Not Much to Speak Of

Hello!

I've heard raving reviews about my blog, and now I feel like I have something live up to. So much pressure! Okay, not really, actually, I'm quite flattered that so many care enough to read about the exciting mundaneness of my life. I don't know if that even made any sense. Oh no, now I'm getting self-conscious...

I'm currently sitting next to Sannan, he's from India. He's the closest thing I've got to a roommate, I guess, as he lives in the single next to my single. He's trying to make his wireless internet work, a common problem among campus-living students these days.

Anyway, I started off the morning by waking up and getting out of bed. Then getting back into bed after realizing that class didn't start until 10:00am, and there was no reason to be up yet. My first class of the day was Western Civ, which was just super. We talked more about Mesopotamia. I'm not sure what else to tell you there. I had a big two-hour gap today between Civ and Math, so I had a very European lunch spanning at least an hour. They served rabbit today with green beans and some sort of pasta; I ended up opting for the pasta. Don't get me wrong, rabbit is delicious, but I'm not sure I want to eat cafeteria-style rabbit. I'll try it next time it comes around. Math class was another spectacular; by the end of class my ears were numb to the grating German. I'm pretty sure this is the same stuff I learned in my math class freshman year with Mrs. Parker... But that's okay, a little review never hurt anyone.

Then English class finally came around. Dr. Matthews is something of an amazing caricature. He's so goofy. I'm not sure I know where to begin, so I'll have to write more about him once I have a better idea of him. He's just such a silly, patriotic Irishman--it's delightful. After that I hopped on the four o'clock Ikea shuttle and bought a few things at Ikea, totaling about 90 francs. I purchased a floor lamp, bath mat, area rug, mixing bowls, cereal bowls, hangers, lightbulbs, a hanging net thing to put toiletries in (there's no cabinet in the bathroom, which is sort of annoying). And I think that might be all... it feels like I'm missing something.

The Blues to Bop jazz festival is starting tonight at 9:00pm. I have an 8:30am class though, so I think I might skip it tonight and head out tomorrow night instead. It's going through at least Sunday night; maybe Monday night too. I'm tired. I think I might go grocery shopping with Katie tomorrow... Oh yeah, I need to go grab my hanging laundry too...

I'll write more soon! Hopefully I'll have more to write about...

Smile :-)

Whoops

Sorry, I thought for sure that that other post hadn't gone through. There might be some doubled up information...

Smile, Ari

Hobbits, Germans, Leprechauns & Laundry

All right, frustratingly, the post I wrote yesterday never showed up (and it was a nice, long informative one too). So I’m writing today, and this post will never be able to live up to yesterday’s I’m afraid. Before I begin detailing my adventures, I have received four boxes since yesterday--two from Oma, one from Mom, and one from Soraya. Thanks! I’m always excited to receive stuff in the mail! And just so you know, you may already know, but the best thing to mark on the customs form is either “gift” or “used personal clothing.” They won’t tax you that way. The only thing I’ve been taxed (?) on so far was my bedding.

I am actually working on doing my first two loads of Swiss laundry right now. I got done with classes at 10:30am (which is quite nice by the way), went down to Student Affairs for an interview with Dean Guggiari (more on that in a moment), had lunch up at North Campus, walked over to the reception to pick up my box, and then walked down the hill to do laundry. My room is something of a mess; I know you’re probably thinking, “Ari, your room is always a mess. You don’t keep your room tidy.” But I swear, I have been! I’ve been picking up my room about every other day, it really doesn’t take very long. But since I’ve been inundated with packages, groceries (more on that too), and schoolbooks, my room is, quite frankly, a mess.

So we’ll start with today because that’s more on my mind. German this morning was super; I learned how to introduce myself, although I can’t really remember now. Oma, I might be e-mailing you for homework help at some point in the near future. Oh that reminds me! Very exciting news: my phone card works. On the downside, for some reason my computer hasn’t been able to connect to Skype all day. But also good news: my cellphone is up and working with really no effort on my part to make it function. Soraya called me at like 5:00am this morning, and I awoke to a terrible racquet that turned out to be my phone. I had forgotten what it sounds like and I wasn’t very awake at the moment, so I wasn’t really sure what was happening. But by the time I got to the phone it was all over. So Soraya, I did hear you and I tried to call you back… Sorry about that. So I guess that’s two goods and one bad… Not so bad?

Marketing today was good. I think it’s going to quickly become the class that I look forward to most. It’s really interesting. I did my reading for it last night; the book is awesome, it gives all the vocabulary and definitions in the margins, it’s nice and colorful, and has lots of diagrams. All books should be made by marketing professionals, they would be so much more enjoyable to read.

After my classes I had a 10:45am interview with Dean Guggiari about a job. I was really just going in to find out about the options and whatnot, try to find something to keep me busy. Really there are not enough jobs to go around and a lot of people need them far more than I do in order to cover tuition and books and what-have-you, so I told her that I am not so much in need of the financial side but of the experience, so that I’ll be able to put something a resume if I should ever need to make one. So I’m going to either volunteer as an English tutor in the Writing Center (there are a lot of ESL kids here who could use help, not to mention American kids…) or volunteer in the Development & Advancement Office, or whatever it’s called. That might be sort of cool since they do a lot of marketing and PR stuff in there. So, we’ll see. She’s also going to refer me to the Student Programming Board since I told her about all the Student Council stuff. I think I’m going to try and pick and choose what I actually commit myself too, though, since I’d like to still have time to go into downtown and do laundry (as I am currently doing).

So yesterday I had my three other classes: Western Civilization, Part 1; College Algebra; and English 100. All three of my professors for those classes are doctors. My Western Civ teacher sort of reminds me of a shaggy hobbit, since, although he’s pretty young (probably 30s), he’s got a shaggy mop of blond hair and a full beard, and spectacles. He’s very well-spoken and is obviously fascinated with his topic, which is good. We’re learning about the Sumerians and Mesopotamia and the Egyptians right now. I haven’t really studied that before, so I’m excited for the Neolithic Revolution! Woohoo! My math professor is German, and when he speaks English, it almost sounds like he’s speaking German still. Although he’s obviously awesome at math, he seems to be very understanding of kids who aren’t. I think that’s what happens when you work at Franklin College long enough. I think it’ll be a good class. I like him. Then my English teacher is… well… I don’t even know what to say about him. He’s a leprechaun of a poet; that is he’s from Ireland and has a magnificent accent, and he’s also a poet. I think his vocabulary might be more dense than Dr. Smith’s; or at least he’s a little more flashy about it. I’m not sure anyone can top Dr. Smith… maybe I just haven’t traveled across enough seas yet. He literally speaks in poetry. I don’t even know how to describe it. And he kept on going on these ridiculous tangents. Like about the time he was slapped in the face while he was reading a Hemingway biography while walking down the street; a passing-by bicyclist slapped him and brought him back to reality. I have a feeling we have a lot more stories coming our way… How did I get so lucky as to have an English teacher with an Irish accent?

So those are my teachers. I’m still working on laundry; I just transferred everything from the washing machine to either the dryer or to something of a clothesline that’s been set up in the laundry room. How proud I am to have figured out the European washing machine without assistance! Don’t worry Oma, everything came out the same color as when it went in… Better not get too cocky, as not everything has come out of the dryer yet. There’s supposed to be the Convocation today at 3:30pm, but I really, really don’t want to go. I could just stay here and work on homework and clean my room… How lovely that would be. It’s only sort of mandatory… That would make today another three-trip day, as I’d probably come back down before dinner… I should probably try to make more “up-the-hill” friends, who will let me hang out in their rooms in the weird between times. All right, well the IKEA shuttle is tomorrow; super excited for that. And the Blues to Bop music festival begins tomorrow night in downtown Lugano; it starts Thursday and ends Sunday. There are supposed to be all sorts of cool shows and fireworks and food to choose from, so that should be fun. There’s a whitewater river rafting trip on Saturday, but only 13 people can go unless you can get a ride, and it costs 50 francs. So I think I’m going to wait on that one and then for sure do the Smart Car Rally, which costs 150 francs. I might try to go to the big market at Ponte Tresa this weekend. It just involves figuring out what the “flip train” is and how to use it. All right, more soon! I miss all of you peoples!

So I had my second day of classes today. I started out with Western Civilization: Part 1 with Dr. Silver. He sort of reminds me of a shaggy hobbit with little glasses. I don't think he's that old but he has a full beard and shaggy hair and little spectacle type glasses. He's very interested in his subject, which is always a good sign. I think his class is going to be good; we're discussing ancient and medieval whatnot, which I don't think I've covered before. Mr. Middlebrooks, if you're reading this, please forgive me if I've forgotten, but we didn't cover the Neolithic Revolution, right? So there's lots of reading from that, which is exciting.

After that I had a two-hour break with lunch in there somewhere. I mostly just tried not to look bored like a silly freshman, although that was what I was. I didn't have my books with me, so I couldn't do homework. It's just a lot of work to carry them all the way up the hill. They're quite heavy and thick. Anyway, after lunch I had College Algebra with Dr. Erich Prisner. His German accent is so thick that at first I thought he was speaking German, not English. He obviously loves math and I think he'll be a good teacher since he tries to be understanding of students who have a harder time with math. He's been doing this a long time.

Then after math, I had English100 with Dr. Matthews. My goodness, this man is a magical combination of Leprachaun and poet. He's from Ireland and has an amazing accent and a bigger vocabulary than anyone I've ever listened to; I swear he speaks in poetry. It was sort of crazy and sort of comical, and I wanted to laugh terribly, but I, thankfully, refrained. He's more a poet than anything else, I do believe. He went on a number of delightful tangents about literally getting slapped in the face by an passerby biker while he was reading Hemingway. Something about getting slapped back to reality. I will have to keep you updated on him. He's quite the character; actually, most of my teachers are.

After classes today I went to the reception and picked up three lovely packaged boxes and a card from Oma, Mom, and Soraya. I was so excited!! You have no idea. So I took the boxes down the hill and then had to sprint back up the hill to catch the 5:00pm shuttle to Carrefour, the supersized (for Switzerland) supermarket that's about 30 minutes away with Swiss traffic (surprisingly solid for such a small area). I made the shuttle and went to Carrefour and bought 94 francs worth of groceries. I bought lots of basics that should keep me going for quite some time: flour, sugar, jam, peanut butter, olives, pasta, onions, potatoes, etc. Thank goodness there was a school shuttle because we were dropped off at Girasole and didn't have to walk all the way down the hill with all of our groceries. And then to make things even better we got a ride back up the hill to get dinner (which was pork and spaetzle with gravy of some sort). So that was good news. Then we sprinted back down the hill because it was starting to sprinkle.

It's Trash Night in Sorengo so students keep walking back and forth between Sorengo and Girasole with all sorts of trash finds like couches, tables, wine racks. It's pretty entertaining to watch. Anyway, I have to do my reading for marketing. Early morning tomorrow. I'll post again soon!

I miss you guys!

There are no products, just solutions

Hello everyone!

I am finished with my classes for the day, and I have been since 10:30am. Isn't that amazing? If there is one thing that Charles Wright did not prepare me for it was the amount of freetime I am being provided with. I started the day with 8:30am German100 in the Main Villa with Professor Vadilonga. She's really, really nice. She's actually from Bern, and German-speaking Switzerland. She said that where she's from the pronunciation is more similar to southern Germany. Anyway, she was super nice. We just went over some basics today, like pronunication and some easy words. The first word put up on the board was Oma, of course, because it was the first one that came to mind when she asked us for a few words we already knew. She let us out of class a bit early. Books are incredibly expensive. My German book is going to cost 240 francs (!!!).

After German I had Marketing in a Global Context at 9:40am with Professor Adams. I think I'm really going to enjoy that class. I'm one of only four freshmen in it, so that's a little bit intimidating. It sounds like Professor Adams has done a bit of everything in the world of marketing, and she obviously loves her subject. She went to Yale for her graduate work, taught marketing, became a marketing consultant for companies such as Gucci and Barrilla (she just gave us a few names that we would be familiar with), started her own company down in Italy, sold it, and just came back to teaching last year. It sounds like we're going to be working with a lot of real case studies and whatnot, so I'm excited about that. It sounds like it's going to be interesting class. She also talked to us about some of the basics of marketing: for example, there are different kinds of people. They may have the same need, but they will have different wants. There are needs and there are wants. There are no products, just solutions. Apparently, Revlon started that one with something about how they do not sell cosmetics, they sell beauty and fixes.

It's also very strange how there really isn't homework. Which makes sense, I mean, it would be a whole ton of work for the professor if we had to fill out random excerises every night to be graded or whatnot. I think this makes much more sense. For Marketing we'll have case studies, two quizzes, one midterm, and one final writeup/exam. Our final exam has to do with the Kodak Funtime Festival, which was, apparently, a complete disaster. I think I'm going to like her class because it sounds like she keeps it very structured, but wants creative thinking; she kept telling us that it is important to know the process and methodology before doing the creative thinking or else you end up with disasters.

So far I'm looking forward to my classes. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my day. It's 11:07am now, about. I don't know when lunch starts. I think I'd really prefer to do most of my meals on my own if possible, but they won't let freshmen do that. Ah well. I'm planning on eating my weekday lunches and dinners here because they're already paid for; don't want to waste that... I've been eating breakfast in my room, and I'm planning on doing my own cooking or eating out on the weekends. I do want to find a good little restaurant somewhere downtown that I can depend on. I have to go pick up my books today but I don't want to do that until right before I go down the hill. All of us "down the hill" people (as we're commonly known) try to minimize our trips up and down the hill, which can burn a lot of time. Pretty much, we all have to go up and down at least twice a day, which is fine. But no one likes to go up and down three or four times, I can tell you that much. After I get my books I'll probably go back down the hill and do some reading. I'm really anxious to start reading the Marketing book. It says on the schedule that we're going to start discussing Chapter One on Wednesday, so I might as well be super prepared with my freetime. I might need to stop at Migros too, to get some bread and flour and sugar. That way I can make Schmaan in the mornings. German spelling is a bit kooky I learned this morning. After all that I'll probably come up for dinner, go back down the hill, watch a movie, and go to bed...

All right, more soon! I'm sure this isn't the end of me for today. :-)

Bridges

This might be a bit of a short post, I'm afraid. We left at 10:00am this morning to Valle Verazsca (sp?). I thought we were leaving at 9:30am, so I was rather early for the actual departure, but that's all right. So we drove about 90 minutes and we had lunch near a little stream/river. Then we walked to an enormous glacial waterfall, where a bunch of people (myself not included) jumped into the pool at the bottom. This is glacial run-off people, you really can't expect me to jump into something that freezing. No thank you. So that was pretty cool. Then we drove back to Valle, where there's a really cool stone bridge that people like to jump off. But no one was allowed to jump off of that today because a kid broke his back last year and had to be in a wheelchair for three months... Instead people jumped off of an enormous rock. I didn't jump in there either. The weather was particularly hot, so I didn't have any real motivation to jump into super-cold water. But lots of other people did, and it was fun. Everyone was cheering everyone jumping in on. Even the dozens of other tourists and like the entire village. At the end there was one girl who was taking forever to jump in and I was afraid the Swiss were going to kick her out of the country, since some of them starting booing. But then they cheered when she did finally jump in. After that we drove back to Lugano and there was an All-Student BBQ this evening, where all the grades mingled. Well, not really, they were just all present.

I start classes tomorrow morning; my first of the day is at 8:30am and is German100. I'm looking forward to classes starting and sort of getting into some sort of routine. I'm still trying to figure out my cellphone. Mom, Mo, any tips? I miss you all!

Foni in San Salvatore

Hello there.

A bit of a long day today; although, maybe not. I woke up at 7:30am, then got back in bed until about 9:30am, when I jumped out of bed and dashed up the hill to meet with my San Salvatore hike group. Only to go back down the hill on the way to San Salvatore. We walked to the Fonicular (sp?), which is at the bottom of the mountain and then proceeded to hike up it. It took us about an hour and a half or two hours. It was a bit of steep hike, but enjoyable; I just wish there hadn't been so many stairs. Most of them were enormous steps for my short little legs... But it was all right, and it was breathtaking once we got to the top. There was a little church and a museum and a grotto at the top. You can also get to the top by taking the foni (just in case you should ever happen to visit and don't feel up to the hike). About seventeen of us took the foni down the mountain which was fun. Figured that we'd never been on one before, and this ride was on the school (okay, technically our parents), so we might as well take it.

After we got back down, Alyssa, Mike and I decided to go into downtown to do some people watching and some grocery shopping. We ended up spending about three hours down there, I think. We did lots of window shopping and tried to find our way around (I'm getting much better). We stopped and all got gelato (chocolate for me, of course; it was quite delicious). We scouted out a street corner and sat there and ate our gelato while listening to some crazy Italian covering REM on the opposite street corner. Then we went into Manor (sort of an enormous grocery/department store place). Mike (he's from Bainbridge by the way) needed to get some soccer cleats and we couldn't find them anywhere, but I whipped out my mad Spanish skills and got us pointed in the right direction. I was so proud of myself. Actually it made me feel a lot better, knowing that I'd be able to communicate in a pinch. After that Alyssa and I went down the basement grocery store and did some basics shopping. I bought laundry detergent, dish soap, a sponge, some sort of those cloth things that Mom loves, all-purpose cleaner stuff, salt, noodles, butter, milk, eggs; basics, pretty much. I should've bought flour! I know I forgot something. Oh well, my backpack was heavy enough as it was. I made dinner for Alyssa and Mike in my apartment. We had some sort of meat-filled tortellini with a really excellent spicy tomato sauce. It was like $13 for enough of that for us to have thirds; a way better deal, in my opinion, then going out, even to the Grotto at school (it's $12 for dinner there, per person). Then we had Kinder bars for dessert. It was good. I have to go do dishes now...

I'm quite exhausted at this point in the day. We're going to Valle Verazca (sp?) tomorrow; we leave here at 9:30am. Then there's a BBQ. I start classes on Monday... how exciting. Anyway, things are going well. I'll send pictures from San Salvatore soon; it was gorgeous! My bedroom is much cozier now that I have my down comforter too; I was very excited to sleep last night. I'm trying to think if there's anything that I'm forgetting... but I'm pretty sure that was my whole day.

Smile! :-)

Found: Bedding, Sicily, & Sunshine

So I've got some great, great, fantastic, marvelous, miraculous, bombastic news! My bedding is not lost, but it has indeed been discovered. I was given my mailbox key today, so I checked my box, and lo and behold there were two notices demanding that I pick up my box as soon as possible. Hooray! Let us all rejoice and dance in the streets! I shall sleep upon down this evening. I might even skip bowling just so I can curl up with my down comforter and watch a movie. Now I just await Snowy's arrival. How delightful.

In other news, we have brilliant sunshine following yesterday's apocalyptic weather. Katie and I seriously thought we were going to drown some horrific flash floods, if we weren't battered to death by hail stones first. Today, however, has been lovely since I first woke up to a flood of sunshine. What more could I ask for? I don't know how well the Swiss are taking the mess our little storm brought in, in terms of leaves and dirt being everywhere. I saw a man sweeping the sidewalks this morning with great urgency. They don't like things to be messy... Oh yeah, did I mention that I also got stuck in a thunderstorm yesterday? I went with a girl from Minnesota (named Aliesha, sp?) so that she could buy an iron in downtown at Migros (which went quite smoothly). After we left the store though, the skies looked threatening once again. We definitely got stuck in a thunderstorm on our way back up the hill, and I definitely had all of my clothes soaked through once again. I've never heard thunder like this here; it cracked, it didn't just rumble. And there was a lot of it. It lasted a solid thirty or forty minutes. Anyway, I made it back in time for my Orientation Group Dinner, but I was pretty darn damp. I started getting used to it though. I think the moral of the story is that I need a better, sturdier umbrella.

In other news still, I registered for classes today and I signed up for my Academic Travel trip. I decided to pass on Stockholm because I heard the trip is rather unstructured. It's a trip open to about 30 people, and the professor lets everyone sort of do his/her own thing--there's a lot of free time. And it's really expensive because the cost of the trip doesn't cover transportation and food for the most part. Then I was torn between Sicily and Vienna/Salzburg, but after meeting the Italian Professor who will be leading the Sicily trip I decided to go for it. (Plus, I've already been to Salzburg...) The Professor is really nice, and the trip has been cut down to 16-20 students, so we'll be able to do more cool stuff. So I'm excited about it; I think I'm going to have a really good time. If you're all wondering why I didn't do Greece or something, that's because a lot of trips were already filled up as freshmen get last pick. I did get my first choices for classes though; I just have to meet with Professor Hale (my academic advisor) today at 3:00pm to discuss my schedule and get his stamp of approval. Here are the classes I will be taking:

Introduction to German with Professor Vadilonga, 8:30am, MWF
Marketing in a Global Context with Professor Adams, 9:40am, MWF
Western Civilization Part I with Professor Silver, 10:05am, TTh
College Algebra with Professor Prisner, 1:15pm, TTh
Writing in the Humanities with Professor Matthews, 2:50pm, TTh

I tried to get out of the English 100 class, but they wouldn't let me skip it. So I'm stuck with that. I'm not 100% sure I'll be in the College Algebra class, it depends on my math placement result from today. If I don't take that I might end up taking History of Math or something; I'm not really sure yet. I think I left my calculator at home... The Marketing class is required for a business major, so I figured I take it and feel out the topic. And I'm taking Western Civ Part I, since they gave me a credit for WesCiv2 because of AP Euro; that way I'll be finished with my history requirement. Most of these are required core classes; I'm just trying to get them out of the way.

So it's been an exciting day so far. I'm just taking a break now, since my meeting is still a little ways away. Can't wait to pick up my bedding! I miss and love you all!

MONSOON!

I'm still a little bit jetlagged; I probably haven't been doing the best job of getting to bed early and getting up early, but I'm definitely feeling better. It's not a severe case of jetlag by any means, just a bit tired, understandly too, since they have us running around from one thing to another all day. I took an English and a Math Placement Test today. I was really frustrated with the English one because the topic was "what was the biggest mistake of your life" or "what was your most important life experience?" They're such lame questions. I probably shouldn't have started my essay with an indignant paragraph explaining why I couldn't write on either topic very well. I'm supposed to be at a College Resources Fair right now, but I'm not. First of all, I've already met with the IT guys, so I know where they are, etc. and the other thing is the Writing Center. But the real reason follows:

So as Katie (she's from Minnesota) and I were leaving the LDV camus (that's for Leonardo Da Vinci), it looked like it was about to rain, so we figured we would just hurry. But within about two minutes of our leaving it started to pour and we got lost. Within five minutes it was hailing. Within ten minutes the roads and sewers were flooding. We took refuge under some Swiss-Italian's garage port for a while and then we made a run for the North Campus and hid out there for a few minutes and were laughed at by many a maintainence person. As soon as the hail stopped (not the rain) we made a dash for Girasole (where we live), which is a fifteen minute walk from the school. My clothes were totally soaked through as was my bag (luckily, the contents of my bag stayed dry--thank you, Oma). I was wearing my new boots too! I tried to waterproof them when we got back, but I couldn't figure out how to break the seal. Alas. I'll have to work on that again later. Anyway, I stripped everything off and hung it to dry and put on my fleece Washington pants and Fox Island shirt. Talk about Washingtonian pride. My skin was dyed black and blue from my clothes. My shirt had a bunch of black dye on it from my jacket, so I rinsed it out in the sink and washed it with some soap. I need to do some basics shopping for detergent and whatnot still. Anyway, that was exciting all right. Hopefully no one will get too upset that I'm not attending the Resources Fair... I've attended everything else so far though, promise.

Tonight we're having dinner with our Orientation groups. Luckily I just have to go across the street to the Florida Residence, not back up the hill. My bedding still hasn't showed up, so far as I can tell. I'm going to go shopping this weekend if it's not here by Friday/Saturday. By the way, if anyone wants to contact me, just leave me a message on my Skype phone and I'll do my best to call you back at a convenient hour. It's 4:30pm over here right now, and 7:30 am over there... Strange, isn't it?

I've got registration for my classes tomorrow; that's also when I'll figure out my Academic Travel, so I'll let you all know what happens. We're taking little trips to places nearby on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to that too. To Baba & Angi, if you're planning on coming by, please let me know when, so I can give you an idea of how busy I'll be. All right, I'll write more soon! I miss you all! Smile :-)

So here I am

I'm here at Franklin College, safe and sound. I'm extraordinarily tired at the moment, as it is 11:30pm here. So I won't write much. But I did go into Lugano today, and I bought toilet paper, garbage bags, a box of cereal, milk, bananas, and kiwis. My computer is really slow right now, more soon though!

NY, NY; Big Apple; No Snakes

So I've made it to New York. They wouldn't let me check my bags all the way to Zurich, unfortunately, so here I am with my two enormous suitcases (proudly weighing in at 54 and 69 pounds). But, fortunately, I've found a number of other Franklin students here too. Kai was nice enough to help me with my bags, even though he didn't need to come through here since he did get his bags checked all the way (airport personnel need to come up with one story and stick to it, quite frankly). So I'm doing fine, I'm surviving, I'm a bit tired, but I've got a lovely peanut butter and jelly sandwich by my side. Only seven and a half hours until my eight hour flight to Zurich! Oh, and I am happy to report that there were no snakes on my plane.

Excess Baggage

So, I've now got two suitcases packed. Totally packed. One weighs an appropriate 49 pounds, the other weighs 63 pounds--that would be 13 pounds over the weigh limit. So we're into excess baggage pounds now. But that's all right, I think. It costs $25 extra for luggage weighing between 51 and 70 pounds, which is still cheaper than trying to mail everything. So we shall not unpack! We will stand our ground!

Have to go pack my carry-on case now. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow. My mom is vacuum-packing cereal for me... Hmm...

One Suitcase & Many Snakes

Oma finished packing one suitcase for me. That means I've got one more to go and what seems like a neverending list of errands. Kai, my soon-to-be Franklin classmate, came over yesterday and hung out for a bit. It sounds like he'll be on my flight too, so no need to fear about me being alone at JFK. I've been framing lots of photos to take with me; they're going to be my primary dorm decoration. Hopefully I'll have enough counter space for them. I went and saw Snakes on a Plane with a bunch of folks last night; I drove Kathryn and Matt there. It was one of the best worst movies I've seen. I'm going to head over to Erin's house pretty soon here, so that I can say goodbye to a bunch of people, and then I'm going to go to UPS, so that I can say goodbye to David. All right, maybe next time I write I'll actually have something about traveling!

Seattle Shopping & Then Some

So Erin, Soraya, and I went to the big city to do some last minute shopping today. Oma told me not to come back home without a few key items believed necessary for me to be prepped for shopping. I didn't buy a whole lot, but I am extraordinarly happy with what I did buy. I bought a purple cashmere blend dress (it's only 5%, but still, it's got cashmere!) for myself; I'm very excited about it. Other highlights included a wonderfully comfortable pair of black, flat, sueded boots. I think I'll be able to trek all over Europe in them. I also purchased two new pairs of jeans; one pair of boy jeans and one pair of normal jeans. So those were the highlights; I also bought one 3/4-length sleeve scoopneck and a pair of purple-ish maryjane/loafer/slipon things that are very comfortable too.

I'm getting my meninigitis shot tomorrow morning and after that I'm going to Fumiko to get some jeans hemmed (I know, working on the last minute here). After that we're going to go find me a pair of lightweight hiking boots, pick up a pizza for lunch (Soraya's request), and then Kai and Erin are going to come over to the house probably while Oma and I try to pack up all of my stuff. Soraya's got some sort of buddy BBQ tomorrow night too. I heard news from David today, it sounded like he had broken his finger, but he went to the trainer and it looks like it's all right after all. Nothing broken... yet... So that was good news.

I'm getting more and more excited, but it still seems surreal. I can't believe I'll be leaving for Switzerland in just four short days!

One Suitcase Down!

Just thought I would let everyone know that I (or perhaps more correctly, Oma) have successfully packed one suitcase. My goal is to be entirely packed by Thursday afternoon. Erin and I just finished figuring out our plans for the rest of the week:

Wednesday: shopping in Seattle with Soraya, Wa's farewell dinner
Thursday: Meningitis shot, packing, hang out with Kai?
Friday: Snakes on a Plane, tubing, UPS Campus Picnic
Saturday: hang out with friends, family farewell dinner
Sunday: spend the day with family, leave for JFK

So there you have it folks, my plans for my final five days on Fox Island!

Finally 18!

So after many weeks of attempting, I have finally turned 18. What a momentous day. Michele called my cellphone at 1:00am to sing me my happy birthday song. My bedroom has finally been cleared/organized, so the real packing may begin. Cary and Mehran were over yesterday and they both helped me setup my computer with shiny new programs, so that I can be super-cool once I get to college. Cary did most of it, but Mehran set me up with some music, etc. Mehran went back to Walla Walla this morning, so that was the last time I'll see him until December. How strange. I set Soraya up with Skype this morning and her new webcamera, so that we can chat now. I hope everyone got my new SkypeIn number, if you haven't gotten it yet, e-mail me, and I'll send it to you.

My next project is deciding which stationery and journals to take. Really, one journal can last me a year, and I received five or six in addition to my already stockpiled two or three journals... This means it's going to be a long, long time before I need a new journal, no matter how much I love them. Anyway, I've got to go actually seriously work on packing now. Just a few more days!

I should probably start packing... now...

Okay, so I was supposed to have lunch with Mehran today; as in, I am still supposed to drive up to Seattle to meet up with him and share some Indian food. But I don't think I can. I can't believe I only have six days until I leave! And there's so much to do... I need to pack my box of kitchen towels and plates and pop-up necessities (i.e. hamper, shower caddy). And that's just the beginning of my to-do list.

Meeting other freshmen Frankliners seems to be coming closer and closer. I've been e-mailing with a few of them. Erin and I might try to meet up with a couple of them this week. There's a girl, Sierra, who lives in Gig Harbor, who seems nice. Baba and Angi actually came ever closer to actually meeting her yesterday out on the boat. They had a couple of couples over for a drink and they mentioned the school I was going to and then the other couples mentioned Sierra and brought out her newspaper announcement and showed them her picture. And then they, apparently, saw her while they were driving home. What a strange small world. Then I found someone who is going to be on my Delta flight to JFK, just in case you hadn't heard the latest updates. His name is Nick. He's 21, and he's going to do some sightseeing around New York during our ten-hour layover. I mentioned that I don't do so well on minimal hours of sleep, so he's going to help me navigate around the airport to somewhere I can hang out until it's time for our flight. So that's good news. Then there's a guy named Kai (sorry about the rhyming, I couldn't resist). Erin and I might try to meet him later this week over some tubing or something.

All right, so I should stop procrastinating and do something productive like eat breakfast. Good news! Even though I can't drive to see Mehran today, he's coming down here for dinner! So I will get to see him before I jet off into the... there definitely won't be a sunset at midnight. The dark black air? That sounds horrible. Anyway, I'll continue to keep you updated of my fascinating travels...

Packing

All right, this is going to be my first official post. I just got home from Angi's surprise 40th birthday party, which, I might add, went surprisingly well (it was quite lovely). Anyway, the day of departure is quickly approaching--it's only one week away! That's right, for those of you haven't heard, I will be leaving on Sunday, August 20th on an 11:45pm flight out of SeaTac for JFK airport in New York rather than my original time on Monday due to the British terrorist mess check out http://www.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/08/13/britain.terror.airports/index.html for an article on "snarled airline travel." So there's that. I spent much of this afternoon on www.swiss.com trying to fully understand what kind and how much luggage I'm allowed. I believe you can bring as many bags as you want, as long as you have no more than 273 cm worth of dimensions, and no more than 46kg in weight. And you can only have one carry-on, and it must weigh less than 8kg. I know, terribly exciting stuff. I still need to buy a few necessities, such as a battery-operated travel alarm clock. Actually, maybe that's it. Although I have dozens of things to do. I had many more sentences to write, but I can't seem to remember any of them now. I really need to start packing all of my stuff tomorrow; it sounds like a lot of work. And guess what! I'm finally almost going to turn eighteen. I've been trying really hard: after two birthday parties, I'm still only 17. And somehow Erin already turned 19. Next time I write maybe I'll actually have some exciting travel news to report.