Thanks all who wrote in after my requests for info. Because I’m writing this column on a plane back from Europe, I thought it appropriate to start with a few international updates. Jeff Allen writes, “We [his wife and three children] moved to Cape Town, South Africa, from Bogota, Colombia, in August. Both my wife and I work at the U.S. consulate general, where I run the consular section handling everything from U.S. tourists in trouble to issuing visas to foreign tourists.” They are enjoying life in the beautiful Constantia Valley, 30 minutes southeast of downtown Cape Town. “Baboons in the schoolyard and penguins joining us on the beach are far less stressful than fighting the traffic in Bogota, where we spent the last three years.” 


From the recently wed Matt Bonaiuto: “After spending a year in Islamabad, Pakistan, I moved to Paris a year ago (December 2013). My wife (also a U.S. foreign service officer) and I met while hiking in the foothills of the Himalayas (the Margalla Hills at the edge of Islamabad) soon after arriving in Pakistan in the fall of 2012. We got engaged a year later in the foothills of the Rockies in Boulder, Colorado. Hans Mallalieu came down to Paris (from London) to witness the civil ceremony; Seth Alpert and Chris Onken came to Washington, D.C., for the wedding in late August. My wife (a Bowdoin alum) and I will be in Paris until 2017.”


Julie (Jacobus) and David Clarkson are in Charlotte, North Carolina, with their three children and two dogs! David is the treasurer at Extended Stay Hotels and Julie is a web developer at Superfly Web Designs. I posed a few questions to some folks: If you could go back to Dartmouth now and take classes again, which class would you take for the first time or re-take and why? Julie’s answer, “If I could go back to Dartmouth now, I would be a computer science major with a minor in digital arts and design. I would not sleep until 10 most mornings and eat pizza and EBAs chicken sandwiches at 11 p.m. On second thought, maybe I would.”


Greg Chapman, who lives in the Seattle area (Bainbridge Island), answered the same question: “I tell my kids all the time that going to my history classes was like going to the movies. The professors did a great job bringing the topic to life. It would be fun to go back and take some classes again with popcorn in hand!”


Congratulations go out to newly elected Rep. Alex Mooney—who won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the West Virginia Second District! He is he first Hispanic elected to Congress in West Virginia history.


A question for you for the next column: What is your favorite memory of winter in Hanover? 


—Beth Krakower, c/o CineMedia Promotions, 11500 Olympic Blvd., Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90064; dartmouth93@gmail.com