The Long-Awaited and Much-Anticipated Reunion of Magi and Kristina Chapina...

Last Friday morning, I left my apartment in Minneapolis and walked with my backpack to the bus stop down the block. Just a few hours later – and one city bus, lightrail, and airplane ride later – I was in Boston and finally reunited with my dear friend Kristen Chapin! It was quite the occasion as we hadn’t seen each other in over 4 years; actually, it had been 4 years and 3 months, less 3 days…to be exact!

Kristen and I met in Antigua Guatemala in the summer of 2004. We began simply as bunk-mates sharing a bunk bed in the summer staff girls’ room in the casona, soon discovered that we were something of (as Anne of Green Gables would say) kindred spirits, and left as dear friends. Our 3 months together in Guate were filled with adventures grand and small, including but most definately not limited to: people-watching in Parque Central, drinking limonadas and hard-to-come-by cranberry juice while watching baseball games at the supposedly “only Red Sox bar in Central America,” eating nachos and Yogun-Früz bought with saved-up quetzales, cheering on the rag-tag team of Guatemalan men and boy who after what seemed like hours of failed attempts finally scaled the grease pole during the celebration of Antigua’s patron saint, climbing Volcán Pacaya, reading aloud ("Ann M Martin strikes again!") and singing along ("Oh Mikey"), walking through the cobblestone streets with no specific destination in mind, and the list goes on and on…

Since that summer, we’ve always kept in touch from wherever we've been (mostly in Minnesota and Maine, respectively, but also Mexico and Central America and elsewhere), but haven’t once seen each other since then or ever within the US of A. After numerous foiled attempts to reunite in Guatemala, we thought it was high time that we see each other once again, especially before Kristen gets too busy with grad school and I leave for Mexico. It somehow all fell into place this time* and thus the long-awaited and much-anticipated reunion of Magi and Kristina Chapina had come at last!

This reunion weekend certainly included a good many adventures as well. We spend most of our time meandering about the streets and subway of Boston, walking and talking as we so love to do. As I had never before been to the East Coast, much less to Boston itself, Kristen did a most excellent job acting as tour guide of Bostonian history and culture: we wandered through the Boston Common and Harvard Square, gadded about her Cambridge neighborhood (and invesitgated whether the rather suspicious-looking "courthouse" just blocks from her apartment was really a jail), happened upon the red-brick Freedom Trail on several occasions though never actually walked it in its entirety, saw the Bunker Hill Monument from afar as well as it's replica bridge (9th out of the world's top 10 bridges), ate at Quincy Market, visited the Granary Burying Ground (where many notable folks are buried, such as Paul Revere, Ben Franklin's family, John Hancock, and even Mother Goose), heard NT Wright speak at Park Street Church, learned why Charlie was stuck on the MTA, rode "the T" all over town (and only missed a stop once, which was unfortunately on the way to the airport and thus came close to forcing me to stay in Beantown for a little bit longer), and of course went to Fenway Park – home of the Boston Red Sox! Among all of that...we also went to the grocery store (quite possibly more than once), hung out with Kristen’s sister and her friend, cooked and ate a delicious pre-Thanksgiving dinner with her roommate and upstairs neighbors, did a lot of people-watching, and spent countless hours both reminiscing and catching up on each others’ lives since Guate.

above: by the "Frog Pond" in the Boston Common / below: on the Freedom Trail

It was a wonderful weekend. KJC, I hope it’s not so long before we meet again, but I know that whenever and wherever we find ourselves together again, it will once again be a joyous occasion! Hasta entonces…

*This weekend was really made possible by the generosity of one of my co-workers who gave me the frequent flier miles to buy my plane ticket to Boston…thanks again, Don!