Hello again. I consider this to have been a cheerful couple of days which have passed since my last post. Thursday was a beautiful day, but not in the sense U2's "Beautiful Day" would suggest- overcast, windy, and eminently meditative. Today has also been quite enjoyable thusfar- sunny, relaxing, and cold enough to focus the mind. The environs of Assumption have reached that precious point where, except that the foliage has generally fallen to the earth, the surrounding woods well resemble a Body Worlds exhibit of the circulatory system.

Without the realm of the blogosphere, where knights Left and Right are still engaging in Christian battle over various insults real and apparent, conflict has been at a minimum. For the last two days, between 11:00AM and 2:00PM, the AA4L have been manning an information/sign-up table in Hagan, and luckily no brawls resulted with any of our "opponents"; we even kept up good relations with the AC Allies, who had a bake sale right next to us. Although traffic to our setup was low, our growth among those in SGA has been surprisingly high, perhaps because the folks in that organization are all such involved, hard workers. In any case, the relation of AA4L to the SGA is more like the relation of the CFR to the President's cabinet every day, except in this case it's good news! However, I had signed up to be at the table from 11:00-12:20 today and only showed by 11:15, so I still feel like St. Peter at Gethsemane, although from the way I have sometimes too much engaged in partisanship I feel like St. Peter at Jesus' arrest.

In any case, I am very glad (and I'm sure you are too) that we have reached the weekend, and that we will soon get to return home for Thanksgiving. How odd it will be to return to Northampton- I feel as if I have been happily detained here longer than the sojourn of Edmond Dantès at Château d'If.