Well I'm back after a glorious weekend with friends and Bowens in Rhode Island. Despite there not exactly being beach weather for the first few days, we spent most of the weekend outside grilling, S'More-ing, playing badminton and volleyball, and drinking. My body is sooo sore from all that physical activity lol. I've decided that this summer I plan on being more athletic than usual - next week once we're in our new apartment Melanie and I will begin our weekly tennis matches at the park nearby.
I probably consumed 800,000 calories per day; it was amazing but also disgusting - steak, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, beer, dark & stormies, margaritas, etc. Thank god for fiber bars on the side - could have been a bit messy. TMI? Two of the three nights I most certainly raged. Stayed up til 4:30ish the first night belting Adam Lambert; then until almost 6 the third night watching the sunrise with Derek and Katie Bowen. Surprisingly I was not feeling like death either subsequent morning and managed to be a wholly productive individual. I am excited to be back at Chris' house many more weekends this summer! Less than two weeks until gay lovers weekend!
Now it's back to reality, aka working 20 hours a week and being bored. After discussing with MT, it seems I will attempt to start/finish some of my comps, namely the article and book reviews. I found a whole slew of new articles on language usage in Andorra, so I'm banking on one of those perking my interest. Other than that I'm still attempting to learn basic Arabic, beef up my Catalan, and not become a fat blob. I'd also like to work on being legitimately healthy, at least during the week. I've decided to give up Splenda for fear of cancerous tumors down the road and will in general attempt to avoid too much processed garbage.
I've also started to become a bit melancholy with respect to Andorra. I couldn't help but think of this fun weekend as a sort of "last hurrah" for some reason. This morning I got an e-mail about my Fulbright housing situation - August 22nd is not very far at all. I'm starting to think about who will be around when I return, who my friends will be, and just the general readjustment. *Sigh* I should probably just stop being dramatic and enjoy my summer.
2 more hours at the office. Then some gym-age and apartment packing.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
سلام
Look at me, two updates right in a row!
It's another early weekday morning in Boston...Thanks to my open schedule and Chris' early rising, I've been up between 7 and 8 every day this week. The days go on forever - yesterday I got up, had breakfast, studied Arabic, went downtown to pick up my lab results, got some Starbucks, and did some shopping. When I was done it was 11:30am. Lol wtf?!? Once I start working things should be better. Any post-work accomplishments should at least take me to dinner time.
Speaking of work, naturally since I just signed on to work at GSAS I finally hear back from WorldTeach, the International Ed company thru Harvard. They say they have openings and would like to interview me. FML. I would have very much enjoyed the experience of working with them, especially since they have programs in Poland and Bulgaria, but alas...I think I'll prefer the fewer hours/money for more leisure time. It IS summer after all...
Today's fabulous agenda includes going to the post office, haymarket, and if i'm feeling ambitious maybe even a haircut. Hurray! I think I'll do some dishes now.
It's another early weekday morning in Boston...Thanks to my open schedule and Chris' early rising, I've been up between 7 and 8 every day this week. The days go on forever - yesterday I got up, had breakfast, studied Arabic, went downtown to pick up my lab results, got some Starbucks, and did some shopping. When I was done it was 11:30am. Lol wtf?!? Once I start working things should be better. Any post-work accomplishments should at least take me to dinner time.
Speaking of work, naturally since I just signed on to work at GSAS I finally hear back from WorldTeach, the International Ed company thru Harvard. They say they have openings and would like to interview me. FML. I would have very much enjoyed the experience of working with them, especially since they have programs in Poland and Bulgaria, but alas...I think I'll prefer the fewer hours/money for more leisure time. It IS summer after all...
Today's fabulous agenda includes going to the post office, haymarket, and if i'm feeling ambitious maybe even a haircut. Hurray! I think I'll do some dishes now.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
السلام عليكم
Well it's been a few weeks but here I am alive!
I'm all done with classes and whatnot, so basically my summer has begun. So far I've gotten two out of my three grades, both of which were A's, so my semester ended well in that respect. I'm definitely going to need to keep in touch with MT and figure out how exactly I'm going to conduct my research come Fall.
On the job front - until about an hour ago I was unemployed, but I'm now definitely working 20 hrs/week @ GSAS, so I'm very happy. It'll be just enough too supplement money I have, though hopefully I won't have to burn through the other money I had saved for Andorra and also for paying back my parents for the rent deposit.
I've done most of the necessary technical preparations for Andorra - I've gone to the police to get my fingerprints done for the background chec, got the physical (i'm not suffering from any dread diseases, thankfully), now I just need to send in the results. Hopefully Ines will be able to send me some popular Catalan literature to get Catalan-skills working more. What I really should be doing is watching more tv programs - only problem is I HATE starting shows mid-season. I'll be bad enough trying to interpret what everyone is saying, let alone catching up on who the f*** everyone is and what they've been doing.
My summer project is to learn Arabic. I bought some books on Amazon and have started working with the alphabet. It is hottttt, but definitely will take some getting used to. This morning I had a lovely little study session at Starbucks for an hour. I'd like to continue these little sessions - maybe tomorrow I'll try to do the Public Library's outdoor court. It's going to be quite the task, but since I'm likely to go to Egypt next year with my Dad and godmother, it'll be worth it. Plus I have motivation.
In the meantime I must try not to eat myself into obesity. All I can think about is a milkshake right now.
I'm all done with classes and whatnot, so basically my summer has begun. So far I've gotten two out of my three grades, both of which were A's, so my semester ended well in that respect. I'm definitely going to need to keep in touch with MT and figure out how exactly I'm going to conduct my research come Fall.
On the job front - until about an hour ago I was unemployed, but I'm now definitely working 20 hrs/week @ GSAS, so I'm very happy. It'll be just enough too supplement money I have, though hopefully I won't have to burn through the other money I had saved for Andorra and also for paying back my parents for the rent deposit.
I've done most of the necessary technical preparations for Andorra - I've gone to the police to get my fingerprints done for the background chec, got the physical (i'm not suffering from any dread diseases, thankfully), now I just need to send in the results. Hopefully Ines will be able to send me some popular Catalan literature to get Catalan-skills working more. What I really should be doing is watching more tv programs - only problem is I HATE starting shows mid-season. I'll be bad enough trying to interpret what everyone is saying, let alone catching up on who the f*** everyone is and what they've been doing.
My summer project is to learn Arabic. I bought some books on Amazon and have started working with the alphabet. It is hottttt, but definitely will take some getting used to. This morning I had a lovely little study session at Starbucks for an hour. I'd like to continue these little sessions - maybe tomorrow I'll try to do the Public Library's outdoor court. It's going to be quite the task, but since I'm likely to go to Egypt next year with my Dad and godmother, it'll be worth it. Plus I have motivation.
In the meantime I must try not to eat myself into obesity. All I can think about is a milkshake right now.
Friday, May 1, 2009
almost done!
Well the school year is officially over class-wise. Just one final and two papers due before the end of next week. Wee!
If I can get ahold of the Spain edition of the Disney movie Cars, I legit hope to write my Spanish linguistics paper on that, seeing how different dialects are represented by the different car characters. In the American/English version it is legit sociolinguistically fascinating to see the dialects employed by the various characters in just one simple scene, so I'm hoping always-politically-incorrect Spain does the same! The exam for Language & Ethnicity shouldn't be too bad, just wicked long. Then the last paper is on Medumba; I elicited a traditional recipe so I just need to finish writing about that.
Speaking of Medumba, yesterday in class we were luckily enough to have Ariane cook a number of traditional foods for us, including fried plantains and this amazing bean dish. Can't say I was feeling too wonderfully afterwards (rozwol), but everything was delicious! I will definitely be continuing to work on documenting this language throughout the summer, especially since I am at this point unemployed. Hurray!
This weekend Chris has some NYC visitors, Derek and Nico, so we'll be occupied finding fun things to all day/evening. So far all I can think of is eating and drinking, lol. Fine with me! I'd like to go see 'Wolverine' if the weather is legit shitty, but so will everyone else in Boston.
Today after work I'm off to Haymarket for produce for the week, then hopefully heading to the gym. I also need new headphones like woah so I may have to stop at the Apple store to blow some bday money.
I got some more paperwork in the mail from the Fulbright committee asking me to get my health evaluated and to send in the results within 3 weeks. fun! I also need to get a criminal background check, but the fucktards at the BC Police Department can't seem to tell me when the detectives are in the office, since apparently only detectives can do fingerprinting. brilliant.
I guess I should start studying for one of my finals now...later!
If I can get ahold of the Spain edition of the Disney movie Cars, I legit hope to write my Spanish linguistics paper on that, seeing how different dialects are represented by the different car characters. In the American/English version it is legit sociolinguistically fascinating to see the dialects employed by the various characters in just one simple scene, so I'm hoping always-politically-incorrect Spain does the same! The exam for Language & Ethnicity shouldn't be too bad, just wicked long. Then the last paper is on Medumba; I elicited a traditional recipe so I just need to finish writing about that.
Speaking of Medumba, yesterday in class we were luckily enough to have Ariane cook a number of traditional foods for us, including fried plantains and this amazing bean dish. Can't say I was feeling too wonderfully afterwards (rozwol), but everything was delicious! I will definitely be continuing to work on documenting this language throughout the summer, especially since I am at this point unemployed. Hurray!
This weekend Chris has some NYC visitors, Derek and Nico, so we'll be occupied finding fun things to all day/evening. So far all I can think of is eating and drinking, lol. Fine with me! I'd like to go see 'Wolverine' if the weather is legit shitty, but so will everyone else in Boston.
Today after work I'm off to Haymarket for produce for the week, then hopefully heading to the gym. I also need new headphones like woah so I may have to stop at the Apple store to blow some bday money.
I got some more paperwork in the mail from the Fulbright committee asking me to get my health evaluated and to send in the results within 3 weeks. fun! I also need to get a criminal background check, but the fucktards at the BC Police Department can't seem to tell me when the detectives are in the office, since apparently only detectives can do fingerprinting. brilliant.
I guess I should start studying for one of my finals now...later!
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