A week ends with the Olympics

My sense is that many newly started blogs quickly fall out of use once the initial excitement and flurry of posts fades and topics become harder to find. I have often found blogging to be a self-indulgent form of expression, with many people using blogs to write of their unimportant daily exploits as though they were news the world needed to hear. That said, we would like this blog to be a window into our New England lives for our far-flung family and friends who we won't get to see or talk to as much as we would like.

Let the self-indulgence begin. After starting my job and living at the Hanover Inn last week, and a weekend spent making our furniture-less apartment somewhat liveable until our stuff arrives, this week was a little more ordinary. I became acquainted with my fellow Orange Route bus riders on the Upper Valley's Advance Transit system, which is what I hope will be my primary method of commuting to work. The bus stop is about a 1/2 mile from our apartment, downhill in the morning and regretably uphill in the afternoon. We'll see how that walk goes in the winter months.

Kate flew back to Nashville in the middle of the week to be with the movers as they picked up the bulk of our stuff still in Tennessee. I know she enjoyed seeing her Nashville friends one more time. With her taking our one car to the airport, I lived a simple life for a couple of days, taking the bus to and from work and spending the evenings in a sparsely furnished apartment with no TV. I mainly watched Flight of the Conchords on my computer. Good show - thanks Dunning.

With no TV, we spent the week wondering how we would be able to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Being that it was anticipated to be the most watched television event in the history of the planet, we did not want to be left out. The solution turned out to be simple: Dartmouth. With many Dartmouth students taking classes during the summers, there was a watching party in which the ceremony broadcast was projected onto a large screen in one of the dining areas. We joined the crowd of 100 or so students and had a nice time. If you had asked either of us at the end of the 2004 Athens Olympics where we would be for the start of the 2008 Games, an Ivy League student center in Hanover, NH would not have been the obvious answer. The Ceremony was eye-opening and spectacular - ones politics or views on China aside, I felt as though I was watching a true achievement of the creative and artistic human spirit. The torch lighting was one of the most breathtaking events I've ever watched, surpassing the gold standard of the flaming arrow lighting the cauldron in Barcelona at the 1992 Games. I am glad Kate and I did not miss the show - or the party.