Tufts Reunion
May 2005
Ethan Danahy
Wow! Has it really been 5 years ... yeah, I guess so. Amazing how time has passed. And where am I: well, still at Tufts. Go figure! Nothing like meeting up with all these people you haven't seen in 5 years to remind you that, yes, you are still here.
But whatever. I love this place. I can't help it.
Here are the pictures I took during reunion weekend. Hopefully at my 10th reunion I will have a camera that works well enough to take non-blurry pictures in low-light situations. Maybe THAT should be the topic of my PhD dissertation. hmmmm... Apologies to those people who are only featured in the blurry pics. If I had known at the time I would have retaken it. (I swear it looked fine on that little 3-inch display) Boo on me, sir!
Lunch with the undergrads
So, while the rest of my class has gone out into the working world, and is socializing with other adults who are the same age, I still hang out with undergrads. And eat burritos with them. Here are two shots of my FINAL lunch together with Nevin and Blair. In the second one, you can see we are sad, because Blair is leaving us to go to law school.
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| Happy to be eating burritos | Sad that Blair is leaving |
(Oh yeah, and I forget the name of the kid who took the picture, but he's a jerk. Why did he try and cut me out of these shots? Sheesh...)
Registration
In the afternoon I went to the campus center to "register" for the weekend's events. When I arrived, the lady who was welcoming back graduates tried to guess what year I was. "1995? 1990?" ... WHAT? Does this lady think I'm 36? Anyway, they gave me my name tag for the weekend. However, I thought it looked a little bit too plain, so I spiced it up with pictures from my freshman ID and senior yearbook.
(Side note: people kept asking "where is the one from 2005?" I thought it was obvious: I myself was the 2005 version... Who needs a picture when you have the real life thing right there?)
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| Modded badge | Tickets ... sweet! |
Computer Science Alumni Dinner
Because my undergraduate degree was in computer science, I was invited to the computer science graduate and alumni (and "give us money") dinner. Unfortunately, it was at the same time as "The Big Gig" so I only got to go to the reception beforehand. But that was enough.
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| Looking down on the crowd | Prof. Blumer (and Schmolze on the far right) |
Judy Stafford |
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| Food ... and Prof. Couch | Krumme giving a little speech (Souvaine looks on) |
With Andrew Sidrane (I'm distracted by something) |
The Big Gig
After leaving the computer science event, I headed over to Gantcher (the indoor track) for the "Big Gig" which is an all-classes-together reunion event. The class of 2000 broke the 5-year giving record with a total of $83,000. That sounded like a lot to me, but it turns out was next-to-smallest of all reunion years. The only people we beat were the class of 2005, and that's because they just graduated, are still paying tuition, and most of them don't yet have jobs.
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| President Bacow announcing the donations |
The band & dance floor | Doesn't look like the indoor track, huh? | My dinner |
This open bar event was my first chance of the weekend to interact with other class-of-2000 alumni. The first two I bump into are Costa Nicolaou and Kendal Wolf. After a nice multi-course dinner and dessert we get a group picture, and then I wander around getting other candids. (And some of you are lucky I didn't include them all!)
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| Group shot! | Kendal looking devious | Some people | More people |
People here that you might recognize from the group photo:
Costa Nicolaou, Cambra Stern, Ralan Hill, Monica Rohrschneider, Jason Potts, Eric Hanson, Kelly Ayres, Ethan Danahy, Kristin Yasenka, Dylan Locsin
Waffle Breakfast
5 of us woke up bright and early Saturday morning to get some nice, hot waffles. Just like old times. Well, except no whipped cream.
An alumna also eating at Dewick, from the class of 1965, heard us complaining that there wasn't any whipped cream, and she started in with the "well, back when I went here..." But she was nice enough to take our picture, so I won't say anything mean.
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Special thanks to Kelly for sending me a copy of the picture You probably won't believe it, but I had forgotten to bring my camera. (Oh, and Costa is wearing a pro-Tufts shirt, even if it doesn't look like it ... you just have to read the fine print.) |
Parade of Classes
The most under-advertised event of the weekend was the "Parade of Classes" where each group, holding banners advertising their year/reunion class, parade from the library roof down to Carmichael Quad for the family picnic. Turns out the Class of 2000 was a bit under-represented. But fortunately, the 4 people from the class of '95 made me feel welcome.
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| Yay 5th year! | Some other classes | 1995 chasing me down |
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| More other classes | Class of 1955 shows up... | ... and there were a lot of them |
Family Picnic
The family picnic was pretty uneventful. It was the 100th anniversary of the ATA (alumni tufts association, or something) so they had cake for that. And a clown for the kids, who was one of the sketchiest clowns I've ever seen. There were probably more presentations, but after I got my food, I took off. I had some resting up to do before our Class Dinner at night.
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| Welcome... | A bit lonely at the 5th year table | The crowds |
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| Cake | "Sketchy the Clown" | A check for $23-Million |
Class Dinner
Finally, the event we were actually waiting for ... the real reason we showed up at reunion. The class dinner (or: "class finger foods") was held in the basement of McFadden's restaurant/bar downtown on State Street. As I've described it to numerous people: a gathering of about 150 Tufts alumni, 149 of which have left Tufts. But I had mentally prepared for the "You are STILL at Tufts?" question. I was also asked, more than once: "Are you on the reunion committee?" and "Are you official photographer?" No to both: just a huge Tufts dork. Sorry!
Anyway, I'm not going to pretend I remember everyone's name right, so I apologize if I screw something up. But here is a big list of people you may (or may not) find in the following pictures:
Leela Parker, Melissa Cohen, Pete Loeb, Mike Park, Ralan Hill, Joyce Salle, Nicole Gregoire, Dan Allis, Luis Nicolaou, Sean Regan, Laura Giuliano, Jack Su, Adam Cohen, Chris Herrick, John Nason, Christine Hsu, Jen Gilbert, Costa Nicolaou, Kelly Ayres, Amy Chu, Monica Rohrschneider, Eric Hanson, Kendal Wolf
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Oh, and Luke Conlin was there too ... but he missed his photo opportunity.
So, as can be seen, it was a great time. I had fun walking around, catching up with old friends, as well as meeting some new ones. Lots of interesting stories about all kinds of different jobs and occupations. Yay, class of 2000. Way to go!
After leaving McFaddens, I took a cab back to my place in Porter Sq (via a dropoff at Tufts). Our driver did not understand the MOST basic of directions, so it was a bit of a struggle getting him around the backstreets of Medford/Somerville. And after dropping me off at my place, and as I was paying the fare, I provided him with detailed directions on how to get back to the other side of the river ... so detailed in fact, that I didn't notice I HAD LEFT MY WALLET IN THE CAB.
I guess the good thing about still being a "college student" is that I don't have much money to lose. I just have to deal with re-ordering my credit cards and license. But honestly, the MOST IRRITATING part is that I lost my Tufts ID. As can be seen in one of the above pictures, several of us at the reunion still had our freshman IDs, issued during that first week of college. I made it 9 years without losing it. And the only reason I put it into my wallet and brought it with me is because it was reunion. Arrgghhh...
So ended the night.
Graduation
And then I woke up to crappy weather.
Well, it was actually supposed to be a lot worse, so the fact that the rain held throughout the graduation ceremony meant it was a "good day".
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| President Bacow | The crowds | Stormy sky | And you thought YOUR parents were embarrassing |
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| Dean Abriola | Tom Kotwal's brother James graduates | Tufts Daily |
Burrito Dinner
Since the weekend started with burritos, it only made sense for it to end with them. On Monday night, four of us got together to eat some Annas and talk about stories from the weekend (since Tom and Dave didn't come).
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| Ethan, Tom Kotwal, Dave Burns, Mike Park |
New ID
And finally, because I actually still use my Tufts ID almost daily (in and out of Halligan Hall to get to my office) I had to go back to good old TUPD and have my it replaced. *sniff* *sniff* My new one just isn't the same...
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| Original freshman ID | New high-tech one |
So, there you have it. About as much of a play-by-play of the weekend as you can get.
Thanks for the memories, and I'll see you all at the 10th!
Ethan Danahy
May 2005