are rarely heard here. yes, Brandeis has partnership with al-Quds university, which is an Arab institution. and Tony Kushner who wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's "Munich", recieved an honorary doctorate degree at Brandeis the same May. besides, Heller school and coexistance program are one of the best programs in peace building in the country... and still, the exhibition was down, "the Boston globe" wrote about this scandal of academic free speech denial to Izraeli's political enemies and censorship at a so-called "secular" Jewish institution which was accused by some as being zionist... and the paintings went to M.I.T. leaving Brandeis is shock and disagreement, distrust and frustration among its community members which continue into today.



at "Museums and Public memory" class this morning we were discussing this controversial exhibition behind shut doors and with promisses not to uncover the details of disputes and fractures in the university's administration. then Nadia, who is originally Lebanese, but is American citizen, spoke up... about how unsafe she feels in her country... that after the war in Lebanon had started she didn't want to leave home for a week... that at Brandeis Arab students receive death threats and nobody cares about that... Nadia cried when she was talking... the class was speechless. this opened my eyes... not that i had never noticed and realized, but i had never thought that it does have a direct impact on my fellow students... Izraeli politics and class asignements at Brandeis are so closely connected... as are lives and comfort of Arab students with the funding university gets from wealthy Jews... this matrix of power is threatening... and there is nothing one can do... not even faculty members who can object only to the limit of being fired for one-sidedness, for expressing only one view... our Southern Sudanese refugees' exhibition will take the place of the "Voices of Palestine". however many discussions and ethical questions it might raise, since it has nothing to to with Izrael, freedom of speech is in our hands. it is much easier to criticize the government of the United States that the one in Izrael. at least that is what i have learnt so far. through the tears of my friend.

dieses mal schreibe ich auf deutsch (stimmt, simon?), also entschuldigen mir bitte die nicht verstehen können... das Thanksgiving in USA ist eine grosse sache, die alles geschlossen war und alle leute wurden nach hause gegangen. ich wurde eingeladen zu abendessen mit der armenischen familie im Cape Codd, das die schönste strandstadt in Massachusetts ist, aber ich blieb mit Seyit. wir haben truthahnsandwiche und tortellini gegessen und wein insieme mit arto getrunken. ruhiges und cozy Thanksgiving.

freitag paßten wir james bond auf bis vier morgens, schlief ich wieder an den Charles River appartments und heute am mittag Jong-Hyun kochte uns Südcoreanisches mittagessen. danach wählte ich eine andere weise nach hause umzugehen... durch den kirchhof. ein schönes wetter dort heute war, sonnig und ruhig, viele eichhörnchen und gänse um die grabsteine durch den fluß.















auf der anderen seite des flusses ist die berühmte Waltham uhrfabrik...