Hello blog!
It's been awhile, but life has gotten quite busy . I thought I'd dedicate this post to what my life consists of lately.
Classes are fully underway, and in one war or another, I'm involved in 8 classes:
For credit, I'm taking:
Theories of International Relations – a "core" couse that I'm required to take. Very philosophical, which I would have liked in undergrad, but in grad school feels out of place. Probably the class I'm least excited about.
Science, Technology and International Affairs – a course in my concentration. So far we've been focusing on the system around S&T, like funding priorities, patent system etc. The second half of the course is focused on specific new applications of S&T to IR, which I'm looking forward to.
International Monetary Theory – Another required course. SAIS has as one of its major goals to make sure all its students are fluent in international economics. We've been talking about exchange rates, capital flows, purchasing power parity, etc. On the dry side, but definitely something I'm glad I'm becoming more fluent in.
Corporate Finance – what? No, I don't want to go into corporate finance. But, we have to take 2 economic electives while here, and I felt like it would be good knowledge to have, and definitely something that will help should I ever be in a leadership position in an organization.
You'll notice a trend of me taking core courses this semester. The course offerings next year in DC are generally broader than here in Bologna, so I'm try to save most of my free choice classes until next year.
Then, I'm auditing two courses (doing some of the reading, attending lectures, but not doing the exams or papers)
Strategy and Policy – an introductory course on the strategic use of military power. This is just something I am using my time here to explore. It's actually quite interesting. I'm rather bummed I won't be doing the final project, which sounds very interesting But I won't let myself go that crazy.
Policies and Politics of the American Emergency State – A unique course (but doesn't fulfill any requirements for me, hence the audit) taught by a New York Times journalist who is writing a book on the american emergency state (i.e. A nonstop wartime sense of emergency), and wanted to teach a course on his ideas to test them out in a graduate school setting.
Then, my language course, Italian. Not much to say here. It's learning a language.
Finally, I am a TA for the Intermediate Macroeconomics, which means attending the lectures, grading problem sets, holding office hours, etc. I've actually been quite enjoying it so far.
In terms of extracurricular activities:
There are so many lectures here, it's like having another course. Almost every night someone famous is here talking about something really interesting. I wish I could go to all of them, but you really have to pick and choose otherwise you'd never finish your homework and reading.
I am teaching my usual dance classes on Sundays. Last week in honor of Halloween we did the Thriller dance. Soon we're going to have to really focus on the waltz to get ready for the Viennesse Ball in February!
For the first time in my life, I joined a band. So far I'm primarily singing (yikes!) but I'll also be playing backup guitar and maybe even a little bass thanks to my experience with classical guitar. So far I'm soloing "Brown Eyed Girl", "Pretty Woman", doing a duet with "Jackson" and then doing back up vocals on a few others.
Then there's a bunch of other little activities like my tango classes, going to wine tastings, having board game nights, etc. One especially noteworthy club is the "Students of the Vine" club. There's a student here who has done a LOT of work in the area of Italian wine (she's a walking encyclopedia of wine knowledge) and she's been teaching us how to appreciate wine, how to pair it with sweets, etc. I'm still an ignoramus, but getting better!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
One, $15,000, thing more
I also wrote a check for $15,000 this week. Tuition, yada yada. But seriously. That's pretty darn close to what I made in my first two years out of college combined. Thank you again to Mr. Tyng, whoever you were.
Verona & a little more
Ok ok, I'm being really slow at updating this. I am running out to go to a tango practica in a few minutes, so I'm going to go through this quick.
Oh, yeah, I joined a tango school here in Bologna, called "Il Tangueria." Obviously, everyone else there speaks Italian, so I figure it'll not only be good for tango, but also for learning italian. Plus, they gave me a pretty good discount, which was nice.
Last weekend a group of nine of us went to Verona, the city where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet, to answer that question you didn't ask. We had a wonderful two and a half hour lunch before wandering through some of the streets, up into a castle in the hills, taking a little nap in a garden. We also visited "La Casa di Giulietta", which you might think is the actual house that inspired the balcony scene, but is actually a tourist trap founded around 1954. Still, curiosly, there is a statue of Giulietta inside the courtyard, and apparently it is considered good luck to get a picture of yourself groping the statue's chest. Seriously. There were lines of people just waiting to get a handful of poor Juliet (wasn't she like 13 years old?)
Two successes from Verona included realizing that Andrea Bocelli will be singing at the local theatre later in October, which will allow me to fulfill one of my goals of seeing him in Italy. Also, I found an Italian version of my favorite board game, Settlers of Catan, in a little store in Verona. We're going to have an inaugural Settlers night pretty soon.
As far as school goes, I've gone a little overboard and registered for 7 classes...Not that I actually plan on staying in all of them...or maybe...We'll see. I gathered all (most) of my reading for my first classes next week and plan on starting them on a train to Pisa tomorrow morning. The trips are likely going to start winding down in the coming weeks as classes start, so I have to get my obligatory picture of holding the tower up now.
That's the quick update. My tango school is holding a practica tonight, and myself and a few students who I'm trying to get addicted to tango are going. But I can't stay out too late. Early morning train to Pisa awaits!
Oh, yeah, I joined a tango school here in Bologna, called "Il Tangueria." Obviously, everyone else there speaks Italian, so I figure it'll not only be good for tango, but also for learning italian. Plus, they gave me a pretty good discount, which was nice.
Last weekend a group of nine of us went to Verona, the city where Shakespeare set Romeo and Juliet, to answer that question you didn't ask. We had a wonderful two and a half hour lunch before wandering through some of the streets, up into a castle in the hills, taking a little nap in a garden. We also visited "La Casa di Giulietta", which you might think is the actual house that inspired the balcony scene, but is actually a tourist trap founded around 1954. Still, curiosly, there is a statue of Giulietta inside the courtyard, and apparently it is considered good luck to get a picture of yourself groping the statue's chest. Seriously. There were lines of people just waiting to get a handful of poor Juliet (wasn't she like 13 years old?)
Two successes from Verona included realizing that Andrea Bocelli will be singing at the local theatre later in October, which will allow me to fulfill one of my goals of seeing him in Italy. Also, I found an Italian version of my favorite board game, Settlers of Catan, in a little store in Verona. We're going to have an inaugural Settlers night pretty soon.
As far as school goes, I've gone a little overboard and registered for 7 classes...Not that I actually plan on staying in all of them...or maybe...We'll see. I gathered all (most) of my reading for my first classes next week and plan on starting them on a train to Pisa tomorrow morning. The trips are likely going to start winding down in the coming weeks as classes start, so I have to get my obligatory picture of holding the tower up now.
That's the quick update. My tango school is holding a practica tonight, and myself and a few students who I'm trying to get addicted to tango are going. But I can't stay out too late. Early morning train to Pisa awaits!
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Ho viaggiato a Rovigno (in Croatia)
In the previous post, I alluded to going away this past weekend. A group of nine of us played hookey on Friday and got up at (gasp) 3:30 AM to take a 4:30 AM train to the coastal city of Ravenna. Drama started nearly right away as one student was waiting for a taxi to take her to the train station, but it was getting really close to departure time. So, another student heroically hopped in a cab, took it to her apartment, picked her up, and got back to the train station and in the train with about 30 seconds to spare.
In Ravenna, we hustled from the train station to the port, which was about a 20 minute cab ride. From there, we got on a 3 hour ferry to Rovigno/Rovinj in Croatia. Unfortunately, a major storm had just passed through the region, so the water was a tad bit on the choppy side. Faces turned green, some stomachs were purged (not mine!). Good times.
Once we got to Croatia, we found a tourist office that set us up in pretty sweet accommodations. Basically, two small apartments in a very attractive part of town. For two nights, the total came out to only 38 euro per person, which was great.
After settling in, our rumbling tummies directed us to a restaurant where, for the first of many times, a lot of us had mussels. I think at least two people ordered mussels at each nonbreakfast meal. Yum.
In the afternoon a small group, including me, took a little boat to a local island. We walked around the coast, alternating between climbing around rocks and trees, and nearly injuring ourselves on the various exercise stations that were randomly placed around the coast. I'd never seen a bouncy balance beam before, but I have now.
We also found an extremely large chess set (the rook was about halfway up my thigh) and what started as a "oh let's have a quick game" turned into a rather tense match as the boys edged the girls after a bloodbath that claimed the girls' queen.
That evening, we had dinner (mussels again) in a little restaurant right on the water. Some people went out to a bar afterward, but I just headed back with another group.
On Saturday, the first noteworthy activity was taking a bus to Pula, which is a small town about 45 minutes away from Rovinj. Hilarity ensued when we got on what we thought was the right bus and started heading out of town. About 2 minutes into the ride, the person checking tickets stared at one of us and starting shouting "No Pula! No Pula!" Thankfully they pulled over, ushered us out of the bus, and we took off sprinting back towards the bus station hoping our correct bus hadn't left yet.
It hadn't.
The major (only) attraction in Pula is a huge coliseum where gladiator fights used to take place, and music concerts now take place. It was pretty cool to be walking through a residential neighborhood, turn a corner, and go "Oh, look, there's a huge coliseum." We wandered around the arena for a couple hours before heading back to Rovinj and down to the beach.
Finding the beach was a pretty amusing enterprise as a few group members took the cushions off some lawn chairs (they were on the terrace in our apartment) to use as "blankets" on the beach. Someone had the bright idea to wear theirs like a cape, and soon we looked like a caravan of some very oddly dressed beachbound superheroes.
At night, we went to a choir concert at the big church in Rovinj. Seriously, you can see the church from pretty much anywhere in the city, as it's big and on top of the only real hill in the city. The highlight, for me, of the concert was when a youth choir broke out into the Sister Act version of Hail Holy Queen (whoah-oh-oh-o-Ma-ree-ah).
Afterward, we had some dessert and coined a new catchphrase for the group "Buonasera" which one guy kept saying to pretty women as they passed. It became a noun "So, is she a buonasera?" A verb: "I think you just got buonasera-d." When we got on the ferry to return to Italy, it was at night, and the ticket-taker said "buonasera" to us, and he must've thought we were stupid or something as we all started cracking up.
After dessert on Saturday, we went back to the apartment and had a seriously makeshift poker game as we used a combination of clothespins, rocks and toilet paper sheets for chips.
Sunday was a very relaxed day as we lazed on the beach and went on a beautiful bike ride along the coast. In the evening, we got back on the ferry and returned to Ravenna. Unfortunately, there were no trains from Ravenna to Bologna, so we had to stay one night in a hostel. The next morning, we caught a 6:30 train back to Bologna, and at 9 AM I was sitting in my first of two classes of the day.
It was an exhausting trip, but one of my major goals for this year was to travel as much possible, and I've left the city twice in two weeks, so I'm pretty happy.
Now to figure out where to head this weekend!
In Ravenna, we hustled from the train station to the port, which was about a 20 minute cab ride. From there, we got on a 3 hour ferry to Rovigno/Rovinj in Croatia. Unfortunately, a major storm had just passed through the region, so the water was a tad bit on the choppy side. Faces turned green, some stomachs were purged (not mine!). Good times.
Once we got to Croatia, we found a tourist office that set us up in pretty sweet accommodations. Basically, two small apartments in a very attractive part of town. For two nights, the total came out to only 38 euro per person, which was great.
After settling in, our rumbling tummies directed us to a restaurant where, for the first of many times, a lot of us had mussels. I think at least two people ordered mussels at each nonbreakfast meal. Yum.
In the afternoon a small group, including me, took a little boat to a local island. We walked around the coast, alternating between climbing around rocks and trees, and nearly injuring ourselves on the various exercise stations that were randomly placed around the coast. I'd never seen a bouncy balance beam before, but I have now.
We also found an extremely large chess set (the rook was about halfway up my thigh) and what started as a "oh let's have a quick game" turned into a rather tense match as the boys edged the girls after a bloodbath that claimed the girls' queen.
That evening, we had dinner (mussels again) in a little restaurant right on the water. Some people went out to a bar afterward, but I just headed back with another group.
On Saturday, the first noteworthy activity was taking a bus to Pula, which is a small town about 45 minutes away from Rovinj. Hilarity ensued when we got on what we thought was the right bus and started heading out of town. About 2 minutes into the ride, the person checking tickets stared at one of us and starting shouting "No Pula! No Pula!" Thankfully they pulled over, ushered us out of the bus, and we took off sprinting back towards the bus station hoping our correct bus hadn't left yet.
It hadn't.
The major (only) attraction in Pula is a huge coliseum where gladiator fights used to take place, and music concerts now take place. It was pretty cool to be walking through a residential neighborhood, turn a corner, and go "Oh, look, there's a huge coliseum." We wandered around the arena for a couple hours before heading back to Rovinj and down to the beach.
Finding the beach was a pretty amusing enterprise as a few group members took the cushions off some lawn chairs (they were on the terrace in our apartment) to use as "blankets" on the beach. Someone had the bright idea to wear theirs like a cape, and soon we looked like a caravan of some very oddly dressed beachbound superheroes.
At night, we went to a choir concert at the big church in Rovinj. Seriously, you can see the church from pretty much anywhere in the city, as it's big and on top of the only real hill in the city. The highlight, for me, of the concert was when a youth choir broke out into the Sister Act version of Hail Holy Queen (whoah-oh-oh-o-Ma-ree-ah).
Afterward, we had some dessert and coined a new catchphrase for the group "Buonasera" which one guy kept saying to pretty women as they passed. It became a noun "So, is she a buonasera?" A verb: "I think you just got buonasera-d." When we got on the ferry to return to Italy, it was at night, and the ticket-taker said "buonasera" to us, and he must've thought we were stupid or something as we all started cracking up.
After dessert on Saturday, we went back to the apartment and had a seriously makeshift poker game as we used a combination of clothespins, rocks and toilet paper sheets for chips.
Sunday was a very relaxed day as we lazed on the beach and went on a beautiful bike ride along the coast. In the evening, we got back on the ferry and returned to Ravenna. Unfortunately, there were no trains from Ravenna to Bologna, so we had to stay one night in a hostel. The next morning, we caught a 6:30 train back to Bologna, and at 9 AM I was sitting in my first of two classes of the day.
It was an exhausting trip, but one of my major goals for this year was to travel as much possible, and I've left the city twice in two weeks, so I'm pretty happy.
Now to figure out where to head this weekend!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
It's been one week
Since you looked at me. Yes blog, it's been about a week. I know I've been slacking a little but that's just because life here is a little busy, y'know?
Well, since we last talked, I suppose the most interesting thing of note is that I still haven't met my roommates yet. It's a little odd that I've been living in this apartment for two weeks now (and it's clearly an inhabited place), but I know the dynamic will change as soon as the residents are actually back. At the moment, I'm praying they get back soon because half of the electricity in the apartment is out and I don't know who to go to in order to get it fixed. Hopefully they'll come back this weekend while I'm away and get it fixed :) More on where I'm going in a bit.
So, this week we had our first exam for macroeconomics. It was a little bit of a joke because we were given a practice exam and the actual exam was nearly identical. Granted there were a few differences that would separate a pass from a high pass, but still, it was a little bit odd for a test that was 40% of our grade.
And pause.
So I was sitting outside writing this post, and it started raining. So I went inside, got distracted, and now it's a week later. I can't remember what I was going to say in the rest of this post, so I guess we'll just move along.
Well, since we last talked, I suppose the most interesting thing of note is that I still haven't met my roommates yet. It's a little odd that I've been living in this apartment for two weeks now (and it's clearly an inhabited place), but I know the dynamic will change as soon as the residents are actually back. At the moment, I'm praying they get back soon because half of the electricity in the apartment is out and I don't know who to go to in order to get it fixed. Hopefully they'll come back this weekend while I'm away and get it fixed :) More on where I'm going in a bit.
So, this week we had our first exam for macroeconomics. It was a little bit of a joke because we were given a practice exam and the actual exam was nearly identical. Granted there were a few differences that would separate a pass from a high pass, but still, it was a little bit odd for a test that was 40% of our grade.
And pause.
So I was sitting outside writing this post, and it started raining. So I went inside, got distracted, and now it's a week later. I can't remember what I was going to say in the rest of this post, so I guess we'll just move along.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Where were you when the world stopped turning?
Because that's apparently what happens when Gmail goes down. Sheesh.
Monday, August 31, 2009
At the speed of luce
So it's become clear to me that if I'm going to attempt to keep this updated, I'm going to have to treat this like a journal and do it often because there's so much going on here. So this post is my attempt to blitz through.
So, to get up to date, I'm going to have to kinda of skip over the time in DC. Though I will give some shout outs to some non-SAIS friends I made and said bye to: Hey Julie! How's Noodle? Mollie - I expect you to still be waltzing next summer! Carlos - I hope your tango classes are still going when I get back to DC.
Ok, so fast-forwarding to leaving DC. It was a rather strange and sobering experience to have to pack up my life for at least a year into two suitcases. I left most of my "stuff" with a storage facility in DC, and filled up the suitcases with mostly closes and various school related items. Then, one supershuttle ride later I was sitting in the airport with about 10 other Bologna students all talking on our cells to friends/loved ones as if this were some major goodbye. Though for most of us, this is our first time living in another country (and a non-english speaking one at that).
It was nice to make the trek across with the atlantic with some other students, as we talked about what to expect, what made us nervous, etc. The plane ride was really the calm before the storm though, because as soon as we hit the ground things got crazy. Everyone booked it from the airport to the school to sign up for housing, because the best places notoriously go fast (luckily I found my place without help and didn't have to go that route).
Two poor people who were on the plane with me weren't able to find a place that night, so they stayed on my couches (my italian roommates were, and still are, on vacation).
After dropping our friggin heavy and enormous bags off, we all went wandering for dinner. I'm sure we just screamed american as a group of about 20 of us wandered through the streets speaking in loud english.
The first dinner was very italian. We all got our own pizzas, and the group ordered a big bottle of wine (though I had coke, which is way better than in the States because they use real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup).
The next day I started Macroeconomics class (how crazy a turnaround), and got a list of all these errands I needed to run to satisfy the Italian bureaucracy. I managed to take care of a lot of the list, and got an Italian cell phone (and my first of many gelatos). That evening, I had my first lasagna bolognese, while sitting in a little cafe next to the main piazza.
The weekend was also anything but restful. On saturday I went to the school library to continue with some Italy-errands, and helped the two people who were on my couch to move into their real apartments (one clear across the entire city - so we dragged big 'ol suitcases through the streets). In the evening, a small group of us got together and made a dinner of spaghetti and sausage (and somehow I got designated chef, which is a depressing thought).
On Sunday, I made my first trek out to the local Ikea, which was a 5 euro, 30 minute bus trip away. Sadly, my room did not come with sheets for my bed, so for the first couple nights I had been sleeping on random blankets I found around the apartment. Ikea came through though, and now my little twin bed is sleep-able. In the evening, I went with another group of people to a town called Ferrara, which was about a 30 minute train ride to the northeast towards Venice.
The city was having a "busker" festival, which meant that the city was covered in various streets performers, from music, to magic, to dance to some really weird stuff. We all got big gelato cones and walked around and admired the various acts before hoofing it back to the train station. In a little bit of criminality (I suppose), we got on the train back to Bologna without buying a ticket because the ticket machine was broken and they didn't have any windows. Thankfully, nobody noticed.
In a random bit of serendipity, I happened to sit across from an english and spanish speaking salsa dancer who gave me his email address and said he'd send me a bunch of info about places to go in Bologna - so I may be able to branch out my social life beyond the school soon.
Then today (we're almost at the end!), I took my placement test for Italian (which starts tomorrow), sat through my second macro class, and in the best/most random event, met a girl who was a former national ballrom dance champion in Poland. We decided it would be fun to host some dance classes for the student body, so tomorrow we're going to make a pilgrimage around the city to try and find a location.
Phew! That's the light speed update. I've left out a ton of stuff, and hardly mentioned any people at all (who really are the best part so far of the experience). But I figure, now that I'm up to date, future posts can and will be more detailed.
Now, off to do some macro and italian homework!
Ciao!
So, to get up to date, I'm going to have to kinda of skip over the time in DC. Though I will give some shout outs to some non-SAIS friends I made and said bye to: Hey Julie! How's Noodle? Mollie - I expect you to still be waltzing next summer! Carlos - I hope your tango classes are still going when I get back to DC.
Ok, so fast-forwarding to leaving DC. It was a rather strange and sobering experience to have to pack up my life for at least a year into two suitcases. I left most of my "stuff" with a storage facility in DC, and filled up the suitcases with mostly closes and various school related items. Then, one supershuttle ride later I was sitting in the airport with about 10 other Bologna students all talking on our cells to friends/loved ones as if this were some major goodbye. Though for most of us, this is our first time living in another country (and a non-english speaking one at that).
It was nice to make the trek across with the atlantic with some other students, as we talked about what to expect, what made us nervous, etc. The plane ride was really the calm before the storm though, because as soon as we hit the ground things got crazy. Everyone booked it from the airport to the school to sign up for housing, because the best places notoriously go fast (luckily I found my place without help and didn't have to go that route).
Two poor people who were on the plane with me weren't able to find a place that night, so they stayed on my couches (my italian roommates were, and still are, on vacation).
After dropping our friggin heavy and enormous bags off, we all went wandering for dinner. I'm sure we just screamed american as a group of about 20 of us wandered through the streets speaking in loud english.
The first dinner was very italian. We all got our own pizzas, and the group ordered a big bottle of wine (though I had coke, which is way better than in the States because they use real sugar and not high fructose corn syrup).
The next day I started Macroeconomics class (how crazy a turnaround), and got a list of all these errands I needed to run to satisfy the Italian bureaucracy. I managed to take care of a lot of the list, and got an Italian cell phone (and my first of many gelatos). That evening, I had my first lasagna bolognese, while sitting in a little cafe next to the main piazza.
The weekend was also anything but restful. On saturday I went to the school library to continue with some Italy-errands, and helped the two people who were on my couch to move into their real apartments (one clear across the entire city - so we dragged big 'ol suitcases through the streets). In the evening, a small group of us got together and made a dinner of spaghetti and sausage (and somehow I got designated chef, which is a depressing thought).
On Sunday, I made my first trek out to the local Ikea, which was a 5 euro, 30 minute bus trip away. Sadly, my room did not come with sheets for my bed, so for the first couple nights I had been sleeping on random blankets I found around the apartment. Ikea came through though, and now my little twin bed is sleep-able. In the evening, I went with another group of people to a town called Ferrara, which was about a 30 minute train ride to the northeast towards Venice.
The city was having a "busker" festival, which meant that the city was covered in various streets performers, from music, to magic, to dance to some really weird stuff. We all got big gelato cones and walked around and admired the various acts before hoofing it back to the train station. In a little bit of criminality (I suppose), we got on the train back to Bologna without buying a ticket because the ticket machine was broken and they didn't have any windows. Thankfully, nobody noticed.
In a random bit of serendipity, I happened to sit across from an english and spanish speaking salsa dancer who gave me his email address and said he'd send me a bunch of info about places to go in Bologna - so I may be able to branch out my social life beyond the school soon.
Then today (we're almost at the end!), I took my placement test for Italian (which starts tomorrow), sat through my second macro class, and in the best/most random event, met a girl who was a former national ballrom dance champion in Poland. We decided it would be fun to host some dance classes for the student body, so tomorrow we're going to make a pilgrimage around the city to try and find a location.
Phew! That's the light speed update. I've left out a ton of stuff, and hardly mentioned any people at all (who really are the best part so far of the experience). But I figure, now that I'm up to date, future posts can and will be more detailed.
Now, off to do some macro and italian homework!
Ciao!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Keep Crankin Em Out
This - three posts in an hour - is definitely not going to be the norm. I'm just feeling the need to bring blog up to date on life.
So, when we last left our protagonist, he/I was starting a search for something completely mysterious (and possibly even non-existent). But, he still started.
Skipping the probably necessary back-story to this (maybe I'll have a "flashback" post at some point), the primary vehicle for my search is/will be the pursuit of a Masters Degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (hereafter SAIS).
After packing up my way-too-much stuff into a Durango, I drove (with my dad - thanks again dad!) from New York City down to Washington, DC to begin the program. Side note - moving sucks. And second side note - f**k you hotel vending machine, I didn't want mountain dew when I pressed the pepsi button, and I didn't want mountain dew when I pressed the water button. Sorry. Random thoughts are going to be a regular occurrence here.
So I get down to DC and move into my one-month sublet so I can take one class - Intermediate Microeconomics - and get slowly re-acclimated (in my head that's being pronounced ack-lime-ated for some reason) to the school lifestyle.
On the whole, I'd have to give the month in DC a 6 out of 10. The relatively low score is mostly due to the fact that it there was never any sense of permanence. It was very clear that it was only a month, and then I would be moving to Italy where the full program would actually begin. As a result, I made a couple potentially really good friends that I now won't see for a year, which for an introvert like myself, really sucks.
Still, the flipside of that coin is that I did get myself to be more social than is my norm, which was/is one of my major goals for the coming years.
Side note - I don't think extroverts realize how difficult/how much energy it takes for some of us introverts to be regularly social. It's exhausting. But dammit, I'm going to try.
Back to the story, I went out dancing nearly 3-4 times a week because I've found that for whatever reason, I'm much more comfortable being out when there's an activity involved that's not just drinking. Dance is fun and a useful skill, and something I feel ok just showing up to by myself, so that became my main social activity.
Side note - I also think I got hit on (at a salsa dance) for what might have been the first time in my life (or maybe it wasn't and I'm just incredibly dense). It was simultaneously flattering and anxiety filled as suddenly there became another pressure-filled level to the conversation. As someone who has only ever been in one (only recently ended) real relationship (that was preceded by three plus years of friendship), the whole idea of "dating" is terrifying.
Ok - I ran out of steam. Month in DC is now to be continued. And sheesh, I apparently love (parenthetical) statements.
So, when we last left our protagonist, he/I was starting a search for something completely mysterious (and possibly even non-existent). But, he still started.
Skipping the probably necessary back-story to this (maybe I'll have a "flashback" post at some point), the primary vehicle for my search is/will be the pursuit of a Masters Degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (hereafter SAIS).
After packing up my way-too-much stuff into a Durango, I drove (with my dad - thanks again dad!) from New York City down to Washington, DC to begin the program. Side note - moving sucks. And second side note - f**k you hotel vending machine, I didn't want mountain dew when I pressed the pepsi button, and I didn't want mountain dew when I pressed the water button. Sorry. Random thoughts are going to be a regular occurrence here.
So I get down to DC and move into my one-month sublet so I can take one class - Intermediate Microeconomics - and get slowly re-acclimated (in my head that's being pronounced ack-lime-ated for some reason) to the school lifestyle.
On the whole, I'd have to give the month in DC a 6 out of 10. The relatively low score is mostly due to the fact that it there was never any sense of permanence. It was very clear that it was only a month, and then I would be moving to Italy where the full program would actually begin. As a result, I made a couple potentially really good friends that I now won't see for a year, which for an introvert like myself, really sucks.
Still, the flipside of that coin is that I did get myself to be more social than is my norm, which was/is one of my major goals for the coming years.
Side note - I don't think extroverts realize how difficult/how much energy it takes for some of us introverts to be regularly social. It's exhausting. But dammit, I'm going to try.
Back to the story, I went out dancing nearly 3-4 times a week because I've found that for whatever reason, I'm much more comfortable being out when there's an activity involved that's not just drinking. Dance is fun and a useful skill, and something I feel ok just showing up to by myself, so that became my main social activity.
Side note - I also think I got hit on (at a salsa dance) for what might have been the first time in my life (or maybe it wasn't and I'm just incredibly dense). It was simultaneously flattering and anxiety filled as suddenly there became another pressure-filled level to the conversation. As someone who has only ever been in one (only recently ended) real relationship (that was preceded by three plus years of friendship), the whole idea of "dating" is terrifying.
Ok - I ran out of steam. Month in DC is now to be continued. And sheesh, I apparently love (parenthetical) statements.
Previously on Finding 42...
So, it is currently the morning of Saturday, August 29th 2009. I am in the early stages of a new chapter of my life. We'll call this chapter 4 -the Undiscovered Country (both perfectly relevant AND a Star Trek reference, though Star Wars is still better).
In the spirit of the "previously on" segments at the beginnings of TV shows, here's the quick get-up-to-speed story of recent events:
I don't claim it to be a unique story. It's actually the same old "something's missing" story that everyone has told or lived at some point. I had a pretty good life going. Good job, great girl, decent apartment, really comfortable bed, new member of a fun salsa dance company. But while things seemed (and often felt) fine on the outside, I'd begun to have a nagging feeling that I was stuck. I'd often catch myself wondering, "Is this the life I want?"
This was a serious question, as I could definitely (www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com people!) see that life becoming my life for the rest of my life. It was a comfortable path, one that I am sure is being contently lived by some parallel me in some parallel universe. But at the same time, it felt too comfortable. Whether I was living this life by choice or by inertia was debatable. There were days I had trouble looking at myself in the mirror, as if I was trying to avoid the gaze of the person on the other side. I could probably write, and no one would read, a book on all the fights I had with myself about this subject, but suffice to say I made the decision, for better or worse, to give that life up in search of something else.
What exactly this something is I have no idea. And how exactly do you go about looking for something when you don't even know what you're looking for? I guess you just start.
In the spirit of the "previously on" segments at the beginnings of TV shows, here's the quick get-up-to-speed story of recent events:
I don't claim it to be a unique story. It's actually the same old "something's missing" story that everyone has told or lived at some point. I had a pretty good life going. Good job, great girl, decent apartment, really comfortable bed, new member of a fun salsa dance company. But while things seemed (and often felt) fine on the outside, I'd begun to have a nagging feeling that I was stuck. I'd often catch myself wondering, "Is this the life I want?"
This was a serious question, as I could definitely (www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com people!) see that life becoming my life for the rest of my life. It was a comfortable path, one that I am sure is being contently lived by some parallel me in some parallel universe. But at the same time, it felt too comfortable. Whether I was living this life by choice or by inertia was debatable. There were days I had trouble looking at myself in the mirror, as if I was trying to avoid the gaze of the person on the other side. I could probably write, and no one would read, a book on all the fights I had with myself about this subject, but suffice to say I made the decision, for better or worse, to give that life up in search of something else.
What exactly this something is I have no idea. And how exactly do you go about looking for something when you don't even know what you're looking for? I guess you just start.
Inaugural Post
So I've finally gotten around to attempting to create a blog. I'm not sure how often I will be updating, but I will try to as much as possible (for my own memories' sake). This will be my place to catalog and share the hopefully wide variety of experiences and ideas that await me in the years to come.
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