I can’t believe that I’ve been in France for a week now. Actually, I can because the first few days were slow creepin’ like an ‘84 Caddy rolling through Compton. Not having internet in our residence is brutal, but the rumour is that we be online as of 1 October. 19 more days!! For now, I am broadcasting live from Computer Lab 19 in the Robert Schuman University Batiment L’Ecole Management Strasbourg. Woof. These French keyboards are weird. They aren’t ‘QWERTY’ they are ‘AZERTY’ and you have to press shift for a period. So annoying, kids.

Classes started this week and I am taking 11. A plethora of business classes, a couple about European Integration and 2 French classes. For one class, I take the final next week and one class doesn’t start until Novembre. It is a different kind of ‘downtime’ from Antwerp, for sure but it’s all good.

I’ve met some really cool people here too: a guy named Miks from Latvia, Yasmeen, Andrea, and Candace. They are all wonderful and different in so many ways, I love the diversity of the four of us all spending time together. Yasmeen, Andrea and I (and maybe Candace) are presently in the infancy stages of planning a trip to MOROCCO, which would just be amazing and hopefully the act of getting to Africa will not be financially prohibiting but, if you really, really want to do something then you’ll find a way.

Until the next time,

Bisous!

in france

exhausted

more later.

I’ve been really lazy about logging in to update. Truthfully, there hasn’t been a lot to update about other than the fact that it’s crunch time and I don’t want to crunch. I am down to a week. A WEEK. That’s just… nuts, this has been the fastest summer ever. Part of me, a big part of me, is sad. My friends, my classmates are all back on campus, doing campus-y things like seeing stand up comics and as of today, going to classes.

I’ll be in classes soon, too, but it’s not the same. It’s not my profs, it’s not my poli sci department.

But I’m going to France, so it’s not like I can’t not be jazzed for that.

When I was assessing my luggage situation this summer, I decided that a suitcase was not good. It was too bulky to drag on trains and really, it didn’t fit everything I needed/wanted to take with me. This time, in addition to my massive pack that is comes up to my hip (on a 5′9″ frame…), I bought a wheeled hockey bag. It was the best investment that I’ve recently made.

easton stealth and too many clothes

And that is really, honest to God, all I’ve got to write about: an easton stealth.

Taking a brief hiatus while Aaron visits!

I can’t believe it’s down to three weeks. I feel like there is still so much to do and not nearly enough time to do it all. It’s funny how time just slips away so easily. I’m getting excited though, and now that I have my visa, I don’t have anything to worry about really. It’s such a good feeling! 

I’ve started sorting through clothes that need to get packed and I don’t know… it’s looking to be as dire of a situation as it was last year. When I first started packing for Belgium, my suitcase was full after jeans and shoes. Full meaning the 50 pound weight limit. Eventually I whittled it down but for the entire semester, I had 4 pairs of jeans, 2 tee-shirts, 2 hoodies and 2 sweaters. Um, I need variety, so this year I say FUCK WEIGHT LIMITS. I don’t have the option to underline, but if I could, I would. I mean business this year (I do what I want, you don’t know me!).

I also indulged in new luggage for this trip. I had a regular suitcase last year, and it is HUGE and takes up lots of precious space. This year, I’m going with a wheeled hockey bag. It has as much space, really and it squashes down to nothing so I can stuff it under my bed without a concern. I am going to make the most of this 18 square meters.

Also, you know what really pisses me off? I’ve been watching with Olympics with a borderline obsession, and I have seen ONE PART OF THE EQUESTRIAN GAMES AIRED. ONE. NBC, there is a lot more going on in Hong Kong than day 1 of Dressage, but thanks. The three day eventing final was TODAY and YOU did not air it. But Serbia v. Croatia water polo gets aired. That’s great. No, really. Thanks. 

With some extra time, I’ll whittle away at my 100 things, too:

21. I plan to have this 100 things done before I board the plane for Paris, even if that means I am finishing it while sitting in Washington-Dulles airport.

22. I have 4,609 songs in my iTunes, totalling 14 days, 10 hours, 27 minutes and 32 seconds.

23. I am a facebook bumper sticker addict, really. I think it’s becoming a borderline problem, and my friends probably hate me for the number of them that they receive on a daily basis.

24. I scored a 98 on my Grade 10 Global regents without cracking a book.

25. I’ve changed my major several times. I started as an education major with a concentration in history, changed to strictly history, then International Business/International Relations, then added Communications. Dropped communications and bumped German up from a minor to a major.

26. That said, despite having 8 years under my belt, my German is still atrocious.

27. I would like to work in the NHL for a little bit, but doing what, I don’t know. It’s just one of those things that I would like to try.

28. Seton Hall is my dream law school, Vanderbilt is a close second. I’m not sure that I can get into either one of them.

29. I visited Philadelphia my freshman year and I fell in love with the city. I thought about transferring to the Jesuit school (St. Joe’s) down there.

30. I took golf lessons several years ago and hurt my instructor but I want to start golfing again.

 

So, after a bit of a rocky experience, I am sitting in JFK airport, in the most remote terminal with my visa! Naturally, nothing could go easily and I ended needing a document that wasn’t listed on the Consulate website. A few frantic phone calls from New York City to Canisius, I had a fax in hand this morning and headed back to the Consulate and came out with passport and visa in hand.

I’ll count myself lucky because I only had to go back once. I met one girl there who was back for the FOURTH time. The people there really aren’t the friendliest either, nor do they have any obligation to honor your appointment.

Regardless, I don’t have to come back and that is really just fantastic!

My flight is delayed so I’m going to go kill some time on Facebook and maybe come back to do more of my 100 things.

I finally worked up the courage to check my CampusFrance account this morning. Lo-and-behold, I found my confirmation to apply for my visa. This little e-mail was going to determine whether I’d wasted $400 on plane tickets to go to New York City. So far, so good. If everything goes this nicely on Thursday, I will fly home on Friday with my passport and visa. Schwing.

That’s all my news for the moment, if I get some time later I’ll get down everything about Redneck Extravaganza ‘08 - aka Downhome Country Weekend. In lieu of that, for the moment, I’ll just give you some more of my 100 things.

11. I am a “Deadliest Catch” fanatic. It really doesn’t matter how many times I’ve seen the episodes, if it’s on, I’m guaranteed to be watching and I will shamelessly declare my love for Sig Hansen and the Northwestern and I will own Northwestern gear some day. Mark my words.

12. I will always, ALWAYS go for the most inappropriate men in the room. My friends always tease me, because there can be 150 guys my age in the room and I’ll go for the 45 year old. We all have our preferences.

13. I have owned three St. Bernards in my life. I’m on #3 right now, he’s five years old and his name is Dakota.

14. My favourite colour is blue, and up until recently my wardrobe was primarily blue, grey, black and white with very few other colours. I’ve turned over a new leaf and I surprisingly like it!

15. I’ve ridden horses for half my life, but never owned my own. In the course of 12 years, I’ve ridden a horse who medaled in the Olympics and trained under a woman who has had four riders of hers compete in the Olympics. I, however, will probably never get that far.

16. I have three majors and I usually explain them like this: International Relations (my love), International Business (my back up plan) and and Modern Languages (Well, I’ve taken German this long).

17. My parents are divorced, and have been since 1999. My step-dad died in 2002.

18. My favourite position in hockey is defense, and I have a weak spot for Swedish defensemen, namely Henrik Tallinder.

19. I have variations of my name as an e-mail address at gmail, yahoo and hotmail. Overkill, I know, and there is probably another M.G. out there who hates me but I need choices and my college e-mail address will only last so long.

20. For my 16th birthday, I went to New York City and while I was in the airport waiting for my flight home, I met John Mayer. Our terminals were right next to each other, so we chatted for a bit. He was really nice.

I need more reading material. I fritter away my work day (the entire 4.5 hours that it is) doing two things: entering bills into Quickbooks and finding new and more vapid websites to kill time with. It’s really hard to make money this way. Really. This is my plea to give me the best blogs you know, or the worst. Whatever.

Breakfast with Grandpa again, each time I’m reminded of just how much I love him. He said today that we had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. His to do list is comprised of three things: going out for a good bye dinner, going to the sulky race track here in town and going to a casino on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Oh yes, so much to do. And really, there is so little time.

This Saturday (which I will be living up at Redneck Fest ‘08 with three amazing ladies) will make the one month milestone. Four weeks until I leave and really, it’s just unbelievable. Summer has really gone by way too fast for my taste. I’m excited to be going, believe me, but I know that when I board that plane on September 2nd, I’ll be aching for just a couple more weeks of summer.

Aaron is also dropping in for five days starting August 14th. I’ll have a +1 for a wedding! Yes! It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that when he arrives, it will have been EIGHT weeks since I last saw him.

Some of the blogs that I keep up with are doing this nifty ‘100 Things’, outlining 100 things about themselves, so I’ve decided to give it a go.  We’ll start with 10 today and go from there.

1. I drive a 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. It’s blue, and I call it Hank. It’s a long story, and it stems from a deep-seated love of Swedish hockey players.
2. I go through phases with my hair, which is naturally wavy. I’ll go for MONTHS straightening it and then I’ll get sick of that and go get a perm, which I start straightening after about six weeks. I know how much sense that doesn’t make.
3. I’ve been to 11% of the world, according to travel application on facebook. 89% More to go!
4. I’ve moved a lot. Eight places, but all within 45 minutes of where I currently reside. Clearly, not counting Belgium here.
5. I really, really like country music, and this is not something that I admit easily. But I’m really picky about it: Dierks Bentley, Sugarland, Sarah Buxton. And I’m a HUGE Johnny Cash fan.
6. But The Tragically Hip will always be number one in my heart.
7. The one thing I refused to do in Belgium was drink milk. In stores, it’s not kept in a cooler and I like to think I’m open minded, but I couldn’t get past that.
8. I love using commas. You’ve probably noticed by now.
9. In five years of being a licensed driver, I’ve never been pulled over and I am terrified of the day that it happens. I’ll be that girl that cries, I just know it.
10. I’d love to live in Tennesee some day. I love Nashville, I love the weather, and I love the people. I doubt it’ll happen, but I’m trying to convince my mom to let me spend next summer there. Any Tenneseeans want to help a girl out?

Oh, that wasn’t so hard…

I am extremely close to my Grandfather, well, as close as you can be to someone of his generation, I think. We haven’t always been like this, the reasons for which lay in a massive heap and include divorce, death, general family drifting and so on. Nothing pertinent to this blog and probably nothing that should be aired on the internet.

My grandpa, Don, just reached his 75th birthday two weeks ago and particularly, for the past couple of years I have made it a point to do something with him every week. Usually this something is meeting for breakfast at his diner du jour and sitting for a couple hours. I wish everyone could meet him because he IS wonderful, but I hate sharing. Let me paint a picture. He’s big, thick, and worked for years driving semis, even owned his own trucking company which was recently liquidated (see massive heap of reasons above). He hasn’t always treated my dad and uncle the best, but I think he did the best he could do. As the (only) granddaughter/child, I can tell you that despite a gruff exterior, he is really one of the kindest men I know.

I like to sit with him, I like when he tells me stories because the reality is there is no telling when anyone can pass away and after losing so many years with him, I’m trying my best to get everything I can from him. Usually he just talks about what’s going on for him today, or this week. Doctors appointments, people he bumps into from years back.

Today he made a comment about the heat bothering him. I jokingly suggested we go to Alaska - this was mostly spurned on by my addiction to The Deadliest Catch and he told me that he’d already lived in arctic type conditions.

My curious bone was intrigued.

I begged him to give me more information and he started telling me stories about his time in the Air Force (I never knew what branch he was), and he was stationed for a year in Greenland during the Korean War. It will never cease to amaze me the way he can recall stories and details like they happened yesterday. The same goes for my grandmother who lived through the Great Depression and WWII. We spent almost 3 hours at in this corner booth, almost two hours of which were spent recounting the stories of ‘Dear John’ letters from the woman who would be my Grandmother, transfers and top secret details.

It’s important for me to spend as much time with him as possible, given the amount of time I spend abroad. He will tell you that he’s ready to go now and wants to go before he’s 80 but there is such a vital spark to him still. I told him I plan on keeping him around until he’s at least 105. He just laughs.

Presently, I am waiting.

Waiting on a lot. The copier to finish the 124 jobs that I so unkindly asked of it so that I can be done waiting to finish these mailings which I need to have in the mail by the end of the business day. Where would the world be without office lackeys? I’m also (im)patiently waiting on CampusFrance to tell me that I can apply for my visa.

I’m terrible with waiting, but my copies are done.