Year Eight
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2018 to 2019
William Shakespeare once wrote, “How now? A rat?” When Marcie and I moved to Manhattan, we found ourselves quoting the Swan of Avon’s wise words on a daily basis. We shared a tiny studio apartment in what used to be the servants’ quarters of Yorkville. Mayor Bill de Blasio publicly declared our neighborhood a “rat reservoir,” thus honoring this rare, endangered species with official government recognition. While taking care to dodge the little rascals, who scurried hither and thither all around our block at every hour of the day and night, I passed my qualifying exams and entered the second stage of my PhD program. After Marcie, now an improv comedy student, completed an art residency in Akureyri, Iceland, she and I spent a week taking a road trip around the island.
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New York City
Marcie and I saw BTS perform at Metlife Stadium. I am told by those in the know that the sign in my hands reads, “You are holding this sign upside down.”
At the top of Mount Beacon, Marcie regrets our decision to hike to the top Mount Beacon.
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Iceland
Þingvellir was once a meeting place for Iceland’s greatest political minds. Two of them are pictured here.
Marcie searches for a nesting site; Marcie lays an egg; Marcie incubates the egg; I pray that the egg will hatch; Marcie kisses the egg; the egg hatches to reveal a 2018 Hyundai Sonata with up to 28 city / 37 highway MPG.
ML: This caption is complete nonsense if you are on mobile. I don't know how to fix it :/ sry
Marcie, a trickster, cheekily pretends to desecrate a UNESCO World Heritage site.
We bought matching boots so that we could identify each other if we ever got separated.
I pay my respects to one of my favorite rock formations.
Some of Iceland’s finest leaves. Sadly, the subject of this picture is out of focus.
Every day, we ate an exotic Icelandic dish called “brauð.”
We signed the Puffin Palace’s guestbook in crude hieroglyphics. The other guests were polite enough to say that this hotel was “quiet” instead of “deserted,” “haunted,” and “frightening.”
I may look like a Norwegian lunch lady, but my poncho kept me dry during the rainstorm.
As an intrepid photographer and nature lover, I plan to capture exotic animals on camera.
I discover this peculiar amphibious creature near Seljalandsfoss.
The creature has a symbiotic relationship with large stuffed bears.