Here is a quick update with some pictures.

Cesar's classes are winding down and he finished taking his MTEL (teacher test), which took literally all day. He left at 5:45 and did not get back until 7:30! He thinks he did well on it though. This week he will finish his last class and then will just teach in the morning for the last two weeks. I begin my program next week and I am very excited. Last night I went to see a "Tribute to August Wilson" that students from the school I will be working at performed. I went with a guy that I will be working with at the school and he seems great and really smart. I am definitely excited about starting the internship at Codman.

The kids are doing well. We have been spending a lot of time at the library reading on the rug, checking out books, listening to story times, participating in sing-alongs, and watching movies. It is an amazing library! Using the books that we have checked out or purchased, the kids and I have read a novel a day practically. They love just sitting and listening to me read and it is a nice way to prevent them from bothering each other.

We also went into the city to watch Winnie the Pooh and Sabine actually sat through the whole thing and watched it. Then we walked around trying to find something to eat and I was so surprised to find very little open on Sunday in the city. Harvard Square is overrun on Sunday with tourists and everything is open, so I was surprised that it was not the same in Boston. Anyway, we finally found a place that we never need to go to again and then we went to the park and let the kids play.


After reading a book on Jane Goodall during story time, Che decided he wanted to become a bird observer. So at the playground he began observing birds, brought them food, found a place where he could hide so as not to scare them but could still watch them. Then he came home and wrote down all his observations and drew pictures. He then put them all in a folder labeled "Things About Birds".

Another activity that was inspired by our reading was the creation of the Land of Oz map. After reading the novel, Che and I (with a little help from Sabine) created a detailed map of all of Oz using descriptions from the book to create it. It took us almost three hours to complete it and I kept asking Che if he wanted to stop and he said "no". He was really into it!


Sabine of course is also picking up little things here and there from books and repeating them, but two of things she said recently I can't figure out where she heard them from: "witches eat boogers" and "girls don't poop".

Last but not least, I have been running along the river (more like jogging) in the mornings. On one particularly nice morning, I saw the sun rise a bit over some tall Harvard buildings. It was beautiful, but it made me realize that I have not seen a single sunset in Cambridge, and that I miss the gorgeous sunsets in St. Croix. I am going to have to get out of the city and see a sunset soon...

Here is a picture of Che's "Thinking Cap" that he created:


Here are some pictures of the kids at our playground:


Here is a picture of Sabine "hiding" during Hide and Seek:

Cesar has been an absentee father for the past month or so. His classes are very demanding and time-consuming. When he gets home in the evening he usually has tons of work to do and stays up late reading or working on papers. He just started teaching and seems to feel pretty confident and prepared. Che, Sabine, and I have been filling our days with sprinkler fun at the park, story time at the COOP, and we just went to Cambridge's main library and it is wonderful! Che got his own library card and he is ecstatic. They made him sign it and gave him a special little case to carry it in. He felt very special. Che and Sabine have definitely started playing together a lot more and Sabine announced recently that she "needs more friends". I think they are both going to be happy to be back at school.

We just got back from a trip to the Berkshires with the Beauchamps and Tej. We all had a great time! The house was gorgeous and very spacious. We didn't even use half of the rooms.

It was also a short walk into Lenox, so it was nice to walk in for breakfast or to get ice cream. On the 4th of July we went to Shakespeare and Co. and listened to some music and watched the actors and community members read the Declaration of Independence. It was a beautiful day and a great event.



Cesar was able to stay the first weekend and then he took the bus back to Boston for classes. He came back Thursday night (our ten year anniversary!) and thanks to the Beauchamps we were able to go out for dinner. We saw several shows-- Three Hotels and Street Car Named Desire at Williamstown Theater Festival (with a slew of famous actors) and Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It at Shakespeare and Co. We also went to Jacob's Pillow twice.



Unfortunately, we never made it to Tanglewood. The kids has tons of fun playing with Eva and Devin and this year Sabine was old enough to be included in all of the games. The picture below shows them pretending to be rocks. It was an ingenious way of trying to get them to calm down a bit...



I enjoyed actually getting to have conversations with adults! We also went to Hancock Shaker Village and the kids really enjoyed seeing the animals and playing in the Discovery Room.






We also saw some wild animals on this adventure-- a baby black bear and a fox. The fox was hanging out by our house and the black bear was crossing the street. Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of the bear, but it certainly was cute!


We had a great time; I wish we could have stayed there longer!

We are now back in Cambridge. I haven't seen Cesar in three days because he is working so hard (he discovered the library, so he isn't even at home any more when he is working). I have been given readings and assignments to have completed before school begins in the beginning of August, so I need to have some time to work on those. Not sure when that time will be, maybe after I finish procrastinating by writing this blog :)

The Band is Back Together!

Or Babylon Part II, or Babylon Revisited

The Guerras have embarked on a one-year excursion to Babylon (Cambridge, MA to be exact) to attend graduate school. Besides getting the most out of our academic opportunities here, we also want to make sure we enjoy all of the parts of Babylon that we cannot (or rarely) experience at home: hikes in the woods, apple picking, petting farms, fall festivals, weekend excursions, good Mexican food, good Indian food, outdoor music, indoor music, shows, sledding, etc.

We left STX on June 8th and we were so late to the airport and had so many bags (eight checked!) that we almost did not make it to our plane. After seat-belting everyone in, I began to tick through all of the things that I forgot to do at our house before leaving. One of those things was to find the kiwi that Sabine had been carrying around all morning (thanks Mamita!)and begging us to cut up for her to no avail since we were all running around in circles trying to get ready to go. I made a mental note to ask one of my very nice family members to look for the kiwi before our tenants moved in and found a rotting kiwi covered in bugs under a couch or bed or something.

The flight went as well as could be expected and the kids were great. We arrived in Boston at 11:50 PM and were able to get our bags, hop on a shuttle to our hotel, and get up to our room all without much hassle at all. The next day Cesar rented a minivan, we did a quick Target run, and then headed to Cambridge to get the keys to our new place. We were all pleasantly surprised when we saw our little house. There were only a couple of pictures online so I was a bit worried, but it is lovely. It is definitely small, but it is clean and nice and has little bits of storage here and there which will make it work (think boat). It is also in a perfect area-- tree-lined and residential, but close to everything in Harvard Square. After checking out the place we rushed off to MIT's Furniture Exchange and then Ikea. The goal was to get furniture early enough so that Ikea would be able to deliver the beds the same day and avoid us having to stay in a hotel again. We made it-- by a hair. The whole story is too long and involved, but let's just say we did a lot of running, screaming, and huffing throughout Ikea.

We obviously need some decorations...


We then had to head back to our place to wait for the beds to get delivered. We still had no food, drinks, cups, sheets, or anything else besides clothes and some toys for the kids, so we basically just sat around on the floor and waited for them to deliver our stuff. They finally did around 9:30 PM, so then we all hopped in the car and did a late night Target run to get our essentials.

Usually after a day, night, day, and another night of non-stop running around one would be able to relax and gradually move in and get their bearings. Not me! I had to head off to two school visits and interviews on public transportation. At 7:30 AM I arrived at one charter school in Cambridge and really enjoyed it. By 11:30 I was roaming the streets of East Cambridge trying desperately to find the T station. Finally I did and then got off at the right stop to catch a bus to Roxbury where I had an interview at another school. The bus ride took about thirty minutes and when I got off I was a bit taken aback. Let's just say I didn't want to do this commute in the dark every day. The interview did not go well and I did not mind. The principal told me that the street leading up to school was the only "neutral" street in Roxbury and as long as the students had their school badges on they would be left alone (I looked down at my empty, badge-less chest and began to worry about my walk back to the station).

On Saturday we decided to rent a car again since we still had no food in the house (those pesky kids of ours actually demand to eat at least three meals a day plus snacks) and do a grocery shop, another Target run, clothes shopping for Cesar, and Cheesecake Factory for me. Mission accomplished.

Cesar then began his first week of classes and I began my 8-5 summertime employment: camp director, teacher, potty trainer, short-order cook, circus performer, sprinter, professional story reader, etc., etc. The kids and I have been finding parks, story times, ice-cream stands, and enjoying our time hanging out together. It is exhausting! Cesar has been enjoying his school work, but it has been keeping him busy. He has had to stay up late every night working on readings and he had to work most of Sunday on a project. Hopefully it won't be this time-consuming during the year or our kids will be miserable!

We did take Saturday off and enjoyed a great hike around Walden Pond, visited Barefoot Books in Concord, and ate (again) at the Cheesecake Factory.





We also solved the mystery of the missing kiwi. Sabine had packed it in her bag! Thank goodness customs didn't find it or we would have missed our flight!

Sunday we went to the Unitarian church in Cambridge and the homily was on "parting". The minister discussed some words from a Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, that have always inspired him:
I have arrived, I am home
In the here and in the now

Wherever we are we are home; we should be present. I think it was a fitting way to end the week and welcome us to Cambridge.