Some Weirdness and A Touch of Home

Yesterday, at one point, I managed to find myself in the presence of about 10 Asians. I was in shock, to say the least. I went out to the bars with a few friends (they're Asian) and they saw some of their Asian friends. It turned out that it was one of their birthdays, so it was a BIG Asian mixer in our area of the bar. And when I say mixer, I mean... 2 other girls and me with a whole bunch of Asian guys with more product in their hair than I had in my hair. CRAZY!!! I immediately thought of all my wonderful Caucasian friends back at home (or wherever in the world they might be) and missed them terribly. Guys, I'm totally white-washed. I don't know how I feel about being in the presence of so many Asians who I'm not related to. When I'm related to them, it's just a family reunion. Last night? That was just weird. There were just so many of them! I bet they're nice (sober or not) but... not for me!! I'm the Midwest-grown, dairy product-fed (no cheese) girl who usually turns out to be the token Asian in a group of friends, not that I mind at all. But I learned a few things (that I already knew but would like to re-emphasize):

- They need LESS hair product, LESS! If your hair doesn't budge at all, no matter what you're doing, how much head shaking there is, how hard you jump on the dance floor, how much you run around, how horribly you're puking on the street, you need to seriously reassess the amount of hair product you're using.
- They need to not try to hit on me. It's never going to work; I'm not attracted to you. No matter how much alcohol you try to give me... which, by the way, if I ask for WATER, don't bring me more alcohol. Doesn't make me want to take off my clothes for you, dance up on you, or go home with you any more than I wanted to 10 minutes ago. No means NO.
- There is no need to be vain. Yes I can see the veins popping out of your buff arms, but hey, white guys have that too... actually lots of guys in general have that.

Movie shooting seems to happen throughout Boston recently. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz were shooting a few blocks from my place during the week. The movie will be called Wichita, I think. Let me tell you, at some point when Cameron Diaz is in a yellow dress and boots, that's close to my place. And I believe they filmed a car crash scene there too. Today I happened upon the set of the new Ben Affleck movie, something about bank robbers? I was told the film is called The Town. There were cops, FBI, and some gun fire. A girl I talked to said she saw Ben Affleck smoking somewhere and was starstruck. I guess Boston is the place to be to try to get a glimpse of a few new movie shoots.

Today was also a very nice day for a taste of home. I went to watch the Badger game at a bar with the UW alumni association- Boston people. It was fun!! All of us in our Badger get-up in the middle of Boston. But I sure did miss Madison and being in Camp Randall. Pretty cool! I ended up running into a guy who took Biocore with me on the T. Turns out he was also headed toward the bar... crazy small world we live in! I guess he moved to Boston and is working and applying to med schools. I was just so amazed that I ran into him... on the T!

Pretty solid weekend! But tomorrow will have to be a day of studying. I need to be productive BECAUSE my weekend in Madison is coming up!!! I don't want to have work to do that weekend! 19 Days before my feet return to Midwestern soil!!!

Short and Sweet

After going out Friday night, I had 2.5 drinks and woke up with a major hangover. My liver is regressing even more and my tolerance is nil. That's just embarrassing. I should have SOME tolerance. I'm a Badger for goodness sake! But no... I can't hold my liquor at all.

I spent some time yesterday with my roommate in Cambridge and can I just say, it's gorgeous over there. All those Harvard students looking all prepping makes me wrinkle my nose a little in disgust. BUT the area is amazingly beautiful. I'd want to move out there sometime. Maybe. I'm getting used to our semi-scary corner of the city. It's not as intimidating anymore. I usually just throw on my ipod and sunglasses and am out the door.

Today I plan on doing lots of homework. Boo. But it must be done!

Popcorn Thoughts

I've had such depressing posts recently; I decided it's time for some positivity. Here are some bouncy thoughts from me.

TV Shows:

• Roommate and I have been on a total Gossip Girl kick. Crazy, I know. I never knew I'd enjoy drama about the Upper Eastsiders... but it's kind of fun when I have no social life.
• One Tree Hill!!! Last season came out on DVD and I borrowed it from the library. WONDERFUL
• Grey's Anatomy... NEW SEASON starting September 24th. WOOHOO- previews looked awesome

Books:

• I've been reading Africa Doesn't Matter- great book about Africa and why aid isn't helping
• For class, I have to read The Wisdom of Whores- I love it so far
• I really want to read a book called My Prison, My Home- look it up, sounds fascinating and the author sounds amazing

I really want to go shopping but I can't afford it. Ahh the life of a poor grad student. It's even worse than the life of an undergrad. That's probably because I didn't worry about money all the time.

I MISS My Wisconsin Buddies!!!

Boring

Basically I'm boring. I go to class, I read, I go to the gym. Thaaat's about it. There's not much to say. Never knew I could be a semi-hermit. But now I know. It's very possible. I am mostly back in the grad school groove, but I don't have a social life. Boston has not been as interesting as many people have made it out to sound, but that could also be due to the fact that I have no money to spend on fun.

That's all for now

Positive thinking

I am trying to calm myself down and take one day at a time. And today has been my "Jess" day, a day to figure things out. I have made up a list of goals I have for myself and hopefully I’ll achieve them all this academic year.

GOALS
1) Do well in school- this is a given, but it must be placed at the top of my list
2) Work at a job (or 2)- this is also a given but must be mentioned
3) Languages!!!- Yes, this goal is high reaching and completely crazy, but I think I can do it. Practice Chinese- I have found when speaking to my parents that I am adequate at best in the language that is supposed to be my heritage. So now it is my goal to improve my vocabulary and maybe actually learn to read it better. Learn/practice Arabic- I took a year of it and it was hard! I better not lose it now, though sometimes I already think I have. I need to brush up on it and learn more. Brush up that rusty old Spanish- I took it in high school, but I still remember some things. I want to improve it so I have it as a supplementary language. Learn French- I’ve always wanted to.
4) Join a club- Getting involved in school is important to me and I think it’s a great way to meet people. It’s just hard to make time for it, so I am going to try this year.
5) Go abroad (this summer or next fall)- pretty self-explanatory
6) STAY POSITIVE- I have a bad habit of being an utter pessimist and freaking out about… well everything. I want to try to be better at staying positive and calm without needing to pick up a phone and calling home.
7) WORK HARD- My 3 Ws… I want to focus on them. They are my primary goals and I need to concentrate on them. If you don’t know what they are… we haven’t talked enough.

The language goal seems a little intense, I know. But I think it’s doable. I mean, I need to concentrate on one thing at a time… and maybe the French will need to be put off for a while, due to the idea of learning something completely new makes my head spin a little. But Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish?? I truly hope they’ll be attainable. I think I can, I think I can J

I know everything will fall into place with time. I’m just not very patient and need to learn to be. I also need to learn how to sleep more, but that’s beside the point. I think I’ve rambled on enough… I really wish I could turn my brain off, but oh well…


Permanent Mantra: It’s not a hardship; it’s an adventure

I have a stain

I would like to announce that the worrying I had been doing before has not abated. The only way I've been getting away from it is ignoring it, which is harder than you would think. It's like a stain on your jeans while you're in class or out. Constantly there, constantly bugging you. But you can't just strip off your jeans and walk around in your underwear just to avoid looking at that stain or knowing it's there. I wish I could turn my brain off, wash the stain off, but I can't. There's just a lot to think about. I think that's all I'm going to write about it for now because I just can't bring myself to type everything out and read it on a computer screen as well as hearing myself talk to... well myself in my head. Pray for my sanity because I think I'm losing it.

First Day of Grad School

Today is my first day of school! I'm not nearly as excited as I thought I'd be, but I think that's due to the fact that I have had to do over 100 pages of reading before class even started. It's unbelievable that I am back in school. I just graduated!!! But I am now studying something I find more interesting and will be more useful to me in my career. It doesn't feel like the first day of school because I don't have class until 6pm. Yes, 6pm... then I will sit in a lecture hall for 2 hours. Doesn't that just sound delightful? Note the sarcasm. We'll see if I can make it through Day 1 without falling asleep in class.

I'm really hoping to finish this degree in a year and a half. But I also really want to study abroad. We have a program at school where I can get all the credits I take abroad to go toward my degree. It's in the Philippines. I've never been there and I heard the program is pretty tough. But I think it would be an amazing experience and something I wouldn't regret. I'm planning on doing that next winter. Then there is a final "thing" we have to do for our degree and people say it's not easy to do it if I were abroad... but I think I'm going to try. Finishing in 3 semesters would save money (tuition is brutal here) and then I could go on my merry way, toward my actual career.

Wish me good luck in my first class! And just hope grad school isn't as hard as I'm expecting it to be!