it's over. move to somnia.

(prev) i kiss boys (next)

 
So I'm back. Was it all just a dream?
peachy as always, Mike at 3:40 PM

 
Heh.

To be from a random, faceless city.

peachy as always, Mike at 5:53 PM

 
VOTE!

And if you have some extra time to kill, try this.
peachy as always, Mike at 5:44 PM

 
Go here.

peachy as always, Mike at 7:27 PM

 
Turd

Came to senses. Not going to London. Better to stay, study, do finals. See Italy. Just not happy about wasting the money, but oh well.
peachy as always, Mike at 5:43 AM

 
Nerd

So, then. To explain "all the schoolwork" I mentioned yesterday:

-I gave an in-class presentation based on my final paper in Public Sector Economics. I talked about the relationship between religiosity and economic growth, and among the conclusions I rustled up: devotion rises with education, churchgoing is bad for the economy, believing in hell is good for growth, and the Protestant Reformation was actually a fundamentalist revolution that accidentally led to a realignment of economic attitudes in favor of efficiency.

-I'm studying for Thursday's final exam in Political Systems of the Developing World.

-I've been going some rather underexciting homework in International Trade Theory.

-Oh, and I spent the majority of my waking hours this past week (true!) working on the class yearbook, which we hope to have published next week.

So I'm going to London (yes, again) for the weekend to relax. I think.
peachy as always, Mike at 5:06 AM

 
Author/Cheerleader

So I just had this published in the school paper, and this has finally come to pass. It's a good day.

Just wish I weren't so tired from all the schoolwork I'm doing.
peachy as always, Mike at 12:31 PM

 


create your own personalized map of the USA
or write about it on the open travel guide

peachy as always, Mike at 1:25 PM

 


create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

peachy as always, Mike at 10:30 AM

 
Academic

Yesterday marked the accession of ten new countries to the European Union. I had been paying attention to the process largely as a curiosity: it’s interesting enough in itself, but as a non-European, it didn’t mean much in particular to me.* My classmates had an impromptu party at a local bar (because, hey, a celebration’s a celebration). It was only as I was congratulating three of my classmates (a Latvian, a Pole, and a Slovak) on their new EU citizenship that it struck me how much it was going to mean to them and their loved ones—they were now eligible to work in London without a visa, which for many people means they are now able to work. Silly American.

Today I finally (finally!) read Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations—along with Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History, one of the most iconic essays of international relations in the post-Cold War era—and while I see its flaws (which tend to be more famous than the thesis itself), there is still a good amount to chew on. Basic cultural values differ across the globe and it’s hard to ignore one’s core beliefs in the interests of neighborliness.

It reminds me of a conversation I had with the Slovak (A.) and another classmate (O., a Ukrainian) as we were on our way to see a documentary about the lives of young Chilean activists during the Pinochet years.** We spotted a social realist carving on the façade of an apartment building, and A. commented on how much she hated it, how ugly it was, how much it reminded her of all the negative attributes of growing up in a communist society. (Bologna, by the way, is to this day riddled with communist sympathizers—this is one of the main reasons SAIS located its European campus here: understand and infiltrate the enemy.) O., in contrast, said that she still retained an affection for it: the idea behind the art is rather romantic and the strong, solid lines of it were beautiful in what I suggested was a vaguely Mexican-muralist aesthetic. The conversation swung from there to the bizarreness, 15 years removed, of life in communism. (“Honor to the work,” they said at the start of each day at school.) I had nothing else to offer, but it was more than enough for me just to listen. It's an old saw, but I've learned much more outside the classroom than in.


*As a student and traveler, the particular case of Cyprus was meaningful, but that’s for another essay.

**No, our lives are not wholly consumed by the topics we study. We also drink. (see above)

peachy as always, Mike at 1:12 PM

 
Bachelor

So I'm 26. When I was in college, that seemed old. I'm happy to report that I don't feel old. Well, I didn't feel old until I found out that my college roommate (Mr. Y) broke up with his girlfriend of four years and got engaged to another young woman he met in medical school. Which means that next year, for the first time, I'm going to be in a friend's wedding party.

Which is a little scary.

(No, I'm not seeing anyone...why do you ask?)
peachy as always, Mike at 4:13 AM

 
Polyglot

OK, so. Languages. Despite the loads of encouragement I've gotten from friends of the years, I've always felt like I'm not really good at other languages. Reading, good. Writing, great. Spitting out a phrase or two, fine. But I've always likened holding a conversation in another language to breathing under water. It just doesn't feel natural and it makes me really nervous.

So you can imagine my distress when I had to try breathing under water for real. But I did it! I went scuba diving for the first time last week. I spent so much of the first dive focusing on not hyperventilating and keeping seawater out of my mask that I barely had time to wave at the anemones and enjoy the feeling of coral stratching my ankles. (I was so exhausted when I got back to the surface that I barely noticed the leech dropping off my suit. (Yes, ew.)

My second dive was so much better, it was amazing. It really is completely unlike anything else I've ever done, and while I'm not jumping at the chance to do it again, it was still an experience I'm thankful to have had.

And now, strangely, I feel much more confident in my Italian.

peachy as always, Mike at 5:07 AM

 
First Foray

...into the Muslim world. Going on vacation for two weeks in Turkey. Very excited. Details to follow.

(Yes, just like the details of my first foray into Scandinavia: eventually.)
peachy as always, Mike at 7:55 PM

 
It May Not Be an April Fools' Day Joke, But This Is Still Pretty Funny
peachy as always, Mike at 12:24 PM

 
The Scandi-Fest recap is delayed, as I have been busy with decompressing following my one-two punch of midterms. However, there's this:

Paranoiac

I think my ears are trying to kill me.

Maybe I'm being a little overdramatic in saying so. The thing is, they're assumed a Tell-Tale Heart-caliber sensitivity. I have to wear earplugs to sleep. I have to wear earplugs to study*--otherwise, I absolutely cannot concentrate. I am apparently the only person in this school who gets (murderously) offended when my classmates hold side conversations during lecture,** because it is so extremely distracting. I think I am alone in feeling overwhelmed by the reverberations of ordinary chatter in the school lobby. (The acoustics there are crazy.)

Where is it going to end? Am I going to find myself moaning in agony over the clatter of dropping a pencil and rush to jab it in my ear to make the pain stop? Yow!

Please wish me well...but no too loud. I'm trying to sleep. (And of course I can hear you.)


*Frequently, I'll be reading in the library and someone will come up and talk to me and it may take a minute before I register his or her presence and pop the little suckers out.

**(Bitches! Bitches! Bitches!) That is so rude, I cannot believe adults--and intelligent adults, one would think--could carry on like that. It disgusts me.

peachy as always, Mike at 12:14 PM

 
Show-off

The other day during my Theories of International Relations course, Professor K was describing the rise of international liberalism (not to be confused with domestic-politics liberalism, which is a whole 'nother philosophy) and the idea of collective action, and he mentioned that rationally there is rationally no reason for people to contribute to the common good if they know that other people will pay for what needs to be provided.

"Not even opprobrium?" I said absently. (Honest!)

"Good point, but we'll get to that later," he said, continuing with the lecture.

Which would be fine, except I already noticed the smirking glances, especially the one from S, a sweet young woman sitting nearby who had scolded me in the past for daring to ask questions during lecture despite being--gasp!--an auditor. ("It makes us all [everyone who is actually enrolled] look bad!") After the lecture, a few of my classmates ribbed me for throwing out a ten-dollar word...but...but...it was the right word!

We're all educated people here, I presumed. I don't get why it's such a big deal for us to communicate on a level appropriate to the situation. Is anti-intellectualism really so pervasive?


[next time: the story of Scandi-fest '04, in which our hero confronts rain, wind, the Danish language, poor scheduling, and something called a "naughty room" (it's worse than you think) in pursuit of a relaxing weekend out of town]
peachy as always, Mike at 2:38 PM

 
Jet-setter

Am going to Copenhagen tomorrow to visit a friend from high school.

Am slightly bummed that the weater only just turned nice here as I head north.
peachy as always, Mike at 12:01 PM

 
Clotheshorse

I lost a sweater at a club last Friday. It's been sticking in the back of my mind since then, since it's one of those articles of clothing I really liked (i.e. it fit and wasn't ugly). I don't really find all that many articles of clothing that I like, but when I do, I generally wear them to death.

This sweater wasn't really all that special--thin cotton, $10 at Old Navy, immediately replaceable when I get home--but the fact that something so easily available and so cheap in one context and yet so...well, important in another gave me pause.
peachy as always, Mike at 11:58 AM

 
Big Fish

Tim Burton's latest film opened here today, months and months after the States got to see it. It's part comedy and part fantasy--it's Tim Burton, baby--but boiled down, it's the story of a father and son who can't seem to communicate on the same level. So of course I was sniffling when they managed to bridge their gap at the end. It was great.

...which naturally means I had to walk out of the theater next to a classmate who happily announced, "It was so-so. You know Tim Burton: nice visuals, no emotion."

...and then when I got home and called my dad (which I was planning to do before the film, so help me God), he couldn't wait to talk about the award-deserving cinematography of The Passion of the Christ.

It is as it was.
peachy as always, Mike at 7:54 PM

 
The Sun is Out!

Good thing I'm going to be spending a big chunk of the day formatting my briefing paper.
peachy as always, Mike at 5:08 AM

 
Twitchy

My right eyelid's been wigging out on me for the past few days. Maybe it's all the tension I've been holding in about my endlessly unsatisfactory schedule and my uncertain summer plans and my Kashmir paper/presentation (due! Tuesday!) and the bizarre goings-on in the political world and whatever else is bugging me. Oh, and the cabin fever. (It's still snowing here. Still.) Or maybe I'm just having a freak-out moment.

On the upside, I went to hear the symphony yesterday. That was nice.
peachy as always, Mike at 5:31 PM

 
Bewaaaaaare! Paaaaaintbaaaaaaall!

The case may have its merits, but seriously: paintball is a step beyond laser tag. It's a game, people.
peachy as always, Mike at 9:14 AM

 
Choices, Choices

I took too long choosing my courses for this semester. I went to about 16 different classes over the first two weeks, because I really wanted to make sure I knew what was out there and make an informed choice--which is made more difficult by the fact that the required courses are all scheduled at overlapping times. (Brilliant, just brilliant.) So I turned my registration in two days after the "official deadline" (although the reg packet said that we could turn in forms until the end of the week for a smallish late fee), and got a rather nasty email from the director of academic affairs (cc'd to the registrar and--inexplicably--the student body president) about how I was an inconsiderate oaf and singlehandedly tearing the university apart from within.* The impulse to write a rude reply of my own has remained pretty strong; I've been in kind of a brittle mood all day, and I really hope it didn't show to anyone. Doesn't help that every news report I come across (and The News is a big part of life in IR-land) features another shocking statement from someone who has altogether too much power for his (and the world's) own good.

It was nice to just come home and cook a big pot of stew while listening to seethe-rock. And now I get to do 100 pages of reading for class tomorrow...all about conflict management. Happy Ash Wednesday!

*hyperbole is all mine.
peachy as always, Mike at 4:54 PM

 
The First of What Will Admittedly Be Many Opinion Pieces Here about the Hot Button Topic of Gay Marriage

I know things can't always be sunshine and roses, and I accept that there are always going to be differences of opinion on issues that people are sensitive about. But that doesn't mean I can't hate Schwarzenegger for all the dumb things he says. Thank you, voters of California. Thank you for driving me into a BLIND FUCKING RAGE.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:06 AM

 
Politics Is Stupid

The US primary process annoys me. Why is everyone so eager to declare the selection over, when none of the five largest states have had a chance to vote? California, Texas, New York, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania...do they not matter at all?

I liked Dean. I think he brought energy to the campaign and I'm sorry to see him drop out so soon.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:04 AM

 
Done!

Done done done done done! After six months of toil and agony and bewilderment and mind-stretching, I'm finally done with...my first semester.

Three to go.
peachy as always, Mike at 11:38 AM

 
So Far I've Been To...



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide
peachy as always, Mike at 2:00 PM

 
Is It Any Surprise?

I am an Intellectual



Which America Hating Minority Are You?

Take More Robert & Tim Quizzes
Watch Robert & Tim Cartoons


peachy as always, Mike at 4:36 PM

 
The Sounds of New Year's Eve in Rome's Piazza del Popolo

Bang!^1 Bang!^2 Scusi!^3 Whoosh!^4 Pfzzzzz!^5 Tanti auguri!^6 BANG!^7 Fshhh!^8 Eep!^9 Crash!^10 Whoooo!^11

1. Firecracker (noise only: decibel equivalent to gunshot)
2. Ibid
3. "Excuse me!": A thousand people trying to push past me over the course of a minute
4. Firecracker (flying, colorful)
5. Firecracker (spinning, spark-emitting: tossed on ground in a crowded area)
6. "Happy new year!"
7. Like #1, but battle-ready
8. Dozens of spumanti (not champagne) bottles opening at once
9. The sounds of people in my party reacting to getting sparkling wine on clothes, in hair, up noses as result of #8
10. All those bottles simultaneously hitting the ground in a just-cleared area five feet from where I was standing
11. "Hey, this is a lot of fun!"
peachy as always, Mike at 3:43 AM

 
Pretty

It finally happened: I love Bologna. They* put Christmas lights up all over the city two weeks ago--and I mean all over. There's hardly a street without decorations here, and walking around at night in the cold with the soft glow of the lights bouncing off the architecture (many narrow streets and portici,** and pretty much everything in Bologna is some variation of red or orange) and pine boughs arching over the streets and festively-strung trees in the major piazze. It's a lot quieter outside now than it was before...probably because of the cold, which is honestly the strongest I've ever lived in. (And I still don't have a good winter coat, because I'm lazy and hate clothes-shopping.) A lot of people say that Bologna is different from the other major Italian cities in that, instead of having well-known landmarks, it's sort of a general mood that permeates the city. But the main thing is, I've found I'm happier just walking around here now.

*Who? I don't know. The local Bureau of Making Things Festively Italian, I guess.
**(After Venice, it's the second-best-preserved city-center in Italy.)
peachy as always, Mike at 12:38 PM

 
Not Enough Time

I have a midterm tomorrow in International Monetary Theory. (It's worse than it sounds.) In one sense, this is probably the hardest class I've ever taken, but it doesn't keep me from wasting time when I should be studying. Maybe I've gotten a little cocky since I managed to overcome my frustration* and I have a strong sense of how the basic ideas work. I just want to get a B--I just want to pass. I don't think it'll be horribly hard to pass, and that must be why I'm not studying right now.

* This is actually an amusing anecdote in itself: I wasn't the only student struggling with the material--a group of my classmates went to the academic affairs dean to complain about the professor and petition that he not be asked back due to the miserable time** we're having. The leader of this group then sent a message about this meeting to the class email list--which included the professor. Oops.

** It was really weird at first. He assigns readings from one textbook, then takes his lectures (which he teaches at a Ph.D level, using economic methods we haven't studied, and making frequent mistakes) from another textbook and gave us homework based on outside readings. Things have kind of fallen into place, but only now that I've been studying and I see that some of what he lectured on was covered in readings he assigned three or four weeks later.
peachy as always, Mike at 11:48 AM

 
London

Am going there. In 12 hours.
peachy as always, Mike at 4:27 PM

 
Italy! Different!

Fun facts:
-When Americans say we are going to meet at a bar, we mean inside.*
-When Italians say they are going to meet at a bar, they mean outside.**
-Clarifying this ahead of time prevents silly misunderstandings like waiting for the better part of an hour to meet somebody who is literally ten feet away, give or take a wall.

* Reason being, whoever arrives first can get out of the cold and can order something while waiting for companion(s).
** "It might be difficult to find each other in there! What if it's big and crowded?"
peachy as always, Mike at 4:26 PM

 
Big Fish! Big Fish!

Grad school is hard. I get frustrated. International Monetary Theory hurts to think about.

And my Italian is bad.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:56 AM

 
American Bandwidth

I'm happy to report that my roommate Gisela, who is a big computing know-it-all, has turned me on to Suprnova, a file-sharing system (legality? what?) that puts the Kazaa family to shame, which means I've been able to keep up on all my favorite American shows.

Well, at least The Simpsons is here. All the other shows I like have weird HBO-y schedules (or have been cancelled recently--bitches!), so the "new fall schedule" ain't really happening for me.

And I tried to check out other stuff. I downloaded Will & Grace because it used to be good (it was! it was!), and what did I get? James Earl Jones mincing around under orders from "Just Jack" McFarland. I downloaded something called Tru Calling because I heard it was hilariously bad...but it turns out it was just bad. Really, really bad.

So on the one hand, I'm happy to have access to un-dubbed American TV...but on the other hand, so much of it just sucks.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:50 AM

 
Mmmmm...Snack

Every once in a while, something comes along that makes you question whether there is an upper limit for the concentration of funny. This is most definitely one of those things.
peachy as always, Mike at 12:22 PM

 
I Want to Be Zorro

...for Halloween. I don't really know why. Well, besides the facts that he looks pretty cool (and he's a magical mythopoetic figure in Mexamerican history, lookin' out for the little guy). I just can't find the right kind of hat. Or a whip.* Italians sort of play along with the whole Halloween thing, putting up decorations in most shops (from caffes to copisterias), but it's hard to find a costume superstore. Or just a costume store, seeing as it's pretty hard to find ANY kind of superstore around here. Except Ikea...mmmmm. Maybe I should go there.

Anyway, the school's having a party tomorrow night, and we (200 strong) have invited the foreign students' association (1000 strong) at the main university to share a place that holds 600 people. Yeah, that'll be fun. And given our love of partying, the fact that the holiday lands on a Friday this year is gonna be crazy.

*I've been told that a sword would be more accurate, but I want a whip, dammit!
peachy as always, Mike at 8:02 AM

 
Hold Your Peace

I almost got into a bar fight last night. A large group of us were at the Scuderia, a ridiculously big bar with a hilariously awful cover band, celebrating my classmate Allison's birthday. I was chatting with an acquaintance (X) who introduced me to a friend of his (Y) who is in town for the weekend. Y was bragging about how he'd taken X to a strip club the night before, which...well, X is married with a small child. Maybe it's cool with everyone involved, I don't know. Jokingly, I flicked him on the forehead and reprimanded his for his bad influence. We went on talking about whatever else. About ten minutes later, Y suddenly turned to me and said, "Don't you touch me again."

"What?"
"You touch me again and I'll beat you to a bloody pulp."
"Really? You know, I'm bigger than you." Y is a good six to eight inches shorter than me. Probably wasn't the best thing to say, but I'd had a couple of beers.
"Come on. Let's go outside. I'll beat you to a bloody pulp." He was smiling, but serious. I reflected.
I turned to X and asked, "Just how drunk is he?"
"On a scale of 1 to 10...I'd say about a 3." X was amused. I wasn't.

Y repeated his threat again, but hadn't yet put up his dukes. The thing is, I was severely tempted to just pop him one right there, break his nose, let him have it. I've never been in a fistfight, but it sounds exhilarating. Still, I guess in the end I'm a fairly mature person: I just turned and walked away.


Oh, I also spent most of the day in Venice. That was nice.
peachy as always, Mike at 12:39 PM

 
Yes, There Is Something Very Wrong with That

Went to a club last night. Link. It was pretty cool: a massive old warehouse, with four big rooms featuring different music/lighting/enviro atmospheres. And since it was the opening night for the 2003-04 season (everything--even nightclubs--closes for the summer here; it sucks), the cover was pay-what-you-wish...which everyone knows means €1.

Dario--my conveniently-Italian roommate--and I arrived at 11:30 pm. Dead. A few dozen people (which in this space was nothing) were milling about, but the music hadn't even been turned on or the lights lowered. We decided to go find a bar down the street (as a general rule in Italy, there is always a bar down the street) and hang out there until the club got hoppin'.

It was a nice bar: well-lit, convivial. Young people, mostly; a good male/female mix. There was even a waiter to lead us to our table. (When we sat down, he put kids' junior-jumble placemats in front of us--you know the kind, with a crossword and connect-the-dots and find-the-differences-between-these-pictures...cute.) The group at the next table over were playing Jenga. We ordered our beers and started chatting.

And then I looked up at the TV screens.

Hentai.

Now, I've never seen hentai before, and I wouldn't even know the word if it hadn't been for a brief mention on a friend's website (you know who you are), but I'd heard it described in that "oh, those Japanese" way, and I thought it sounded pretty silly. Animated porn, featuring bosomy women with monsters and...well, monster accessories. And the requisite ick. It wasn't until Dario caught my attention ("Mike. Mike. HEY.") that I snapped out of it.

"You should see some of the faces you're making." (My jaw had literally dropped, it seems.)
"What the fuck is this? Why is no one else freaking out?"
"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before either." He started to laugh. I should mention that both the screens in my line of sight were behind him, which was completely unfair.
"What the--OH my GOD." (You don't want to know.)
"Maybe you should just stop looking."
"But..."
"You know, as long as everyone in here is over 18, it's legal." (Dario is, by the way, a lawyer.)
"But... But..."

At that moment, the waiter came by to offer us free shots (of something) followed with a grape. He was more impressed that I was from California ("My grandmother, she lives in L.A.!") than anything else I had to say.

Every day, another mindbender. Oh, yay.
peachy as always, Mike at 2:37 PM

 
Sick

Bleah. Sinuses ache. Nose running. Sneezes. At least it's all in my head.
peachy as always, Mike at 10:19 AM

 
DSL! DSL!

I have DSL at home! Wireless! It's like...it's like...being in America again! I never ever have to leave my bedroom for anything!

...Uh-oh.
peachy as always, Mike at 7:55 AM

 
September 12

It's been exactly a year since I handed in my resignation. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and many people counselled me to find another job before dumping the secure one I had. Every once in a while, though, I just have to go with my gut. I wasn't even particularly thinking about graduate school at the time, and I certainly wasn't clear on what course of study to follow. It's astounding, really, to think about the lucky concatenation of events that led me to where I am today...studying international relations...in Italy. Is this the best possible outcome for me?* I can't honestly say, but I like what I've done with me.


*This, I think, is what people mean when they refer to economics as the "dismal science": the conviction that anything but the most absolutely profitable option is somehow inferior.
peachy as always, Mike at 7:05 AM

 
TARcon 4

I am an Internet TV geek. It is a long, slow process of realization, but at the point one finds oneself on the train to New York to watch a television show's season finale with a bunch of complete strangers in hopes of mingling with some of the show's stars--well, that's an undeniable fact. And that's where I found myself on Thursday.

The Amazing Race is not your average reality show. Contestants don't sit in a house all day or struggle to cook rice or jockey to marry one another; they run and fly and dive (and drive) and think. Over the course of 13 legs, they have to find their way around the world--in a given episode, they'll have to get from, say, Amsterdam to Bombay, load hay bales on an elephant, and navigate a crowded marketplace with any help they can get. They are eliminated not because their competitors have found any petty fault with them, but because their own luck and skill put them in last place on a particular leg. Better still, it involves teamwork: you're on the run with someone close to you (a friend or family member) and communication is paramount. This is a very good show. Consequently, its ratings have been permanently in the toilet--at least in the U.S. (Apparently, it has a very strong following in Asia.)

But there is a devoted core of American fans linked through the ether who have held a big party in Manhattan at the end of each season. They were surprised (and overjoyed) the first time to discover that many of the racers showed up. (Apparently, CBS had no interest in holding a celebration of its own. Their loss.) Having heard the descriptions from previous years' parties, being only three hours away by train, and knowing there's a good chance that this fourth season could be its last, I knew I had to go.

And I went. My schedule was somewhat thwarted by Amtrak: the train to NYC was over an hour late, which gave me under an hour to spent with some AmeriCorps friends I'd arranged to have a happy hour with. (But it was great to see them: Matt and Neene, you are patient and you rock.) Then the party got started...admission by prepurchase only, so no last-minute wanderers-in. It was intense. The episode itself was a crowd-pleaser, but an hour passes quickly. I have to admit that I spent well over another hour fighting to overcome my initial wallflowery inclinations, but it wasn't until around 11 that the racers started pouring in, and all of them--winners and losers, the on-screen pleasant and unpleasant--were given a hero's welcome. Oddly enough, I found that I wasn't able to make small talk with more than a few of the other fans and instead got swallowed up in conversation with the contestants. They were incredibly welcoming and very...physically affectionate. (I'll be curious to see how the pictures turned out.) Drunk and happy, yes.

It was agonizing to get on the train again at 3 am. Some evil part of my mind insisted that I had to be back in D.C. for the last day of classes (which, as it turned out, really wasn't necessary). Even before I'd arrived, I wished I were still in New York. But parties always end, and this one was no exception.

I guess it's appropriate that the culmination of my geekhood occurred just days before I give up all access to American television. It's probably a good thing...I need to spend more time outdoors.
peachy as always, Mike at 11:06 PM

 
Foot + Ball

Yesterday about two dozen of us played soccer in the Ellipse (a big grassy area between the Washington Monument and the White House). I thought that was pretty cool, especially after one of my teammates (a Palestinian) commented that there are quite a number of countries where it would be inconceivable for the public to use land a block away from the executive mansion for recreation.

Kind of sore today. And tired. But a good tired.
peachy as always, Mike at 6:07 PM

 
'Bucked-Up

Coffee coffee coffee coffee coffee. Coffee coffee coffee. My life in a nutshell.

Huh? Wha? I'm not a coffee drinker. In fact, when a classmate spilled her coffee all over the floor near me last week, I had to get up and move because the fumes were making me woozy. (True!)

But my resistance has been weakening. Yesterday on the Metro, I picked up the Washington Post and read through an entire essay* about how stressful it is to buy coffee at Starbucks because of allegiances to certain locations, the question of queues and motion, and the bewildering array of options on the menu. It was insipid, cliché, and five years too late, just as you'd expect. Later on, to recover from the midterm (midterms already!) I took that morning, I decided to go see Dirty Pretty Things.** The main character was fond of chewing on leaves (I assumed they were coca) to help him stay awake throughout his two jobs as a cabdriver and hotel concierge. Hmmm.

I haven't been up to par lately: a lot of studying, less-than-optimal nutrition, and choppy sleep. So today in class (at the ripe hour of 8 am), I found myself feeling unquestionably droopy. I turned to my roommate at the break and said--for the first time in my life--"I need coffee." Her eyes sparkled.

After being instructed in the differences between caffè latte and café au lait (foam, I guess), and a few more minutes of deliberation, I chose a mocha and headed back to class. It turns out everything I've heard is true: my head began to buzz pleasantly, my attention focused, my hand began to quiver as I quickly tapped my fingers (quietly, of course) and my bladder began working overtime. It was a rush! I'd tried to explain to one of my incredulous classmates ("Never? Oh, come on.") that I generally try to avoid things I can sense are addictive, and now...well, I want more.

It's true, then. Graduate school changes people. I didn't expect it could happen so speedily. Yipe!


*Yeah, when exactly did "the news" transmogrify from articles to essays?

** It's good. I recommend it. Your average finicky moviegoer might scoff at Audrey Tautou playing a Turkish Muslim despite her French accent. And the ending might be considered predictable or simplistic, but I liked it. The only part I found amusing was that the conversation (of immigrants from around the world in London) was about how much of a dream it would be to go to New York. OK, since you're talking about the difference in the standard of living: Calcutta to New York? Sure. London to New York? Not so much.
peachy as always, Mike at 2:26 PM

 
I

So I wrote a whole long thing about being an introvert and being suddenly reminded of it after a long time--since I'm now surrounded by unfamiliar faces and stuck in an intense situation with a lot of people in a small area--and how I know it'll take time for me to be at ease enough to make small talk with everyone (which is fine because I'm more given to standing back and absorbing information before I participate) and how it's a little weird sitting quietly among people chattering away during class breaks and also how some people seemed to instantaneously form cliques the first few days and how I'm ready to move on from D.C. already...but the stupid computers in this lab have a tendency to delete things when one hits "send" or "post" or "save" or "do not delete." Sigh.

All in all, I miss my friends. This starting-over process isn't fun.
peachy as always, Mike at 6:33 PM

 
Roses and Kittens and Air Travel...

My passport finally got delivered to the school, so I actually am free to leave the country as planned! Stupid USPS tried to divert my mail to Modesto before I specified and then apparently had a complete malfunction for a week or so.

So happy. So not-in-limbo.
peachy as always, Mike at 11:57 AM

 
...And then I went to the school's happy hour, drank a lot of free wine, met a nice Indo-Chilean girl named Maya, and we scoped out the cute-guy quotient on campus. The consensus: not much to look at. Oh, well. Good times.
peachy as always, Mike at 6:28 PM

 
Washington fucking scares me.

I don't mean it in the normal way: the people here don't really affect me much either way--so far, they seem like people anywhere. It's the city itself that gives me the creeps. It's gray and hot and wet and gray (first time, the buildings; second time, the sky) and loud. And OK, one thing about the people bugs me, but it's obviously related to the socioeducational circle I'm in: everyone dresses nice. I'm wearing shorts today (because, like I said before, it's hot. and wet.) and the minute I walked into the school I was very aware of it. People here wear khakis and dress shirts to class. Loafers. Vests. Granted, it's air conditioned in all the buildings, which minimizes the hot-n-sticky time to the few moments spent outdoors, but people! please! Think about personal comfort!

I'm pretty relieved that I chose to spend my first year away from here.

I'm also somewhat ashamed to say that, for the first time in my life, I'm feeling homesick. Pretty damn hard. California is really nice. I don't really know anyone here. I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything fun this weekend. (Except whining--that's pretty damn fun.) I think I may just be a couch jockey. I WANT MY PASSPORT!

Oh, but my preofessors are fun. 'N cool. Yeah.
peachy as always, Mike at 4:44 PM

 
Two Days!

I'm leaving! In two days! To become a grad student! Me! Acting like an adult, sort of! It's scary! It's unbelievable! It's simple and complex! What do I focus on? Where's my passport? Why? Who? What? Aauuugghhh!
peachy as always, Mike at 12:23 AM