My McBride

I heard that they're doing McDonald's weddings in Hong Kong.

//

I went to see James McBride today, the author of The Color of Water. I showed up late because I came from my first hockey game, which started extremely late, and so I had to leave early, after I scored a goal, while the game was still going on. I dropped my gallon of water on the rink on the way out. People were upset but Matt B took care of it. I felt like an idiot. I was still a little late for the speech but that was okay.

I sat alone, but realized that people I knew were sitting very close to me. I could see Haley, Jen, and Grace in the front row with the speaker series. James was wearing a hat and it made his face hard to see. My favorite line of his, when he was talking about discrimination and why it's bad, was the following:

"People who discriminate against gay people, they're no friend of mine. [...] In fact, God's gay, and he's a woman, and she's from Texas. How's that?"

//

I came to Shengnan's play late as well, because I had to leave another hockey game sort of early, although I don't really know if it was early or not. It took me forever to find parking because the lot I usually go to is under construction, so I had to run from another place, I actually don't even know where it is. I found 111 Forum faster than I normally do (it's right near 108!), and came in the second door, right near the sound person, who looked at me inquisitively. I looked for my friend HK who said she was coming, but to no avail. I sat down randomly.

I noticed Shengnan playing in the pit, which was facing the door to another Forum classroom so that the conductor could lead them. She was wearing a black dress with a bow on it. Tim B (from my hall) was in the play. There was also a guy with a painted-white face like Amanda Palmer and the other guy in Dresden Dolls, like in the Coin-Operated Boy video, I liked him a lot, but I think I was biased.

There was a girl sitting behind me who I didn't know and I liked before I talked to her. She leaned forward the whole time and laughed lightly and often. Additionally, she was cute. As the play went on, I considered turning to talk to her, see if I could charm her pants off, or maybe her underwear, though I'm not actually interested in that. As it turned out, she actually tapped my shoulder at the first, and asked me if I knew what time it was or how long the play was going to go on. I told her I had no idea but joked about how long it felt, and she laughed, and we said we were both really just here to see friends in the cast, and so we went to find them.

Peace out.

Campus Squirrels

I wish the squirrels on campus knew that I would never do anything to hurt them >.<

Peace out.

Chickens and Stabbing Apples

Two days ago, a bunch of guys from the floor and I went to Rigatoni's - Monday Rigatoni's, which is the best Rigatoni's, except for Wednesday. We got an inaugural cookie. Collin, Matt, Tarik, Nick, Tim, and Mike were there.

Dinner was cool. We talked about eggs, because someone asked if there were eggs in the salad. I asked if eggs were always so perfectly shaped and perfectly white, or if we had selected for chickens who made eggs like that, and thus forced them to evolve to where that was all they made. Some kids suggested that they had always been like that because the structure is the strongest that could be made. Matt, however, suggested that we had evolved them into this. He also suggested that chickens would soon be evolved into nothing but egg factories, who would sit in a barn eating a constant stream of corn and pooping a constant stream of eggs, which has the consequence, he said, that if one ever escaped, the entire world would be covered by eggs in a matter of days. I almost died laughing. I've retold the story a few times since then, and each time I died laughing. Even as I was writing this right now, I started laughing.

In either case, after we were done eating, we played the napkin game. You throw napkins into people's empty drink cups, and if you get a napkin in and then also get one in on the very next shot, then you win. More accurately, your victim loses. And the next time you have dinner with them, they can't have a drink. And they also have to wear the same color shirt for a week, even if that's the only shirt they have of that color.

During that, Matt got up to get an apple and some forks. He explained that you throw the apple to someone else at the table and they try to catch it by stabbing it with their fork. Then you throw it to someone else. We all thought you'd take the fork out, but he clarified, "No, you leave the fork in when you throw it. You just throw it by letting go of your fork." And so we all got our forks ready and started doing it. It was easier to stab it than I thought it would be, and eventually we were lobbing around this apple-and-three-fork conglomeration. I got my fork ready in hyper-stabbing mode and went for it so hard it just went straight through the side of the apple. Someone else slammed it down into their bowl.

Then a crotchety 30-something at the table behind us got up and came to our table.

"I know you guys think it's fun to act like you're 5, I know I did when I was in college, but you break it you buy it, so I think it's time for you to leave."

There were so many things wrong with the situation that we didn't even know what to do. First, she had no authority. Second, people break things in dining halls all the time and don't pay for them. Third, we already bought the apple, so if we broke it, who cares. We were seriously just dumbfounded, and not knowing which place of idiocy to capitalize on, we just left, and arranged for what to do next time. Possibilities included inviting her to play with us; asking her what crawled up her ass and died; telling her that she didn't have any authority to kick us out; telling her that we already bought it so we didn't have to buy it; suggesting that SHE leave; waiting until she asked us for our ID cards and then just running as fast as we could since they're all old and out of shape.

Peace out.

A Conversation with Gift

She told me her real name, though I forget what it was. Thai people usually have very long first names, apparently, and instead go by nicknames. Her nickname was Gift, which is apparently a very common one in Thailand. She was sitting in the orange chair by the main door in Emerson's apartment, the one that we didn't come in through at first. She was wearing green and black on top, which khaki-ish shorts, and lip gloss and eye-liner. Emerson and I talked to her for a little bit about Semester at Sea and how she could get the same scholarship that he did - by being an East Asian Studies major or minor - while I tried to show her that it was actually cheaper than a normal semester at UVA, which was beared out by the websites of the two organizations' own numbers. She also said that she was a biology major and didn't know if she could pull of the East Asian major or minor.

She told me that she had studied in a boarding school in Connecticut before coming to UVA, just for a year, and that was her first time in the states. She said that she mostly felt used to it by now, though. She used to be alright at speaking, but then she got self-conscious and clammed up, and from talking less and less, her English got worse and worse. Her roommate was the one to help her, and said that she could always talk to her and ask her for help with speaking or writing or anything. And slowly, over time, they worked on it. Her conversation with me was perfectly flowing. She said that she missed her roommate a lot.

I asked her what she thought was the most striking difference between Thailand and America. One thing she mentioned was the parties, and that she didn't understand why people did things like that. I forget what aspect of it she didn't like, but it was one of the same things that I've never liked - dark, loud, drunk, crowded... something along those lines.

And she said that friends were different.

"So tomorrow, you will wake up and maybe you won't think about me, but when you do think about me, you will say I'm your friend, right?"

"Right."

"It's not like that in Thailand. When you say friend, you mean someone very, very close to you. Someone who you think about every day."

Interesting.

"So that's why I don't just hang out with American people and I hang out with Thai people too, because they understand what friends are to me."

Peace out.

Disasster

So yesterday was Wednesday. I shouldn't have had much to do but I always find things for myself to do.

I woke up around 10 or whatever and went to Tarik's class again. Nate Brown is really cool and the class is actually willing to talk to each other, which is very rare and special. I was in a group with Tarik and a kid named David who is a senior in high school and Nate referred to us as "the smart kid group," which I thought was a little premature but nice anyway. We walked back with Hortense and I forget what we talked about but I remember having a good time.

I'm pretty sure I spent most of the next time working on the song for CAS 100H. People stopped in a few times I think but I made some good progress and I think I had a verse or two by the time I was supposed to go to lunch.

I went to lunch at Simmons and was supposed to eat with Lucy, really, but she had to be a little late, but that was okay because Hortense was coming too. I showed up a little early to get food so I would be done when they got there and I could just talk to them. Hortense was the first to come, and she brought a friend named Stephanie who lives in McElwain and did the same Shanghai program that Hortense did and is a math education major. It was nice to meet her, and I might talk to her about teacher stuff sometime. Lucy came when I was just about to go really, so I told her I'd like to see her again and we decided to try for Friday's lunch.

I left for a meeting with Ron in his office. When I showed up one of the officers was talking to him about club stuff, and the kid who played varsity soccer was also there and discussed whether or not he should take an actuarial job at Chubb. He had worked in their PMU over the summer but I don't think had quite as good of an experience as I did. Eventually he left and so Ron and I got to talking. I wanted to check if he had gotten the Cambodia material and so we went through his email and he found that he did actually have it. He gets a million emails all the time so I don't blame him for not getting to it. I just wanted to make sure. After that we talked about my summer, and my life plans, the things I wanted to do and could do, and the things he had done and some politics about the department and the colleges and the major. He's a really nice guy. I never knew he was almost a music major. He's so cool.

When I was done I went back to the dorm to work more on the song, and Lisa stopped by. I played it for her, but I went too fast or something and so she had to look at the lyrics. She liked the part about Facebook stalking. Other people came in for a while and hung out on the futon. I finished writing the last lines of the song while they were still there and I didn't even have the guitar, but they worked out fine when they tried them.

I had to kick them out because I needed to go to French. I went there, and we did our first real listening activity, I think, which was kind of hard. French is such a dumb language. And they talk so fast. The teacher always says "Isaac" wrong. I wonder if she's a native English speaker or not. Her accent is pretty much dead on though... pretty convincingly American... but sometimes she asks "Is that how you say it in English?"

I left and went straight to dinner 'cuz I wanted to play hockey. I told Kozi that he could come, and after some back and forth it worked out that I picked him up a little after 6 and went to the rink without going to Eddy's. His friend Azad came. He was built and Assyrian and a nice guy and a pretty good player, too. At first we just shot around a little bit and were afraid the rink was going to be too full, but then a big group left and it was just the three of us and three other dudes, so we played air-post against them. The clear winning strategy is to go right up on the red line and then shoot sideways... so yeah, we did well against them. Two of the guys on their side were really good and I should have gotten their info to play club with them, but didn't. Later, Timmy and Dyke and Kirky and other club guys showed up and played too. Dyke and Timmy were incredibly impressive, as always, and we played until it got dark.

I forget exactly what I did when I came back, but it was around 9:00PM or so. I think I went to Will and Drew's apt at some point to help Will with some math, and then went to visit Emily, and then returned later to the apartment to help with another small math question before going to fourth meal with the crew. Things were cut on the floor in the studio, too, that was before I went away to the apt. After fourth meal, people hung out in my room for a long time. Tarik stayed until 12:30 but then went to bed; Matt and Ariel stayed until sometime around 2; Emily stayed until sometime around 4 because we had a really nice conversation, and then I went to bed.

Peace out.

Personal Statement

I started trying to write my personal statement for the Fulbright scholarship tonight, specifically about how I'm disappointed with my academic success since I've left high school. I didn't even make it to the end of that paragraph and I was almost crying. I gave up for the night. I'll try again tomorrow hopefully.

Peace out.

It's Unforunate

thinking of you = toy

i feel that this coincidence has robbed us of a great acronym.

somewhat less direct/useful:

love you miss you = lymy (limey)

peace out

Ouch

In regards to keeping insurance losses low:

"...smaller businesses located in areas indicative of simpler lifestyles tended to perform much better than the rest of the country..."

Hooray, right?! It continues:

"...the blue collar impact can most likely be attributed to the fact that lower-educated workers employed outside of large metro areas have less access to the legal system and a lower sense of self-entitlement."

Ouch.

Peace out.

"Corporate Isn't for You, Is It?"

There was a "former intern panel" at ACE today, which included two interns and two full-time workers, and I'm not sure either of them were actually interns at ACE. I didn't get a whole lot out of it, but I guess I did have some questions I was curious about.

The first I asked was what ACE thought about working from home. I think I may be able to convince myself to work in the corporate world under some circumstances, and this one may play a part. Either that, or the building needs to be REALLY close to my house, or I need to be able to pick my own hours well under forty per week. She said they were largely cool with it, especially in the summer, but that you need to build up trust, and your managers will know if you're doing work or not.

The second - which I asked later - was about "vacation" time. I asked her if there was anything they could do for people who wanted to push all of their vacation time or roll it over, if that were possible, such that they could actually have a meaningful abroad experience rather than some vacation at a resort/beach, which I said I was not interested in at all. She said it might be possible to take three weeks of vacation all at once, or more when you've worked up to it, but that you really can't roll it over like that. Later a girl came to me and said that her dad works there and has like five vacation weeks per year, and that he's been considering doing something like that, but that it takes a lot of organization and planning for the seventy days when you'll be gone, and that discourages a lot of people from doing it.

Before I left the room even, her brother had come up to me and said, "So the corporate world really isn't for you, is it?"

I didn't know I was being that obvious.

Peace out.

Things I Did After Work Today

1. Got a haircut

2. Practiced Khmer

3. Bought apples for lunch

4. Worked on dreamcatcher

5. Cleared memory card

6. Charged camera battery

7. Got food ideas from Matt

8. Acquired bitTorrent stuff

9. Acquired The Room

10. Sent Ariel all pics/vids

11. Found Shawshank Redemption

12. Inflated tires

13. Read the 17 Project blog

14. Ironed my new shirt

God I'm impressed with myself. I also watched The Daily Show.

Peace out.

Recounting

I feel like, as a service to myself (more than anyone else reading this... as if anyone does anymore?) I should recount the awesomeness that was this weekend. Quickly.

Got out of work at 4:30 on Friday, met Caitlin's sister and her husband, who were extremely cool, and her friend Joan, who was also pretty damn cool.

Went to Fat Tuesday's on South Street with the actuaries from ACE and had an okay time, but was worried about getting back to my car the whole time.

Left at 7 and made it to Lauren W's graduation party by 7:40PM or so, which is like AMAZING time for going from Philly to GV (!)WITH(!) a stop at Wawa.

Hung out there for a while, talked to Steve and met Lauren's mom and talked to Pacificos.

Went to go play open hockey at Marple Sports Arena with Chas, which was a little costly and very crowded, but tons of fun! Ran into a fat dude with my neck and that sucked.

Came back and hung out with Jess and Sam while they watched a show about Whale Wars. Ate cookies with them and talked for a while. She gave me her wedding invitation, which was painted by Sam's mom. She asked me to pay for breakfast but I said no.

She made me breakfast the next morning, including chocolate milk. We had cereal and talked.

I worked on 100 Nights and essentially finished it, except I'm not sure how I feel about the bg harmonies in the bridge. Tone quality is pretty shaky.

Went to Five Guys Burger and Fries because I was feeling American after watching us let up an incredibly embarrassing goal to England in five minutes.

Went to Krissy M's graduation party, learned her name is Kristina, and gave her cookies which she didn't eat until the next day. A random family member called Tracy H my girlfriend, which totally caught us off guard, but we went with it.

Went to Sarah Jones's party and saw Gina for the first time in a long time, along with a number of other people. Briana was there and she looked really pretty in her white dress. I talked to Erik about Arabic stuff.

Went to Melissa DJ's party and talked to her brother for a while about his life, then went back to have a bonfire with everyone. Stayed until everyone was gone except for Melissa and Steve F, who was in the same "circuit" as me, it seems.

Tried to go back to Krissy's house at night, but miscommunication and an ever-wake mother stopped that from happening.

Wrote an email to Xiao and Christina K, and told Megan R we should hang out. I think I contacted someone else, too, but I forget who.

Woke up to play hockey at 8:45 and did so until about noon.

Went to graduation, Joe Biden was there, Ceci gave a speech, Tracy said she hadn't told her parents yet.

Went home to eat dinner with my family.

Went to Katie R's graduation barbeque, and ran into her grandmother, who is extremely nice and remembered me from when Katie put my music onto her iPod. Talked to Nick a good bit, and then Stasi about college and what to expect.

Came home.

Sang in the car a lot.

Peace out.

Piano Bracelet

I made the first one in South Africa because the stencil shop didn't have any clever stencils.

Then I realized it was wrong sometime when I was still on the ship.

So I made this one.

Peace out.

Work

So tomorrow I start my internship at ACE. Probably I shouldn't be typing this on the interwebs, but OH WELL. I'm not particularly excited about working there. I'm afraid that tomorrow the other interns are gonna show up and be like, "Man I'm so excited about finances and insurance!" and then they'll ask me if I'm excited and I'll just be like, "...yeah... man! ... insurance...! ...okay honestly I really don't want to be here."

But maybe it'll be okay. Maybe. Transportation is also an issue. There doesn't appear to be any great solution. Maybe I'll just go with Dad.

I told Mom that I want to be a teacher and she seemed almost personally offended by the idea. She made some dick comment about "If you ever want to live alone and not with a roommate you better be an actuary for a while." I think that was patently ridiculous considering the inordinately large amount of money I've saved in my life plus what I'll be making this summer, plus the fairly cheap rent for some place in the area. Plus I live cheap in general, plus I could work, and it's not like teachers live poor.

I wish she would be happy with me just being happy, instead of me being rich.

Peace out.

Happiness Video

The South African chick is hyper cute.

Peace out.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Hit play button hiding at the bottom. Right-click when it starts to play. Toggle full-screen. Fast-forward to 15 minutes.

Peace out.

The Worst Day

//

 

This is the last page of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, where Oskar fantasizes about life going backward on September 11th, when his father died in the twin towers.

 

"

 

I ripped the pages out of the book.

 

I reversed the order, so the last one was first, and the first was last.

 

When I flipped through them, it looked like the man was floating through the sky.

 

And if I'd had more pictures, he would've flown through a window, back into the building, and the smoke would've poured into the hole that the plane was about to come out of.

 

Dad would've left his messages backward, until the machine was empty, and the plane would've flown backward away from him, all the way to Boston.

 

He would have taken the elevator to the street and pressed the button for the top floor.

 

He would've walked backward to the subway, and the subway would've gone backward through the tunnel, back to our stop.

 

Dad would've gone backward through the turnstile, then swiped his Metrocard backward, then walked home backward as he read the New York Times from right to left.

 

He would've spit coffee into his mug, unbrushed his teeth, and put hair on his face with a razor.

 

He would've gotten back into bed, the alarm would've rung backward, he would've dreamt backward.

 

Then he would've gotten up again at the end of the night before the worst day.

 

He would've walked backward to my room, whistling "I Am the Walrus" backward.

 

He would've gotten into bed with me.

 

We would've looked at the stars on my ceiling, which would've pulled back their light from our eyes.

 

I'd have said "Nothing" backward.

 

He'd have said "Yeah, buddy?" backward.

 

I'd have said "Dad?" backward, which would have sounded the same as "Dad" forward.

 

He would have told me the story of the Sixth Borough, from the voice in the can at the end to the beginning, from "I love you" to "Once upon a time..."

 

We would have been safe.

 

"

 

Peace out.

I Remember

There’s a list in my Religion and Politics folder full of things that I remember.  I don’t really know why I started it; I guess I just felt like it one day after the twelfth day of school.  And now I don’t know what to do with it really, but I feel like I should do something.  I think I’d like to write about everything in some detail, but I think the list itself is also just sort of fun.  So I think, for now, I’m just going to write it:

 

- Stepping on a cactus
- Someone getting their nail cut by a crab
- Watching home videos of Ryan dropping his Slimer ice cream and losing his shoe on a Ferris wheel
- A video of Ryan pushing me into the snow and then kicking me
- Crying on my bed in Avalon because I felt bad that Dad never caught huge fish
- The ice cream man at the beach; “Fudgie Wudgie!” and “Ice cream, soda, rip off!”
- Choco Taco vs. Chipwich, and the time I dropped my Chipwich in the sand.
- The time I almost drowned from that huge wave, and the time I almost drowned by falling in the bay
- Always wanting a waverunner and never getting one
- The huge hornet thing that Jess and I swear was real underneath the deck at the old house
- Eating all of Ryan’s gummi worms with Kevin D while watching The Price is Right in kindergarten
- Flipping Kevin D over my head trying to be like Vega from Street Fighter
- Discovering This American Life on the first car ride back from going to Wildwood TIA
- Cocoa escaping from Bobby and I on the way down to Avalon
- The cigarette hole in my khaki shorts that we never figured out how it was made
- The three girls we met at the beach that asked to use our house but I never liked them
- Christian doing the left hand dance
- When the cats chewed on our fingers
- When Erin and I watched Law and Order:  SVU every night
- When I should have kissed Beth in Gina’s pool
- The first time I kissed Viv and she asked, “Can I help you?”
- The last time I tried to kiss Viv and she wouldn’t let me
- Watching Supersize Me and then giving up soda and McDonald’s
- The time I wrote like 4 songs in 8 weeks
- Kelly and I celebrating Fake Valentine’s Day, getting pizza and a blue jacket and flowers
- Wesley Willis and making a video for Rock & Roll McDonald’s
- Playing piano on my desk in class in ninth grade behind Ezra Han
- Practicing my drumline parts on my desk in class
- The night in Schlichter’s basement with Synthesis when they put on the hardhats
- Joekat being funny/awkward to try to get Mrs. Mattei to like him
- Ticking Danny Boselli until he wanted to kill us all
- That Kevin and I stopped being friends
- Letting down John Alfuth from Mexico by never sending him Dane Cook or Crank Yankers
- Hating Junior Prom more than anything in the world
- Me, Gina, Chloe and Molly were friends at Wildwood once
- When Kim and I talked every single night
- When I thought about holding people when I went to sleep
- The time Mr. Ricci yelled at Alex for almost no reason
- Chis Hopper showing me to fold strips of paper when I was bored at Hi-Q practice
- Corky hitting his head on the microphone on stage
- Talking to Dr. Arensberg while skipping French
- Outlining at the computer with textbook in lap
- The Infinity Q45 and the belt exploding with Jen Lue in the car
- Exploring the Church of Our Savior while singing Fallout Boy and Steve was filming
- Making mustard gas(?) and the girl getting drenched in the emergency shower while wearing a white t-shirt
- My graduation speech going over way better than I thought it would
- Eating at the diner in Allentown before DCI, and at the West Chester Diner twice
- Making brownies with Sonali
- Tarik coming to me at the piano to learn Mr. Brightside, and seeing him again during Ramadan
- Ariel telling the dolphin story at camp and then breaking my hand
- John Kuderka getting three strikes for nothing with Dr. C
- Make A Difference Day with Bobby
- Ashley vB, the Difference of Squares and seeing her on a plane
- Playing chess and losing to Lauren McLaughlin
- Teacher Gnorene, the club about not liking a girl, and having lunch at her house
- Lightning from Elam Love & Learn.  Sticking my tongue out at David
- Praying before snack with Mrs. Montella, and seeing her later in Genuardi’s
- Getting sick the night of the sixth grade lock-in
- CN Skate Palace roller hockey and Dave O
- Playing hockey in the street every day with Somers and Dhruv
- The time the neighborhoods kids tried to ditch Ryan and me but he found the Hewlitt kid
- Being left at CCD forever that one time
- Mr. Doyla “donating his liver” for the expansion
- John K being stabbed by Dennis W with a pencil
- Double D gymnastics
- Eating lunch without our thumbs in seventh grade
- Trying to make Bobby laugh so hard he spit out his drink
- Joining the soccer team for Dorney Park
- Timmy L getting shot right in the balls by Jim F
- MathCounts
- Getting a B in science AND social studies
- The stupid projects in Mr. Wright’s class that I absolutely hated
- My car crash
- Puking in Las Vegas and Ryan getting salmonella
- The Big Red Boat
- Jess getting chicken pox, Lyme Disease, and appendicitis
- When I cut my hair short and wore flannel jackets in fifth grade
- Forgetting the football on the last day of recess
- Jasmine, Somers, Olivia and Priya
- My first homerun in softball
- Shutting my finger in the window in 6th grade
- Club Rush with Jess and O’Neil

 

Actually, on this list I have on entry that reads “The first time I heard” and then there’s nothing.  I forget what I was writing, even though whatever it was, I was writing it today.

 

Peace out.

Shiptease

If you follow this blog but not my other one about Semester at Sea, you're doing something wrong.

http://shiptease.blogspot.com

Peace out.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Some Things I Will Miss

-Roller hockey

-Playing my own piano

-Playing piano without people outside my family listening

-Playing guitar

-Driving

----and listening to NPR

----and screaming songs at the top of my lungs

-Seeing the GV kids' drumline season

----especially the seniors, the last year of the ones I knew

-Seeing the GV kids enjoy their senior spring

-Knowing where I am exactly

-The Simmons Pearl River piano

-Bothering everyone in the dorms at Penn State

-XKCD every M/W/F

-Dinosaur Comics every weekday

-Text messaging (just a little bit)

-The Internet, in general

----SomethingAwful

----GMail

----Streaming NPR

-Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

-This American Life

-Radio Times

-Using a mouse with my laptop

-Using a non-laptop keyboard

-Homecooked food

-Mom & Dad

----Ryan & Jess

----Cocoa & Ginger

----Gauss

-Seeing Nana a few more times

-Mother's Day? Father's Day?

-Spring break back here

-Making t-shirts

----Making the designs

-The Daily Show

-Jersey Shore

-Wife Swap

-My bed

----My pillow

-My blanket from childhood, if I don't pack it...

-My shower

----Specifically the shower head

-Mom doing laundry

-Pretty much every single friend from GV, PSU, Brown and elsewhere

-Land

-Lack of sea sickness

-Emergency room access w/out aid of helicopter

-Having fun without spending much money

-Bowling

-Springfield THON

-THON IN GENERAL

-Being at PSU and NOT being in drumline

-My old cell phone

----Really my dad's old cell phone...

-Feeling informed about world events

-TastyKakes

-Genuardi's

-Wawa

-Weekend nights in the valley

-TGI Friday's

-Cossart Road

-Math

-My single room

-Rigatoni's

In no particular order.

And I'm sure I'm forgetting things.

I think part of my problem is that I'm really good at thinking about all the things I'll miss, and pretty awful at thinking about all the things I'll get to know.

Peace out.

Jeff Free IX

Semester at Sea asked us to fill out a survey about our pre-voyage experience. I told them that I found things a little overwhelming, because they asked what they could do better. One question asked if you would suggest Semester at Sea to your three or four closest friends, and I said, "I recommend it to all of my friends, and sometimes total strangers." The last question asked what three or four sentences/phrases you'd use to describe S.A.S. to someone who was asking about it, so I said:

"It's basically a floating university, you take four classes for credit while you're on the ship, and you stop in 10-12 countries depending on what specific voyage you're on and you get to explore.

Then I give them a YouTube link to I'm On a Boat."

Maybe they'll appreciate that. Maybe they're sick of it.

Peace out.