Well, I'm back for another semester of school, which is exciting but saddening. It's been an AMAZING summer, and I've had some incredible adventures. I wouldn't want summer to end if it meant I could go to a bunch of amazing places all the time.
But summer isn't eternal this far above the equator, so fall must come and with it, school. It's nice to see my friends and my brothers again, even though it means that I'm going to have to, you know, go to class, do homework, and study. The usual stuff.
Of course, that also means that I get to see my friends again, and that I get to devote a lot of weekend time to service with my fraternity and DnD on Saturdays. It means I get to watch Sci-Fi on Fridays and have an excuse to be a hooligan (we are college students, after all).
Fall means NaNoWriMo and impending cold weather; it means school and the ending of warm times. I don't think anything is truly bad, so I can't say I hate fall or winter; I would just really prefer for it to be spring or summer a lot of the year. That would be great.
But, alas, I am back at school, in my new dorm, still improperly unpacked. My roommate doesn't move in until Saturday, so I have an excuse to be a bit of a slob until then (I probably shouldn't be a slob, though, because that probably means I'll just have to clear it all up later). At any rate, I'm here, whether I like it or not.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Returned and anniversary!
Well, I'm home, if only for two nights. Today has been mostly dedicated to unpacking and repacking and trying to figure out what I do and don't need to bring to school. (For some reason, this information can easily slip out of one's head in a year's time).
You know what's NOT something that easily slips out of one's head? ANNIVERSARIES! Yes, this blog has officially, as of today, been around for a year. It's interesting to look back and forward - to what has come along, what hasn't, and to what prospects I have for the future - and to see all the differences. This summer was definitely different from last year - if only because I didn't really have a job this summer. Yes, I wrote a lot and knitted a lot and reopened my Etsy page and all those things, but I didn't have a technical "job." That being said, I was able to travel farther and wider than I was able to last year, which is really nice. The time in the middle - yes, school - taught me a lot about a lot of different academic topics, how to sprint through an essay and still pass it, and how to deal with people as an introvert (pro tip: STUDYING ON YOUR OWN HELPS YOUR GRADES AND YOUR INTROVERSION).
In business news, the coolness of Turkey is mind-blowing, and everyone is extremely nice. We learned a ton about history, religion, and culture, and I learned a bit about the issues that sparked the Taksim protests. (in its simplest form, it involves people getting fed up with government favoritism and then people getting mad at the police violently ambushing protesters in their sleep). Anyway, as what happened in Peru, I kept a journal; I will be typing those up, as I did for Peru. The difference is that this time you will be getting occasional BONUS ENTRIES!! Since Byzantium was founded in 667 BC, and therefore the city (or the concept of it, at least; there have been several citywide fires) has been around for 2500 years, there is a LOT of history - and a lot more recorded history than the Inka had, since the Inka didn't have a writing system and Istanbul/ Constantinople/ Byzantium was under the influence of Greeks and the Romans before the Ottomans.
In short, there's a lot more recorded history - a lot of which I didn't get to in the journal. Since I'm moving back into school early (aka tomorrow), I will have almost a week in which I can do absolutely nothing except type and research old mosques to every extent I feel like.
With that, I must return to packing.
You know what's NOT something that easily slips out of one's head? ANNIVERSARIES! Yes, this blog has officially, as of today, been around for a year. It's interesting to look back and forward - to what has come along, what hasn't, and to what prospects I have for the future - and to see all the differences. This summer was definitely different from last year - if only because I didn't really have a job this summer. Yes, I wrote a lot and knitted a lot and reopened my Etsy page and all those things, but I didn't have a technical "job." That being said, I was able to travel farther and wider than I was able to last year, which is really nice. The time in the middle - yes, school - taught me a lot about a lot of different academic topics, how to sprint through an essay and still pass it, and how to deal with people as an introvert (pro tip: STUDYING ON YOUR OWN HELPS YOUR GRADES AND YOUR INTROVERSION).
In business news, the coolness of Turkey is mind-blowing, and everyone is extremely nice. We learned a ton about history, religion, and culture, and I learned a bit about the issues that sparked the Taksim protests. (in its simplest form, it involves people getting fed up with government favoritism and then people getting mad at the police violently ambushing protesters in their sleep). Anyway, as what happened in Peru, I kept a journal; I will be typing those up, as I did for Peru. The difference is that this time you will be getting occasional BONUS ENTRIES!! Since Byzantium was founded in 667 BC, and therefore the city (or the concept of it, at least; there have been several citywide fires) has been around for 2500 years, there is a LOT of history - and a lot more recorded history than the Inka had, since the Inka didn't have a writing system and Istanbul/ Constantinople/ Byzantium was under the influence of Greeks and the Romans before the Ottomans.
In short, there's a lot more recorded history - a lot of which I didn't get to in the journal. Since I'm moving back into school early (aka tomorrow), I will have almost a week in which I can do absolutely nothing except type and research old mosques to every extent I feel like.
With that, I must return to packing.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
The Second Adventure
Well, it's nearly the end of the summer, and I'm once again off to a wild and awesome place. This time, I'm going to Istanbul, Turkey. I'm almost repeating what I did at the beginning of the summer in reverse: I finished finals, sprinted home for two nights and the day in between, and then raced off to Peru for two weeks. Now, I'm heading off to Turkey for two weeks, then staying at home for two nights and the day in between, and racing off to school to help with freshman move-in. Funny how that works out.
Anyhow, I'm sorry I haven't posted too much during August (and the fact that I haven't posted much lately in general). I'll try to work on that as the semester starts up again. I'm going to do the same thing that I did for Peru: I'm keeping a journal (the same journal with the quotes that I used in Peru), and then typing it up here. Hopefully it'll all work out. This time, I've been asked to do a video as well. AFS, the organization that helped plan the trip, is a foreign exchange program - they help students go to year-long study abroad programs (a good friend of mine just got back from doing a year in Germany), as well as group programs. Since AFS hasn't yet done a group trip to Turkey, we're the guinea pigs, and I've been asked to maybe do a video about it. So... yeah. I'll be doing that as well.
Unfortunately, we're doing a flight at 11:30 PM, which means I need to eat, shower, take out my contact lenses, and prepare for ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!!
(Also, my mom gets to go to Troy while the non-adults are doing home-stays. I'm exceptionally jealous of her, but whatever. I'll get over it. Eventually.)
Anyhow, I'm sorry I haven't posted too much during August (and the fact that I haven't posted much lately in general). I'll try to work on that as the semester starts up again. I'm going to do the same thing that I did for Peru: I'm keeping a journal (the same journal with the quotes that I used in Peru), and then typing it up here. Hopefully it'll all work out. This time, I've been asked to do a video as well. AFS, the organization that helped plan the trip, is a foreign exchange program - they help students go to year-long study abroad programs (a good friend of mine just got back from doing a year in Germany), as well as group programs. Since AFS hasn't yet done a group trip to Turkey, we're the guinea pigs, and I've been asked to maybe do a video about it. So... yeah. I'll be doing that as well.
Unfortunately, we're doing a flight at 11:30 PM, which means I need to eat, shower, take out my contact lenses, and prepare for ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!!
(Also, my mom gets to go to Troy while the non-adults are doing home-stays. I'm exceptionally jealous of her, but whatever. I'll get over it. Eventually.)
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