and finally we went to get our birthday present - real red bostonian lobsters. i was so excited when after the twists and turns we reached "the black rose", an old irish bar in downtown boston... but that was only before our lobster dinner arrived... to see this huge red animal in my plate was more scary then exciting and it was a while till i took the special tool to break the chela. the meat was good, however, and i immersed in my lobster and did not mind the french fries. until again i had to turn it upside down and see the belly and the legs... seyit helped me and my lobster with this... uhh... desperately i resorted to continue eating. actually it was more of a fight between me and the lobster and the guys really enjoyed laughing at me... killing frogs with blunt knives some years ago was almost like a joke:)









but the lobsters were over and we proceeded to the prudential tower. hung-yon, tathagat, michael, stephan, simon, seyit, uli and me. quan could not go with us that day...



since in this fancy place they don't ask for liquor ID's (otherwise it would have caused me huge problems as i had left my passport at home), we enjoyed having the expensive cocktails on the 52nd floor, having the city of lights under our feet...



and then in started raining. no, pouring... cats and dogs... the wind and the strong strong rain in a rather warm night, running to catch our bus and running the wrong direction... going to cambridge "john harvard's" to warm up and take the next bus home... but the fun did not end there... it was still raining heavily, the streets were under water and i could not go home after the last shuttle missed me. wet wet wet.. waiting for half an hour in the rain... and the going back to watch silly shows on mtv... anyway, still this morning my durkheim and mauss' "primitive classification" which i took out of my bag at class was completely soaked:)

two days ago i realized i am becoming american. because being american is the way of life... yes, the piligrims who reached the shores of what they called new england were refugees of religion, but it is not only about values. or not any longer. today beeing american is a distinct way of being in the world... of your attitude to what you do, freud would complement, unconscious attitude. first thing was that i noticed myself not picking up the phone. hearing it ringing, i don't mind and continue what i am doing, it doesn't annoy me, it doesn't even distract me... from staring at the screan or deep down in my thousands pages of copied papers... john told me that americans always do that... that they are too busy to talk to anyone. that he got used to when people don't answer his calls... it's a signal that someone is busy... and don't think you are that important that they should bother... but... i didn't mean it... i didn't even check who was calling... john was laughing at me... "you are becoming american, that's how it is", he said... after that i was determined "not to become that american" and have been answering all the calls ever since... but it is hard, damn it is... it is difficult to resist americanness:) the next thing, however, is time. i don't distinguish between day and night anymore... i sleep in the evening, wake up before midnight and continue reading till morning, then have a nap and go to school... or sleep an hour after classes... and read again... crazy... always tired and always having so much to do still... working... lenin would be happy to hear that everyone obeys principles of education... however, i don't feel lonely, as most of my friends at the anthropology department look as bad as me:) especially on thursdays... ghosts of bodies who were once human beings...



anyway, weekend is a gateway of escape. i went to sleep at eight on friday night, or was it still evening... and today with uli we headed to the isso's (international students and scholars' office at brandeis) foliage tour down the essex river to the atlantic... very touristic, very cold, but very cool to get out there, to see the birds and the seal... to breathe some fresh air... to see the horizon... to have some video for my enclosed dreams:) i did get wet, i did lose the cover of my great sony alpha... and i did buy some honey expecting to get ill... at russel's orchard full of apples and pumpkins which we decided not to buy for our (uli is born on 31 october, the same as me... or, more correctly, i was born on the same day as he, as he is one year older:)) - halloween birthday party... we'll do that later... my homemade honey is now safe in the cupboard, awaiting still colder days in this unpredictable climate of massachusetts.





more photos... http://picasaweb.google.com/ieva.jusionyte/EssexRiverCruise

getting up at five and seeing the darkness outside i headed to the train station to meet seim and... go to providence in rhode island. i missed my classes today... but we were following the steps of the ivy league... talking, laughing and sleeping at the anthropology department at brown university. this is where i belong. or i wish to belong. who needs harvard anyway? :) brown is the third or so spot on my anthropological tour... weird kind of academic tourism... and i think it is really the best place for me to be:)

buenas noches, todos! esta el otono, pero las hojas no cambian color... today we went to the science museum to see the gunther von hagens' exhibition "body worlds".



i haven't paid that much for an exhibition ever in my life... 21 dollars... i miss washington and its policy of free museums... and the exhibition was... interesting... and shocking... human bodies or - to be more precise - the muscles, the skeletons, arteries and veins, all the organs etc, etc... for example, one "work of art" was a human being divided into two separate bodies - one of his bones, the other - of his muscles... and there were muscle-men playing baseball and soccer, and ice-skating and skiing... and there were embrios of the humans... and one women reduced to muscles with several months' old baby in her womb. scandalous. von hagens, the creator of these bodies, wrote:

"the plastinated post-mortal body illuminates the soul by its very absence. plastination transforms the body, an object of individual mourning, into an object of reverence, learning, enlightment and appreciation".

and the brochures announce: ORIGINAL, AUTHENTIC, INSPIRING. original and authentic? is it an authentic - the really real - body or the work of art? or maybe let's leave these questions aside, as they don't lead anywhere. the official website is somehow not working, but you can get the impressions here - http://www.mos.org/bodyworlds/.

after the exhibition we went to the quincy market - the place of an old boston market where now you can buy thai, indian, greek, italian, japanese or whatever else food. delicioso:) and quincy is always packed with people, especially on sundays. after long considerations, i had some greek salad which were nothing like the traditional ones we had in greece... andrea got the japanese food and diego the thai. daniela only had some juice and some snacks. good meal after the day of exploration of human bodies... to strenghten our own.





outside we observed many performances by street artists... there were the hip hop dancers, there was a guy who literally got through the tennis racket... from the head to his toes... and there was one who tried to escape the mad-man's clothes, his hands being tied behind his back. and there were the alive sculptures, so wide-spread in europe. this is similar to the "body worlds" exhibition, just outside... some of those people could well be placed under the glass. people amazed by their own bodies and those of the others. flesh. real people. forgotten bodies in the times of digital technologies and virtual life. unfortunately, it was forbidden to take pictures inside the museum. i was excited by the sight... people staring at human bodies, at the flesh without the skin... and by staring i mean staring... from all around... the back and the front and the under of the exposed corpses.





and the sunday was over with the walk in the boston common and the public gardens. the kite in the wind and many squirrels everywhere. and people, spending the last hours of this warm and humid weekend. boston really has unpredictable weather.









pero... manana es lunes... tomorrow is monday. unfortunately or luckily? i don't know... i like it all here.



and these are my sunflowers at night, i did not have a picture of them before... and it is their last days... on the way home with the red hot chilli peppers.

in the garden of the house close to me somebody is growing the sunflowers... they are so big that the windows of that wooden house are hidden from the sight of the passers-by. but today as i looked at their yellow faces looking down i felt that they are leaving... it might be the last sunny and warm days in new england, although the weather here changes every day and after the chilly evenings last week, this weekend brought a relief. maybe the whales have not yet left the shores of boston and we could go to watch them... in october they go away and come back only in spring... i have never seen a whale...

today was the first time i said no. i didn't go to boston, even if ksenia invited me to the common to read my book there. "basta!" about the zapatista rebellion in chiapas, mexico, which is not the romantic indians fighting for their rights but much more and much less at the same time. it's complex... yesterday at harvard bookstore there was the biography of subcomandante marcos on the same shelf with eight-hundred page long books on che guevara. this reminded me of bologna and the subcultural marxism there, of the power of che t-shirt and of the italian communist songs we used to sing at nights. i miss italy. this is not the first time i think about that. something more than just missing europe. italy was very beautiful. i don't abuse this word. it was beautiful in the sense that it was aesthetic... the renaissance florence or medieval ravena, vast vineyards of toscana and small towns in the colline of romagna just above forli... there is something beautiful in the way italians eat and in the way they dress, also something more in the way they chat in the market... and it is rich beauty. i felt it in my blood. even being sad and lonely there is part of the beauty that surrounds you. nostalgia comes along with the cultural heritage... deep thoughts walking down the silent dark streets of the old city... it is not that beautiful to be sad in america. imagine some small town somewhere in the midwest which you definitely see in many movies and someone sad there... it would hurt because that saddness is not the same as the beautiful italian longing for home... maybe that's the reason my letters from italy were nice and here i can't write the same. or i couldn't. there are some places which have become so dear to me that i could spend an evening just walking there all alone... boston downtown... and especially cambridge...



yesterday on my way back from the bar at one at night i was thinking about that. sad because i had to go home already but tired as well... we only met at eight or so with karima, ksenia, diego and andrea and sergio, who are also chilean, to go to one irish pub for some guiness or wine and then to another bar where we had to separate. and i only had one glass of grapefruit juice. one friend of ksenia's who is a filmmaker came to join us. it turned out that he is of italian descent and can speak italian but with the weird american accent. he told me that bologna is all full of communists which he doesn't like... and he is able to get tickets to the rolling stones concert... and he also praised american burgers... you can get the best in los angeles but also the ones from boston are better than anything europeans have ever tried. ksenia had two last night but i wasn't hungry. however, i still remember the burgers from the place ergys took us some weeks ago. that was good.



on my way back sitting in the bus i wanted to write something in the new notebook i got from the harvard bookstore last night. it is a moleskine, the legendary notebook originally made by small french bookbinders and used by picasso, van gogh and hemingway... no in stores again after someone in milano decided to renew this traditional design. i bought it for my field-notes, for anhtropological observations once i finally meet the armenians and the turkish... or for some other spontaneous thoughts which are always better than all the pre-planned essays. however, last night i did not have a pen... so my thoughts sank into sleep on the bus home... just to wake up and realize that there is the red big moon to guide my way to highland street.

why remember maldini? in the morning i went shopping and was wearing the t-shirt of the "rossoneri" with the name of maldini. to my greatest surprise people at the supermarket and those on the street all noticed me... and smiled, and commented and explained their reaction to their friends who had never herd of "the famous italian soccer player". but most have heard. boston has a huge italian population in the north end. and arto told me today that "the rolling stones", "red hot chilli peppers" and eric clapton are coming there in a month or so. need to get the tickets at least for one show. and with uli we'll participate in the lottery to go skydiving. some new experiences... today i'm some how a bit tired as yesterday i came back at four and when i woke up eva and justinas had already left... i hope they have some time in new york and... home... what we did yesterday was a relaxed evening... it all started with the T.G.I.F. and the free snacks and drinks. as usually i met here the few fulbrighters, some new students interested in my camera, and most of the friends... some still have classes till late and that's so unfair as they never make it for the evening at usdan.



(here is carlos from colombia together with the girl from turkey and the fulbright guy from guatemala... i'm so ashamed not to know the names...)

just after all the food and drinks were over, we went to one comedy show in downtown boston...



(simon contemplating in front of the skyline we were looking for... did i mention that i signed up for the photography club? tomorrow in cambridge they will take pictures of people contemplating... so, here is mine:))

going to the comedy evening was arranged for the students living at charles river appartments but simon, uli, michael and stephan invited me to come and so i did. in fact, the show was... strange... i mean, i don't understand american humour... not funny... only the last lady was ok... but still i was looking at the watch and the end of the show.





and the show was over... applause...



afterwards we were about to do the bar tour... the american way to spend the evening if you are not in miami and don't go dancing. usually it's just going from one bar to another with the passport in your hand so that they can check whether you are over twenty-one. and in most of the bars there is no place to move around, the music is too loud to talk, so people just drink...



and spend a lot of money... however, i say "we were about to do the tour" as it did only begin... we went to "whiskey's" to have some cuba libres and margaritas and then to "hong kong" in cambridge.



(political show discussing labor problems in new england in the cambridge bar... you don't hear anything because of the music, but still...)

but just as the dances on the third floor started, the lights went on and... at two o'clock it was over! in boston they close the bars at two... unbelievable. even in vilnius they are open till five. at least some. while here, none. so we just sat talking at the closed cafe in harvard square and took the shuttle home...

as i was walking alone home the arabic moon was visible in the starry sky... and i was thinking about the book by three refugees from southern sudan i'm reading now... but later about that.

now i have to read some marx and get ready for the evening. it seems that again i'm meeting karima, ksenia and diego at harvard.

saturday was ksenia’s birthday, taking into consideration our permanent failures to organize a meeting, probably the only possibility to gather more than two fulbright students in one place. with two bottles of red wine – one from california, another one naturally from chile – and the pineapple i got at “hannaford’s” diego and i started from the harvard square to look for hampshire street in cambridge. on the way i couldn’t help not taking picture of one of the figures showing that elections are coming…



he knew some polish, which somehow i didn’t trust… and some bosnian… and learned “labas”… and gave us a sheet for signing as the supporters of the republicans. i think that won’t work… but again my camera puts us in somehow interesting situations and interesting conversations, diego observed…

the party was outside, in the sun that unexpectedly returned to new england. in fact it was almost as hot and as humid as in the good old times in miami:) well, maybe less, but at least a reminder of that. something 84 degrees fahrenheit… minus 32 and divided by two that makes 26 degrees celsius.



the other two fulbrighters that were there was karima and ulrike – both from germany. karima is studying fine arts and has a wonderful studio overlooking downtown boston for her paintings. and ulrike is studying american culture, although she graduated from anthropology, so a familiar soul:)





then there was the russian role-playing-loving company that i met a week ago.



after eating some self-boiled meat and mushrooms we headed towards M.I.T. (the massachusetts institute of technology, i think the best university of sciences in the world) where there was a movie arranged for our company – monty python and the holy grail. what i really liked was the infinite or never-ending corridor of M.I.T. and the famous white dome during the blue hour… and not the full bag of diet and normal coke that we had…







after the movie we headed home… in the subway you can find different things to do while waiting… there is the history of cambridge on the walls, there are the musical hammers that you can move with the handle on the wall…





unfortunately, karima left her photo camera at M.I.T. and had to go back. diego was too tired to do anything. and i caught my free brandeis shuttle from harvard square to go home… with several dozens of undergraduate students after their first time in boston downtown… talking about everything, except anything serious… well, let’s face it, it was only loud discussion of how who looks, who is pretty and who is not, who has fashionable clothes and who goes out with whom. really interesting to listen to that for half an hour on my way here and the same on the way back:) but people say that with weeks there will be less freshmen heading downtown or to cambridge… the sooner, the better.



as my cell phone was dead, i couldn’t call simon… but he was writing his paper for school, anyway… and stephan and uli were somewhere climbing the mountains… so i just went home. and had a really deep sleep:)