Grand Adventure In The Alps

Please tell me that an adventure involving these places would not be awesome. I dare you.

Paris-Nice-Rome-Zurich-(somewhere in germany)-Paris

Um yeah. Awesome.

My Ruminations On WQ Paris

Ok, so I wrote earlier that I am torn between two Study Abroad Programs for Winter Quarter next year. My options are International Studies or Social Sciences, both in Paris. I've thought on it a lot over the last 12 or whatever hours, talked it through with some people I trust a lot, and I think I've decided. But I'll still share my ruminations just to reassure myself or whatever.

The Courses

IS-Three required courses: Lecture Series on International Organizations (which sounds AMAZING), Intro to European Issues 2 (not sure why its a 2?) and French in Paris. Plus one elective.

SS-Two required courses: Introduction to the European Union (which also sounds amazing), and French in Paris. Plus two electives.

HOWEVER, I probably won't have to take French in Paris because I'm so far along in French that it would be pointless, which means I would get another elective.

For sure one of the electives I would take would be History of Paris, the others are unknown because they won't actually know until next fall what is being offered. They did assure me that History of Paris would be available.

So the decision is do I want the EU class + 3 electives? Or the Organizations class + the Europe Issues class (which sounds so-so) + 2 electives?

The people

I shouldn't really care about this, because by the time this program rolls around I will have been in Paris for at least 4 months. This means I will hopefully be independent, and I will hopefully have some friends in Paris? But the people situation could affect my decision? Maybe?

Here's the sitch: I know several people who are considering applying for the IS program. One of these people (no names) is one that I don't really want to do the program with. I know that this person will not appreciate the city like I will, and I don't want to deal with someone putting down my city (because its already been decided that I love Paris). Also, I am fairly good friends with this person, and I know that they will want to hang out, and I know that the kinds of things I will want to do and they will want to do will be very different. Basically I feel like if I do this program with this person it could very well be the end of whatever friendship we have. Is it worth that? Otherwise I know that the majority of the kids applying for the SS program are going to be econ majors. Can I deal with that?

THE DECISION

So here is what I came up with.

First, in regards to courses. I'm going to go for the IS. I think having to take three electives and only one set course isn't really worth it. The IS program has at least one interesting class, and the European Issues one could be cool. Depends. AND I've come up with a plan. I'm going to try to take the EU class as one of my electives. That will only really work if they have room for me in the class, which could hinge on the SS program being full, but still, I'm going to try to weasel my way in as best I can.

In regards to people. Since course-wise the IS program is a much better fit, I'm going to bite the bullet with this person that could potentially be there. I'm going to hope that by the time they get to Paris I will have already created a routine, and hopefully found a niche, so I will let them make what they want of the program, but I won't really interact with them. One thing that could help me with this is if I can keep my same room over the Winter Break. Meaning, I don't change my room to be closer to my program. This way I keep myself isolated, and hopefully I have fun friends by where my room is anyways!

So yeah, IS Program, I AM APPLYING FOR YOU. Hopefully I'll get in and these ruminations will be worthwhile?

Split Decision

I went to the Study Abroad Office today to try to figure out which Winter Quarter Paris Program I should apply to, and I came out of it more split than when I went in.

I'm going to ruminate about this during IS and then I'll give you my pros and cons.

But seriously, just based on the names... which should I do? International Studies or Social Sciences?

I Feel The Need To Blog

Wow. My life has been really uneventful lately. Seriously, my blog sucks. I need something cool to write about or something. (*crosses fingers for a good paris decision*)

Tonight I feel like I need to blog, but I don't have anything that great to write about, so this is a definite random edition. My apologies.

First off. I got my first flask today. I know I know. I don't drink at all, so I have absolutely no legitimate use for it (ok I could put like water or kool-aid in it... but seriously). It was gift though, so I have to accept it. I got it for chairing at MUNUC, and it has this cute inscription of MUNUC XX on it. I'll probably just put it on display by my MUNUC gavel and then it will end up in a box. And then when I'm thirty I'll come across it and laugh my ass off.

My biology class is fucking ridiculous. I only actually go maybe once a week (something I'm trying to fix, sort of) and when I do I usually want to leave early because it makes me feel so stupid or something. Or like I'm in High School... that's it. So today we had a discussion, and after the discussion we had to fill out a worksheet (yeah a worksheet). One of the questions on the worksheet was: What is the perfect human being? I KNOW. A kid in the group next to mine was definitely talking about wizards. But one of my partners had a better answer... WOLVERINE. Seriously. That guy is THE PERFECT human. Well, he's not really human, but thats why he's perfect. My group essentially put that as our answer, and I'm looking forward to seeing how are professor grades it.

Also, my reality TV sort of sucks right now. Wow, I'm not even going to elaborate on that. Wow.

Ok, I think I need to stop writing before my blog gets shut down for sucking. I've got a meeting in Study Abroad tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have something great to blog about tomorrow.

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*UPDATE*

When I tried to post this blog the website wouldn't let me for the first three tries. AHAHAHA. They must have known that it was going to suck ass. So funny.

Pool

I've forgotten how nice it is to go swimming. This is probably a result of the fact that I don't really have the time to go to the pool very often, even though its like a block away. The open swim hours aren't that great, as they fall between 6-9, which is usually when I have meetings or am eating dinner. BUT NOT ANYMORE. Now that MUNUC is past, I've got Tuesdays and Thursdays open from about 8 on, so I've decided that I'm going to swim! I've been twice already, and my muscles sort of hate me for it. I'm more out of shape than I thought I was, which means going to the pool has been a good idea. In honor of my triathlon plans I'm going to try to keep going twice a week until spring break, where a major overhaul of my training will most certainly be occurring. Mostly because I'll have access to a bike again. Oh my bike. I seriously need spring or a trainer FAST or my mind might explode. I miss riding more than just about anything, and its driving me mad. And the pool can't really step in for that. Darn.

Victory Pizza

My IM Indoor Soccer Team got to order a victory pizza today. Why? Oh, because we are CHAMPIONS. Yeah, so we won the Independent Co-Ed Division. Sort of. It's a funny story. There were only two teams in our division. We played the regular season in a Residence Division. We went 0-3 and we definitely thought our season was over. Then Tamsen, the head of IMs, e-mails me about tournament play, and I was like "what the hell?" Then I figured out that we got to play because we were oneof two Independent teams. So we automatically proceeded to the finals. And then we won. So we are officially champions.

Next week (or the week after, not sure) we get to play the winners of the Residence division, which pretty much means we are going to get our asses handed to us. BUT WHO CARES, we are still champions.

AND WE GET FREE IM CHAMPION T-SHIRTS, AND I'M GOING TO WEAR MINE EVERYDAY.

Cheers (holding up victory pizza)!

Pictures

I've been really ADD today, and have been having a hell of a time getting my homework done, so I've been putting my pictures on a photo-sharing website. Below are two of the albums I've put together. I haven't put any comments on the pictures or anything, something I'm sure I'll do soon. Anyways, I thought I would put these up because they were pretty cool adventures I've had in the last year.

So yeah, enjoy?