![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerSo two nights ago, I get this e-mail out of the blue from my old friend Rudy. Rudy is an ex-high-school-boyfriend; we stayed friends, and he came up and visited me at Carleton my freshman year. I was very busy that weekend (he knew this would be a problem before he came up, but he really wanted to get out of town for a weekend and said it was okay, he'd find ways to entertain himself) so he spent the weekend making friends with all my friends, organizing a swimming trip, exploring Northfield, etc. Many of my college friends remembered him fondly years later.
His e-mail had the subject line "Greetings from Down South" so I was expecting that he was going to mention that he'd moved to Florida or Texas or something.
I was off by about 8,000 miles.
Rudy is at the South Pole. Yes, THE South Pole. He's working on a project called IceCube, building a neutrino telescope under the polar ice. He's been there since October and is wintering there -- the last flight out was in February, and sunset was in March. His blog (I'll have to check and make sure he's okay with me posting the URL) includes pictures of him in a juggling t-shirt at the South Pole (they have a red-and-white striped pole with a shiny ball on top, that's basically there for people to pose next to), as well as pictures of the sunset, a camping trip (back during the Antarctic summer, when it was a mere 30 degrees below zero) and plenty of other fascinating things.
I got that e-mail two days ago. Today, I was over at the Hiawatha Playground with the girls when I spotted a woman who looked very familiar. I took another look; she was there with young kids about the age of mine, and still looked familiar. So I went over and said, "Excuse me. Did you go to Nepal in 1993?"
It was Maggie, a woman from the study-abroad program I went to Nepal with twelve years ago. Of all the people on the program, I probably remember Maggie most fondly; my semester abroad was an extraordinarily worthwhile experience, but I was frequently very lonely there. I just felt like I was on a different wavelength from most of the other people on the program. Maggie was the person I had the strongest connection to, though we didn't stay in touch after it ended. Anyway, it was very nice to see her. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet for coffee or something sometime, look at pictures, and reminisce.
These things are supposed to run in threes, so if you are a long-lost friend or acquaintance who is quietly reading my livejournal, this would be your cue to post a comment or drop me a line or something.
His e-mail had the subject line "Greetings from Down South" so I was expecting that he was going to mention that he'd moved to Florida or Texas or something.
I was off by about 8,000 miles.
Rudy is at the South Pole. Yes, THE South Pole. He's working on a project called IceCube, building a neutrino telescope under the polar ice. He's been there since October and is wintering there -- the last flight out was in February, and sunset was in March. His blog (I'll have to check and make sure he's okay with me posting the URL) includes pictures of him in a juggling t-shirt at the South Pole (they have a red-and-white striped pole with a shiny ball on top, that's basically there for people to pose next to), as well as pictures of the sunset, a camping trip (back during the Antarctic summer, when it was a mere 30 degrees below zero) and plenty of other fascinating things.
I got that e-mail two days ago. Today, I was over at the Hiawatha Playground with the girls when I spotted a woman who looked very familiar. I took another look; she was there with young kids about the age of mine, and still looked familiar. So I went over and said, "Excuse me. Did you go to Nepal in 1993?"
It was Maggie, a woman from the study-abroad program I went to Nepal with twelve years ago. Of all the people on the program, I probably remember Maggie most fondly; my semester abroad was an extraordinarily worthwhile experience, but I was frequently very lonely there. I just felt like I was on a different wavelength from most of the other people on the program. Maggie was the person I had the strongest connection to, though we didn't stay in touch after it ended. Anyway, it was very nice to see her. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet for coffee or something sometime, look at pictures, and reminisce.
These things are supposed to run in threes, so if you are a long-lost friend or acquaintance who is quietly reading my livejournal, this would be your cue to post a comment or drop me a line or something.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-07-27 11:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-07-29 01:38 am (UTC)On another note, I'm half-tearing through my booklist to get to yours. I know I won't be able to read the second right away because of a lack of funds caused by a recent move and no present cash flow - gotta love searching for a new job!
and uh.. South Pole? Let me prepare my statement: "whoa"