30,000 Views? Yeah, we're the shit.

This is a gem of a photo from my friend's birthday dinner.  This is my "protective significant other" pose.  Did it work?  Are you intimidated?

I wish I could be a writer/blogger/ social entrepreneur instead of go to college.  I have ideas all the time of things that I don’t have time for.  I will list some of them, because I trust you guys not to steal from me.

•  Have pen pals in prison and post the letters to a blog, where readers can ask questions that I forward to my pen pals.  This would shed light on our messed up incarceration system, and help humanize a marginalized population.  The letters with commentary would be compiled into a book, and the proceeds would benefit an education/ prisoner rehabilitation charity.
• Sustainability website where readers get points for completing sustainability “challenges,” like reducing their energy bills, composting, or reading relevant books.  There would be quarterly competitions with prizes for the winners.  Corresponding blog/ YouTube channel with my analysis of green products, books, and habits.
• Also, we apparently spend an average of 23 hours per day inside, so part of it could be a challenge about spending more time outside.
• Derek has read some of my “Defense Mechanisms” creative writing collection (poems, stories, nonfiction), which I wish was good enough to self-publish (Nicole, do you remember Mason from HRC?  Blond guy a year younger than us?  He self-published a novel and did a signing at the UCI book store.  Interesting.).
• Photography series of the 100 most important people in my life.  In no particular order.  You guys would be involved, because you’re important to me.
• My Global Environmental Politics course has me constantly dreaming about re-organizing society in a more sustainable, slow-lifestyle, happy way.  I’ve got it all figured out.  If only anyone cared about what I think.
• Also, this isn’t really an idea, but I want to live on a farm and forget about the world’s problems.

Unfortunately, I’ve decided a college degree ought to come first.  I do have a wordpress domain reserved for when I have time to start the sustainability site, though.  “Buy Less, Live More.”  What words of wisdom, I know.

This post feels like an idea post moreso than a “what I did this week” post.  Because I feel like that’s what I normally do, and my life isn’t really that interesting.  I did go to a party on Friday, with booze and everything.  At least there was also music, because I like dancing.  Also, I act drunk half the time anyway; I was by no means the most sober-seeming person there.  I also had a job interview for being an RA next spring after I return from SPAIN(!!!).  The interview went pretty well, I think.

This is me and my friend Kevin at the same dinner.  He's also studying in Madrid this fall.  I didn't do any weird poses.  I know, what a wasted opportunity.

I’m very excited about studying abroad.  Very, very, very excited.  I want to be able to talk and think and dream in Spanish.  Right now I can talk at the level of a five year old, maybe.  But this brings me to my goals for this summer:

• Take a conversational Spanish class at community college, or a CSU if it’s not too expensive, so I won’t die in Spain.  They have lisps and talk very quickly, making it a double challenge to get by as a below-proficient Spanish speaker.  But I’m living with a host family and immersing myself in the country, so I’m hoping that I pick it up pretty quickly.
• Go backpacking.  I want to do this very badly, as I remind Derek every time we correspond.
• I may apply to be a camp counselor at a ranch/horse camp I went to as a kid.  Applications are live now.  This would be cool but also not cool, because it would limit what plans I could make after June.
• Make money because I want to travel throughout Europe and they won’t let me do it for free.  Bastards.
• Go camping.  This is in addition to going backpacking.
• Spend a lot of time outside.
• Maybe do one of the projects I listed above, if there’s time.

Studying abroad should be really cool.  Included in the program fee are trips to Greece, Italy, and Istanbul, Turkey.  Very excited about that.  Art history compels me to spend as much time in Italy as possible.  I may never come back to the states, so let’s spend time together this summer.  In Spain, they take naps every day.  Every day!  That was the final nail in the casket, or whatever that phrase is, that made me need to go there.  I love napping more than almost anything else.  Being conscious is so overrated.

For those who are studying abroad, remind me: are you going this fall?  Are you passing through Europe?  Can we meet up?  Thanks, bye.

Love you guys.

-Rachael

P.S. Bono bought me a cupcake for Valentine's Day.  Rather, he had them delivered to the office, but it's still cool.