End of the Beginning

America seems to be welcoming me back with particular fervor. Yesterday morning I went kayaking on the Shenandoah River, something that I plan to do every other day or as often as I can for exercise. I saw two bald eagles, one with full plumage and the other with brown immature feathers, shrieking and whistling at each other in a treetop. They must have been two males vying for territory, because I couldn't see any food between them. Two competing males is a very good sign for the species in this area.

Since I've gotten home I've been really lazy. The two productive activities I've actually paid attention to are chopping cherry wood for the winter and picking blackberries in our backyard. Other than that I've filled up my days with Age of Empires III ("le scent de la mort et la bruit des fusils") and the HBO TV series True Blood. I've been scouting around online for graduate school options through the Peace Corps, and I'm getting frustrated because although they specifically mention a degree in photography on the Peace Corps website, the closest actual program to a Visual Arts degree that I've found is Arizona State's Arts Education degree. I'll probably still do overseas volunteer work even if the Peace Corps can't help me with grad school.

Last night my father and I went to see Warren's play Up the Down Staircase, about a new teacher trying to make children care about education in an overcrowded and dilapidated New York public school. The play had the wrong mix of comic relief and grave issues; things like a girl's attempted suicide seemed really out of place for a comedy, yet the characters seemed to be built just a touch too much on high school stereotypes for it to be a serious drama. Not to brag on my own brother too much, but Warren was really the best part of the whole thing. As the Jim Stark/Stanley Kowalski character, he seemed like the only truly self-aware student in the whole school and was really effective in showing the sexual tension between him and the young heroine Ms. Barrett.

I'm thinking of beginning a new blog, simply because my time in Europe is over and I should draw this one to a close, leaving it as one complete work. So far I've only decided that the web address will be erichcampbell.blogspot.com. It should be up and ready by the first weekend in August. I want to thank everyone who's shown an interest in my travels, photos, stories, observations, musings, and rants over the past half-year. Hope to see y'all again in the future.

FIN