I´ve got it bad. I´m in Spain, spent the weekend in San Sebastian, arguably one of the most beautiful places in the world. Certainly with some of the best food. (Pintxos - there are no words to describe them) Still just want to spend one weekend at home in my bed.
I have one instructor who seems to think that the best way to spend our time here in Spain is doing homework. Hooray! I think I might actually have more homework for that class than any other summer class I´ve taken. I´m at the point where I pretty much am not going to worry about it.
Should have brought my camera cable. I´ll try to get to a shop to upload my photos to disks soon and post them up.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
I'm leaving on a jet plane...
In about 8 hours I'll be taxing off the runway at MCO for over three months in Europe. I'll be flying straight into London, where I'll be staying with a nice man I met on the internet (haha). He's been kind enough to not only allow me to sleep under his roof - I even have my own personal tourguide for the weekend.
Wednesday morning I fly from London to Madrid, Spain, where I'll be meeting up with my study abroad group. We'll be spending 2 nights in Madrid before we leave for Toledo and then we'll be in Santander until June 22. It's a language-intensive course, and I'm hoping it'll really help me with my future studies in Spanish.
The 23rd I fly from Madrid to Paris to meet my best friend from high school. We'll be spending five nights in Paris, then we'll head to Munich, with hopefully at least one night in Strausburg or on the Alsacian wine route. 17km walking through vineyards, going from town to town; eating, drinking, walking. Does it get any better than that?
We'll be spending some time in Southern Germany looking at castles and just generally being tourists. Our plans aren't really definite on anything except for our five nights in Paris. It's going to be great.
I need to check in on the 3rd of July in Mannheim for my second course - a medieval and early modern history course focusing on the Holy Roman empire. I'll also be doing an independent study. Because I'm considering a minor in Religion, I'm planning on doing some research on Christianity and the work ethic - determining how medieval religion informed social expectations of labor. We'll see what's available there. That's a slightly broad topic, so it'll be more focused eventually.
At the end of the Mannheim program I booked my flight out an extra 4 days. I'll be spending that time in Prague - a city I've wanted to visit for a long time. I'm not going to make it to Greece at all, which is a country that I've wanted to go to for a long time, but I'll do it with my sister. Funny story - I was talking to one of the instructors for the Mannheim course and telling her that we wouldn't be making it to Italy. She said in absolute seriousness, "Oh, that's ok. You're going to go back." I love it.
Did I mention that I'll be turning 30? Strangely enough, it doesn't bother me a bit.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
When I die...
Bury me in Library West.
I went to look for sources for a paper and found not a couple, not a few, but literally dozens of books - printed on paper - dealing with the specific issues I want to discuss!
Maybe I'm already dead and in my own personal heaven.
Final decision on my Summer studies will be made this Saturday. I'll post more details when I know for sure. I will believe it's real when I can buy the ticket. Even then, I think I probably won't really believe it until my plane touches down.
I went to look for sources for a paper and found not a couple, not a few, but literally dozens of books - printed on paper - dealing with the specific issues I want to discuss!
Maybe I'm already dead and in my own personal heaven.
Final decision on my Summer studies will be made this Saturday. I'll post more details when I know for sure. I will believe it's real when I can buy the ticket. Even then, I think I probably won't really believe it until my plane touches down.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
So today was fun... Learned a very valuable lesson about dorm rooms.
We arrived at about 5:30, just as it was getting dark. I only had a duffel of clothes, a clothes basket with my bedsheets & toiletries, the fridge (got a slightly bigger one because it has a REAL freezer) my printer, and a box of miscellany: a lamp, power cords, etc. The school's only an hour and a half away: barely too far to commute daily, but close enough that I'll be able to come home every weekend. So just the basics came with me - just what I need to survive Monday through Friday.
Thinking ourselves smart, we decide to take the fridge up first - get the worst out of the way, you know.
My room's on the fourth floor. Nice, huh? I need exercise anyway, and being on the top floor means no neighbors upstairs to wake me up. I can be the annoying upstairs neighbor. Plus, I have my own room. I'd stay in a closet on the roof for a little privacy.
Just as I reached the top of the third flight of stairs, another student ran up. She was kind enough to open the door for me, so of course I took advantage of her kindness and asked her if she knew where my room was. She led me through a complicated series of narrow hallways, through locked doors, past stairs, and around corners. The building looks absolutely nothing like the drawing online. Lucky me, it turns out that the kind but unfortunate soul who showed me my room happens to be my next door neighbor. Convenient, no?
I nearly missed my door (ok, I did walk past my room - my neighbor had to call me back as I blithely humped past with my basket), turned the key in the lock in anticipation, and was struck simultaneously by three observations.
One: Wow, what a small room.
Two: Ew, it kind of smells bad. Ick.
Three: Whose stuff is this on the (probably smelly) bed?!?!?
My next immediate thought was of Ray pulling my fridge up the stairs. I dropped my basket in the room and ran back the way I came. Oops, not the way I came. The other way. This hallway doesn't look familiar - let's try this door. Ok, that's right, but this stair is not right. I burst open the door at the top of the correct flight of stairs to see Ray just about to embark on the second half of the last flight of stairs. Damn.
They've probably put me in someone else's room - I mean, who else gets their first room their first semester at UF? Thoughts of sharing a temporary triple with a couple of teenagers in a building on the other side of campus appear into my brain and start to settle in. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please do not make us (Ray) have to take that fridge back downstairs. Where am I going to sleep? What if they don't have a room for me?
I walk over to the area office and explain what I found in the room it looks like someone's stuff from last semester. There's a wisely compact fridge left open to defrost - I remember reading that's part of the winter break prep you're supposed to do in a dorm. They look at the roster and say that my name's on the list and that it's not my fault. I know it's not my fault, just please don't tell me we (Ray) have to bring the fridge back down. They assure me it's my room, but I'm thinking that if someone was there last semester, chances are it's going to be their room this semester too, right? The staff assures me that it's my room, but I'm unconvinced.
I'm told to go ahead and move in, so we put (hey! I helped lift it over the bed post!) the fridge in the 8 x 10 room. It takes up half the available floorspace. Not to be fooled, because I'm sure they're going to tell me that they have me in the wrong room any minute now, I wait downstairs until they can tell me what's going on. It's bad enough that we (Ray) is going to have to bring the fridge down all those stairs.
As I walk in, one of the two staffers gets up and avoids eye contact while backing slowly away from the counter. The other is looking down at the desk. Shit.
She looks up when the door opens and smiles as I walk in. I look behind me. No, she's definitely smiling at me. It's all straightened out. The previous resident was hired as an RA in another dorm for this semester, and was supposed to have her stuff out by noon. As of now, she's AWOL, but should have her things out shortly.
Finally assured that it is, in fact, my room, we unpack my bicycle, duffel, and box of miscellany from the van for the trek up the stairs again. We were smart, though, the last time and came down the stairs immediately around the corner from my room. No maze to travel this time.
There's nothing to be done about the size, but the windows open so we aired it out before we left. At 10:30 I received a call from my hall RA - the interloper has removed her belongings and I can "finish" moving in.
My sister assures me that all dorm rooms smell funny, but I'm sure it's nothing that a bucket of pine sol and an industrial bottle of febreze can't fix.
We arrived at about 5:30, just as it was getting dark. I only had a duffel of clothes, a clothes basket with my bedsheets & toiletries, the fridge (got a slightly bigger one because it has a REAL freezer) my printer, and a box of miscellany: a lamp, power cords, etc. The school's only an hour and a half away: barely too far to commute daily, but close enough that I'll be able to come home every weekend. So just the basics came with me - just what I need to survive Monday through Friday.
Thinking ourselves smart, we decide to take the fridge up first - get the worst out of the way, you know.
My room's on the fourth floor. Nice, huh? I need exercise anyway, and being on the top floor means no neighbors upstairs to wake me up. I can be the annoying upstairs neighbor. Plus, I have my own room. I'd stay in a closet on the roof for a little privacy.
Just as I reached the top of the third flight of stairs, another student ran up. She was kind enough to open the door for me, so of course I took advantage of her kindness and asked her if she knew where my room was. She led me through a complicated series of narrow hallways, through locked doors, past stairs, and around corners. The building looks absolutely nothing like the drawing online. Lucky me, it turns out that the kind but unfortunate soul who showed me my room happens to be my next door neighbor. Convenient, no?
I nearly missed my door (ok, I did walk past my room - my neighbor had to call me back as I blithely humped past with my basket), turned the key in the lock in anticipation, and was struck simultaneously by three observations.
One: Wow, what a small room.
Two: Ew, it kind of smells bad. Ick.
Three: Whose stuff is this on the (probably smelly) bed?!?!?
My next immediate thought was of Ray pulling my fridge up the stairs. I dropped my basket in the room and ran back the way I came. Oops, not the way I came. The other way. This hallway doesn't look familiar - let's try this door. Ok, that's right, but this stair is not right. I burst open the door at the top of the correct flight of stairs to see Ray just about to embark on the second half of the last flight of stairs. Damn.
They've probably put me in someone else's room - I mean, who else gets their first room their first semester at UF? Thoughts of sharing a temporary triple with a couple of teenagers in a building on the other side of campus appear into my brain and start to settle in. Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please do not make us (Ray) have to take that fridge back downstairs. Where am I going to sleep? What if they don't have a room for me?
I walk over to the area office and explain what I found in the room it looks like someone's stuff from last semester. There's a wisely compact fridge left open to defrost - I remember reading that's part of the winter break prep you're supposed to do in a dorm. They look at the roster and say that my name's on the list and that it's not my fault. I know it's not my fault, just please don't tell me we (Ray) have to bring the fridge back down. They assure me it's my room, but I'm thinking that if someone was there last semester, chances are it's going to be their room this semester too, right? The staff assures me that it's my room, but I'm unconvinced.
I'm told to go ahead and move in, so we put (hey! I helped lift it over the bed post!) the fridge in the 8 x 10 room. It takes up half the available floorspace. Not to be fooled, because I'm sure they're going to tell me that they have me in the wrong room any minute now, I wait downstairs until they can tell me what's going on. It's bad enough that we (Ray) is going to have to bring the fridge down all those stairs.
As I walk in, one of the two staffers gets up and avoids eye contact while backing slowly away from the counter. The other is looking down at the desk. Shit.
She looks up when the door opens and smiles as I walk in. I look behind me. No, she's definitely smiling at me. It's all straightened out. The previous resident was hired as an RA in another dorm for this semester, and was supposed to have her stuff out by noon. As of now, she's AWOL, but should have her things out shortly.
Finally assured that it is, in fact, my room, we unpack my bicycle, duffel, and box of miscellany from the van for the trek up the stairs again. We were smart, though, the last time and came down the stairs immediately around the corner from my room. No maze to travel this time.
There's nothing to be done about the size, but the windows open so we aired it out before we left. At 10:30 I received a call from my hall RA - the interloper has removed her belongings and I can "finish" moving in.
My sister assures me that all dorm rooms smell funny, but I'm sure it's nothing that a bucket of pine sol and an industrial bottle of febreze can't fix.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
What's the proper response to this?
I just checked my housing assignment online. I got MY OWN ROOM! I wasn't even expecting that as a possibility, because they processed my application as a freshman and freshmen don't have the option of a single room. Maybe they figured that an old person like me needs her space. Or maybe they just guessed that I snore like a 300 lb man. Smart move on their part.
It's also on the top floor, in a better location than the halls that I requested, AND it has AC, so I don't have to bring in a portable unit and take up space.
Climbing three flights of stairs will be great exercise.
The only down side is that it's almost $500 more per semester than the halls I requested - but $500 is more than reasonable in exchange for my own room.
Should I go and sacrifice a goat or calf to the UF housing gods?
It's also on the top floor, in a better location than the halls that I requested, AND it has AC, so I don't have to bring in a portable unit and take up space.
Climbing three flights of stairs will be great exercise.
The only down side is that it's almost $500 more per semester than the halls I requested - but $500 is more than reasonable in exchange for my own room.
Should I go and sacrifice a goat or calf to the UF housing gods?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Here's the plan... part 2
So it turns out that I must (according to the UF advisors) graduate after four fall and spring semesters. No slacking off and graduating after spring 2011. Know what could be fun? Thru-hiking the AT in the spring and Summer of 2011. I've decided I'm going to find someone to come with me. Maybe at the school backpacking club.
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