Blogs from Lexington, Massachusetts, United States, North America

We all enjoyed a lazy lie-in and I skyped home for a bit. I also helped Raju proof-read a review he's writing on the croosover between evolution and medicine, which was really interesting. Mid-morning Kamala, Yashu and I went to Costco to do the food shopping. This was a whole new American experience. It's a giant wholesale warehouse and on almost every aisle there are shop attendants handing out free food samples so we all ate plenty. Back at the house I joked around with Yashu. He beat me at chess in 3minutes, we had a competition to see who could fly his electric helicopter best and I won, and then we span the swing to make ourselves dizzy and saw how far we could run without falling over. I wish I was 11 years old ... read more

I'm sorry that some of you haven't been receiving my blogs - I don't know why but I remember when Ollie went round the world with his friends the same thing happened to me when I was on the receiving end. Today Marsha drove me to Portland, Maine to meet up with my 3rd cousin, Heather. We had never met before. It was great, we had lunch on a restaurant boat in the harbour - lobster of course! Tomorrow I will sadly be leaving Marsha and Mike and will not see them again until they come to Cornwall. Marsha is taking me to Rhode Island to meet up with my 2x1 cousin, Ralph Stokes - actor and lawyer! Then I'm going to stay with Yvonne Barr for two nights and then on to Westchester, Yonkers on ... read more

Day 184 (Tuesday 20/10/09, NJJ) Peanut butter with brekkie again for what could be the 100th time whilst travelling! Put some washing on. Had a long driving day, from New York State eastwards into Vermont and then down in to Massachusetts. Cereals for lunch as has been the theme for the last few weeks. Jamie got stopped by the Police for speeding but was let off with a verbal warning! I think fluttering my eyelashes did the trick because Jamie was a total goofball. We got to our destination of Lexington around 5pm. Checked into a Quality Inn and Suites for 2 nights. Had dinner at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet then back to the room for a relaxing bath and some TV.... read more

So here begins my adventure...packing: almost done, writing two paper: finally done, saying goodbyes: sadly, in process. As a person who doesn't like change, this is a huge leap for me; I am leaving everything that I am comfortable with and am jumping headlong into the great un-know with utter excitment, and admittedly tinged with fear. Tomorrow I will be on a 6pm flight from boston and then, after stopping in San Fran. and Hon Kong, a grand total of 31 hours late,r I will land in Denpasar, Bali, where reps. from our program will pick us up and transport us to a rural palace for orientation. I will attempt to update this blog when my schedule (and proximity to technology) allows, hopefully at least once a week. Please feel free to read as much or ... read more

8/5/09 The Final Blog -- Family --- Today we made the final journey back home. More to come…. --- The remainder of Romania consisted of seeing the "real" Dracula Castle in Vidraru, Romania with a setting up in the Transylvania Alps foothills (see photo). We next visited the Black Sea, a summer spot for much of Romania and part of Europe. --- Last stop was in Romania’s Capital, Bucharest. This is an amazing city. The previous ruler, Cecesceau, bulldozed huge sections of the city to build enormous structures of cement with very wide boulevards. Some buildings such as the Palatial Palace of Parliament (second largest building in the world) are impressive. Some buildings such as the housing show the stark grey remnants of communism. The city is littered with buildings that were half completed during the ... read more

On May 2 Team Sylvan participated in the"Cure is Coming Walk" in Lexington MA. The walk sponsors the ALD-TDI research labs in Cambridge MA. ALS-TDI is a nonprofit research lab that specializes in ALS research the only lab dedicated to ALS research. The walk began at the visitor center on the Lexington Common and encompassed a 4 mile trail through the town.We were able to get 62 adults, 2 infants and 5 dogs to walk for Team Sylvan. This was almost a third of all participants in the walk.The weather was comfortable and we had a great day. Thanks to everyone who walked with us.... read more