David's Graduation

My Uncle Dave and cousin Noah picked me up at the Eugene airport and we headed straight to David's house for a barbecue he and his roommates were hosting for their families. It was great to meet his friends, whom I've heard a lot about. They're a fun, friendly, easy-going group, and it was easy to see why he's been so happy there. His house was a bit on the disheveled side (and apparently that's the cleanest it's been since they moved in!), but it was a great spot; while I'm happy in my apartment, I'm always jealous of people who live in houses these days. In the backyard the boys have a garden where they are growing kale, spinach, and broccoli.

My parents and I stayed with my dad's brother and his family at their beautiful house outside Eugene. It's always fun to visit them there. Linda has a garden and horses and their house is full of interesting books and souvenirs from their many travels. On Monday morning, my parents went to pick Anthony up from the airport. He was supposed to have arrived the previous night, but due to some delayed flights he ended up sleeping on the floor of the Seattle airport! Luckily he'd brought a sleeping bag, so he was a tiny bit more comfortable than he'd have been otherwise. He arrived in good spirits, and we quickly changed and headed to the lovely U of O campus.

Noah and my brothers on our Tuesday excursion.

David's graduation lasted only an hour. After a few introductory speeches by faculty, diplomas were awarded to all of the Environmental Studies/Environmental Science grads and then we were done. The ceremony was enjoyable for us - if less so for the graduates themselves - because the woman calling names announced that they would each make a brief statement about how they planned to use what they had learned at U of O to help the world. We enjoyed watching them squirm, as this was not something they had anticipated. David handled it gracefully.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, where we unexpectedly ran into a family from Visalia. David is good friends with the daughter, Anthony played water polo with the middle son, and the oldest son, Nate, is now an English teacher at Cate! It was fun to catch up with them. I hadn't seen Nate at Camp Cate a few days before, so I was glad to get to chat with him. He's very happy there, and they are very impressed with him and his wife, who also teaches. Anthony's friend Scott, another Visalian who lives in Eugene now, joined us as well.

David makes a toast at a graduation dinner.

After a family photo shoot, in which we all wore t-shirts from our respective undergraduate universities, we went to the home of some friends of David's for another dinner. We got to meet their families and David played a slideshow of college pictures, which was hilarious. We breathed in clouds of smoke from the bonfire and drank beer from kegs. It was a fun night.

My parents left early the next morning, but Anthony and I stuck around for most of the day before our flights. We hung out with Scott and David, went for a short hike, and ate delicious pastries.

Eugene is a beautiful place, and it was fun to see David in his element. He tells us that after his summer there, during which he'll keep the job he has now on campus, he plans to move to Bend to take EMT classes. I'm pleased about this, as Bend is a place I've always wanted to visit!