happy christmas

tick tock, on the clock

Halloween: Rockstars. Angels. Ninja Turtles. Royalty.

And an extra hour thanks to Daylight Savings.

i need to minimize my life

This weekend, instead of it fully hitting me that I was moving into my dorm room on Thursday, I went to Chicago to celebrate my 21st birthday (again) with the girls. The apartment we were staying at was just a 2 minute walk to the Viagra Triangle and about a 10 minute walk to Michigan Ave. Danielle, Carrie, and Joy had made a necklace/sash of notecards listing the 21 tasks I had to complete Friday night, and on top of that, Danielle had bought a gaudy, Disney princess tiara that they demanded I wear with my red dress. You can use your imagination to fill in the rest of the night.

The downside to the trip, though, was our 8 am bus ride Sunday morning (so brutal), which meant that I basically did nothing Sunday except go see "The Time Traveler's Wife" (kind of on par with "A Walk To Remember" in my opinion). Monday, I finally got my ass semi in-gear and went on a Target run, but today, I spent the afternoon in serious denial of vacation being over and, instead of desperately organizing my life, headed to the mall with Danielle to hit up Sephora and Aveda for "back-to-school" (easily the most dangerous excuse) shopping. Who knew Aveda has complementary neck and shoulder massages?

Fast forward to now (less than 12 hours away from when I have to start my 12 hour drive south), and I'm frantically throwing everything in sight into boxes (that will probably break my back in approximately 24 hours), while simultaneously chugging this strange Vitamin C, raspberry-flavored, energy boost drink that's Mom's latest health obsession and absolutely freaking out inside that I'm forgetting something because I can't remember where the hell I put everything. Even worse, I can't even remember what the hell I have. Or what the hell I'll need.

Where did the summer go?!

na zdraví

I'm 21!

you're the star at the top of the tree

Merry Christmas!

The two songs that have been stuck in my head all holiday season:

Jimmy Eat World - "Last Christmas"


Mariah Carey - "All I Want For Christmas Is You"


And on a non-Christmas-related note, here's an (old) interview MTV did with Chester French, a recent infatuation:

MTV Shows

I'm kind of in love.

yes we can

Since I've last updated this blog, I've been to Cesky Krumlov (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), London, Krakow, Bari, Rome, the Vatican, Florence, Pisa, and Venice. But watching the crowds cheer in Chicago last night was the first time I was really homesick for America.

It really happened:
PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA!

I absolutely cannot believe it. We spent the entire night at a Sports Bar that was hosting an American viewing party, shouting and cheering every time a CNN projection popped up on screen. Around 4:45 in the morning, the place was closing down, Dom, Casey and I were crashing, and they still hadn't called it. We booked it in the cold to the nearest night tram, and then all of a sudden Dom got a text from his dad back in CA telling us that Fox News had called it. Then there was another saying CNN had called it. It was all over.

We were literally screaming on the tram, hugging ecstatic fellow Americans heading home from watching TV in the bars, fist pumping and skipping down the street. We got back to our dorm and ran down to the basement to watch CNN, getting there just in time to see John McCain give his concession speech. I crawled into bed at 6 am -- or midnight EST, depending on how you look at it. I didn't get to see Obama give his victory speech, since my head was throbbing from lack of sleep and dried out contacts, but it's all good because I just YouTubed it. Who watches TV on TV anymore anyway? (...5 points if you get the reference.)

young and wild and free

Holy shit, I'm 20.

it's my last day as a teenager

I love being a summer baby. But it kind of sucks that I rarely ever get a chance to celebrate my birthday with my college friends, since we're always out of school come August 7th.

This summer, therefore, is pretty special. Not only am I turning 20 (CUE FREAK OUT!!!), but it's my first birthday away from home in a really long time. Not going to lie, whenever I imagined what it'd be like to turn 20, I never pictured myself in Viet Nam.

Anyway, last night the VTV 6 director wanted to take us out to karaoke, so all of us and the Vietnamese roommates loaded into three cabs and went over to the Old Quarter for some good old-fashioned bonding over bad singing/screaming. When I walked through the door though, I heard somebody shout, "SURPRISE!" and then realized that the music the people in the room were singing along to wasn't some Vietnamese pop song I'd never heard before but actually this really upbeat "Happy Birthday to you" song that I've heard about three times already at Solace (and once at the Loo, but who's counting). In the middle of the room were three cakes for me and Caroline (her birthday was this past Monday, but she was in Bavi teaching English then, so we hadn't had a chance to celebrate it yet): one with the traditional "Happy birthday, Caroline and Lucie!"; one with a little Vietnamese smiley face wearing a conical rice hat; and this beauty:

Translation: "Very beautiful, how much?"

LOVES IT. It was all so unexpected that I had even left my camera in my room, not wanting to have to carry a purse around all night. I'm a fool. But a fool with cake.