A few days after I got back from Cape Cod, my friends Liz and Aaron and Kayleigh and Cassie took me to Boston. We went to a comedy show/bar in the attic above a Chinese restaurant in Harvard Square, which was hilarious in itself. The comedians were pretty good too. Half of them were PhD students. Haha I really hope I don't have to rely on my ability to entertain to get by next year, if I get in. Well anyway, afterwards we went to a bar, also in Harvard Square, which was quite unique in my experience; it was mostly open air, they had this huge terrace. Somebody's beer garden, it was called. I was certain our waiter was an Arab, but Kayleigh didn't believe me so of course I had to embarass myself by asking, and showing her. He was actually Bangladeshi. Haha, never again will I assume I know someone's nationality by their name.
The next day, one of my best friends, Robin, came back from break. She was picking up her fiance at 4am, so we decided we would stay up, like old times. With her and Sara and Emily and a bunch of other people, we went to the Dive bar for a little while. They had this awesome funk band, and we had a good time, though not as many people got into the mood of the night as last time... That was the week people started coming back to Clark, and a happy time for meeting up with friends, old and new. There was the dinner with Lauren and Jess, the afternoon looking at the art in the park with Molly and that bunch, dinner with Fahad and Darija, tea with Becca, and meeting the student that the ISP had sponsored to come to Clark, Fouad Ahmed. It was a pleasure meeting that man, and a surreal trip back to freshman year. He was very shy, polite, but excited, and reminded me strongly of myself when I first got here. We signed him in to his dorm, met his PA, oh man, it was like being a freshman again myself! Well well that year is long gone and there's no going back.
By about the 27th, 74 Woodland was once again fully occupied, and work was back in full swing, at the lab and at the UC. But with Labor Day weekend coming up, Liz threw a party, which was very fun. But that was just preparation for our plans for the next week. The week really started on Wednesday, with dinner with Alec and Sara, and a night out with Miah and Casey until 4am. The next day marked the end of a phase that had agonized and delighted me for half the summer, and I'll just leave it at that. Friday came, just in the nick of time, before I went insane with all the work I was putting on myself for the semester. Jeff, Kayleigh, and I left 35 Clement to go camping in a plot of land Liz had on the borders between Conn, Mass, and NY. Liz and Aaron met us there with Mike and Corri and Evan and a bunch of other friendly folk. That first night, we played a little Ultimate, went over to our campsite, which was a clearing in the middle of a corn field, with mountains all around. The weather was perfect, but the campfire made it even better. Half a bottle of gin later, I was ready to go whitewater rafting the next morning.
This was where we were staying. We never got around to a midnight swim in the pond but that's probably just as well. We got enough swimming done in the Housatonic River. Not that we sucked at whitewater rafting. It was just a somewhat mild ride for the first half , five miles or so, and there were trees and swings and beautifully warm water involved, and you can't just pass that up. Oh, and pirate raft battles. My raft won!
The poor group in the other raft were stuck half the time, and it didn't help that we had no scruples. Shoes and other improvised missiles were used. Not to mention the tried and tested aerial suicide attack. We even laid ambush for them at an island in the middle of the river. After all of this, it was decided that mexican food was in order, and we met up with Cassie. We had another wonderful night around the campfire, and prepared for hiking the next morning. 
The next morning, we headed over to Liz's house, which was a few minutes away, made a glorious breakfast, threw a disc around, and laughed at the evil monkey and Kayleigh's inability to stop laughing. 
This was on the way to the top of South Brace Mt. Damn it was beautiful. The hike was a bit steep, and someone must have fed Kayleigh meth (or that's how she reacts to bacon), but it was very much worth it. Wish I could do it every day actually. Oh well. 
Oh, and here's all of us (except me, obviously) at the top of the mountain. Cassie and a few others had left us earlier, sadly. After hiking, we went back to the river to swim and dive off of some reputedly safe but fun boulders.
The place where my phone met its untimely end. From these terrifying heights that Liz is so nonchalantly surveying, I dove into the Housatonic, at a pool right below the falls that the dam had made. When they said boulders I imagined what, 10, 12 feet high? This was like 20 or more! 7 or 8 meters! Don't laugh, I don't do so well with heights. But with half the swimming/diving team there, what could I do? We had one last night at the campsite, pillaged and burned, and then came back Monday, this was the 7th of September. It was amazing. As soon as we left, the weather started getting nasty, and it hasn't been summer since. It was like we were gifted that last weekend of pure contentment, by Summer herself, in her delight over our merriment. As if she knew what a pain in the ass Autumn was going to be this year, and so tried to make up for it one last time.
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