2003-11-25
'I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.'
-Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman (attributed)

4:55 p.m.

There was a lot of construction going on in the square outside my flat. There was nothing on Saturday, then Sunday when I stepped out I no longer had a clear path from me to the tram. It was, and is, a maze of trailers, half-built gingerbread-houses, people, dogs, tools, cars, wood, etc. And now it is even worse. A village has sprung up overnight, er, weekend. Some of the little houses have finished decorating and are open for business, the planks pulled up to reveal the various Christmas wares. There's also a tree now and a ton more decorations. You would think that I lived in a Christmas Village.

This weekend was relatively productive. I went for a ~20-km bike ride with Doug, then shopped for some (expensive) olive oil, and found two books at the weekly book fair. I am very excited about the books, because hopefully, it will help my French, especially "Orgeil et pr�jug�s", which I have practically memorized in English ("Pride and Prejudice", for you non-French speakers). The second, "De la terre � la lune" ("From the Earth to the Moon") by Jules Verne, I haven't actually read in English, but it doesn't look TOO hard and I'll at least get the general idea.

Then, I had dinner with several classmates and even tried black sausage, a.k.a blood sausage. Blech. However, I tried it.

Sunday, I slept in, finished my book ("Catch-22"), did some housework, and then went over and hung out with Brooke, Mark, and Ruey and watched Part 1 of the season premiere of Season 2 of West Wing and had some Thai/Chinese food. Oh, and watched Elf. It was okay. Imagine your typical mushy Christmas film with Will Farrell.

I had planned to come into ISU and get some badly-needed schoolwork done, but well, I didn't. I decided I wasn't going to come unless I had to.

So, la-dee-da, that was my weekend.

Last night Serina came over and we had salad and some Thai food that she made. It was excellent! I didn't eat it all so I have a very good dinner to look forward to tonight. Assuming that I ever get out of here! We have an assignment due on Thursday (Negotiation of a Spacecraft Contract) and I haven't done very much on it. Oops.

I would also like to point out that I am fine and not depressed and apologize if I gave any indication of being otherwise. I have received several concerned emails. I appreciate it, but if you're so concerned, MAYBE YOU COULD CALL ME. As of now, I have not received a single phone call from someone not related to me by blood. All of the other US students have received many, many calls. All I can gather is that I don't have any friends.

Alright, enough ranting. I know that the time difference is a big drawback, but if it helps, I will be here this weekend and not gallivanting off all over Europe.

8:30 p.m.

I forgot to mention that yesterday in French class we had to write poems. Beth actually wrote a pretty good one, but mine wasn't. It was called "La belle ou le b�t?" and was about fire. It was because we were looking at this poem called "Dejuener du matin". Beth put both that poem and hers on her blog if you want to read them.

Also, on Friday, we had two astronaut lecturers: Dr. Chiaki Mukai from Japan who was an awesome and animated and funny lecturer. She told us a story about her second flight, STS-95, when they played a trick on shuttle rookies Pedro Duqu� and John Glenn: they made these fake boarding passes for everyone but those two, and had the guard in on it. He (the guard) asked for their boarding passes and when John Glenn and Pedro Duqu� couldn't produce them, threatened to not allow them on the shuttle! The second astronaut lecturer was Dr. Ernst Messershmid who flew with Bonnie. I agree with Will that Dr. Mukai was the more interesting lecturer.

I bought some clothes yesterday after French class and two of the shirts don't fit. So, I get to have the fun of trying to take them back.

Goodness, it's nearly 9 PM. Not only that, but I pretty much haven't moved from this computer for the last 7 hours, except for when I got frustrated and walked around, which has been quite a bit because for some reason, the computers are EXTREMELY slow today. Part of it is that I was just messing around with my diary - see, I have a Weather Pixie now, like Becca, though mine is supposed to have a cat, too, and it doesn't show up. Not sure why. Anyway, I have been here WAY TOO LONG so I'm going to go home now. I don't even think that I'll have dinner; I've been snacking all afternoon so I'm not really even that hungry.

Previous | Next

Friends
Strongbad | Artemis | Jen M. | Jo | Karen | Jen O. | Saadah | Unfinished Life
Skytland | Brooker | Kells | Margot | Viking Boy
Dinesh | Beth | Tydogg | Steve-o | ISU Blog | ISU Home