Manchego

2003-09-04 / 7:50 p.m.

Everyone who had him last semester hated him, and told me all about how I'd hate him too. I spent the summer dreading taking his class, just knowing that he'd be critical of my spanish, grade too hard, assign bad assignments....but now, after 4 classes with the dreaded "Dr. S" (as he shall henseforth be called) of the spanish department, I've yet to find anything I dislike about him. The reading has been light and fairly interesting, the lectures are fun to listen to, and he seems to be a generally nice guy. Today's theme was Spanish culture highlighting foods of different regions of Spain. Okay, first of all...we all know I <3 The Food, so it was a good topic for me...but to add to the goodness, he brought food for the class, and it was sooooo good. Home made torilla espa~ola, good spanish olives (aceitunas), bread, cheese (queso manchego--I don't know if manchego translates or not, but it's a tasty variety of cheese)...it was quite thoughtful. He gets a thumbs up for that...the way to Emily's heart is often through her stomach. :)

In other news, I borrowed a sewing kit and added a stitch to a shirt that previously gapped too much to wear. I feel all domestic, sewing and crap. Hopefully now I won't look like a big old slut when I wear it to the party Saturday.

Ask Will if change is good... :)

2003-09-05 / 2:24 p.m.

Is anyone else sick of the beige-honey color scheme? Is it time for a change?

Yes, I am just killing time at this point. Get over it.

Tears of a clown

2003-09-05 / 2:20 p.m.

Had to make a visit to accounting this morning to figure out something about one of my scholarships, and was thrilled to see not just a sad clown painting on the wall, but a whole collection of clowns with varying expressions...well, not varying much--just happy and sad really. Sadly, I think that the woman who occupied the office actually liked the paintings, rather than just enjoying the humor value.

Reading, reading, reading

2003-09-05 / 10:32 a.m.

How to write like a political scientist, lesson 1:

Pick nouns at will, and make them into verbs by adding "-ize" to the end. The more, the better.

Good morning. I'm not just saying that

2003-09-05 / 10:25 a.m.

It's Friday.

It's a beautiful day.

My kitty cat is coming home from the vet's office tomorrow.

Even though I have to go home to pick Alice up in the morning, I'm going to go visit The Boy on the way.

My appointment with the study abroad advisor was quick and easy this morning--leaving me ample time during community hour to read restaurant reviews over my coffee. (my restaurant wish-list is getting to be a mile long).

Yesterday was kind of crappy but, you know, today looks a good bit better from here.

Psh.

2003-09-03 / 10:39 p.m.

Oh man. I just cut a $500 check to the study abroad people. Aside from the fact it's a lot of money, it's kind of a point-of-no-return. Once I give them the deposit, I don't think I can get it back. Yes people, I am going to Argentina. I'm going to college in Argentina for a whole semester. I'm going abroad. I'm going to South America....

I could write it and say it and think it a billion different ways, but it has yet to really sink in. Wow.

Love is expensive

2003-09-02 / 4:29 p.m.

:*( Alice is sick and at the kitty hospital. Poor thing, though my mother said that she's going to be okay...they just have to get her eating and drinking again. Apparently, she might have to stay there for several days...I shudder to think how much this is costing us.

W is for Wednesday

2003-09-02 / 4:27 p.m.

Like the happy tinkling of bells on the ice cream man's truck on a hot summer day, the sound of ITS employees progressing down the hall brought me extreme joy this afternoon...Granted, network connectivity isn't ice cream...but it's pretty good all the same. I probably resembled a little kid on Christmas morning, bursting out of my door to see how far along they were, and--Huzzah!--only three doors down. I guess the woman in the hall noted my extreme glee, and brought me back down to earth: informing me that they're done for the afternoon and will be back tomorrow morning. crap. Still, it should be back up tomorrow before lunchtime which is good. I shouldn�t complain, our building ended up being the second on the list. Michelle will be without connection for another week.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Ice cream. ::drool::

Little interesting happened today. Had an easy class, ate lunch, had a hard class. Tonight after dinner I've got WC hours, but no appointments. I'll be scraping to find productive things to do for two and a half hours, and will probably cut my hours short. Today in the staff meeting, I was informed that the first person I tutored had requested me for the partner's program....The program basically pairs up a tutor with someone who needs consistent appointments week-to-week, and the tutor works with them all semester. This was both flattering and a little scary--I'm hoping I can be helpful enough. Looking back on how abysmally bad my writing on this page has been shakes my confidence when it comes to tutoring. :)

It�s looking like I�ll have blessedly little homework to do this weekend provided I stay on top of things Tomorrow and Friday. This should make Saturday�s I really should finish The Lexus and the Olive Tree by next week, but otherwise, I�m just dealing with very reasonable class readings. Thank god Lexus is a relatively quick read, even though it�s not super-short. It�s important that I get it done a little early, because I need to start on the next book for the class, which my group has to do a presentation for, as well as writing a fairly long reaction paper. Ay, and one of my group members was absent today....I�m wondering if she didn�t just drop the class....that might actually make things easier: I hate group work.

J is officially engaged now�insanity. I still can�t get over it when I know people getting married, especially when they�re younger then me. She and the boy are eloping in a few weeks....he�s hoping to get a job transfer soon, and get an apartment within reasonable proximity to the campus. Craziness. This comes up in my journal every few months, and it never gets any less strange to me...I still can�t even being to picture what it would be like to be getting married. I�m not the only one, am I?

I�m just rambling now. Killing time in my room while waiting for a phone call. Haven�t made any headway on securing my visa. The consulate�s website still isn�t working. My appointment with the study abroad advisor has been bumped until Friday. This is less than good. I�ll spare you from further rambling. If you want to reach me tonight, send me an e-mail to my school account�I�ll probably check it every half hour or so. Otherwise, I�ll be in the library reading, or in the WC working until about 10:00.

Weekend recap

2003-09-01 / 7:39 p.m.

Diarywriting has been slow...but that's just how it is when school gets going. I think it also has a lot to do with not having network access in my room. Go fig. I've been busy as all get out, but I'm not complaining...afterall, I asked for it, and I'm enjoying it tons more than my typical summer life.

My monitor is going wiggy again. Crap.

So this weekend...it was a good weekend. Nice last hurrah of summer. Friday I went to Hillary's baby-q, which was relaxing and enjoyable. Michelle, EK, HVB, and I enjoyed H's tasty hamburgers, beans, cupcakes, and the giant container of fruit I bought (of which I finished about half of singlehandedly). Will came later, and I also got to meet EK's friend Nick. It was good to meet him face to face, after knowing him these last few months as SkeletorStrikes. I'm guessing that everyone has already seen the photos of cupcake insanity on EK's LJ. Other than fighting with baked goods, we all watched Wet, Hot, American Summer and joyously consumed Pina Coladas that Nick the Terrific whipped up for us. Saturday afternoon, Joe picked me up and we went to El Myr and Jakes. ::drool:: soooo tasty. Showed him around "The College" a little, but that was kind of dull, and it was getting rainyish outside, so it wasn't a very effective tour. Went to hang out at Casa Joe&Beckham until about 9:00 when Joe went to play poker. The rest of Saturday was kind of lame...I feel asleep at about 11:00 reading for class. :) Sunday I went shopping with Hillary and dyed my hair. I no longer have horrible roots, and I also now own a hairdryer. huzzah. Monday, other than doing an assload of reading, I went to meet Joe's dad and stepmom. It was more enjoyable than one might think, I'll spare you the details, since you probably all read his LiveJournal anyway.

That's a good tour of the weekend. I love long weekends, they make the rest of the week surprisingly short...and, judging on today alone, this will be a nice week to cut short. My POL 421 professor has outdone himself with reading...the second week of the semester, and I'm already feeling like I'm falling behind on reading! On that note, I should leave and go get a few more chapters in before I peter out for the evening. :) Ciao, all