"Your prison is walking through this world all alone."

You are unremarkable and unoriginal.  Some days that comforts you, following the path laid out for you by a billion forefathers and foremothers, whispering your destiny as they trod along.  Some days it scares the shit out of you, because darn it if you didn’t believe it when your mother said you were like a snowflake.

Another week gone by.  Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone.

My semester here is rapidly coming to a close.  In a week from today, Shane will be here visiting.  In two weeks from today, I’ll be in Florence.  In three weeks from today, I’ll be getting Cha with Jason.  It seems impossible to me now, sitting in my little Spanish room and studying for my exams.  Or, well, procrastinating for my exams.

Well, you haven’t heard a lot of my adventures, including Denmark and Cordoba/Granada.  What a vacation this semester has been.  Even the learning part has been largely interesting.  I particularly love my Mediterranean Literature class.

I took the “practice” LSAT online last week (it was the actual test from 2007) and got score that put me in range for attending the lower half of the “top-10” law schools (if you go by LSAT rankings).  That was interesting, considering I hadn’t studied.  I read a book called The Ten Year Nap (given to me by Eleanor) that featured two lawyers.  They didn’t particularly love their jobs, it just made me think about the fact that a law degree opens doors—environmentalism, human rights, educational reform, politics— to areas that I have been interested in for a long time.

Like grad school, though, I wouldn’t invest in law school until after living in the working world for a few years.  It’s a $150,000-300,000 commitment, which I won’t make lightly.  I never want to be someone who has to take a stressful, undesirable job because they have to pay back loans.  I am a proponent of simple happiness and material comfort over limitless ambition and excess riches.  That said, I want to make a positive change in the world, and I want a job that intellectually challenges me.  Only time will tell what that means.  See you in law school, hahaha.

Do you guys have an idea of what you want to happen after graduation?  I’m curious.

Living abroad is really interesting, because you’re exposed to a whole other concept of the purpose of life and the best way to live it.  If I could, I’d combine Denmark’s government with Spain’s “no pasa nada” attitude, Italian cuisine, French pastries, and Turkish architecture and apple tea.  Then, wrapped in a pretty bow, I’d bring these things to California, whose natural beauty will always captivate me.

But wow, the Danish government.  I would love to talk about it with you guys sometime, because I’m really hankering for a devil’s advocate position.  Besides “high taxes,” I can’t think of one.  Perhaps over a pastry at Rose’s.

Sorry this post was the way it is.  I am in a mood; spending the day inside, studying, does that to you.

Rachael