Well, some good things have been happening to me. I’m looking forward to coming home in less
than a month, but suddenly, or at least for now, everything’s going my way.
My classes are winding up and I’m a little concerned
about my IR Research class paper, because it’s an 18-20 pager based on original
research as I’ve been talking about. I’m
focusing on Los Angeles’s implementation of (or maybe lack of) sustainable
transportation based on its experience of negative externalities like traffic,
car accidents, bad air quality, etc. The
original research is the hard part.
But my professor has some faith in me, because he chose
me to present at a conference next month where selected research students will
present their findings on posters and faculty will walk around and give their
feedback. That was a great honor and I’m
hoping that I can get a lot of work toward it done over Thanksgiving break,
which I’ll be spending in South Carolina with my dad, Shane, and my paternal
grandparents. Lots of down time and two
8-9 hour train rides.
 |
| Low quality pic of scarf-in-progress |
I was also just elected Treasurer of APO, the community
service frat I’m in (as you know, but somehow the names are really hard for
people to remember). I’ll be responsible
for balancing an $8000 budget and all sorts of fun financial stuff. I think it’ll be good practice for non-profit
work and a career of not having Derek donate to my organization. Just kidding Derek, just recalling our
Nor-Cal discussion of charities. I shook
throughout my speech, as is my tendency with public speaking, but made a joke
about it at the beginning and everyone laughed (something to the effect of “I’m
going to shake the whole time, go ahead and notice it. It’s fine.”)
My brother is wrapping up his two month transnational
train journey, and he’s been in D.C. since Saturday. We played poker with some of my friends the
night he got in. Sunday (yesterday) saw
Cloud Atlas (I do not recommend it) and hung out before my elections, then
watched The Fighter with Eleanor. Today
we went to my IR Research class where I got nominated for that poster thing and
he took the reading quiz (serving as the control, as someone who doesn’t know
anything about the topic). Then we did
some downtown D.C. stuff on the way to picking up my dad at the airport,
including seeing the hope diamond and taking goofy pictures with the Capitol/
Washington Monument behind us.
Seeing my dad today for the first time since August was
nice. I dragged him and Shane to the
same restaurant Maggie, Eleanor and I went to (posted pictures here about a
month ago I would think) and I discovered, upon looking at the aforementioned
pictures, that I was wearing the same thing both times I went there. Curious.
Lots of stuff happened this weekend. On Saturday, I went to the Hirshhorn Museum
with my friends to see the work of Chinese dissident artist/blogger Ai Weiwei,
which was totally incredible. He is
super dedicated to his cause, to say the least; part of the exhibit was a MRI
of his brain, which was severely hemorrhaging after he was beaten by the cops
for some demonstration he did. Intense
stuff.
One last good thing before I leave all of you. I got my first inquiry today on my advice
column that was NOT from someone I know.
I haven’t been doing a whole lot with the column as of late, because of
a lack of content (sort of, my friend gave me a gag one about having a smelly
roommate that I wasn’t sure what to do with) and just being busy. But it’s fun and I am hoping to put ads on it
and have it be a money generating side project to fuel my amazing study abroad trip
to Spain and general adventures.
I have decided that Spain is where I want to go for study
abroad. I’ve been deciding between that
and Chile, but I think Spain makes more sense because it’s where I really WANT
to go, forgetting career motivations. I
want to go to Italy while I’m out there, too…. Everything is incredible back
there and I’m really hoping that it all works out.
Here’s wishing you all a happy Thanksgiving, whether “home”
in Newport or “home” somewhere else. You
guys are special to me and I’m thankful to still have you in my life.
-Rachael
That LA transportation paper sounds interesting. I'm in the middle of a project dealing with transportation in Vermont, which is kinda similar I guess. Well, they both have the word 'transportation'.
ReplyDeleteYay Harry Potter! I just watched the first movie with a bunch of friends last night. Not the same as rereading the books, of course, but I can relate to your mood.
I wonder if you can sustain a career of not having me donate to your organization. If so, I guess you could call me a job-creator. I should run for something.
I do intend to send something to the advice column. Eventually.
Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Look forward to seeing you and everyone else in five weeks.
*Looking
DeleteI would have accepted "look forward" as well as "looking."
ReplyDeleteThe paper is relatively interesting, but it's tough because of the "original research" aspect of it, because I can't just go off a combination of my opinion and what other people have done before me. I have to complete qualitative/quantitative analysis using my operationalized definitions and blah blah blah crappy vocab.
Look(ing) forward to seeing you too. Maybe we could all go ice skating at the Spectrum like we did a few years ago and you could "teach me how to skate backwards" aka watch me hit the back of my head on the ice. Sounds like fun.
Funny, I was just thinking about that very moment yesterday while reading a bit of Anna Karenina that includes some ice skating. The fates must be telling us something.
ReplyDeleteWhen you said your classes were winding up I was confused. I read it as winding down because that made most sense to me with only 1 week of class left (for Cal at least), but then I realized that my eyes deceived me. I guess it comes down also to the fact that (which Cole and I have had extensive conversation on) that technical courses wind down towards finals and humanities classes wind up in terms of work load.
ReplyDeleteI heard Cloud Atlas was good, why didn't you like it? I was thinking of maybe seeing it.
I was watching the Fighter with Curtis but we just ended up falling asleep so I only watched about 45 minutes of it. Is it worth finishing? Everyone I ask has said it's a good movie. Thoughts?
I have decided that I want to study abroad somewhere in the UK, probably Edinburgh. That being said I don't know if it will happen, but I've decided that I indeed want to at least try and do it. This opinion being catalyzed by the fact that I now have 3 three friends who live in the UK. I want to visit them like none other when they return after they finish being foreign exchange students here in California.
Jason-- humanities classes do seem to wind up, at least in the case of my Research class where we are tasked with writing that paper and then the paper is due at the end.
ReplyDeleteCloud Atlas is 2 hours and 52 minutes, which is one of the problems. The second problem is that it's the same actors spread out over millennia (spell check is telling me that ought to be millenniums but I don't buy it) with relatively intertwining stories. Cool concept? Yes, but hard to pull off. In my opinion, they did not pull it off. That said, it is engaging and if you want to go see it, don't let me detract you.
The Fighter was good. Not the best thing ever but good.
The UK would be cool. If we're in Europe at the same time we ought to try to meet up. I'm hankering to go to Italy, I don't know if you have any interest in that. Are your friends from the UK from Scotland? The UK is a big place. Regardless, if you want to visit them I'm sure you'll find a way.
They're from Ireland and London, but they said that travel throughout almost the entire UK does not take more than a couple of hours. But yes, if we can, we will meet up.
ReplyDeleteSo why Edinburgh?
ReplyDeleteBecause I've had many other people who've studied there say it's really nice along with said UK friends. Also, I'm part-Scottish. Yay heritage.
ReplyDelete