Thursday, August 28, 2008

just being utilitarian

I suppose everyone has to starve at some point in their life.

And my time is definitely now.

After what I can only describe as a painfully frustrating last dinner at home before I fly out tomorrow morning, I got my budget laid out for me for my upcoming semester abroad. And as everyone knows, the beauty of living life free of food points is that the money allotted for food no longer necessarily needs to go towards food. Granted, this is also a major policy problem when applied to larger government projects, but in the case of little ol' me, life sans a meal plan has taught me one great fact of my life:

I'm willing to starve for cute clothes and trips to faraway places.

I mean, it builds character, right? Didn't we learn in economics that consumers should maximize their utility per dollar spent? I'm just being efficient here.

Monday, August 25, 2008

what happens at the resort stays at the resort

“They scream, they sing, they fall down, they take their clothes off, they cross-dress, they vomit,” Malia’s mayor, Konstantinos Lagoudakis, said in an interview. “It is only the British people — not the Germans or the French.”

- "Some Britons Too Unruly for Resorts in Europe" (NYTimes)
I wonder what do they think about American college students.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

i hate feeling like all i'm doing is waiting

It's so strange being home right now, during the down time between Vietnam and Prague. I feel like all I'm doing is watching the clock tick until I'm on that plane Bohemia-bound and my life can start again. Granted, I should be packing, but that's a whole other issue to talk about (though really, all I have to say is a big fuck you to check-in luggage weight limits).

In the meantime, it makes me sad getting all the welcome-back emails from Duke administrators (...and sorority exec board members), having to RSVP "Not Attending" to all the random Facebook invites to welcome-back parties at all-too-familiar venues (venues whose names I can actually pronounce!), having to hear about Shooters stories over the phone instead of during the obligatory 3 am McDonald's run or the standard Sunday morning froyo binge, and knowing that everyone starts school again tomorrow. The Sanford Institute seems like a world away, and I can't believe that it'll be January before I return to that maze of a building. I can only hope Roger, the guy who works at the Sanford Deli, will still remember my name and the way I like my French Connection wrap.

In a weird way it's like I'm regressing back to the summer before freshman year, with all the same anxieties over how I'm going to do laundry, or try to cook (let's face it, knowing me, I'll probably just end up eating out every night and/or living off of cereal and granola bars), or who my roommate is going to be (though to some extent, I'm kind of glad we don't find out who our roommates are before we land in Prague because that saves me from awkward introductions over Facebook and phone calls spent trying to talk about sleeping/eating/studying/partying habits -- first impressions just really need to be made in person). At least this time I'll be in one of the greatest cities in the world instead of Durham, North Carolina (which, granted, definitely has its own unique charm, but it still just doesn't even come close).

Friday, August 22, 2008

a turning point

My iPod is officially too small for my iTunes.

Friday, August 15, 2008

my body astounds me

OH MY GOD.

I JUST WOKE UP.

And it's like 6:30 in the evening. I went to sleep at around 1 am, totally exhausted but thinking that, hey, that's a time I'd normally go to sleep and I have to beat jet lag! Actually, that's a lie, I totally fell asleep at around midnight, but we were watching a movie and so 1 am is when Carrie woke me up to drive me home.

That means I just slept for... over 18 hours.

HOLY SHIT.

THIS MADNESS HAS GOT TO STOP.