Insanity and playing the waiting game (186 Days!!)

I should be studying for my Chinese Medicine mid-term that takes place this Tuesday (holy crap, mid-terms already?) but I'm taking a break. Study breaks are important. They are important because they keep your brain from working so hard that it somehow liquefies itself and begins to ooze out of your ears. Yes, this is bad, and I am a mere term or two away from brain liquefaction, so I am taking a break to allow it to re-congeal into the brain matter I need to retain the bazillion different acu-points I need to have crammed in head by Tuesday.

So there.

In the past week I have looked at airfare to Canada and sent in my last readily completable scholarship application. It's not much, but it is certainly an important step. It may not have been during the month of January (as the more discerning readers may remember was my goal) but my taxes and FAFSA took a little longer than expected.

So, now that all that is done, what must I do, you ask?
Wait.
I hate waiting, but for now, I must. I am waiting on Semester at Sea. I am waiting for them to announce what Visa's I will need to acquire and what vaccinations I will need to get before I leave, information that probably wont be posted for another month. I am also waiting on the financial aid disbursement notifications so that I know how much more money I will need to raise in order to sail in August, information I wont know until June 3rd.
So, I wait.

Waiting sucks. It makes me feel like there is something I should be doing. Which, short of booking flights and hotels, there isn't.


I guess waiting is good though, since I need extra time to remain sane and do the work that I have to do for my classes this semester *cough* Chinese medicine and french *cough*

Until next time, I remain insanely yours.

The Infamous Purse Library (197 days!!)

Anyone who has ever hung out with me for any extended period of time knows exactly what my title to this entry means. I am required to carry around a very large purse. Not because I carry around makeup (I don't) or hair products (the hair tie on my wrist is about it), but because I have a problem. I have a book problem. More than once my mother has picked up my purse to hand to me and remarked "what do you have in there? A dead body?"

I have a book problem. When I move into my dorm every year I spend several afternoons staring at my bookshelves in my room, trying to pick the books that will travel with me to my new dorm. This process takes days, maybe even weeks (it should be noted that my mother now only lives a mere 30 minutes away, but the decision still takes forever). I spend more money on new books than I do on food or clothes and I treat my books the way some people treat their children. They are to be loved, protected and regularly used (I am a big fan of rereading a book, just because I loved it the first hundred times I read it). At any one time I am usually reading 3-5 books (a number which will easily double during the school semesters due to the massive amounts of readings my professors assign to me). And at any given moment it is impossible to predict which one of those 3-5 books I am in the process of reading will strike my fancy. My answer to this problem has been simple; just carry them all around.

So, one night while I was talking to my mom about my upcoming voyage with Semester at Sea she asked me "how will you handle being away from your books?"

I don't think she intended to send me spiraling into a frenzied combination of anxiety and depression, but that is what happened. I'm sure that I would miss my books more than I would miss any of my other of my worldly possessions. They are almost an extension of myself. How could I see the world without the books that have been my gateway into that world?

My room mate, Rebecca, and I have a mutual love for books (though she is, perhaps, less obsessive than I) and when she came back after Christmas vacation with a brand new Kindle in hand, I immediately mocked her electronic book impersonator. I have steadfastly denounce ereaders since they have become mainstream. Nothing, I repeat, nothing feels like holding a book between your hands, feeling the crisp paper under you fingertips. Ereaders don't have the smell that books have (glossy paged books and old library books have different smells than a new paperback. They are all different and all wonderful).

But the more I saw her with her Kindle, the more I began to wane in my dislike. The more I got to know her Kindle and what books were available to it, I started to fall for her Kindle.


So, dear readers, I now own a Kindle, so I can take all my favorite books around the world with me. This really was the only reason I broke down and bought it. I love it. I love that I can instantly buy books from my Kindle, I love the instant whisper delivery of the New York Times every morning, I love the fact that it weighs next to nothing. But mostly, I love that I can now carry 30 or 40 books in my purse without getting an arm workout.

Don't get me wrong, I will still buy books by the truck load, but for something like Semester at Sea, my new Kindle will really be a comfort and a friend in a world that will be changing around me daily. In this one way it will be nice to have a piece of home with me all around the world; my bookshelves.

(Pictured: Dot Bear, Chicki, and Sock Monkey settled in for a nice night of Kindle Reading on my bed)

The world is changing (200 Days!!)

Guess what came in the mail!?


If you guessed my passport, then you would be correct! Yes! My passport got here today! The first small increment of time I set for myself has finally come to end. I feel like I should celebrate in some way. In all honesty, I have been more than a little impatient for it to arrive. I have compulsively been logging in to my blog, desperately wanting something, anything, to write about, but I only end up looking at the pictures of the Economy rooms and finding my own misspellings and typos. But today, I got my passport! It is the first step on a long road to getting ready for SAS. I really look forward to filling up the pages of the passport with the future adventures I will have.

With my passport the helpful folks at the passport place sent me a little leaflet that says 'With your U.S. passport the world is yours!' and, as corny as that little phrase is, I am really beginning feel that way, both about my education and, naturally, my new passport. I'm really beginning to feel like I am standing on the edge of becoming the person that I want to be and that Semester at Sea is going to be the event that pushes me into who I want to be for the rest of my life.

Wow. This got to be a mushy, public service announce-y entry. Oh well.

In other news, I have been watching the events in Egypt unfold with rapt attention. I am in awe of the courage of the Egyptian people. I have always loved Egypt. I was taken at a very young age to the Denver Museum of Natural History to see a King Tut exhibit, and as I gazed at the mummies and golden tombs I was hooked by the terror and mystery. I have always been fascinated by the histories of ancient Egypt, and the sheer volume of their history. And now, as they throw off the shackles of an oppressive regime, I get to watch and read along. The fact that something of this magnitude is happening in a country that I have adored since my childhood in my lifetime, I feel as though this is another defining moment in my young adult life (if not for the entire world).

It has become clear to me, now more than ever, we need to be citizens not just of our home countries, but of the world. Watching what is happening in Egypt on television and reading about it in the news has really re enforced my view that global education is going to make a difference in the world.

The world is changing, and I intend to help be the cause for that change. In my own small way, I am standing for the people of Egypt. I'm rooting for you, Egyptians. Thank you for being an inspiration in a world that needs your voice.