Halte La!

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 20:18:09 GMT

I saw this on somebody's facebook wall and it made me chuckle (particularly the Native State bit, as it's one of my favorite pubs).

At first I was afraid, I was petrified!
Kept thinking I could never pass with no revision guide.
But then I spent so many nights, getting all the questions wrong
And I grew strong, and I learned I could scrape along,
I won't look back, to any place,
When I can swallow 15 pints and get completely off my face,
I would have revised by the clock, I would have had no spare time free,
If I'd thought for just one second my exams would bother me,
So all my notes, are on the floor,
Don't even matter... there's Native State just through that door...
Weren't you the one who tried to get me to revise?
You think I'd crumble? You think I'd work towards the skies?
Oh no, not I! I won't revise!
Unless I die from alcohol, I know I'll stay alive,
Though my money's at an end, I've my overdraft to spend,
I won't revise, I won't revise!!
It took all the strength I had, not to act the part,
But in the end my real revision didn't even start.
I used to sit at home at night, feeling sorry for myself,
I used to try, But now I hold my head up high,
And you see me! Somebody new!
I'm not that mixed up mental chick who wants a good 2:2
So if you feel like dropping in, chances are that I'll be free,
Cos I've done fuck all revision, and I'm failing my degree!
Oh no, not I! I won't revise!
I think that I may scrape a third, but I could be telling lies!
Let the lecturers all scorn, my bed's far too nice and warm,
I won't revise, I won't revise… Oh dear!!

....

And yet, I'm being really productive, for once!

Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:38:09 GMT

And so, I'm off again.
I haven't seen a lot of people I wanted to see, but that seems to be the case pretty often when life is one goodbye after another.

France, then, who knows? I sure as hell didn't enjoy Edinburgh enough to not consider other options. Which scares me a lot. Perhaps I am going back, perhaps not.

In any case, goodbye. Again.
Missing people is on the agenda.

Sat, 13 May 2006 02:43:36 GMT

Today I saw a man walking an adorable golden retriever puppy. It was kinda lagging behind, and an old woman asked the man what kind of dog it was.

To which he replied "A pain in the ass"
As sorry as I felt for the puppy, it was pretty funny.

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 17:20:08 GMT

While in line to pay at Tesco today, I was in the hygiene aisle. I just found it amusing that there were no condoms in stock, but an abundance of KY jelly.

Oh, and the KY was *right* next to the slimfast bars.

The point of this update being somewhat nonexistant, I'm going to make a list of what I have to finish in the near future. That way, I'll feel guilty whenever I check liveournal, and maybe be more efficient.

Ombra Mai Fu
Apres Un Reve
Charmant fucking Papillon
Practice!
Music theory homework
Music theory practical project (however, I don't yet know what that'll be)
Remaining 1983 words of Japanese history essay
Kanji portfolio
Japanese homework
Japanese rap (very strange group work project due on my birthday)
Study!

I have no motivation for the bottom five.

Fri, 17 Feb 2006 10:08:18 GMT

Last night I watched a bunch of British kids fake American accents in Edinburgh's production of "42nd Street," and it was cute.
The sad thing was... my general experience of watching a broadway show at school took me back to Bronx Scence. As such, I was scanning the cast for faces I knew from High School to no avail. I felt a bit silly and nostalgic at the same time.

...

And when I woke up this morning, I saw a hairy spider on my curtain. I'm not a big fan of spiders, considering they like to bite me in the head, so I tried to kill it. Considering the curtain is not a flat surface, I failed, and it is now somewhere in my room. Meh. It's really too cold to open the window, so I just hope it leaves me alone.

I can kind of hear it crawling though.

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:52:28 GMT

I looked at my watch this morning, at 11:30 ish, and I thought "it's time for fifth period lunch."
Wow. Oh, Bronx Science.

Last night I saw Tchaikovsky's (Perrault's) Sleeping Beauty with Heloise and her boyfriend Daniel. The costumes/sets were gorgeous. And because it's Tchaikovsky, the music was purty, too.
That said, I'd seen some more impressive dancing on television (watching swan lake at the Sheraton comes to mind, haha), but it was still nice to see. I was a bit confused, however, as they managed to wrap up the story after an hour and 45 minutes, but then they just had random dance sequences from other fairy tales for another half hour or so.

The three of us then had a drink (probably the best cider and black I've ever had), and stayed in the pub for a good hour. I then went back to the apartment, and on the way, realized that I forgot my umbrella in the theatre. Tear.

I want it to be May.

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 23:05:53 GMT

Stunning show.
(Yes, it was missing Johnny Depp, but I don't think he could do ballet)

Sat, 04 Feb 2006 21:34:24 GMT

I started my music theory homework at 12:00pm today. I just finished. It's 9:30.
The breaks for food and such must have added up to about an hour.

And now I have a paper to write!

Heloise is gone for the weekend, but we were productive with apartment searches on Friday. It hit me today, while listening to Avenue Q ("I wish I could go back to college"), that my college career will end with me never having had a dorm or meal-plan (visits to Oberlin don't count). I feel deprived?

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:48:38 GMT

Happy 250th, Mozart!

I wouldn't mind watching Amadeus right now... but I don't have it. Perhaps I will finally get to Entfuhrung, as I have no class today.

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:40:54 GMT

I don't think I ever want to go on an airplane ever again.
(But that is about as valid as a hungover college student claiming that he/she will never drink again).
Tuesday the 13th of December was one. long. fucking. day. But hey, at least it ended nicely.
I was awake at 4, Scottish time (funnily enough, the same time Mags and Louisa came home with two other people from a party). I nearly fell down the stairs carrying my suitcase/bag/trash, but eventually made it out of the house (albeit noisily) at 6am.
Now, the thing with Edinburgh is that there is more night than there is day. It's dark from about 4pm to 7am. So I walked in the dark, from Rankeillor to Cockburn Street (yes, cockburn, I don't care if it's pronounced "ko-burn"), crossing many remnants of the people's partying spewed on the road along the way, and eventually made it to the bus which took me to the airport for a fiver. You know it's a workout when you're sweating even if it's minus 8 outside.
I was relatively fresh for the Edinburgh to Paris flight, but the plane took it's sweet time to land. Which gave me 30 (thirty) minutes to transfer to my next flight. Which just happened to be in a different terminal. And Charles De Gaulle just happens to be one fucking huge airport. After the stress of missing the first bus to terminal 2C, once I actually got there, one of the scanners wasn't working. My plane was leaving in 15 minutes. When I got out of there I ran like a late french girl would when she's trying to catch a plane, shoving a couple of people along the way, but I eventually made it. Ironically. Once the gate was closed, the plane was delayed. "We're missing a few people, so we have to unload their bags."
Lovely.
Between gritting my teeth and developing a strange bump in my earlobe, I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (for Nostalgia, and because it's Johnny Depp), and played the computerized version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire in French on a touch tone screen. That's the fun part of 777 jets, those little screens (even if they end up killing your eyes when the person in front of you reclines their seat, so you're 3 inches away from the damn pixels). When I failed at sleeping, I looked at the little flight progression window, which said that we would arrive at 4:20. And that's when I started stressing again. We weren't delayed by that long, and there's NO WAY it could take 3 hours to get from Halifax to NY. None. And I had another plane to catch.
After about 8 hours from Paris to NY, we landed, a lot earlier than what the fucking computer predicted (by about 40 minutes). Things were once again OK, and I would be at Obieland in just a few more hours.
Waiting for the connection to Cleveland, I thought I'd call to say I'd make it, and wouldn't be sleeping at JFK. Naturally, my phone, which I'd bought after being told it would work abroad, did not, in fact, receive any network whatsoever. So I missed the good ole' days when payphones cost just 25 cents, and left a happy message.
Upon the arrival to Cleveland airport, there's nobody there... I get ready to shell out another .50 to call, and I hear an announcement: "Will A...Lexi...a Bet...betan..cowt please call Justin." How cute. So I do what I was about to do anyway, and there is good news once again. The initial, $20.00 plan to get someone to drive to the airport to pick me up fell through. And the LCT wasn't running. So I took out $40.00, hoping it would cover the taxi rates.
Oh, the cab ride. Fucking Scary. When we began to speak about languages, telling him that I, too, spoke French was the biggest mistake I made. He never ceased to hit on me after that point.
No exaggeration, here are some highlights of the conversation (which I'm putting all in English, but it was mixed with French as well). His name was Simon.
Simon: So, how long are you at Oberlin for.
A: 4 days
S: Ah, yea, cool. Well, there's not that much to do there, I have some friends who are also Moroccan at Lorain College. We should get together, maybe go to the Nightlclubs in Downtown Cleveland.
A:Mmm.
S: I really like wine, I know some good bars there too. Do you like wine?
A: (Trying to make a point that he should stop) Who doesn't, but I'm not old enough to go to a bar anyway.
S: How old are you?
A: 17.
S: Oh, you're a baby. But you should enjoy your youth. I'm 25. I like em... yea, 17 and upwards are good ages in my taste. Listen I'll give you my number, and you can call if ever you change your mind, and you get bored at Oberlin. You can bring your friend too.

...

And it kinda went on like that. Creepy.
But the worst part wasn't even that. When we got to the college, neither he nor I really knew where Burton dorm was. So I suggested he drop me off at the North of Tappan Square, since I knew it was somewhere around there. But he refused. He absolutely wanted to drop me off where I needed to be (which I interpreted as him wanting me in there for as long as possible). So another 15 minutes of driving around and he finally let me go behind Harkness.
And the cab ride cost 85 FUCKING DOLLARS.
I didn't have that money on me, and I didn't have much of a choice, so I paid by card which was really shady, as he was writing shit down on a piece of paper he borrowed from me and relaying the information to someone else. I was really too tired to care at that point, and just really happy to be where I was supposed to be.

So I'm finally happy, and really looking forward to the brief time I have here.

And yes, he did give me his number.

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 15:58:56 GMT

Y'know, I never thought I'd live to see the day where I'd hear the Indiana Jones theme played on bagpipes. By an old man wearing a kilt. Performing on the street.

It's moments like that...

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 23:38:25 GMT

Few things can be more awesome on a Friday night than a ceileidh.

which translates to:
Men in kilts, traditional Scottish music, and the greatest dance workout EVER.

I met Heloise there (this really nice British-French girl who sings), she taught me the first dance, and then went back to the door, taking tickets (it was sponsored by ESO which she's a part of).
The band was really good, it was just a fiddle, drums, and an accordeon, and they taught all of the dances. Most are really energetic, and I was sweating like a pig by the third one (isn't that lovely imagery?).
The best move by far is "flying baskets" in which two guys spin around, so their two partners are lifted in the air with their legs out.
It's a really nice atmosphere to be in, away from smoky bars, and (surprisingly) no drunk people. It wasn't just students either, a lot of professional dancers came, and there was this really cute old man in a kilt, who was an amazing dancer. I wish I had brought my camera.

In any case, it was the perfect thing to make me feel better about my horrendous audition.
What a mess that was, but I was satisfied with my practice, which can't be a bad sign.

To bed!

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 13:03:09 GMT

Edinburgh is really really cold.

Jess went out to buy a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon. That's right, I'm making chocolate cake.

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 11:43:24 GMT

My brother's in London.
I tried to call him, but the phone lines are out, and I can't email him, because he doesn't have internet.

I just want to know if he's ok... do any of you know if there's another way of finding this out? Would there be anything online releasing victims' names, or do I just have do wait this out?

I'm scared right now.

EDIT:
He called while I was at work, and he's ok. I feel extremely relieved.

Work

Tue, 21 Jun 2005 01:26:48 GMT

Was interesting. But employment is a strange thing...well... when one is employed by a corporation the size of the UN. Makes me feel kinda small. But it pays well, and, to be honest, that's all I really care about at this point and time, heh.

Today, I spent most of my time preparing letters for people saying that they were missing such and such documentation to create a bank account. And got seriously acquainted with the copy machine (and accidentally copied 15 papers on legal size, which meant I had to do them over, what a waste). I think I spent more time in that room than at "my" cubicle. The cool part was signing the letters with my name, which means in some random country (I sent stuff to Greece, Thailand, Jordan, and South Africa, among others), somebody's getting pissed off at UNFCU and me, haha. Also, I really liked some of the names there. Foreign names are really cool, but I don't remember any off the top of my head.

In any case, it was interesting considering that tomorrow, my job is to snitch on people's lateness. Or rather, record the document prepared by whoever really snitched. As of now, the main advantage to office jobs is their hours. I can't really say much else for them.
However..the moment of the day (or one of them) was leaving to make copies, and coming back to find a plum, a banana, and an apple on my desk. Justin's mother is an adorable woman.

And today last year, I was playing poker on my roof with the '04 seniors.
Graduation is Friday, and that's incredibly strange.

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 01:36:28 GMT

I really need a job. Otherwise I get shipped out of the country earlier than the date my plane ticket says (July 26th). Ironic that that precise date is actually hindering in getting me any job at all, since, uhh, most forms of employment tend to last the whole summer.

Anyone know of any decent 9 to 5's? I'm desperate.

I want to say I love them, but... (hurrah for parental rants!)

Fri, 27 May 2005 01:11:19 GMT

Once again, my parents give me the impression that they are about to disown me.
What have I done this time?

My mother walked into the room while I was giving myself a music test/trainer thingie.

Apparently, that's a crime, and it means I've got no personality anymore.
I think (well, I hope) I've gotten past being hurt by their words, because I know myself and my own values. What's troubling now is that I still have to follow what they say. I can't ignore it as I would like to, because they still have that control thing.

I really hope that next year, I can fix what they've destroyed.

Oh, and yes, I really need a job.
As my father put it, so lovingly:

"If you don't get a job by mid/end June, I'm sending you away. I don't care where, just out of this house. Out of this city, maybe out of this country. Away from your friends, so you can actually start thinking for yourself"

Well, in his case, 'thinking for myself' really means going tres-conservative.
(but as precaution, I sent like 4 responses to various craigslist ads)
Ah, fuck 'em.

Ice cream was definitely the highlight of my day, even though the line fiasco was ridiculous. Go chocolate devotion. I'm such an addict. Coldstone, despite their caffeine pill eccentricities, makes damn good ice cream.

Wed, 25 May 2005 01:40:01 GMT

I wish I had something more insightful to say than "stealing shoes is fun."
But I'm tired, and don't feel like writing much more.

Tue, 24 May 2005 02:06:33 GMT

I had quite the weekend, and it involved ninja hippies, and blue creatures running away from the French.
But I like the ninja hippies better. They make me happy.

Today, I realized that there is an opera for EVERYTHING. If your fantasy show involves airplanes, live births, Baldrick-esque countertenor refugees, drunk women, and bisexual men, then it’s called Flight.
And voice teachers confessing their obsessions with said Opera to their students deserve credit.

My brother has moved to London. His suitcase didn’t feel the need to join him, apparently, and it’s floating about somewhere in India. It’s the first time bad luck has hit this boy in years, and it makes me laugh in a very twisted way.

I could use some form of employment.

A most random, procrastinatory (that may not be a word) thought...

Tue, 17 May 2005 22:36:11 GMT

French people sound like real geeks describing tech software. Too many c's, p's and r's, too close together.

eh hop!

Tue, 17 May 2005 21:48:56 GMT

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your own journal...along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

The wedding guests crowded the many windows that faced the driveway, to see the honeymooners leave; but they had a confused departure.

Fuck you, Casella. Not only do I hate both you and your stupid book (that was from Owen Meany by the way, and if you haven't read it, don't bother), but your paper is smelly like mummified cat fart.
---
That said, economics class was spent looking up useless, but mildly entertaining gossip online with Terry, whilst writing a resume in which I bullshitted my way to saying that I was a cartoonist and French diction teacher. The former brings back memories from yesterday, about a certain teacher and his dog, as imagined by yours truly. Memories that I think are slightly unhealthy.
So my brother is moving to London on Friday. He's gonna live there a few years. As for myself, I am leaving the country on July 26th. If I'm rich enough, it will only be mildly permanent.

Lets pound out this paper shall we?

Fri, 13 May 2005 22:04:17 GMT

I replied to UCAS.
It felt strange, and sad.

But now I'll just look forward.
Today on the 4 train, whilst straying from the crap that Casella makes us read, I told myself that time is my worst enemy, and memory is my only weapon. I can't ever win, really, but it soothes me.

Yes, it soothes me.

Wed, 11 May 2005 23:26:25 GMT

You know that upside down pseudo smile thing that Frankl does? When he knows he's being a bastard and like sit? Yeah. I hate that. We had a test which I successfully bombed today, without caring.

Gym was playing volleyball with one of those enormous excercise balls, it was great. It was like slow motion volleyball, with a ball so ginormous it was pretty much impossible to serve. But twas fun. Though I busted my hand numerous times, it was lovely.

But the point of this entry was to say that a construction worker outside saw (and maybe heard) me singing in the shower. The window wasn't even that open, and he was far away, but there was no mistaking the thick hispanic accent calling out "'ey baby, open that window a little more!" whilst looking straight at me.
What is it with me and unwillingly exposing myself?! This happens so often with the postmen in france, and now, I can add a NYC construction worker to this list. Tear.

Sun, 08 May 2005 14:27:24 GMT

Hmm.

Your Icecream Flavour is...Chocolate!

You are the all time favorite, chocolate! Turning white kids black since the 1800s. Staining carpets, car seats, and bed sheets for centuries. One thing is for sure, you will never go out of style. You can't go wrong with chocolate!

What is your Icecream Flavour?

Find out at Go Quiz

I love chocolate.
Anyway.

Still trying to figure out stuff for my cooking presentation Tuesday. As things look now, it'll be either Tomates a la provencale, or chocolate truffles. I'll have to look through Ginette Mathiot a couple more times.

Thank you to those who went to the art show. A lot more people came than I expected, and it was really nice overall. Zusman, who hasn't smiled all year, looked like she had a shot of botox, as her face was a consistent :D

My brother, if he can help it at all, wants to go to London before his own graduation from Fordham. It'd be amusing if he succeeds. All this plane ticket crap ought to be sorted out today. From the looks of things, I may be lucky and get a few extra days in on account of "work". I still think my cousin should have gotten married in August instead, though. Bought a pair of shoes yesterday that may serve the wedding purposes, if they last through prom. They look kinda fragile. They should make nice looking 4x4 shoes, lol, because the terrain in my uncle's house is grass&rocks&dirt. I may just end up barefoot.

Hurrah for weekends.

Fri, 06 May 2005 00:23:36 GMT

Today I finished my last ever standardized test with bubbles. It was bad.
Today I was hit on by a very creepy man who wanted very badly to be my boyfriend.
Today I went to Wave Hill park (pretty!), and had tea with blood orange something something (I talked with Alexandra about love, Amsterdam, and about how I want and should be going to Oberlin, but was be forced to accent-land, and what sacrifices shall ensue)
Today we have guests over from France, whom I haven't seen in years.
Tonight, I am tipsy, and will write about my concentration in such a state!

Come to the art show tomorrow, I didn't pull all those all nighters for nothing!
The art room, 3something something...314? From 4 to 6th period, I believe.

That is all.