More Transitioning

So college is done. Commencement is in May, but I'll be receiving my degree in January. My final GPA: 3.459. This doesn't mean much, I know, but at least I wasn't slacking too hard the last 4 and a half years. Somehow I managed to earn a B+ in my Argentina class this last semester, although this is probably due in large part to the proofreading efforts of my Spanish-speaking friends. Whatever.

Been floating freely between Boston and Foxboro this last week. Starting today, I'll have a more permanent spot in the city as I'm serpent-sitting for Julie while she's away on break, and am receiving free housing in return. I've never had any sort of business with a snake before (literally speaking), but I think I'm gonna like this one as it's small, harmless and fun to play with.

I signed my lease a couple of days ago, so I'm very definitely moving in to JP on the 1st, and then life can take on some sort of normalcy... maybe.

At the moment, I'm 3 days through an 11 consecutive-day work stint. This sucks hard, but after my next paycheck, I won't be complaining, especially with the time and a half I get on Christmas. Still, I think my head might explode if I have to hear Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby sing about mistletoe for much longer. I get a few days off around New Years at least, I just need something to do for the occasion. I hate the idea of paying for a ticket to get in some bar or restaurant only to have to dish out again to get a few beers. Somebody needs to have a house party.

Ooh, and I know you don't care, but I got an 80 gig iPod for a graduation present. So hot.

The End of Dan's [formal] Education

Ahh. Here's a quick one just in case you aren't sure what's up with my life at the moment.

So here I am at the very end of my college education. I have under a week to go before I am finished forever (unless I one day decide to go to grad school, which is currently not in the cards). I'm occupied, to a ridiculous extent, with finishing 3 major projects: my 22 minute behemoth of a student film, a "professional quality" edit of a climactic fight scene of an episode of Highlander (that stupid 90s show about immortal British people chopping one another's heads off), and a 12 page paper about Argentina in relation to all the crap* I supposedly read about in class (en español). It's a lot of junk heaved on my plate and it's all due on Wednesday morning. Unfortunately, all three of these undertakings involve my staring at a computer screen for a total of 12+ hours a day. My poor eyeballs. I'm working a few shifts at Starbucks between now and then, as well. These will serve as breaks for my oculars. I'm confident everything will come out just sterling, however, so no worries. I am, after all, pretty goddamned incredible.

I've been looking at apartments in Jamaica Plain, which will likely be my place of residence for the next year or so (hopefully not much longer than that). I'll be looking for jobs within my field very shortly, and will hopefully not fall into the quagmire that is the Starbucks Career Ladder. The chances of this happening, regardless of my getting a job in the TV industry, are exceedingly thin, however.

So that's about everything in two short paragraphs.

Any questions?

*Most of it isn't actually crap, and is in fact exceedingly incredible literature, but when I have to write 12 pages about it, it automatically receives the "crap" label.

I forgot I had a blog

I swear I forgot I had a blog, which should explain the lack of updates.

I could start going into stupid reasons why I don't actually update this thing much, but it basically boils down to my forgetting about it and not feeling anything monumental enough in my life has occurred that's worth writing about. I'll attempt to pinch one out, however, because ya'll are so important to me.

Just got back from 4 night stay in Foxboro complete with gorging, sleeping, and the friends/family combo-blitz. Things went rather standard with little out of the ordinary to report on. Got to see some people that I haven't in a while, though, which was nice. It was a good little break from schoolwork before I finish up in these next couple weeks. I think for a little while I was pretending it was like it was in high school, driving around Foxboro and surrounding towns with friends looking for nightly diversions like bowling or whatever. It was a cool change of pace, and nice to spend time with good people. There really wasn't any schoolwork I could have done since I basically just need to edit the shit out of my movie to make it look somewhat decent. At the moment I'm running into the issue of it possibly dragging (it might clock in at over 20 minutes), so I have a lot of tweaking so I can keep things interesting.

I finished a video project for my other class but now that it's done I'm pretty disappointed with how it came out, which is a bummer. It's not yet up on youtube or whatever, and I'm hesitant to throw it on there as I'm not exceptionally proud of it. It ended up being over-edited to facilitate the assignment's requirement that we had to have a shitload of special effects in it. As a result it sort of warped into something I didn't want it to be. I'm pretty sure given enough time I could go back and mutate it into a finished product that I like, but there's really not time for that at this point. Always gotta move forward.

I think I wiped my ass with the Spanish test I took last week with only a minimal amount of studying beforehand. It's nice that the stuff we read is so famous that the individual stories are written about in detail on Wikipedia (with links to English translations of the entire books), thus cutting translation and analysis time down hugely. It was just mentioned that we'll have to complete a 12 pager in a little under 2 weeks, and while I have no clue whatsoever when I'll find the time to do this, I'm not stressing it too much, as I managed worse while in Spain and things seemed to turn out alright. I just need to get someone fluent to proofread for me...

Anyone?

I'm done with school and must be out of my place on the 15th. While this hasn't exactly snuck up on me, it's gradually been catching me off guard (if that makes any sense). I've been too busy to job and apartment hunt with any sort of conviction. I need to squeeze all that in with the finishing up of this semester's work. I have mixed feelings about finishing here, but it's definitely for the best to be moving on at this point. I've been getting a weird reflective-college-life-flashing-before-my-eyes recently which is kinda movie-cheeseballish but I can't really avoid it. I guess I feel like the last 4 or so years have had as significant of an effect on my life as the previous 10 years had. So much has happened and so much has changed in various short periods of time that it's been weird to realize how much differently I look at life in general as a result. We've yet to see if this change is for the best... Only time will tell.

Hmmmm.

Mid-term elections

Well, as of writing this the Dems have the House and seem like they could quite possibly take the Senate, as well. Historically, this is pretty standard stuff, I suppose. The 6th year into a re-elected president's term, there tends to be some reversals. This is especially so since the Senate and House were solidly Republican, anyway. It's nice to see that people are finally pissed off enough to vote the conscience, though.

I voted yesterday, which felt pretty good. I guess it sort of made me hopeful that there is a chance that we can reverse some of the horrible trends that have been championed so proudly by our leadership these last 6 years. Our international image needs a whole hell of a lot of work, and this will certainly be a positive step in that direction, I would think. A win in the Senate for the Dems would be pretty huge, as the whole legislative agenda could be shifted towards more productive ends, maybe pushing along things like alternative energy initiatives, an issue I find to be of grave importance, since the market really isn't adjusting quickly enough to address the issue (prime examples: Ford and GM).

I'm still lost on the whole war issue. I've thought it was a terrible idea since the very first time I heard the UN was going in to look for weapons, and it's gone terribly since. I really have no clue what we're supposed to do now that everything has fallen even more to shit, and loads of people are being horrible maimed and killed every day. I am wondering if anybody does...

Anyway, I'm receiving all of this with a pretty healthy amount of skepticism. It would be nice to see a "changed" Democratic party that will be held accountable for their actions, and make decisions based on that idea. There's a lot of shit that needs addressing, both domestically and internationally, and we'll have to see if a shakeup in Washington will solve anything. It'll be nice, regardless, to have Bush tone down is overzealous rhetoric as he can't push his crazy policies through so easily now.

So off politics...

Life is chugging along, unrelentingly... That is all for now.

Week of Fun shit

Busy as usual, although I've had a lot of fun the past week.

as a warning, this next part might be boring if you aren't into Frank Zappa. You might wanna skip ahead if you don't want to hear about the concert I just went to in excruciating detail.

Wednesday, Greg and I drove down to Providence to see the Zappa Plays Zappa concert. I mentioned it last post and I can truly say it was the single most impressive display of music I've ever experienced in my life. Having been born too late to see Frank perform, watching his son, Dweezil, and three of the original band members perform a incredibly long list of his material. It probably helped that the three original performers- Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, and Napoleon Murphy Brock- were probably some of the most charismatic and talented players Zappa toured with, but the younger talent recruited for the tour was spot on as well. Each musician was featured prominently at different points during the show, just as Frank used to do with his band mates.

Napoleon, despite being old and balding (and maybe a little fat), was still dancing around like a maniac during the entire show like he did in his 20s. Bozzio didn't seem to be in top form and was showing his age a little bit more, but he still wowed everyone with his 60+ piece drum kit, and even performed Punky's Whips. Vai was Vai. Not a whole lot needs to be said as he is still the greatest modern rock guitar player of our time. He had plenty of jaw-dropping shit to keep the audience screaming at the top of their lungs. Dweezil tore it up unbelievably. He must have practiced a whole hell of a lot as his performance of Black Napkins was absolutely perfect. The entire band was on top of its game, really, with the "kids" playing all of their parts perfectly and looking like they were having the greatest time ever doing so. I think it was great that I got to see this show so late in the tour as the band has been playing together now for months and has had a chance to really get the material under their belt. Even if they had a year to practice that monstrous volume of ultra-dense music (they didn't), there's no way they could possibly have had it entirely "down" when the tour started. I can imagine they weren't quite so proficient for the first couple shows back during the summer.

What really made this show so incredible, though, was that they did everything a hardcore Zappa fan could hope for. So much of the best material was covered from all different eras of Zappa's career, and every time I was thinking "it'd be cool if they did X song," 10 minutes later they would break into it. There was even some audience participation like Frank used to do. Something that also impressed me was the way they took some songs and modernized them, putting their own spin on them. I'm the Slime was the best example as it's still a wonderfully pertinent song that sounded as if it was written as recently as this year. They heavied it up, making it sound borderline metal. It almost felt more appropriate for the subject matter than the original scoring did.

Finally, possibly the most impressive aspect of the show was how they played for over 3 and a half hours without a single real break. There were breaks that were sort of worked in for individual musicians over the course of the show, but there wasn't an intermission. The longest we went without hearing music once the show began was the 2 minutes between when everyone left the stage before coming back on for a very long encore. The whole thing was extremely unpretentious and was nothing but a pure display of ultra high-quality musicianship. I think Frank would have been proud and most certainly approved at his son's handling of the music.

The crowd was interesting, as it was composed mainly of people my parents' age with a smattering of 30-somethings. I found there to be very few people my age in the crowd. I liked how there was a large handful of young kids present with their parents (I saw a few that couldn't have been over 8 or 9, no kidding). It was also great to see that these young kids were dancing their asses off, having the time of their lives. It's reassuring to know that there are parents that are wise enough to bring their children to such a great concert and helping to make sure that the music of Frank Zappa is still finding new audiences.

Sorry if that was a bit of shameless rant, but I do have just under 100 hours of Zappa on my computer (yes, that's over 4 straight days of MP3s) so I guess I'm what some might call a bit of a fanatic. Seeing this show has been an incredible culmination of the last 4 years of my life spent avidly collecting and listening to Frank's music, all of which has been incredibly rewarding to wade through and begin to understand.

So moving on, Eric came to visit this weekend from Colorado. He's never seen Boston (or the east coast for that matter), so it was fun to show a complete New England virgin around. I never fully realized how much there is to do and see here when it's all new to you, as I've slowly built up knowledge of the city over the last 4 years. Friday we went out to some bars, eventually meeting up with a group of Starbucks girls to celebrate some birthdays. Saturday night was the Belgian Beer Festival which was amazing. I have some pics that I'll get up on Flickr eventually. There were over 200 beers to choose from and you just walked around with your little sample cup moving from table to table. I tried lots of beer that night and it was a great reminder of my time spent in Brussels. The wonderful benefit of drinking such good beer is the fact that you don't get any sort of hangover the next day. Today, I showed him the Garment District's awesome $1.50 per pound clothing pit. We watched the Colts/Broncos game this evening before Eric had to leave to catch his plane.

So now I'm left with a project to finish tomorrow morning and a midterm to study for (which I'm definitely not feeling confident about) that I gotta take tomorrow night. Thursday I need to present a long presentation to the class about anything Argentinian of my choosing. So far, I've put zero minutes into this, and am feeling more than a bit of apprehension about the whole thing. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a train wreck for me. Unlike the test that I ended up getting an A on unexpectedly, I can't bullshit when I have to stand up in front of the class and talk. I also can't whip out my dictionary when I need it to look up that key word I'm missing either. Ack.

Yeah. So I'm gonna just try to get through these next two days and then we'll see what happens after that. Mmkay?

Hahahaha

So that Spanish test I thought I was going to bomb.... got an A on it. Hahahahahaha. What a joke. Strange part is, I dreamed I got an A on it a couple nights ago. Still, I can't believe this is supposed to be a 600 level class.

Pulling Out the Flannel Sheets and Long Underwear

The word of the day is vituperative. It has nothing to do with my post, but I just discovered it and think it's a fantastic word.

Things are moving along rather smoothly yet hectically if that makes any sense. I've been up to my neck in work lately as I probably mentioned in my last post, but I've been staying on top of things pretty well and actually maintaining a good schedule (something I've generally been crap at).

I had guests this weekend who ended up being exceptionally self-sufficient, making my life a whole lot easier, especially with all the crap I've had to get done lately. Sunday, Marliese came in to shoot some scenes for my movie which went really well except for a semi-large setback that I found out about today. Unfortunately, because some knob was too stingy to spring for decent mini-DV tapes, the heads on the camera were clogged and therefore about 1/3 of my footage from my Thursday and Sunday shoots drops out intermittently, rendering large chunks of video totally unusable. There's really no way of knowing this is happening whilst shooting, save for rewinding and checking every second of tape immediately after recording it. This is completely unfeasible, however, as it would practically double the amount of time spent shooting.

Needless to say, I created a "small disturbance" in the Avid lab with copious screaming and swearing. My teacher offered his sympathies as he claims "he's been there," although this did little to soothe my frayed nerves. The entire scene I shot with Marliese is now completely useless and needs to be redone, and a small (but easily re-shot) scene with my roommate, Gordon, needs to be done-over. Time is short, however, as much of my lost footage was shot outdoors and the weather is getting damn cold, damn quick. Otherwise, shooting has been going great. Everybody involved has been doing a really good job which will make post-production much easier.

I am also working on an audio project for my other class which is almost done. I like the way it's shaping up. I'll post it on youtube or something next week when it's finished.

Despite working my ass off, I'm still indulging in some of the finer things in life. Wednesday night I will finally get to experience Zappa Play Zappa. I'm banking that it'll be one of the most incredible shows I've ever been to. Not only will I get to hear Zappa's music performed live (and done correctly) and in an amazing venue, I will also get to see Steve Vai and Terry Bozzio in concert. Also, Eric will be in from Colorado on Friday to visit and go to the Belgian Beer Festival the following day. We traveled to Belgium together this year during Spring Break, so it'll be appropriate to be reunited for such a capital occasion.

I guess that's about it. I've been extremely absorbed with my work and personal life so I've barely been keeping up with current events, which I regret. I am vaguely aware that apocalypse slinks ever nearer with international order slowly crumbling away as a result of a new era of nuclear proliferation, genocide, horny congressmen, dwindling oil reserves (despite drops in gas prices), racist popes, global climate change, and the general clusterfuckery that is world politics, but haven't had much time to read up on details. Also, I'd like to be following the election race more closely, but it's been tough. I hate rooting for Democrats, but when you're stuck with a one-or-the-other scenario, that crowd always seems to be slightly less sociopathic. As the general cycle of politics go, isn't it about time for a Democratic House anyway? My sense of logic tells me it's a waste of time hoping for a better tomorrow by way of elected officials, but you gotta hope for something, right?

"I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life." -George Burns

Seeming insurmountability

I took the time today to actually plot out everything I need to get done in the next 2 or so weeks and it has turned out to be rather absurd. It's actually to the point where I wonder if I'll be able to do everything I need to.

I think it's a fun challenge though. I've definitely never had this much on my plate before, including even the time towards the end of my Spain program when I was bitching and complaining about having to write 5 papers in 3 weeks or whatever it was. That ended up being okay, because it was just papers, and ultimately it depended on me sitting down, ignoring all the other distractions and just writing them. I eventually did so and everything turned out fine.

Things will probably turn out fine this time as well, but there are a lot more factors in play here that are beyond my control at this point in time. The 20+ hours of Starbucks I have this week can definitely be considered an unavoidable hindrance, for example. Additionally, I now have guests staying over both this coming weekend and the following one. I should have had more foresight when agreeing to have them come, but I didn't, so oh well. I've come to the conclusion that maintaining positive personal relationships with people should be just as high on the agenda as getting my school shit done. At least that's how I've half-assedly justified it. Also out of my hands is how much the success of my projects depends on other peoples' schedules and their being able to contribute. Even if I'm working my ass off, if my friends and classmates flake on me, my shit won't get done.

On a related note, I've decided to put the absolute bare minimum amount of effort into my Spanish class (in other words, doing exactly what I have been so far). I have a midterm on Friday but I don't plan on spending much more than an hour studying for it (so far I've put zero time into this course outside of the classroom). I'm aiming for a C for a final grade, which I'm pretty confident I can pull off with said amount of effort. If I manage anything better it'll be because of luck or because the professor decided to go easy on me. I only need a C for it to count towards my Spanish minor. I'm not totally sure if I actually need the class to graduate otherwise. My mindset is that if I aim low, I won't be disappointed or get worked up after I don't take enough time to study and do shitty on my tests. I have too much other junk to deal with that is worth getting worked up over already. I'm pleased with this decision.

So anyway, I ought not to be writing in my journal as I have to re-write my voice-over for my audio project. I was just informed a rough edit is due next Monday which means -in my teacher's own words- the whole project needs to be 90% done. Oops. Gotta get on that.

North Korea is a Crazy Place

North Korea has been in the news lately, those fiesty commies. I found this site that has some pretty interesting pictures of the isolated nation. Some of it is very creepy. Check it out. Oh, and read the captions to get the full effect. Translated from Russian

The Present and The Future

Bit of an update on my life.

Still recovering from mono, I guess. I feel a lot better. My spleen barely seems to act up at all these days, so I'm taking that as a sign that my liver is probably getting better too. My blood test from a couple weeks back said I was getting better but still had a little ways to go. I have another test next Wednesday and I'm pretty sure things will be back to normal by then, although with my luck my liver will have exploded by then. The reason I'm tired these days is because I don't sleep enough, not because of virus.

I really really miss beer.

This semester is ridiculous, but mostly in a good way. My Digital Editing class is turning out to be about as demanding as I expected (strenuously), but it's still been a bit of shock while everything is getting thrown in my face. We only meet once a week for 4 hours, so naturally we have 3 times as much stuff to do outside of class. TV Production is the one where I'm just making a movie. This only meets once a week as well, but the teacher only holds class for about 2 hours. Needless to say, I'm learning a lot about self-scheduling and time management this Fall, something I've never been particularly stellar at. On top of those two monsters I have 20+ hours a week at the Bux and my Spanish Seminar class which is a huge snore but is about to get much tougher when the Prof finally starts assigning real work. All it's been so far is extremely difficult 18th and 19th century Argentine literature, which I haven't bothered to waste my time on since we go over it all in class anyway.

Anyway, despite having a mind-boggling amount to do, I'm really happy to be doing it all. This is definitely shaping up to be my favorite semester academically at this school. It'll be nice to finish up on a sweeter note.

I've been giving a lot more serious consideration to moving to England after I graduate. There's lots of good reasons to do it, and especially so soon after I finish with school. The plan would basically be to hang around MA for a year saving up as much cash as possible while applying for a 2-year work visa in the UK. I'd get over and try to get my feet on the ground with the intentions of working for either the BBC or iTV (preferably the former). If things are looking pretty good approaching the 2 year mark, I'd probably start to seek citizenship. Dual-citizenship would be ideal, although the U.S. gov't can be pretty crotchety about that. Still, I hear it's not impossible to get. If everything goes sour or I just straight up don't like where I'm at I can always head back to the U.S. after my visa is up and start again from the ground up.

I've come to the conclusion that I wanna try to do something ambitious with the education I've been lucky enough to have, and to do so I'm pretty much forced to move to a major city. Although I've never been to LA, everything I've heard about it tells me it's one of the last places on earth I'd like to live. I already know I'm not into NYC, although it's a lot more of a palatable idea than LA. Then there is London. Also not my number one favorite place in the world, but it does have its upsides; namely, the BBC is based out of it. The BBC is a company I've admired since I first learned of its existence and it also happens to be friggen gigantic. They have positions in absolutely every possible area of television and beyond. I feel like as a major media corporation, the BBC still has a formidable semblance of moral integrity, something almost every major American network has been unapologetically shedding for the last 15+ years (or never pretending to have in the first place). As a result, it seems like a great company to aspire to work for. It's well established, would offer a fairly secure job environment, and wouldn't make me feel like I'm selling my soul to make a living. It is, of course, an insanely competitive company to get a job at, but I don't think it's impossible for me to get my foot in. Also, some of my professors know former students that work there and in other spots in London in media, so I can get some hookups right off the bat.

I could stay in Boston and probably get by alright doing things I enjoy, but why not aim high off the bat? It's the best time in my life to make a huge step, and if things go badly, I won't be falling very far. Trying to do something like this when I'm 30 would be a much bigger risk and a much bigger set of hurdles to overcome. If I am back in 2 years where I started, I know I won't be totally up shit creek as I've already formulated about 5 different backup plans (some more desirable than others) on how to put food in my mouth.

It's a lot to think about, especially while I'm just trying to get through the semester, but I think it's a good direction to head in.

Osama

Taking a more topical approach to things...

Is Osama Bin Laden dead or not? If you haven't yet heard, there are a whole bunch of rumors circulating the globe that the alleged visionary behind the WTC/Pentagon attacks is either very sick or already dead from very non-assault rifle-related complications. This whole thing strikes me as being really funny. I think it'd be great if he died of typhoid because then possibly (although I'm not even thinking about holding my breath on this one) maybe people would see how inconsequential he truly is.

Succumbing not to a geniusly masterminded internationally collaborated manhunt, but instead to some dirty water, would be a fantastically anti-climactic end to all of the drama. That way he would be denied that ever-elusive, widely sought-after title of martyr, greedy opportunistic politicians wouldn't be able to benefit from his capture and the ensuing circus sideshow they would try to call a trial (see Saddam Hussein), and pissed off Americans wouldn't be quite so lulled into a false sense of closure. That is of course assuming that Bush and Co. are even still bothering to hunt down the asshole, which hasn't seemed to be the case as of late.

A disease-dead Osama means the one nationally recognized symbol of unadultered evil, the one man for which forgiveness and salvation are absolutely out of the question would essentially become an emblematic nullity. I guess we'll just have to direct our hatred elsewhere...

The cynic in me, however, says that even if Bin Laden dies from some bacteria, Bush's approval rating will still manage to climb. Politics are dumb.

Change of Name

Finally decided on a name change for the ol' blog. It'll do for now at least.

Right now I'm still sorta stumped creatively over what I should make my movie about. I also now have an additional assignment which is having me rack my brain, although it shouldn't be as tough to come up with something. I do need to have a rough production book for it by Monday with the idea completely fleshed out, so time is of the essence. The project requires that I line up 10-15 still photos that will play one at a time (and they can't move across the screen, zoom in or out or do anything fancy like they usually do with still photos on TV these days). Underneath the photos we need to lay out 7 tracks of audio that play without any gaps whatsoever (this is harder than it might sound). The audio is supposed to tell a story that goes along with the photos. It's actually a very cool project, but again I seem to be running short on good ideas. I need some creative friends to help me out with concept creation. Execution shouldn't be a problem.

Spanish Seminar is getting lamer every class I attend. Yip.

Corey came through a couple days ago, visiting from Vermont. I hadn't seen him since New Years so it was refreshing to catch up and just chill with one of my oldest friends. As it was Tuesday night and rainy, there wasn't a whole lot going on, but we made it out to Allston to see Cecilia and quasi-celebrate Jayme's birthday, although is was extremely low key. Jayme seemed much less enthusiastic about the big deuce-deuce then she did a year ago when 21 hit.

Today I went to the doctor's for a checkup to see if this mono is making its exit yet. My spleen is still enlarged apparantly, although it is better than before. 2-3 more weeks it should be down entirely. Waiting to hear about my bloodwork to see if my liver is back to normal. I'll know by noon tomorrow, and if all is well, I can be enjoying a frosty beer shortly after. Otherwise who knows what sort of shit I'll have to deal with next? I just want to be better and back to normal at this point.

My return to Starbucks was delayed another week because of my boss forgetting to put me on the schedule. I'm somewhat apprehensive about my coming back as the store has been shaken up a good bit and a lot of the old familiar faces are going or already gone. As of the first or second week of October, we'll be down to one supervisor (plus the two managers) so I'm sure I'll be put on the fast track towards promotion out of sheer necessity. I'm still remaining optimistic as that store has been cool since I started working there 2 and a half years ago, despite a staff that has changed a whole lot.

Ridiculousness Worth Mentioning: Chilling in my room late last night with a friend and we suddenly noticed my across the alley neighbor (her window is not even 10 feet away from mine) opens up her blinds. As we are so close, we unavoidably make brief awkward eye contact, and then she commences to dump three seperate loads of garbage four stories down onto the ground. What the hell? I won't lie, I've been known to throw a thing or two out a 4th floor window during my college career, but I've generally made sure it was something the rats would be able to take care of: A rotting pepper here, some old leftover chicken there. Not three trashbags full of bottles, wrappers, and whatever else was lying around the place (including what looked like some old shelving). Also, I had enough shame to at least look around first to see if someone might have spotted me. This girl definitely knew we were watching yet didn't hesitate to hurl all this shit out her window. How tactless.

I really need to get some storyboarding done tonight, so I'm gonna stop procrastinating.

The Semester to Come...

Instead of homework, I shall update...

Well, I have seen my semester and I can say much of it will be spent at an AVID workstation (especially the end). I can honestly say this doesn't bother me much as I like working on AVID, but lord do I have a lot of work ahead of me.

I'm basically taking three capstone courses at once. My Advanced TV Production class is literally just one giant project that will result in my creating a short long-form feature (15-60 mins). It's actually pretty awesome because there is no restrictions or limitations on what we want to do. If we want, it can be completely experimental. It's gonna be a huge pain in the ass pulling together a crew and actors and all that (assuming I do fiction). It's already making my head spin, but the possibilities are endless since it's the only project we have for the entire class. The last time I had to write, produce, and direct a feature, I only had 3 weeks to pull it together, so everything was rush and sucked. This is much more promising.

My TV Editing class is just one huge AVID tutorial whereby I learn lots of techniques on how to become an editing machine. Truly tedious stuff but post-production editing is something I love doing. It's really one of those instant-gratification sports whereby you have something to show for all your hard work as soon as you finish. If I were to enter the television industry and rise to the position of post-production editor, while my life would be spent hellishly in a small room staring at computer screens for hours upon hours on end, I think it would give me great satisfaction to still have the opportunity to do so. The other plus side of this class is that everything I learn can be applied to my Advanced TV Production class.

My third class is Spanish Seminar which is actually just about Argentinian culture. While I have almost no knowledge or understanding of Argentina (nor much interest to learn about it at this point, to be honest), I do need this class to complete my Spanish minor so I will have to suck it up and deal. The professor is the head of the Spanish department, who happens to be a past-middle-aged Jewish guy who seems to have an unhealthy fixation with Argentina. That's fine I guess. The only thing is, although the class is to be taught entirely in Spanish, half the time he can't figure out how to make his point so he ends up going on in English anyway. Honestly, I'm all right with this, but it does make one wonder if he may have raised to the position of department head by some peculiar circumstances. The class itself actually looks to be pretty difficult. Some of the readings he assigned are downright impossible for me to comprehend. Some of it is really abstract stuff written in collegiate level Spanish (I probably can read at an 8th grade level if I had to guess). It's the reading for this class that I am currently not doing so I could update my blog.

Still hanging low with mono or whatever I have. Got an appt. with the doctor on Wednesday. Hopefully this'll be cleared up by then and I can resume being normal. I think this is the longest I've gone without a beer since I've turned 21. I guess I shouldn't complain that I'm forced to be healthy, but there's always something worth griping about, eh?

Not really a whole hell of a lot to report on otherwise. It's nice being in Boston, however it sucks being stuck in my room most of the time. Maybe things will get a little more interesting once I'm out and about. 'Til then...

Migration Complete

Oi.

I'm back in Boston in my sweet new dorm apartment! It actually is pretty sweet. I have my own fairly large bedroom and the apartment itself is good shit. I have 3 roommates who I haven't really gotten to know at all. Everybody seems content to sit around on their computers when they are in. Whatever. I'm sure we'll get to know each other as time goes on. Two of the guys went on an IKEA shopping spree, so we have stylish odds and ends garnishing the place such as attractive lighting, bamboo shades, and shelving for the kitchen. They also put tasteful art up in the common area. Saaaweeeeet.

So I've been wrestling with mono (or a close cousin of it) for the last week and a half. It's been a big pain in the ass and has come at a terrible time in my life. With mono comes an enlarged spleen and liver which equates to no physical activity and no drinking. Basically, in my last semester of free living, off the bat I can't party with my friends, can't work at Starbucks and save up some much needed fundage, can't run around and do a million things I want to now that I'm finally living in Boston again. I'm more or less dorm-bound for the month of September, barring a sharp improvement in my condition. Of course everyone has been wanting to hang out, go out, and do all sorts of shit almost every night of the week which is making me feel left out, but I guess that's life. I'm hoping all housewarming parties get held off til October this year. I really need to get out before the weather turns terrible for 5 months.

So it's been funny, cause I was remembering that a distinct feature of being away for a really long time was that I had cravings for all this shit I don't normally like from back home, but wanting it anyway since I couldn't get it. The best example is probably Choco Tacos. You know, those ice cream come things that came in taco form (with sugar cone taco shell, mmmm). Anyway, they are delicious and disgusting and I haven't had one since I was maybe 12, but I think there was a solid 3 months in Spain/England where I didn't go a day without craving one. The same thing happened with the Price is Right. I hadn't seen that show since I had a sick day sometime back in early High School, but once I knew I couldn't see it at all, I longed for Bob's frisky white haired antics and his appeals for cat sterility. So now that I'm back, I ate a Choco Taco (meh), and watched the Price is Right: Bob is way too senile to be doing this anymore, and the whole show comes off as really awkward half the time. I think now that I'm older and more observant, I notice all the scowls and side glances from people getting pissed about being bid on top of by one dollar and the poorly feigned enthusiasm of a 55 year old woman who just finds out that she has a chance to win a twin set of dirt bikes. Uh, what was my point? Oh yeah, now that I can experience all this stuff again, it's really nothing special. I guess it's a little bit of grass is greener syndrome or whatever, but it really is the stupid little things you miss when you are away.

As I've been sitting around a lot the past weeks, most of my days have involved websurfing, reading, watching movies and TV, and playing videogames. I watched United 93, the movie about the 9/11 airplane that was headed for the White House but because of supposed passenger intervention, went down in a field somewhere in Pennsylvania instead. I gotta say, it was a painful movie to watch. Regardless of whether or not you buy into the whole hero story aspect that's been reported, it was an amazingly well done film. A lot of the parts of the ATCs and military folks were played by the actual people, so the whole thing had an eerily real feeling to it. Regardless of the fact that you basically know what's coming, the whole thing plays out in heart-wrenching real-time and you just wait for the inevitable shitstorm that is coming. If you're prone to getting really emotionally involved in films, this could be a tough one, but it's definitely entertaining (or at least gripping) no matter how you feel about the subject. I haven't seen Ollie Stone's blockbuster WTC flick, but I've never been a big fan of his so I'm doubting I'll be too into it. I'd definitely recommend the smaller budget United 93 if you're in the mood for an engaging plotline.

That's my movie endorsement for the time being. I still need a new name for this blog, and something regular to write about. Still contemplating wading into politics, but I'm not sure if I wanna deal with all the caca or not. does anybody besides my family still read this thing?

Waiting...

I'd post more, but I have almost nothing new to say at the moment. I'm currently sick with what seems like a relapse of something I caught back in Oxford. I went to the doc's and he said my ears are infected so I get to take antibiotics for 10 days to kill it. I don't have strep, however, so I don't think the drugs will help the intense pain I feel in my throat that makes it ridiculously hard to swallow or even talk. I kinda just gave up on eating for a while because it's too much of a pain in the ass.

As before, my days have been spent mostly sitting around on my ass since I don't have a car. Got back to Boston for two nights this weekend which was a good time. Got in on Thursday and met up with BIll for his 23rd. We ended up drinking at the Pour House 'til past close (seems to be the only bar I ever go to in Boston). Saw some people I haven't in a while including Foxboro celebrities (no, not Jo Jo) and crashed out after a fairly uneventful night. Spent all of the next day with Ben and Missy til I went to a going away type party for Starbucks people. Sweet to catch up with a lot of my Bux coworkers and gettin in on an old fashioned work party. I know none of this is terribly interesting, but when your entire life is spent sitting around Foxboro on a computer all day, these little human interactions become pretty riveting, I swear.

I move back to Boston on Sunday. I'm very excited about this.

Holy Crap! Photos!

Finally got around to posting all of the photos I had left on my camera. They pretty much encompass everything post-Spain, except I was way less zealous about taking pics in general because I started to feel like everything was looking the same. Still, they are up on the Flickr page if you are interested. You can see pics of the kids I was in charge of in Oxford, among other things. I forgot to take pics of the kids in Cambridge... oops.

So I've been home for about a week now and I'm honestly not feeling any great amount of culture shock. Maybe a little, I suppose, but it could be something else. As originally predicted, England proved to be a really good buffer between Spain and America as it has many American-like qualities (insatiable appetite for junkfood and mindless reality television), yet still manages to be quite European (small houses, small cars, diversity). On the whole, however, I find England to be so much like America that I've found myself just comparing all the details between the two since I've been home. Sure there are some big differences, but when looking at the surface, it's mostly about the details. Some stuff I prefer in England, some stuff I prefer here. For example: I prefer pubs in England to bars in America. They are just a hundred times better, hands down.

When pressed to think about it, there are some things that I feel negative about that really do get my goat. Yet I'm not sure how much of this can attributed to culture shock, or a generally heightened awareness towards the quirks of American society as a result of getting a slightly fresh, quasi-objective view of it.

I forgot how much flag waving us Americans do. It's a little ridiculous how many I've seen since I've been home. That's been slightly annoying. What is everybody trying to prove? Yeah, I know it shows support for your country and promotes solidarity, etc., but what does hanging a flag on our porches really tell our neighbors? It seems like an overblown symbol that nobody actually knows the meaning of. Which sort of leads me sideways into my next idea:

Europe really is old and it's easy to forget sometimes that America isn't. I definitely got desensitized to all of the old beautiful architecture and the history connected to it while I was in Europe, but it's crazy being back here where absolutely everything is modern. It sorta feels like things have less individual character because so much was built in a shorter period of time (less diversity in style). Our lack of history in general seems more evident as so many facets of European life are derived in some way, shape, or form from something that happened hundreds upon hundreds of years ago (if not over a thousand). We have no old history, so to compensate we create thousands of symbols that we prescribe meaning to (many times forcefully). We haven't learned all of the same lessons our European predecessors have, yet we have so much military and economic might. Kinda scary, I suppose. Onward (and this might get ranty)...

Televised news, and indeed all journalism in general is truly horrendous in America. I mean it's abysmally terrible. It's totally impossible to overstate what a complete and utter shambles the Fourth Estate is here in the States. While I'm not saying European news is perfect, I would say any American who gets all of his or her world information from watching televised news (any network, doesn't matter) will be totally disconnected from reality. Almost to prove this, the BBC -later at night- will show a 15-20 minute clip of ABC World News Tonight from here in the States and it's absolutely appalling how huge the gap in professionalism between their reporting and ours is. American news constantly, inappropriately editorializes, rarely offers multiple relevant viewpoints surrounding an issue, distortedly/unevenly presents facts, and blatantly fearmongers to the point of driving a viewer insane. One could be excused for thinking the Lebanon/Israel conflict on English news television is an entirely different war than the one being shown in America. I really could go on about this for pages but I won't since it will get me off the point.

While none of these ideas are terribly new to me, I was reminded of all of them going away and then coming back. At the very least, I do think American televised news has gotten much much worse since the last time I was in England (two years ago), since the difference in quality was so noticeable this time around.

Slight feelings of resentment can be thrown back towards Europe as well, however. I find it annoying that so many hold themselves to be morally superior to those in the US because they live in Europe. I won't try to argue that Americans aren't self-centered and ignorant, but it's ludicrous that this accusation should come from a European's mouth. Europe strikes me as being just as self-centered and high on itself as America is. While they aren't quite as ignorant as we tend to be (because of a functional newsmedia and the side effects of straight up geographical inevitability), they still have an equal share of racial intolerance and social injustice that is prevalent in the US. Spain is a particularly xenophobic country, I've found, being much less welcoming to outsiders (especially the ones with darker complexions) than I originally assumed it would be. I guess my bitterness relating to this subject stems from my being singled out as a verbal pin cushion for anybody who felt the need to voice their dissatisfaction with our administration's foreign policy. Regardless of how much I would try to nod, agree, and reassure them I didn't vote for this wreckless gang of psychopaths, they still felt the need to dump all of their ideas out on me, barely letting me get a word in edgewise. I mean, I'm American, so I deserve a good talking down to.

That's not to say this happened extremely often, but it easily came up at least a dozen times in my 7.5 months being abroad. I was told honestly by a good deal of Europeans that, despite our "elected" officials, they still held quite a high opinion of Americans based on the ones they had met personally. At least we make a good impression when we travel.

Well, I didn't mean for this post to be so vitriolic, but I guess I was in the mood to bitch. I think the moral of the story is, no matter where you go, there is plenty to be unhappy about.

I'm still happy to be home and excited to get on with life. I am also grateful and appreciative having been able to travel abroad for so long, see so many places, and have so many different experiences. The idea that I could have made it through college without doing what I did seems almost preposterous at this point. People always say that they know when they missed a huge oppotunity and then regretted it for the rest of their life, but I can say with certainty that I grabbed this one and am very happy I was able to take advantage of it.

Since I've been home I haven't done a whole lot really except start to tie some loose ends up. I cleaned a bunch of my room, although there is still more to go. I went into Boston last Friday and stayed the night. The point was to see as many friends as possible, which I did. Since then, I've been sorta hanging around the house all day (being without car and all). Most of my friends that are around Foxboro (and there aren't many) have day jobs, so I have to wait til night to do stuff. I've been chillin with Steve lately like the good ol' days which has been refreshing. Hoping I can see more of my friends in the coming weeks, especially the ones that don't live in the area anymore.

I'm supposing I'll keep this blog updated on a somewhat normal basis, although what I write about, I've yet to figure out. Hopefully interesting things will happen to me. I'm once again in need of a title change, so I'll take suggestions... or just think of one myself. The address will remain the same, despite my decidedly domestic setting.

Bye!

Homecoming

I'm home.

And, I guess that's that. So ends my journey.

Spent some time at Matt's place in Southampton taking in the last bits of England I could, seeing people, bowling, eating curry, and drinking ale. I've mentioned how awesomely incredible Matt has been to me over the course of my blog, but it bears repeating at least one more time. He put me up for about a total of 2 months since I've been abroad, never asking for shit in return. He's been really enthusiastic about finding me employment and has just been a generally kickass friend. My ability to stay overseas for so long has been made possible by his generosity (and that of his housemates and family). I am very indebted to him at this point but will hopefully find the opportunity to repay him eventually. So in general, I feel I had a good sending off. Then there was the trip home...

Airport security at Heathrow was predictably excessive. I had to take my shoes off twice as well as be frisked twice (along with all the other typical song and dance). Also the no liquids on the plane and a reduced size carry on, blah blah blah. Just more shit to deal with before getting on the plane, but nothing too harrowing. Basically BAA had their act together, everything just took a bit longer with the added measures. On the plane I had the pleasure of sitting next to a spastic 10 yr. old British girl that had never been in an airplane before. Did I mention she was spastic? She had no sense of other people's personal space (and fidgeted more than a meth addict), which translated into me getting elbowed 5 dozen times, her poking and prodding my belongings and generally sticking her face right up next to mine for god know's what reason, her screaming and jumping up and down on the seat AND she felt the need to get out of her seat to walk up and down the aisles no less than 20 times over the course of the flight. Even more reasons to move forward with my Youth Genocide Movement.

Homecoming was great, with the family plus Scott (sister's b-friend) waiting at home with some of my favorite foods and a belated birthday cake. It's nice to feel welcome. Kept it lowkey, and now I just been getting used to having my computer again which is strange as hell. I never would have denied how wired in I am before I left, but having been away for so long from my personal portal to the internets I feel oddly empowered to be sitting infront of these monitors again.

Not to cut this sort or anything, but my body thinks it's 4am at the moment and I don't care much to argue with it, so I think I'm gonna hit the pillow. I'm sure I'll be experiencing all sorts of culture shock in the coming days, which I'll report on. I'll be spending some time with family on Thursday, but I wanna see as many people as I can in the coming weeks, so get in touch and lemme know what you're up to. I might be planning a journey into Boston as early as this weekend, so definitely drop a line if you're in the city. My phone number is the same as it was before I left.

I love and miss you people. Let us be re-united in Peace and Harmony.

On keeping your chin up...

To counteract some of the negativity from my last post, I'll mention some good things that have been going on lately in the program:

- I've read a handful of good books in the last two weeks including In Cold Blood and Catch-22. Both are highly recommended. Gonna try to knock off two more before I leave on Sunday.

- One of the kids that already left took me out and bought me an expensive Chinese food lunch.

- Got to play mini-golf for the first time in years when we were in Yarmouth. I did poorly, but had a lot of fun anyway.

- The Sunday excursion got cancelled because it was finally understood how ridiculous it was to drag the kids to another historic building they wouldn't want to see or try to appreciate. As a result I got to sleep in late, and didn't have much to do all day. Kind of like a free day off.

- There's a good amount of early departures. Less kids means less annoyances.

- The program director has been much cooler to staff lately, probably in response to us bitching and moaning about everything. He bought us an expensive dinner after the Norwich/Yarmouth trip on Saturday. Also, he's offering to subsidize any activities we wanted to do while in the area (and being less stingy with money in general). He said he would pay for my transportation back to Matt's place in Southampton after the program has ended too. Sweet.

- The program ends in less than a week.

More on Yarmouth: It looked exactly like a northeast US coastal town. You know the ones with all the arcades, fried food, sketchy roller coasters and white trash galore. It kind of made me think of home, even if it was a seedier side of it.

I feel bad about not having bought a lot of souvenirs for people, but I literally have no room in my luggage for anything else, and am already way over the weight (and baggage number) limit for my flight back. I'm probably going to have to pay an assload of money just to get my stuff on the plane. I'm going to try to throw away things before I head home. And there I go getting all negative again.

Hoping the last week will go smoothly with a minimum of incidents, but I'm not expecting to be so lucky. Hope for the best, plan for the worst as they say.

I'm hungry, time to eat.

I h8 teenagers

After last night, I think I'm officially tired of this job.

I had my 2nd of 3 days off on Wednesday and the lovely Samantha came to visit. I worked with Sam first session at Oxford and she was gracious enough to ride 3 hours to come see me and Kim (and then ride 3 hours to get back). Although I had fun on my first day off (last Friday), I can truly say it was a candidate for one of the more ridiculous nights of my life. I think I was slightly insane that day, which the other RAs that saw and hung out with me can attest to. Anyway, this 2nd day off went much better. We decided to shake things up and go play BINGO. Never in my life have I experienced anything so hopelessly depressing yet riotously amusing at the same time. Thank god they served beer. Sam and I were the youngest ones there, although, somewhat surprisingly, not by much. Then again, the only other people there that may have been in or near their 20s were with elderly parents. Whatever. The people there were friendly and taught us how to play (there is a learning curve) as British bingo is, in fact, different than American bingo. Afterwards, we drank more at a pub and talked about life, love, and all that junk, or whatever it is you banter about when you're drinking. It was all great fun, but sucked pretty hard when we had to wake up at 5am so Sam could hop a bus back to Oxford so she could be in time for her staff meeting.

I was afforded the luxury of sleeping for another 5 hours before I needed to wake up for a (yipee) mid-week excursion. We took the kiddies to Warwick Castle, which from personal experience along with my powers of deduction, was probably the biggest castle-related tourist trap in all of the United Kingdom. The castle seemed to have been renovated in the 19th century so it just looked like a mansion on the inside, despite being a 12th century castle on the outside. They also had a fake jousting performance, a trebuchet demonstration (which I unfortunately missed), archery, plenty of ice cream, and tons of other stuff to keep your snot-nosed 8 year old cackling maniacally for the afternoon. Not really the greatest for a group of 30 American teenagers. Maybe the 1 or 2 history buffs in the group enjoyed it, who knows.

After that, we hopped back on the bus and moved along to Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of Billy Shakespeare. We walked by his supposed house, although it was too late to take a tour (not that I would have). You can imagine the anti-climactiveness of it all. It's a cute town that contains practically nothing. I don't understand how there are so many of those in England. After dinner, we caught a performance of The Tempest put on by the Royal Shakespeare Company. Patrick Stewart was the leading role, Prospero, which was sorta cool, but the play was hopelessly weird and hard to follow. My general deal with Shakespeare is if I haven't read it, I probably can't follow a performance of it, which proved once again to be true.

I got into this quiet murderous rage on the 1.5 hour bus ride home as the kids were being impossibly loud and abominable. I've never been so inexplicably angry at everyone and everything around me in my entire life. I tried to put on my headphones and just close my eyes, but there always seemed to be something to distract me and remind me of how much I hated the world at that moment (hence the title of this post). When we FINALLY got home, I just went straight up to my room and crashed out, but I'm now quite afraid of what'll happen on the last 4 excursions we have in the next 8 days (!!!). I might actually hurt someone if I manage to get into one of those funks again.

There's maybe 4 or 5 kids I genuinely like talking to in the program at this point, 2 or 3 that I can't stand to even look at, and the rest which seem to be alright when on their own, but manage to be odious little hellspawn when in groups of 4 or more. The program director is getting on my nerves in a big way, at this point, and really makes me miss the way the Oxford program was run so smoothly. There's so little professionalism going on here. Staff will talk about other staff and students behind their backs in front of other students, there's lots of open criticism about every aspect of ASA, and rules are enforced so rarely, I think some of the students don't remember there are any. Earlier last week, the program director was teaching kids the "real way" to roll cigarettes. wtf?

I was thinking at first that all of these ill-feelings were stemming from my innate readiness to return home, but sentiments are pretty much uniform across the board with the entire staff. The kids mostly seem to be having a good time, at least.

So it's a comedy show tonight and a trip to Norwich and Yarmouth (the beach) tomorrow. It'll probably be too cold to go in the water, but the way excursions are run here, they aren't generally high stress when we're not on the bus. Too bad there's lots of bus time tomorrow.

Gotta get to that show. I'll try to be more positive next post.

Cambridgeshire

I made it to Cambridge, although I'm knackered.

Friday night in Oxford was fun but tiring. We had a formal style dinner where the RAs had to serve the students and dress up all nice. They recognized each of the individual staff members and I think I pretty much got the loudest cheers when they called my name (not to mention the standing ovation from my floor and a bunch of others). That made me happy, of course. At least the kids thought I was a good RA. I had to set up all the equipment for the final dance and then make sure it all went down smoothly which was fine, except I needed to pack. After everything was over we got upstairs and I spent the night just hanging out with my floor since it was my last night. After chilling for a long while, I finally started packing and then after finshing, only managed to get an hour or so of sleep since I needed to be up at the ass crack of dawn so I could go to the airport and pickup up the Cambridge group flight on my way to Cambridge. So I had to leave Oxford early, not being able to properly say goodbye to anybody, and then had to rush over to a city I know nothing about and try to answer lots of questions I didn't know the answer to since I missed orientation.

On a side note, I'm gonna miss the kids on my floor. They were really decent people and gave me very little trouble. I'm hoping to keep in touch with all of them to some extent. It sucked to say goodbye to them, but you always gotta move onward, so...

Cambridge is great. It's a gorgeous, albeit small, city. I think I like it better than Oxford (minus that it's noticeably more expensive), and the college they put us in, Corpus Christi, is much nicer than the one we were in in Oxford (Lady Margaret Hall). I think Corpus Christi is one of the 3 most well known colleges in Cambridge instead of being one of the little podunk ones we were in before (yeah, I just called an Oxford college "podunk." hahaha). As a result we're housed on the main tourist drag (I do have a great view of King's College at least), and everything in the immediate area is ridiculously expensive. It's really loud outside my window at night, but it's sorta nice to be back where there is city din to fall asleep too. I started getting used to absolute silence during bedtime which I don't like as much.

Being the first time this program has ever run, things are pretty much figure-it-out-as-you-go. We are really just making things up all the time and there is so little organization to what we're doing I'm praying the kids don't figure out how much we don't have it all together. The program director has started other ASA programs before from scratch but I'm having trouble figuring out how. In any case, there still seems to be plenty of money to go around so we're not sparing many expenses making sure things get off the ground. There's only 30 kids so we're keeping things flexible and all of the rules are much more lenient. Also hoping this doesn't bite us in the ass. The few kids we took with us from the Oxford program are happy that they can go into hookah bars without fear of being hunted down. I'm also happy that I'm going to have 3 to 4 days off (!!!). I have better access to the internet here so I might even get all my pictures up eventually when I have some free time.

So that's first impressions. I'm still exhausted despite a solid night's sleep. Hopefully after today I will be feeling recharged. I'm sorta sad staff is so small since there are less people to hang out with and bitch to, but the ones we have are good people, so I'm not too worried. Plus, I'm only here for 3 weeks, so even if something sucks, it'll all be over soon. I don't think it will suck though. While I'm exhausted at the idea of staffing another ASA program, the leniency in the rules definitely extends to the staff. I should be able to get off the floor and out of the building after the kids are checked in at night, and grabbing a beer here and there when it isn't my day off won't be so taboo.

OK, sorry if this and my last post have been a little on the dry side, but honestly all of my life and creativity gets used in trying to hold the students' attention while I'm "working." It seems like I always have some excuse why my blog isn't too interesting to read. Too bad.

Shorty

Not a whole lot to report on. I could get into details about specific things that happen here on the job, but they'd probably be a bore since I'm too tired to make them seem as funny as they were when they occured (does that make sense?). It's hot (mid 80s) and humid (50%) as hell here right now, and is sapping my will to do anything productive, which sucks since the Oxford program ends on Saturday and I ship off to start in Cambridge, meaning there is plenty to do. I've been talking with the program director for Cambridge and he seems pretty psyched about the facilities and everything we have lined up, so I have all that to look forward to I suppose. Basically though, things are going well here.

I spent my day off here in Oxford with Diane doing not much. Her friend from high school was in town for the day, so we went to Christchurch (where a bunch of Harry Potter was filmed) and payed too much to get in and look around. Beautiful campus, but also kind of unremarkable. As I've mentioned this to my friends here, I'm sort of beautiful-European-architechtured out at this point. I know I probably (or definitely) sound like an arrogant jackass, but I've seen so many world famous this and jaw droppingly beautiful that for the last 7 months that a couple of nice looking English university buildings don't inspire much inside me at this point. It's totally a shame since Oxford is filled with assloads of good historical crap, especially related to C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkein, both of whom spent a bunch of time here and wrote some of their most famous stuff while living in town. I really wish I could space my experiences here out more so I could appreciate all of this more, but everything happens so fast, and I have so much other crap to do while I'm here working.

To all my friends and loved ones who are reading this. I'm sorry I haven't been corresponding with you personally more. I've been missing everyone from home and even people I met in Spain already. I'm going to make a big effort to see as many as I can when I get home (now slightly under a month!). If you do drop me an email (drosen84@gmail.com) I will probably be able to get in a reply, so do it! For now, I must nap, eat, and get ready to go to a string concert that I know nobody will show up for. I'm kinda hoping they don't show up, anyway, so I can sit on my ass and laze around all night in front of a fan.

Unsaltily,
Daniel

Bloody Brilliant

Things have been going rather well here. I'm really having waaaay more fun than I thought I would.

My floor has been really great as they don't cause [too much] trouble and have been ridiculously enthusiastic about most things in general. I haven't had to write anybody up yet, which is nice and will hopefully remain the norm.

Last night I planned and ran (with the help of Diane and a few of the residents on my floor) a dance that went really well. I had the guys make up the playlist, and more or less let them take care of DJing just cause I know nothing about that sorta crap (I'm sure most of you are aware of my "eccentric" tastes in music). There was a suggestion for another dance with an 80s theme which I think is a very good idea. I just need to figure out where I can get 3 hours worth of 80s pop and dance music.

The first London trip we took was definitely on the stressful side. We had to take the kids to 3 different locations (loading them on to a bus between each one). The first stop was the Tate Modern which was amazing but we didn't have nearly enough time at (one hour, tops). After another hour of loading onto the bus and travelling to the next stop -Camden Market- we had one hour to shmooze around. Camden Market is really incredible. it's a gigantic (this can't be overstated) labyrinth of street vendors that sell everything from the cheapest crap to the most expensive crap. It is a very cool place, but once again, our time was far too short there. I was very impressed that the kids didn't get lost in the maze, and we managed to be mostly on time for Covent Garden. This is where things got especially sticky since Diane and I thought it would be a good idea not to give the kids the maps we were supposed to since the pickup point had changed slightly from the original plan. This was a dumb idea, to say the least, and ended up making life much more confusing, and ultimately delayed us getting out of London longer than we wanted. In the end, the kids never got more than 1 hour in each individual location, and had to spend the better part of the day sitting on a bus. I guess that's inevitable when you try to take 200+ kids to London. Oh, and I forgot to mention all this was during the day of London's quarter-final World Cup match with Portugal, as well as the Gay Pride March. weeee.

The next trip (on Tuesday) will be much more low key for me, since I will only have 30 kids to look after. I will be taking a walking tour of the East End which I'm told is extremely cool. Some old guy who has lived there his whole life is going to walk us around and show us all its interesting bits then sit us down in a pub and tell us stories. Apparantly, it's supposed to be the best of all the London trips we do and, unlike the others, involves no shopping. Paul (the program director) assigned me to it because I advised him on what Orthodox Jews can and can't eat. Lemme explain: Since the other two London trips fall on Saturday, the more devout of the Jewish crowd can't go since they can't ride on a bus during Sabbath, so they only get to go on the one Tuesday trip. Paul wanted to make sure they get the most special experience possible so he signed them all up for the East End tour. Since part of the tour involves us eating in a pub, he was unsure about what to do with meal options and I explained to him about keeping kosher and what the kids will or won't want to eat. Apprantly, he took this to mean that the Orthodox Jews here at ASA identify with me especially (they don't, as I'm a non-practicing Conservative Jew who never even mentions his religion) so he's having me tag along for whatever reason. I can't really complain. Less stress, more interestingness.

My first day off was a few days ago. Melissa, Diane, Christina and myself all headed into London for the day. We went to the Tate Modern (sans 90 students) to actually take a good look around. I really love that museum as there is a ton of awesome stuff to look at. After a good chunk of time we left and went to South Kensington to find a pub and relax. We found a nice little place and enjoyed a few pints before getting some curry for dinner. We then proceeded to dick around for a couple more hours before it was late enough to find a club. We ran into a good one at Convent Garden and danced our asses off all night. We then walked to the Oxford Tube (a bus that runs between London and Oxford 24 hrs. a day, so sweet) and passed out on the way home. We got in around 4AM or so, and after not nearly enough sleep, were up again for the daily staff meeting. While it definitely wasn't a restful (nor inexpensive) day off, it was a welcomed one nonetheless.

Basically, then, so far so good. A couple kids have already been kicked out for general dumbassery (read: getting too drunk to keep it together). One of the two incidents happened two nights ago and was an total and absolute train-wreck disaster. I have plenty of gritty details, but I won't bother sharing them on the blog since they are far too ridiculous to believe, and I'm still working here and everything so I don't wanna give away tooooo much off the juicy stuff (who knows who might be reading this?). Let's just say I'm very happy that my residents have been intelligent enough not to get detectably drunk before coming to check in at night. I got really lucky in not getting a floor of idiots.

I met the program director for Cambridge and I'm now really excited. Not only was he a very nice guy, but he informed me that there are only 29 kids attended the 3-week program (as opposed to the 230 we have here in Oxford). It will be ASA's first ever program in Cambridge and I get to be there for it (what an honor). It should be extremely laid back compared to what I'm doing now, and I think it will be a lot of fun helping it get off the ground. There will be only 3 RAs instead of 22, so I'm sure we'll all be getting nice and close. Cambridge is supposed to have a much more "small town feel" to it, as opposed to the relatively busy city bustle of Oxford. I'm excited to be able to see even more of England as well.

I'm getting hungry now, so I'm gonna take off. I have some small junk I need to do today while everything is quiet. There are 3 or 4 excursions today, none of which I luckily had to go on, so things are pretty low key around here and I wanna try to get some stuff done while I can. I need to start putting together my Presentation of English Slang that I'm supposed to have ready for Tuesday. Should be sweet. I'll tell you how it goes.

I love you all.

Being an RA is... different

Actually have some free time today, so I figured I'd keep ya'll updated on my life as it stands right now.

About the University: Oxford is actually composed of 39 distinct colleges. The program takes place at Lady Margaret Hall (one of the colleges) which is way nice. It's set about a mile outside of the town center, and is beautiful (pics will be up later on). Harry Potter was filmed at Christchurch (another of the 39 colleges), apparantly, which was news to me, but people have been going fairly nutty over the fact since they got here. Our dining hall at LMH actually kind of looks like the one in the movies, which makes sense I suppose.

The students moved in on Tuesday, which was a pretty hellish day as it required me to be up at 3:45 to meet them at the airport. The planes ended up getting delayed so we sat around and ate a huge breakfast in Heathrow (on ASA of course), then got crackin'. Things went relatively well, despite some bottlenecking that occured when we tried to get 200 kids onto 6 buses in one of the busiest airport terminals in the world. I was going more or less non-stop for the rest of the day, hauling a large number of heavy suitcases all around campus and up many flights of stairs many times. As Oxford is old as hell, there are no elevators; needless to say, I got a pretty decent workout on move-in day.

The kids were all jetlagged, and I felt like I hadn't slept for a day after hauling all that luggage around, but there was still more crap to do. We took an open bus tour of Oxford which I didn't get a whole lot out of, just cause the amount of information thrown at us was mind-boggling. We had to do orientation and then floor meetings with the Spain vs. France game squeezed in. We have about 10-15 Spaniards in the program, so there was a source of conflict when it came time for the mandatory meetings (and a whole lot of disappointment when France won too).

In a program that is a minefield of brats (lots and lots and lots and lots of Manhattan trust fund babies) I managed to get a floor of very good kids. They all listen (so far) and are the complete opposite of jackasses, which not all the RAs are lucky enough to be able to say. It is only the first week, but we're definitely off to a good start.

Yesteday we did a photo scavenger hunt around Oxford with our respective floors, which was actually a lot of fun. The guys got really into it so it didn't feel like a chore or a lame activity. Afterwards I brought them to a pub that had great food so they could get the authentic pub cuisine experience in early. It went over extremely well, so all were happy.

So basically I'll be going a mile a minute at this job. The entire staff is all really nice (RAs and senior staff) and I can't forsee any sort of conflicts arising on that front. It's great to have such a good team of people to work with since it makes life so much easier in this kind of job. Everybody is always willing to jump in and help as much as they can, which is definitely necessary when trying to create a fun and activity-packed environment for teenagers. This is turning out to be a much more interesting experience than I was first expecting. I'm basically "on-duty" 24 hours a day, which can definitely be tiring. I can't even go somewhere to grab a pint if I have a free afternoon. Even when I'm out on the town without a specific task, I need to be acting responsible and all that for when the students might see me. Like I said, I only have 2 days off this month, and they told us to get the hell out of Oxford if possible since we won't want anything to do with ASA. They still don't want us drinking or doing anything illicit if there is a possibility of being spotted by our residents despite not being on duty. Damn. I guess I'll be hitting London for my first day off (the 5th). I've yet to decide how I'll spent my second (the 14th).

For now, I'm off. Gotta go develop my pictures from the scavenger hunt, and get planning some activities for later this week. Always more to do.

Love, Peace, Chicken Grease

Briefer than Tighty Whities

In Oxford, starting as an RA officially tomorrow. Orientation was good. We'll see how this goes. I suppose there is a ton I could talk about but my time is extremely limited. In general I won't have much internet access at all. When I do, it will be for very short periods of time, most likely. I only have two days off for the entire month of July. Too bad. It's gonna be extremely busy but should also be pretty fun too, I think.

The velcro shoes still hurt to walk in. What a bad purchase.

Ok, gotta go. Maybe more soon, but probably not.

For the Record

I bought velcro shoes at ASDA (Wal-Mart) for £10 yesterday. The saddest part is that I definitely overpaid.

So Long Southampton, Hola Oxford

So I ship off to Oxford on Thursday to start work as an RA. Whoop. Oh yeah, and I got the Cambridge gig too, so I won't be home until after August 13th. The second program doesn't pay as well as the first since it's a week shorter, but oh well.

I've definitely enjoyed my time here in Southampton, just being able to relax and not worry too much about anything, but I really am starting to feel like a potato. I attended a (personal) record 4 barbecues in one week, and completely made up for being seperated from my precious internets in Spain by spending a sad number of hours crawling around the web and playing stupid online games. I've also managed to watch at least one World Cup game per day which has been an excellent diversion. Side note: The US managed a whole hell of a lot better facing Italy than when they played the CR, despite being down 2 men for half the game. But anyway, I don't think I've gone this long without being employed since my work career started 6 or 7 years back and it feels weird.

Speaking of monkeymakin', I'm inquiring into the BBC this week about what I might be able to do to augment my prospects of becoming one of their cameramen (or whatever sort of donkeyworker they need) after I graduate. I understand it's a ridiculously competitive company to try to get a job for, but I think I'd make a decent candidate with the amount of experience I've amassed these past 4 or 5 years. Plus I can add the whole American dimension on things, which everyone is dying to get a piece of.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Matt's parent's place for yet more BBQing and the England/Sweden match. Should be tasty good times. Last chance I'll get to hang out with the Harding family before I head off to work. It's worth noting that they are good people and have been very cool to me since I've been here. Wednesday night we'll be headed out for a curry and a couple beers, then it's off to the Ox the next morning.

It's been a rush to get all my forms and crap filled out for the job since ASA waited 'til the absolute last minute to send them along. I guess it's because I'm a last minute hire, but still, my getting paid depends on whether or not I can get my W-4 and I-9 and whatever else faxed to them as soon as possible.

Looking over my responsiblities and the rules/regulations of the program has led me to feel slightly apprehensive about this whole thing. I have been away from the "holy-shit-we-need-to-put-a-protective-bubble-around-everyone-or-someone-might-get-a-splinter" mentality that seems to be all-pervasive in America and is strangely absent throughout Europe. Despite ASA's claims that they don't wish to create a "police state" or "military environment" within the program, the sheer number of offenses that I personally could be dismissed from the program for (sans paycheck) - on the basis of nothing more than a rumor - are a bit staggering. Gossip apparantly plays a very large role in how things are decided by the staff. This is at least what my Resident Advisor Handbook is telling me. I've yet to see how things are actually run on the ground as it generally is never quite like they play it up in the instruction booklet. We do, sadly enough, have to go on "Town Patrol," and make sure the kids aren't causin' a ruckus off-campus during their free time. I'm gonna chalk all this up to part of my re-introduction to American culture and hope it only helps to further decrease the inevitable culture shock I'll be feeling upon my return to the States (ha!).

Oh, and I got a kick out of this. Included in my packet-o-info was a Packing Suggestions sheet that spends 2 paragraphs explaining the importance of travelling light and then recommends that you bring no less than:
8-10 pairs of underwear
8-10 pairs of socks
5 pairs of jeans or casual pants (I don't think I own this many)
5 pairs of shorts (again, don't own this many)
8 casual shirts
2 dressy outfits
2-3 sweaters/sweatshirts
1-2 pairs of sweatpants
1 pair of sneakers
1 pair of "sturdy walking shoes" (quotes added for effect)
1 pair of dress shoes
swimming trunks and athletic gear (as necessary)
a rainproof jacket
2 large towels
a bath robe
[and this is just the clothes list]

Pack light?!!? Is that a sick joke? I mean, it's a 4 week program and there are laundry facilities on site. What the hell is packing heavy to these people? I couldn't help laughing at that, especially since I don't have half that crap and am wearing the same ratty ass clothes I brought with me to Spain (most of which I've owned for a long time before that). My sneakers (which will double as my "sturdy walking shoes") have both almost split in two because they have so many holes in them (which reminds me I need to buy some duct tape or get myself some sweatshop puma ripoffs at ASDA) and my jeans are doing that whole "gaping-knee-hole-that-keeps-getting-bigger-because-I-forget-it's-there-and-jam-my-foot-into-it-tearing-it-even-more-every-time-I-put-my-pants-on" thing. Nice outfits are a straight up no, so I'll have to figure something out before we head over for our tour of Parliament. I actually think I might have one button down white shirt, but it's currently crumpled up in a ball at the bottom of my [19kg overweight by easyJet's standards] duffle bag.

So I'm not sure what internet access is gonna look like during this thing. The handbook keeps talking about my "day off" but whether this means I have one day off for the entire month, or per week is beyond me. I'm praying it's the latter, of course, although "day off" is always referenced in the singular, and never once in the plural *shiver*. I would assume I would have some sort of access to the internets somewhere on campus during the day, but this hasn't been explained to me in any sort of detail yet. I know I will have office duty about once a week, so I should have a computer in front of me then, but as for leisure time, I don't yet know what this is shaping up to be like. I do have a British SIM card for my mobile now so if anybody wants to give along a friendly hello (and can afford the long distance charges) I can be contacted at (011 44) 7927 004 722 (if calling from the States). Texts are also welcome, of course. Oh, and the spacing I used for that phone number is completey arbitrary because I still can't figure out how the hell they do that here. Regardless, I'll try to slide an update in every once in a while and keep up with emails and whatnot.

As an added feature, now that I've had some time to reflect a bit, I've decided to add a couple things I miss about Spain in each post (or as I remember them). Here's a couple to get us started

Things I miss about Spain:
- Random explosions and loud crashes during the night - I can't explain this, but they became comforting after a while. They spice up your dreams like a jalapeno pepper does your peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

- The fashionably executed mullet (seriously) - There were so many of them, the ones that were actually well kempt (or entirely way over the top) really did stand out. If I ever see one in England (the British have adopted the same policy of ridicule towards the hair"style" as America has, therefore sightings are rare) it's usually greasy and wily like the Amazon. I think I miss the gel-spiked-highlighted-faux hawk-with-rat-tail-modifier the most. A rare beauty, indeed.

- Goofy Spaniards. The British take themselves too seriously. I miss the Spanish way of taking everything with a grain of salt: from STDs to terrorism to embarrasing leg hair.

On that note, Goodnight!

Oh and I almost forgot, check out this pure ridiculousness. I can't stop marvelling at it.

My place of employment, odds and ends

I shall be working in Oxford for the months of July (Starting June 22nd). I was really hoping to be in Barcelona, but I am still happy to have something to do here in England for the summer. As explained before, I'll be an RA for American teenagers in a cultural immersion program. They will be taking classes for half the day. The other half of the day they will partake in activities and excursions. That's where I come in. I will be creating/running these activities and staffing the excursions. I'm actually kind of psyched about this, because looking through the program website, I will get to see a good amount of interesting stuff free of charge in and around Oxford. While I have seen some of the attractions (like Stonehenge), I've never actually been to Oxford so there is a whole millenium and a half or more of "new" history (like every city in Europe) for me to take in.

I get fed three meals a day (lunch being a stipend that I get to spend wherever I want) and free housing. This is wonderfully excellent as it will bring my general expenses down to somewhere slightly above zero. Besides the various "bits and bobs" (<--- one of many anglicisms I've picked up since being here) like souveners etc., I doubtfully will have much time to get out to the pub for a drink, and even if I do, won't be able to spend anywhere near enough money to get inebriated since my job is technically a 24-hour one. I need to be ready to spring into action at the drop of a hat (or a blacked-out student).

I'm not too certain about the possibility of staffing an additional, albeit shorter, program in Cambridge after the Oxford one is completed. I'd like to, but I haven't received word yet if they will put me on or not.

So enough about work. The strict barbecue/house party regimen I've been on has left me a bit drained and *gasp* tired of barbecue, but that's only because I've been doing it so much in such a short period of time. I think a few days of recovery will have my mouth watering for kebabs and wings again in no time. The weather thus far has been friggen fantastic, although the forecast predicts a week of meh-rainy starting Sunday. It seems rather serendipitous that these two weeks of sunshine have coincided so perfectly with the completion of exams period at the university, especially since it's following on the heels of an entire month of rain. Somehow, however, England still manages to find itself in a drought this year. Go figure.

Matt has to start working at ASDA (Wal-Mart) as much as he can to save up some cash this week. He's been unemployed (or rather not putting in any hours) for the last couple months and wants to buy a car soon since his got wrecked not too long ago. He only works graveyard shifts since he says it's the only way the money becomes worth it. Consequently, I'll be chilling at his house without him, while he lives at his parent's place (which is walking distance from work) putting in as many hours as possible. I don't mind being on my own, as that's what I was doing the first week and a half I was here. Plus, Matt is generous enough to let me stay with him in the first place, so I can't expect him to suspend his life for an entire month just to keep me entertained. I'm quite grateful just to have a free place to stay this entire time.

Being in England has gotten me a bit world-cup crazy since everybody here seems to get obsessively involved. I watched the USA get their asses handed to them in minced up pieces by the Czech Republic yesterday. Considering how well the US fared in 2002 (making it to the quarter-finals), it was pretty pathetic watching them play their first game. They had no strategy, no playmaking ability, and seemed to lack the willingness to pass to their own team. Sure, the three goals the CR scored were all fantastically executed, but the US didn't exactly offer up any sort of offensive resistance. If they have any hopes of making it into the knockout rounds, they are more than likely going to need to win their next two games. Not what I'd call terribly likely.

Alright, I've been lazing around all day so far and need to get up and do something with myself. I shall keep updates as to what my plans are looking like. I still need a new name for my blog since the current one is becoming terribly dated. The sad lack of audience participation has saddened me. Oh well.

Later

Found a Job

Got myself some employment!

It came from a somewhat unexpected place, left field I suppose you'd call it, but it came nonetheless. I had a phone interview with ASA (www.asaprograms.com), the Barcelona RA job I applied for god knows how many months back. As it turned out , somebody backed out last minute on them, and they contacted me saying they wanted to interview. I sat (actually I was pacing) through a 45 minute phone interview thinking I was just barely hacking it and not caring that much, but at the end she told me I already had the job. They didn't know at that point whether or not I would be working in Barcelona or England, so the details are a bit hazy. If I work in England, apparantly it'll be two programs (@ Oxford and Cambridge University respectively) consecutively. I think I'd rather work in Barcelona, just because at this point I've grown really attached to Spain, even though it would be less money and a shorter time span. If I end up in England though I wont compain much.

Basically, my job will consist of being a mentor type to the kids, giving them advice and helping them adjust to a new and unfamiliar culture. There are lots of activities every night that I am to help create, modify, organize, and run. I'm kinda interested to see how that goes. I'm also supposed to lay down the law as necessary, but I was told they aren't trying to create a "police state atmosphere," so despite the program's "no tolerance policy" on drugs and alcohol, I'm assuming there is a lot of gray area when it comes to dealing with kids that will come home after a night of indulging in the benefits of a culture whose attitude is a bit more lenient towards the topic of consumption than the one they are used to. Of course, I'll know about all of this once I get there and go through orientation and talk to staff and all that, blah blah blah.

So Matt finally finished with his exams and has been liberated from the shackles of acedemia. That means I have a lot more to do during the day. Tuesday night Pub Golf was supposed to be going on, yet didn't because people ended up just wanting to save money instead of hitting up 9 different pubs. The result was finding 3 or 4 relatively budget places to drink, and staying at each for long enough to get the Job done. I didn't take part in any of it really since I seemed to have contracted some sort of stomach bug. I joined everyone for a little while to hang out, but wasn't able to imbibe quite like the others. I did manage to learn a small handful of (interesting) British Drinking Games which will be fun to bring back to the States, but for the most part the night seemed to be one huge absurdity. I'm sad I had to miss out on it.

Last night we barbecued at Butcher and Sam's place. This was a great deal of fun for me just because it was the first English barbecue I had been to (not to mention the first of any kind of barbecue since last summer). Basically it was a hell of a lot like an American barbecue with the same delicious results one comes to expect from such an affair. Ironically, this happened to be the most excessive, gluttonous barbecue I've ever been to. Despite the fact that there wasn't over 10 people present, we were grilling for over 3 hours straight. I have no idea where all the food came from, but there seemed to be no end to it. In any case, I had a great time and was finally able to sit back and relax without the responsibility of having to find a job or make the decision to find my way back home hanging over my head.

Tonight there is a house party at Gruber's we are charged with attending, and tomorrow Gemma is having a BBQ at her place. It seems to be a general time for summer celebration as college is out until October and everybody is enjoying the incredible weather that has become all-pervasive as of this week. It's actually starting to feel like summer here. Incredible!

I'm sad I'm missing the Zappa concert I wanted to attend, but oh well. Maybe if it goes well enough they'll do another one next year. I'm also sad I don't get to see Bill before he heads off to NH, but I will make it a point to catch up with him before he's off to Cali. It's interesting - albeit not exactly surprising - how life continues to go on seamlessly in my abscence. It can be tough to keep up with everyone all the time but I've been trying the best I can. The internets make this much easier on the whole.

So now I'm just loafing around, waiting to find out where I'm working for July, and generally just trying to enjoy some summer break whilst keeping costs relatively low. I keep forgetting to bring my camera out, but I will try to remember for tonight. I'm interested to see what a British House Party is going to look like, and am already figuring it's going to be worth having some pictures of. These people are insane.

I've decided to keep the blog up for as long as I see fit. If I figure it's getting ridiculously monotonous or a waste of time I can always take it down. I do need a new name however, since I'm no longer in Spain.

Any suggestions?