Thursday, August 12, 2010

Caitlin Quintenz

My father and I arrived in Madison on Tuesday night. My freshman year roommate, now one of my closest friends in Madison, was so kind as to allow me to store my belongings in his cardiovascular research lab. We put my things in a radioactive room and I watched him spin little tubes of green stuff in a machine that could very well date back as far as 1993. He said he is growing bacteria. I believe him.
After a delicious Himalayan dinner with my dad and Eric, I went to the Terrace to meet Caitlin Quintenz. She was there along with Sylvia and Collin and Sabine and some international friends. I've had my heart in my eyes ever since I saw them all again. It's hard to explain how lovely it is to be back. It's as if one year ago I put myself down on top a table at the terrace, as I would my keys and wallet, left to go grab a beer at the bar (several beers at several bars on the other side of the world this time), and came back on Tuesday night to pick myself up again. There is so much of my world in Madison that I have built here, that I will never get anywhere else, and when I come back I'm revitalized by these sleeping aspects of me. It would be the same going to Freiburg; there are parts of me that will always only be accessible there. It is the same in Boston, although some of those aspects have either decided not to wake up quite yet, or are simply lost because I'm not trying to find them. Anyway Madison has been a non-stop treasure hunt the past 48 hours, and I've found dozens of me eggs all over the place. I'm even painting some new ones as I go.Here's a branch of mine that I can only find in Madison: Lakeshore bike path, on which I commuted daily for two crisp Mendota years.

Wednesday was my one day to find an apartment. I have papers to write; I can't be bumming on sofas and having no house. Nevertheless there is always time for breakfast, indeed for long, relaxing, and colorful breakfast. Like this one:

This breakfast is the newly discovered awesomeness that calls itself Lazy Jane's Cafe. Sylvia and Collin and Sabine took me there. The place is splendid. It has a downstairs and an upstairs, a living room and a hallway full of mirrors, and a man that yells your name for food in his very unique way. I've been told it's the same man every morning. It was nice to have breakfast with Collin and Sabine, as Collin is soon leaving for China, and Sabine for Freiburg. Sylvia, however. I will be seeing a lot of Sylvia this year. Which is fantastic :).

After spending a weak three hours "looking" for a place to live, I found one and moved in, taking the obvious option shining luminously in front of me. Within 24 hours of arriving in Madison I had found a golden (actually several shades of purple) flat on the second story of State Street's one hundred block. Directly on the capitol loop, I have a room with a balcony and a tomato plant that grows (apparently) delicious tomatoes, a living room with finger-painted trees on the walls, and a kitchen with cabinets that I don't understand (really? handles that measure 8 feet 8 inches off the ground?). The rent is the cheapest I've ever paid and I can hear concerts on the square from my window. Of course none of this compares to the fact that this apartment, the one whose front door is 26 feet from Ian's and a block from Noodles, belongs to two of the happiest and most warm-hearted people I know: Caitlin and Sylvia. The three of us are going to have the best vegetarian kitchen of the year and one of the most linguistically diverse apartments in Madison. Especially when Nick is there. I don't have pictures yet, but they will come. Just know that I'm so excited I can't keep my shirt on. Though the 90+ degree weather certainly doesn't help.

Welcome back to beautiful Madison.

Have a peachy Thursday :)

Love,

A Happy Ben.

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