Last Post Forever... Sort Of.
I've decided to call an end to this blog format. After three years of
this, the straight-HTML format is getting clunky, particularly with the
abundance of blog-hosting sites now on the web. So here's
a link to the new page, which
also has a link back to this page and its three years' worth of archives.
Be sure to use the new comments feature to tell me if you like or don't
like the new blog!
Posted January 7 at 1803.
7 January 2007 - Khristoz Roz Diatchia!
Yay, it's Christmas! I'm very sad that I didn't get a Russian Christmas
present from my mom this year. Perhaps I'll finish up the dough for
traditional Xmas cookies and make apricot cream cheese cookies this
afternoon. Anyway, merry Christmas to all you eastern Orthodox out there.
Posted at 1356.
6 January 2007
Yesterday, I checked my express mail tracking number for the return
envelope I left at the Philadelphia consulate for my passport. It was
shipped from Philly around 8pm on the 3rd. Knowing that the visa guy
didn't come into the office until the 2nd, I assumed this meant that my
application for a student visa was rejected immediately. I dreaded
getting the mail, but when it came... there was a passport with a lovely
visa sticker in it! One more potential roadblock to going to Rome
eliminated! Now I'm just waiting to see what the French seminar thing
says... if they want me, I'll leave February 2. If not, two weeks later.
Posted at 1339.
3 January 2007
I was driving back from Cortland today, headed down 13. At a stop light,
I pulled up behind a car that had no fewer than three Confederate flag
bumper stickers. I thought nothing of this until I realized... I'm in
up-fucking-state NY. Confederate flags shouldn't be anywhere in sight!
I also found myself a conversation partner in Rome. I want to learn to
speak Italian, but the prospect of throwing myself into weird situations
with my poor grasp of how to speak Italian is frightening. So I posted to
craigslist, and this graduate student from California responded to me.
She's from Tuscany and is working for NASA in the states, but is returning
to Rome at the end of the month. She wants to keep up her English
fluency, and I want to learn to speak Italian better. But the amusing
thing was... I told her I was living in upstate NY because of Patrick's
job, and she said her current roommate just got a PhD from Cornell, also
in computer science. It's really a small world academically.
Posted at 1529.
1 January 2007 - Happy New Year!
In the
tradition of making New Year's
resolutions in this space, here are mine for this year:
- Figure out how to justify buying Campers and Zara outfits on my NSF
grant. "I'm an anthropologist, which means I have to try to fit in with
the people I'm studying. This is a legitimate expense!"
- Don't succumb to the Euro-perm trend, no matter how many hip women in
Italy are sporting them. I finally got into a love-my-hair groove last
year when I let my natural color grow back in.
- Enjoy being unemployed. For the first time since I turned 16 and got
a job at Kroger, this year will be the first in which I am unemployed for
the majority of it.
- Eat poutine.
Fries, cheese curds, and gravy... how could that
not be good?
- Turn 30. Easy to accomplish, albeit not particularly funny.
Posted at 1605.