Most of our summer has been spent in DC. I had an internship with the Office of the Historian at the State Department (and yes, there is an Office of the Historian! Most people have no clue that they exist, but you can read more about what they do here). And Sam has also had an internship this summer and has learned a lot about block chain (which, I still don't really know how that works, but Sam has a better idea now, so all interested parties can ask him).
Overall, I think that coming to DC this summer was good for us. It was good to be close to Sam's family (his parents moved here this summer), it was nice to see friends, and it was fun getting to visit different museums and national parks. Trying to balance the internship + PhD stuff + wanting to have fun + uncertainty about next steps for Sam and me with jobs/PhD/life/all the things meant that it was not always smooth sailing here, but is it smooth sailing anywhere?
In lieu of more philosophizing, please enjoy this photo montage of summer times in DC:
[National Gallery]
[At the National Cathedral
[Great Falls]
[Tiny Desk Concert at NPR]
[Old Town Alexandria]
[And short hair.]
[50th anniversary of the moon landing]
[So many stamps]
[And half a dozen donuts.]
[A Nats game]
[Jefferson Rock at Harper's Ferry]
[Freaky picture of John Brown--which also hangs on the capitol building in Topeka, Kansas]
[Freaky wax museum, complete with an animatronic John Brown.]
After Generals, Sam and I took a trip to Chile. While I was studying for my comps, I knew that I would need to get away from Princeton, so we spent a lot of time daydreaming about possible locations. For awhile, I was seriously considering Uzbekistan (still am seriously considering it). But we also knew that I would be exhausted after my exams, and we weren't quite sure if I'd be up for an intensive trip through Central Asia. So we decided to go to Chile, where Sam served his mission. But because Sam only served in a part of Santiago, most of the places we saw were new to him, too.
[Santiago]
[Scenes along the Chilean coastline. We--and by we, I mean Sam--drove south of Santiago to Pucon, and then back up north to Valle del Elqui--which is about a third of the country.]
[morning glow.]
[Why am I wearing a sweater in May, you ask? Because late May in the Southern Hemisphere is their late fall and winter. And although it never got too, too cold during our time there, my body runs cold almost always. Hence, the pictures of me will always be in cardigans, sweaters, or coats.]
[Waterfalls!]
[Everything the light touches is his kingdom]
[Morning faces in the morning light.]
[On our way to Pucon. We had to stop and take a picture and take in the view because this was truly one of the most breathtaking sights I've ever seen.]
[So many views of the volcano.]
[Turn the corner and see a volcano.]
[More waterfalls!]
[This cat followed us around at the waterfall park. There were a couple of moments when I thought she would fall in. She didn't, but there were a few close calls.]
[Lord of the Rings vibes.]
[Deserted beach town in late May.]
[Scampering on the cliffs. Sam is a much more natural scamper-er than I am.]
[With the blue house. This was one of our favorite places we stayed.]
[So cozy and eccentric. Sam said it had a very "Pablo Neruda feel," and, after going to the Pablo Neruda house, I would have to agree with him.]
[Anniversary breakfast on the roof.]
[Road of the Stars. We stayed in the Valle del Elqui for two nights, since it has one of the darkest skies in the world. Of course, as luck would have it, both nights we were there were cloudy. But that didn't take away from some of the incredible views.]
[Case in point.]
[We also stayed at a ranch that fulfilled all of my Parent Trap villa dreams.]
[Love these flowers.]
[Love this man.]
There are so many un-pictured moments from our trip, like visiting the Gabriela Mistral museum, or going to the Pablo Neruda home, or meeting people from Sam's mission who he loves and those who love him, or going to the Museum of Memory in Santiago and learning about the devastation of the dictatorship on this country, or the sights from the twists and turns that the road offered us. Chile is a beautiful country, and I would love to go back someday and see more of the country (especially Patagonia and the Atacama Desert). As one of my friends recently said in response to someone telling her that it was impossible to "keep up" with her and her travels, that it's hard to keep up with the world. That's why we've gotta go see it, if we are able.
It appears that I've taken a summer hiatus from my blog. Not intentionally (in fact, this summer I wanted to revamp it and make it look prettier), but sometimes, that's just what happens. I think that, in the rush of finishing generals, taking a trip to Chile, the prospectus workshop, and starting (and finishing) an internship in DC, there was too much going on that I forgot to write in my journal, let alone update this blog.
But life has gone on. And, in uploading pictures for the inevitable photo dump that will happen in the next couple of posts, I've been reminded of what a full summer it's been.
First of all, I did pass my generals in May. And honestly, that's all that matters. I passed. I never have to do them again. And I've slowly been awakening from that generals stupor and feeling less zombie-like and more like myself. But even then, it's a slower process than I would have liked.
[This is the face of a very happy girl who just found out she passed her generals.]
[So happy. So relieved. So sleep-deprived.]
I mentioned this on Facebook and Instagram, but I truly am so grateful for all of the help and support my family and friends gave me during the semester-of-generals. There are too many people to name, but thank you all for your kindnesses.
[One of about 40 good-luck notes the Primary children in my church congregation made for me before my exams. Yes, when I got these cards, I cried and cried.]
And, of course, the MVP of the support squad goes to this guy right here:
I absolutely would not have been able to make it through without Sam. I mean, I guess I could have, but I would have been even more than a mess than I was.
[This is unironically one of my favorite pictures of Sam. I think he is dancing to music or something. We are also at Buffalo Wild Wings because my mom gave us a gift card for Christmas as a joke. Will we go back? Eh, probably not, but we sure had fun.]
Now onto other things and time to use other academic muscles (and hopefully other physical muscles).
270 books and 30 articles--that is the amount of reading I have done for my general examinations (which start on Monday--eep!).
It's quite the task, and not something I want to do within a period of 4 months ever again. There are some books on my lists that I honestly couldn't tell you much about at this point--some of the books were underwhelming. I feel that one of the lessons I was supposed to learn from this herculean task was how to tell compelling arguments from half-baked ones, and the underwhelming books helped me learn that lesson.
Since all I can think about right now relates in some way to 19th century U.S. history, and since I've read almost 300 books within a 4-month period, obviously I figured the best way to help connect you, my delightful readers, to my life is to mention a few of the best books I read. Even though I doubt many of you will ever read these books, the books below are the ones that were the most compelling for me and ones I think would be compelling for others. I don't know what your beach read wish list is. One of these books just might hit the spot. (Haha, I kid myself. But. I guess I never do know.)
19th Century U.S. History Anne F. Hyde, Empires, Nations, and Families: A History of the North American West,
1800-1860 (2011) (For if you want a good overview of U.S. history that tells it from a western perspective and focuses on fur trading families.) Stephanie
McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and
Politics in the Civil War South (2010)
David
Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War
in American Memory (2001) (A history that explores the difference between history and memory, and gives insights into why the Civil War is such a controversial topic for Americans.) W.E.B.
DuBois, Black Reconstruction in America (1935) (Okay, so this one is v long but also v worth it.) Sarah Barringer Gordon, The Mormon Question: Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in
Nineteenth-Century America (2002) Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A
History of the Western U.S.-Mexico Border (Princeton: Princeton University,
2011) William
Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and
the Great West (1991) Karl
Jacoby, Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands
Massacre and the Violence of History (2008) Margaret
Jacobs, White Mother to a Dark Race:
Settler Colonialism, Maternalism, and the Removal of Indigenous Children in the
American West and Australia (2009) Jared
Farmer. On Zion’s Mount: Mormons,
Indians, and the American Landscape (2008) (This one was particularly interesting to me, because it was the history of where I grew up--right at the foot of Mount Timpanagos.) Jackson
Lears, No Place of Grace: Antimodernism
and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880-1920 (1981) (I really, really, really liked this book. It is one of the reasons I think we're living in a "new Gilded Age." The disenchantment many people feel today is reminiscent of the same fears, concerns, and discontents with modernity in the late 19th century.)
[This is from a different book called What Hath God Wrought, by Daniel Walker Howe. It is dedicated to John Quincy Adams, and I get a kick out of that all of the time.]
Women's and Gender History
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, vol. 1, An Introduction (orig. 1976)
(If you read this, let me know and we'll discuss. I'm always up for discussing more Foucault.)
Joan Scott,
“Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” AHR 91 (1986): 1053-1075
Wendy Anne Warren, “‘The Cause of Her
Grief’: The Rape of a Slave in Early New England,” Journal of American History 93 (March 2007): 1031-49.
(One of the most moving articles I've read--I really enjoy reading meditations on historical methods, and this article does just that and more.)
Jeanne Boydston, Home
and Work: Housework, Wages, and the Ideology of Labor in the Early Republic(Oxford,
1990)
(I get that this book might not really be interesting to most folks out there, but it makes a very good argument as to why the household and the workplace have been and always will be interconnected.)
Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary,
1785-1812 (1991)
Tera W. Hunter, To ‘Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the
Civil War (Cambridge, Mass., 1997)
(Such a good book. This is one of those history books I read and went, "Yes. I want to write history like this.")
Sarah Haley, No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity
(University of North Carolina Press, 2015)
(Harrowing book. But also so important.)
Global History (1850-present) Jürgen
Osterhammel. The Transformation of the
World: a Global History of the Nineteenth Century (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 2014). (SUPER long. Like. You-could-break-your-toe-on-this-book it's so thick. But, if that's your thing, this gives a good overview of the 19th century.) Dominic
Lieven. Empire: The Russian Empire and
its Rivals. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).
I've felt a bit like a zombie the past couple of months as I've prepared for generals. I've had a lot of possible blog posts in mind, but the effort of putting together words and posting pictures just seemed like too much after a long day--long week--long month--of reading, reading, and reading.
BUT! Life has gone on. And even though I've been doing a lot of reading, I've also been experiencing life. Going outdoors. Having friends visit. Running. Trying new recipes. Spring came. And it has been a beautiful, beautiful spring. Princeton comes alive with magnolias, dogwood tree blossoms, and azaleas.
[Bear in a dogwood tree.]
Last month, we also had our friends Em and Nate come and visit us, and it was delightful for them to be here.
And in the meantime, Sam and I just keep on keeping on. I'm glad to have him here, and I'm grateful we've chosen life together, although we still don't know exactly what we've gotten into. But we're here together, and that is enough.
[From the one and only time we went to Buffalo Wild Wings because my mom gave us a gift card there as a Christmas joke gift.]
