Another lovely weekend

Skipping class, feeling good about taking a very stressful exam, reading a novel (the French don't suck at literature after all - after reading so much atheistic existentialism, I thought for a while they might ought to just stay in the kitchen where they belong, but after reading Marcel and Mauriac, I've decided that they are welcome in the library as well*) all afternoon, Crane Scholar's dinner - during which I decided that it may actually be possible to be a good mother and an academic, not that this is important information for me personally, going to a cocktail party for a new friend's birthday, reading aloud with someone, sleeping, tutoring, having lunch with my wonderful roommate, researching for a 10-page paper due Tuesday for my Augustine class, babysitting the most hyper 3-year-old I've ever met, taking him to a suprisingly entertaining children's museum, reading for Existentialism on top of a wooden red fire truck so that he can play while someone and I study, wearing one of my little black dresses that doesn't get out much, having dinner out with someone, drinking cappucino and reading the paper over someone's shoulder, putting off actual paper writing in order to share these recent happy memories with my dear blog-readers.

I love my life so much I have to list it all, which is probably not very interesting, so here's an embarrasing grocery-store moment to make you groan with sympathy for me. I was at HEB, looking for those little tiny cartons of ice cream that come with their own spoon/shovel-like utensils, and out of the corner of my eye I saw two people whom I thought were college-age guys. I'm not conceited but it didn't seem totally unnatural when one talked to me and said "see anything you like?" Guys that age are just friendly, so I said, "oh, no, I can't find the little cute ice creams." And we talked about the relative merits of the pint-sized cartons, which are much bigger than I wanted. At this point I looked up and noticed that one of the "guys" was actually a middle-aged man - the one that was talking, and presumably he was the other one's father, since it's parents' weekend. I walked away thinking it was odd, and several minutes later I realized the guy probably wasn't even talking to me to begin with, but he was probably talking to his son. It's weird how awkward I felt! I just had a conversation with someone who probably thought I was the most self-absorbed person ever. This is what happens when you speak very audibly in the presence of someone absorbed in that most perplexing task of choosing ice cream.



*This was a joke and I have nothing against French people. I have a great-something-grandmother who was from Alsace-Lorraine, held alternately by Germany and France, so there is a very good possibility that I am French myself.

Christmas in September

I'm going to a tea party today. It' s a "High Tea" for the Honors' Residential College. At least we don't have to wear our hideous polo shirts; we just have to dress up and shake rich people's hands so that they will know that the students for whom they donate money have learned to dress themselves. I wonder what they donate money for? More tea parties? I shouldn't be so cynical, I know, but all these new events and such that have been added to the living-in-the-dorm experience make me want to re-think what's important to me. I imagine that there is some point to all of this but I certainly don't see it.

I love social things. At least I think I love social things. I am not, in any sense, an extrovert, but I do love people, and I seem to feel the need for "alone" time decreasingly often. (How do you say "decreasingly often" gracefully? "less and less frequently?" "more and more seldom?") I just hate standing around and making small talk. It seems so pointless.

I categorically hate politics. I hate the process you have to go through in order to get into grad school, of having "connections," meeting people just so that they will remember you, whetehr or not you demonstrated anything worth knowing about yourself in that 30 second window of time, asking questions you aren't really curious about in order to appear interested in studying with someone. As if that weren't obvious, if you are applying for the program. It all seems so little based on actual merit. And the same seems true (maybe more true) of the election. It's depressing.

Like secular existentialism. Sartre wrote an essay in which he tried to portray existentialism as a humanism. Who is he kidding? At least Camus is honest about how much the world sucks if he is right. Someone in my Latin class, who is generally a very earnest intellectual about everything, said that she simply hates modernity. I think that's a funny thing to say, but I have to admit that I'm not as patient with it as some people are, and I think the deficiency is mine. I'm glad I'm a Classics major.

I won't tell you what my Christmas present to myself is, since it ought to be kept secret from someone until Christmas, but I bet you can guess what color it is. ;-)

Don't look at me that way - it was an honest mistake.

It doesn't feel like taking God's name in vain when I say "oh, Dio mio!" partly because it's Italian, and partly I don't think I'm doing it in vain. Addressing God with an exclamation seems like a natural response to what's happening in my life right now.

Summer has been wonderful. I've been working at Texas Roadhouse, which sucks but everything else has been kind of perfect. Except for predictable dissapointments, like the fact that I didn't get as much done as I wanted to on Greek composition and research for my thesis. (But I still have about a week and a half left, right?) I've also been tutoring Latin, making new friends and generally having the time of my life, as is becoming a habit, it seems.

It's just so odd. To be a senior in college, talking about grad school options as if I had a clue what I'm doing or as if I actually believe I'm ready to be that grown-up - to move out of state permanently, to pay my own phone bill, to be completely independent financially, to have a degree, to survive grad school and "pick up" somewhere or other a couple of the modern languages requisite for good scholarship in Classics, eventually to become a "doctor." I took the GRE and while I'm a little bit dissapointed with my Verbal score, overall it didn't completely suck and I may have a chance at getting what I want - which is to study and travel all my life as I have been these past few years and maybe, you know, to have babies (not children and definitely not teenagers, but maybe a couple of babies).

But holy crap. When did the joy of independence in a part-time job and a driver's permit get replaced with this? With writing samples and statements of purpose - as if I had a statement to make about purpose (I'm not Rick Warren, thank you) - and real decisions about where I want to live. It sounds like the college application process all over again, but it's so much more stressful this time. There are a few (okay, mainly just one) other considerations this time that make the whole thing very surreal.

Sometimes I just want to escape. I think that's why I always talk about spontaneity. And on that note, tomorrow I am very un-spontaneously planning to carry out my DLS. :-)

Gag me with a teaspoon

Can I just say that Java City has the most horrible coffee in the world? Every time I go there, when I'm here at the library, I end up wondering why in the world I spent $3.66 on this crap, which it should be illegal to give away. If I wanted a lukewarm syrupy mess, I would go suck a maple tree on a nice day.

Sexy's Back!!!

So I'm back in the land of the un-magical light. Texas is a pretty awesome place, anyway, though, because there are some pretty awesome people here.

I got back at about 2 in the morning Mother's Day, and in spite of this, I spent all day with my family, cooking Italian food for my mom and playing with my little brother. :-) No jet-lag for me. Monday I started work at MM's and worked there through Friday night. Saturday I came to Waco, which is where I am now, yay!

Summer I'm going to be working at Texas Roadhouse and possibly Dillard's, taking two history classes online through the local community college, studying Greek composition, translating the rest of Catullus' poetry and working towards my thesis, and getting ready for the GRE. So I don't have to answer that question again. Don't even ask where I'm going to apply for grad school. I don't plan on having an answer till next fall.

More later.

Oops.

Sorry. I guess I never did finish the spring break story. Well, it was one of the best weeks of my life so far. Let's just put it that way. I love Amsterdam. And Paris. For my birthday weekend I went to Rome, and I REALLY LOVE Rome. Europe in general is beautiful and exciting. Sicily in particular is kind of exotic and gorgeous. And I miss Henry.
Finals are pretty much here, and I have all five in three days, and each is three hours long, and I have effectively wasted this weekend. Or is it wasted? I'm about to leave all of my friends here, so it seems pretty important to spend time with them. I can't believe it's over. When you start something that's going to last 4 months it seems like a lifetime, but when it's over it seems very short.
What have I been doing....(besides school, ya'll don't really want to hear about that)...there was a EuroChocolate festival in Modica last weekend. Don't worry, I bought souvenirs. :-) Modica is an adorable little town in Sicily where they make this chocolate that doesn't melt. Chocolate seems like it's pretty much a way of life for people in Modica, like ricotta cheese is a way of life in Sicily. They even put chocolate in things like pasta dishes and couscous, and they have flavors like "peperoncino," which is red pepper - it's actually really good, I think.
Agrigento was one of my favorite excursions. The second best preserved temple in the Mediterranean is there, called the "Temple of Concord" because no one has any idea to what divinity it was dedicated. The best preserved temple, in case you're wondering as we all were, is the temple to Hephaestus, I believe, in Athens. Or was it Hercules? I'm pretty sure it started with an H.
On my birthday (and on the night before my birthday) I got all sorts of wonderful suprises, which confirms my suspicion that I have the most amazing friends in the world - that includes the ones at home, of course! Brie made dinner, Stefania and Julia made a cake, Maia gave me presents, there was a crapload of balloons and a note on the board when I went into my Latin class that day, and after the puppet show, when we were having tiramisu (which I made myself, and the preparation included beating egg whites stiff - with no electric mixer and no whisk!!) I received a very obscene card, the contents of which should not be discussed online. I love birthday attention. I think it's the only kind I like, actually.
So tomorrow is Julia's birthday and I am going to try Chicken Marsala as a suprise tonight - did you know that Marsala wine is made in Sicily? Probably you did know, but I didn't. I love Sicily.
But I love America, too, and in some ways I think I love it more after being away from it for a while. People are constantly makind unfavorable comparisons between the two countries, but I don't think Italy wins every contest. America does pies waaaay better than Italy, I have to say. Italian pies are almost all crust (and not a good crust, either) with just a thin layer of jam. That would never fly in America. We have real fillings. And Italians don't seem to have a lot of their own music - they listen to a lot of American music (and sing along even though they don't know what they're singing - it's funny to listen to) or sometimes Spanish or Mexican music, (I think, because it's in Spanish) for Salsa dancing. And we have to whole public restrooms thing going for us. Apparently a lot of Italians feel sorry for Americans because they assume that the food is all terrible in America. But really we have some pretty decent American food, and then we have all sorts of other kinds - Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Italian...who says we are so closed-minded? And I'm starting to like American accents. I really really love Italy, but I refuse to constantly criticize the US just because it's different. Maybe we aren't quite as "cultured," whatever the heck that means, but give us a few more centuries, for crying out loud - we're just a baby country compared to Italy.
I think I'm starting to fit in with the Italians in at least one respect: I talk about food all the time! :-)

Put your reading glasses on, get comortable, and be sure to hydrate - this is going to be a long one.
Spring Break took forever to get here and is going by incredibly fast, as usual. My last class was Philosophy and we got out two minutes late, but who was counting? That was last Thursday. We had a big "empty the fridge of all the stuff that will go bad while we're away" dinner and then after a while we went to "Amo" for salsa dancing. Staying out late the night before you fly to Paris is maybe not the best idea, but it seemed like the thing to do at the time.
Friday morning I had to shop around Ortigia a little because the funny thing about backpacking around Europe is, you need a backpack for it. I left mine at home because I prefer my Vera Bradley tote for school. We took the bus to Catania early in the afternoon even though our flight wasn't supposed to leave until 5:25 PM so that we could sit around in the airport and people-watch. At about a quarter to five we found our gate and waited. The flight was delayed. Eventually it said that it was delayed two hours. Um, that's a problem. That would mean we would miss our connecting flight from Milan to Paris. And the hostel we had booked in Paris might cancel our reservation if we didn't make it there by midnight. So with our best "Don't Mess With Texas" attitudes Brie and I went to talk to someone. They kept saying that they had called our names to change our flights, we must have left the airport, they couldn't help us, it was impossible. Finally they found a way to get us to Milan that night and a flight to Paris the next morning. The airline would pay for a hotel for us in Milan, they said.
So we flew to Milan. We got there at about 11, and check-in time for our flight to Paris was 7 the next morning, so unfortunately there was no time to see Milan. Plus the airport is about a 45 minute train ride away from the city, apparently? It took about an hour for the people in the Milan airport to figure out what had happened in the Catania airport and to give us plane tickets and a hotel voucher. A bus took us and a about 20 other people who I imagine were having similar problems to the hotel. It was nearly an hour away, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, but we didn't care. It was a "4 star" hotel where we could finally sleep. We still had to pay for the hostel that we didn't make it to, but we figured we were getting a hotel for the price of a hostel.
The next day we arrived in Paris around noon, I think. The airport was very confusing; none of us spoke French and the dictionary I bought had limited phrases and not much of a pronunciation guide, but the people were super nice and most of them spoke English. We finally go the right metro tickets and found our way to the stop where we needed to get off for our hostel. The stop was called "St. Michele / Notre Dame" and as soon as we climbed the steps out of the station, the first thing we saw, our first view of Paris, was Notre Dame. That was a pretty amazing moment. Of course I got a little squeally and jumpy and we took a lot of pictures, and then we went inside, where you aren't supposed to take pictures. It was beautiful. After a while we started to wander around in search of lunch, and our first Paris meal was salty crepes from a street vender, filled with all sorts of cheeses. We sat on the steps of the "Pantheon." After some walking around we got to our hostel and I think I slept for about 14 hours - I was so tired from midterms, dancing, traveling...the next day we saw the outside of the Louvre, which is quite remarkable even if you don't go inside, and we walked down a beautiful street with parks and trees and statues and fountains - I'm not describing it well at all and even my pictures aren't going to express what it's actually like - and then we saw the Arch di Triomphe (I hope I spelled that right). I had a quiche and croissant for lunch but I don't remember what everyone else had. The Eiffel tower was next. The lines were long, it was cold and rainy, my umbrella broke, and the battery in my camera died that night but it was still one of the most exciting weeks of my life ever.
I love Paris. I saw a lot of it from the top of the Eiffel tower, and I want to go back. We waited around so that we could see the Eiffel tower at night. In front of it there is this glass thing that has "peace" written in lots of different languages. I got a picture of the English word with the tower in the background. I think I also managed to find "paz"(Spanish), "pace"(Italian"), "paix" (French?), and something like "eirene" but in Greek letters, so I'm assuming it was modern Greek. That night we stayed in a particularly sketchy hostel. I don't want to freak anyone out, but there was a small blood stain. We were safe, though, of course, and the next day after breakfast and some walking around we went inside the Louvre. The Louvre is shaped sort of like an A that isn't pointy, and in front there is the big glass pyramid that everyone seems to recognize from The Da Vinci Code. That is the entrance. You go down into the basement, basically, to buy tickets and leave your backpack, and then you go into the Louvre. It was overwhelming. There are all sorts of floors and courtyards. It's just huge. You could spend a week in there. All the captions for the paintings and statues are in French, but I could recognize some of the Classical and neo-Classical works and when I looked at the captions I could tell if I had been right in guessing the names of the mythological figures. Practically the first thing I saw was the Venus di Milo. I got dizzy in some places. The cielings were so ornate I could stare at them for a long time. I have to go now...but I'll finish the Spring break story later....