50. Take the SMC Shuttle to North Campus and 51. Eat Dinner at Knights at the Roundtable

“Objects which are usually the motives of our travels by land and by sea are often overlooked and neglected if they lie under our eye. We put off from time to time going and seeing what we know we have an opportunity of seeing when we please.”

-- Plutarch

So, in my quest to experience new things this year, by far the greatest assistance has come from my students and former students.  And once again they've come through with a whole host of brilliant suggestions of New Things to try, all of them right here in Burlington or at least within an hour's drive. I've gotten a slew of new ideas, and am going to incorporate a whole bunch of them -- from volunteer walking of greyhounds at the rescue to shooting a gun at a shooting range and lots in-between -- in the next iteration of the list.  But last night I did two new things (they went together) that it's ridiculous I've never done until now given that I've been teaching at Saint Mike's for over a decade.  They were both suggested by members of the Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC), who are not only ardent AIDS activists but also share my interest in finding fun new things to do.  Emily had suggested eating at our dinner restaurant, Knights of the Roundtable, much earlier in the semester, and she put in a reservation tonight for some of us to go eat there.  Then during the day Kate suggested that we take the campus shuttle over (it's on North Campus about a mile from the Main Campus), since I had never done that either.

The picture doesn't do it justice, but the risotto was really good!

The SGAC dinner crew -- Ellen, Kate, Mae and Emily

Kate and I were "dinner twins because we ordered all the same things.  Here we are with matching desserts.

At 5:30 Kate, Emily, Mae, Ellen and I hopped on the shuttle and headed over to Sloan Hall.  To eat at Sloan is the same cost as eating in the regular dining hall in Alliot Student Center (one "meal swipe"), but there's a bit of a production to make it happen.  The Knights of the Round Table is only open for dinner Monday through Thursday, and requires reservation, which Emily had made for our party.  Everyone gets one appetizer, one main course and one desert, and there is a rotating choice of about six options in each category. There were all kinds of fun possibilities -- potato pancakes, chili, minestrone, and shrimp risotto were some of the appetizer and entree possibilities and deserts included chocolate bread pudding and seven layer bars with ice cream.  I opted for mixed greens and goat cheese, vegetable risotto, and a dessert panini.  Kate, who was sitting next to me, was my dinner twin, because we got the exact same thing.  The whole thing was profesisonally served up by student wait staff (both of ours happened to be past or current students of mine, Annie and Jackie), and if last night was any indication, the place is very popular.  In fact, I'd say it's one of the best-kept secrets on campus, and between the great food and excellent company, it was a fabulous meal. I'll definitely be back.

Could there be a more Vermont-worthy hat than the one that Emily was sporting in the shuttle on the way back?

Drisk, Anne Marie, Dan and Derek at Dan and Derek's last night out

A final post script to the evening, but relevant to the list of 52 New Things, is a good by to two fabulous former students, Dan and Derek.  They're leaving Burlington to embark with two other great SMC alum, Ted and Zach, on the bike trip of a lifetime in Latin America.  I'm still hopeful that I'll be able to fly down and meet them during their travels, but for last night, I just popped by Ri Ra's after dinner to meet various SMC students, alum and staff to say goodby and wish them a great trip. 

52 Ways to Say I Love You

...in Mata, a local language in Cameroon.  Elizabeth, an AIDS activist who I met last weekend who used to live in Cameroon and now lives in Maryland, told me these.  I am writing them phonetically (at least as I heard them) since she wasn't sure of how they'd be spelled in English.

Hello  A way re yay (or We you)

Goodby Ta chee ka (or see you tomorrow: Ti sa so)

I love you Mo kongo way

May I have two beers, please Mo free berra mobiya mobay

Coming Attractions

Only one more thing to finish up the first round of 52 New Things, and it's a biggie.  On Friday I'm getting a tattoo.  I had no idea that it was such an involved process, but I've had my "artist consult" and put down my deposit and made my appointment, so there's no backing out now. After this week, I'll have a permanent reminder of the year of 52 New Things. I'll definitely keep everyone posted on that one.

A great thing about doing this whole exercise is that it's left me with a habit of seeking out new things, as well as a whole slew of things I want to keep going with.  There's lots of stuff from the original list that I still haven't gotten to but definitely plan to -- like knitting mittens, going to Alaska, mastering a skating jump and taking a martial arts and/or painting class.  And there's lots of new thing ideas that got generated this year -- like going to the Snowflake Bentley Museum, going dog sledding and visiting the Faroe Islands -- that need to go on a new list.  And there are lots of things that I loved from the first list -- rock climbing obviously, but also skiing and sea kayaking and many others -- that I'm going to keep going with.  As always, I'm looking for new ideas and people who want to teach me or do them together, so post a note if you have thoughts about that, please.