How to Trick Yourself

Long time no see!

After I got back from Peru (Mike and I broke up while I was there, not sure if I updated you on that), I moved back home, and started working at Victoria's Secret again.  I worked there for a few months, and in October I talked with Kerry and Kate about going to England to visit everyone. Then, in November I had a truly life altering conversation with Ellen in that she encouraged me to move to Washington DC.  I discovered the best way to move to a new place, or to do things that are challenging in general. The key is to trick yourself. Let me explain.

I spoke with Ellen in November. I told Kerry I would come with her to the UK to visit all of our British friends in February. The trick was, I bought a round trip ticket from New York, and vowed that I would not need a plane ticket to get there. So I needed to be moved into DC by Feb 14. I gave myself about a month, and my one way ticket to Washington left on January 17, 2014. About a week later, I was moved into a house with 3 roommates: Sam, (and his girlfriend Sheila), Leanne, and Diana. Two or three weeks after that, I was on the bus to New York, then Kerry and I met at Heathrow!

That was a great trip, we got to see such great friends! We stayed with Kate, and Valeria, and Grace at different times. We also made a side trip to Paris. And we had so much fun that we are planning another trip! This February we will be going to Iceland!

Upon my return, I basically used up all my credit on living and job hunting. Job hunting, in case you don't know, is the WORST.

Luckily, Sam was working with a temp agency called CityStaff. CityStaff sent me on a job interview with a law firm, and I did not get that job. Then, I worked for one day at a restaurant, but they never called me back. I also had a job offer from Guess to be their assistant manager, but the manager forgot about my interview where I was supposed to meet the district manager. Since then, the store has closed down, so I supposed it's for the best.

One morning, I woke up early fully intent to deal with my stress regarding unemployment by watching Netflix, when CityStaff called me and asked if I could work that day. I jumped out of bed and onto the metro, and was hired to sit at the desk at Rosetta Stone HQ for the day. They asked me back the next day, and I met the person in charge of the receptionists, Natasha. She asked me what I was looking for in terms of work, and I told her that something like this would be great (full time, and money? YES please!) So I stayed on for a month or so before I had a "formal interview," which consisted of Natasha asking me if I would stay longer than 6 months.

I've been working there for about 8 months now, and it's great. I answer phones and greet guests and help candidates get to their interviews, I book travel for candidates and other non-company guests, and I am working on assisting our foreign employees with travel to the U.S. and hopefully will be rewriting travel policy while studying for the GRE.

That's right! Grad school is back on the table! I got accepted to the Institute of Education in London last year while in Peru, but I couldn't rustle up the money to get there. So I am going to take the GRE and try to get into international relations and/or public policy either here in DC or in Geneva.

There was a bit of a trick to that as well. I signed up yesterday to take it (I have been studying longer, but I actually booked it yesterday) on October 9. That is about a month from now. That means, I have to be done studying in a month. It leaves little time for procrastination (as you can see).

I hope I do well on it, but if not I can take it again.

That's about it for now :)

Quinden

5:50 am: "It's time to go! You are going to miss your bus!" 

I leap out of bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes, shaking alcohol out of my head, and tearing on my clothes. Black jeans, green shirt, brown jacket, shoes. Done. Where is my bag? Empty. AH! Throw everything inside bag, run out the door. No passport. Run back to house, grab ID. 

Finally, 6:05 am, we are on the way to the bus station. We clamber out of the cab, and wait around in the bus station for a while before buying the tickets. That's one thing about Peru, time is different here. Everything runs a little bit slower, with less organization. I am exhausted after having slept for only a few hours the night before, and slightly drunk still thanks to the rum. 

I am sitting next to someone I barely know, Braulio, who is one of our students at Horizon. He is 35 or so, and we each try to make conversation relatively unsuccessfully a few times on the bus, but I am tired and pensive. 

The music in my one working headphone is on shuffle as we cruise through the desert and dilapidated buildings, shacks in some cases. 

I try to sleep, but my brain stays awake. The bus slows down and stops. Braulio says everyone's least favorite word in Peru, "Policia." Everyone scrambles for their ID, and two of my fellow gringos are escorted off the bus because their IDs are not passports. The Spanish speakers of the group, Braulio included, get off the bus as well, leaving myself and one other volunteer to wait nervously. 20 minutes later, all the white people get back onto the bus and explain that the cops just needed 20 soles and to scare some tourists.

For the few of you that are not acquainted with Peruvian currency, 20 soles is approximately $7.19.  

In all seriousness, the police here are not to be trifled with. Many are corrupt, extortionate, and drug involved. Luckily these guys just needed a little bribe to get them moving along. The bus revs up again and we continue our trek, climbing the mountains. Suddenly in the middle of our two lane highway, my fellow volunteers start collecting their things. I slip my ipod into my pocket and we get off the bus in the middle of the road. Across the two lanes is a small farm in front of a river, all dwarfed by the most beautiful mountains I've ever seen. 

The bright green is rice, the river is behind it, and the mountains are stunning. We put our things down and went for little walk around before lunch. On the walk, we saw a decapitated sheep head, chickens in a coop, chickens not in a coop, two fruit-looking things that we then learn are actually sheep testicles, and sheep skin, in addition to the rice farm and the river. We walked back up to the house and sat down for lunch. The sheep head was missing, and the meat atop the rice and lentils had a flavor I had not had before and was not fond of. Then they brought out a plate of ceviche (raw fish, lime, chili, other spices), which everyone loves and immediately gorged on. After repeated exclamations regarding the delicious taste, Braulio informed us that it was not actually fish in our ceviche, but sheep testicles. Everyone was a bit shocked, but it was good so we kept going, obviously making inappropriate jokes as we ate. 

After lunch we went to swim in the river, which moved quickly in some parts but generally was quite nice. We pulled our clothes on back at the house and began the walk to Quinden, the town. If you could call it that. 

We walked for ten or twenty minutes on the two lane highway and then through the dirt roads to our hostel. The owner was a kind woman who spoke no English but was quite hospitable. I hit my head on the doorframe on the way into my room, which should surprise no one, especially given that the doorjambs are much shorter than in the states. Even so, unsurprising.  The bathroom at the farm was actually a concrete slab with a hole cut into in surrounded by a metal tent with a very blowable curtain as a door. If a truck goes by while you are squatting into the hole, everyone can see you. As a result, I really needed to use the bathroom when I arrived in Quinden. Kellie went first, and came back within a minute complaining about birds in the bathroom, a large turkey in particular. I did not care about some stupid birds, I needed to GO, so I went into the bird room. The birds were mostly perched on a branch, with a few chickens on the ground. I did my thing and realized I had to put the toilet paper in the trash can (you can't flush tp here, at all). There was a chicken atop the wastebasket, but he didnt seem to mind when I lifted up the lid. The real issue was that I could not find the flush button or lever. After some unsuccessful hunting, I decided to ask the nice owner, so I walked past the birds to find her. She explained that I needed to fill up a bucket of water and dump it into the basin of the toilet. Ok, no problem. I had to do it twice because the first time it still didn't work, and when I emerged from the curtain separating the toilet from the rest of the birds, the turkey had had quite enough of my shenanigans. He was on the ground, and he looked at me with his scary, beady eye. I slowly tried to edge past. He released a turkey shriek from hell and charged, puffing his feathers and beating his wings at me! I stuck my foot out and pushed him away, which did not help him feel better. I started yelling for help as the turkey attempts to eat my toes through my shoes, and the nice owner runs in, brandishing a broom at the devil bird and crying, " Vamos, vamos!" I definitely ran out of there and needed an escort for every other bathroom trip in that house.

I have a newfound respect/fear for turkeys now, and will only tolerate them on my plate.

Anyway, we went to dinner after the turkey attack and ate some tamales and soup. Soup is a big thing here, people eat it for most meals. After dinner, someone produced beers and the adults stood in a circle. We had one cup and one bottle of beer open at a time. We took turns with the alcohol and everyone was feelin good pretty soon. I couldn't understand most things that were said, but the beer was nice and so was playing with the kids after a bit of drinking. Ellen learned how to pop the top off a beer bottle by using another beer bottle. In my enthusiasm to find out how to do this, I got shot in the eye by a beer cap as it flew off the top of the bottle. Luckily it didn't change color or anything. After hide and seek, the whole town played a game of bingo, which was really disorganized and full of bingo enthusiasts. Kellie and I went to get some rum and we drank with the other volunteers and some of the older townsfolk. 

SOmeone suggested we go look at the stars, and I ran outside to do so. I was the only one though, and all of a sudden someone was saying come back inside, pulling me back in. Apparently I had run into a street with four or five armed (with semis probably) and masked men, who were acting as curfew enforcers. Oops. 

I kept drinking with the other people until bed. The next morning, we were up bright and early to go climb a mountain. 

We hopped on the back of some motorcycles instead of walking back to the farm. First time on a bike! It was lovely, it was around nine, so the sun was up and the farms were lush with the river winding through them, the mountains in the background. If I hadn't lost my phone I would have tried to get some pics.. sorry lol

Back at the farm, everyone ate breakfast while I wrote in my journal, after which I ate some bread and had some tea, and everyone else went to take a nap. The beds were full, and Braulio said he was going to visit his sister- did I want to come? I went, and stuck my head out the window on the ride there. His sister wasn't at home, so we went for some beers, along with his friend Carlos, who was driving. We went back to the sisters and talked for a bit before heading out for some lunch- ceviche time. We went to a restaurant in Quinden and spent at least 2 hours, probably more like 3 and a half, eating, and drinking beers. It was four of us, we met up with one of the teachers of a school and he joined us. As I drank more beer, my spanish improved immensely which was great, but is now frustrating as I cannot speak a lick of it again. The four of us went through 14 beers, so we were feelin good as we drove back to the farm. 

Once back, we went swimming in the river again, which was quite enjoyable with a little buzz going. Then we (8 people) piled into a car with Carlos and his friend Gringo, and set out for the 3 hour drive. Not too fun but well worth the trip.

Time to try blogging again!

Hopefully I'll stick with it this time lol, but we all know I probably won't. I am sitting in the airport in Costa Rica, glad that my laptop charger has decided to work and hoping that it works upon my arrival in Lima. I have written down important addresses and phone numbers though, so I should be alright.

This layover hasn't actually been so bad, I've been reading about Lawrence of Arabia, who so far seems like a pretty badass dude. I have also been doing my language learning program! Yay!

Getting to this point was tough- on Friday I got three shots and almost passed out (typical), and then Saturday was my last day of work and my goodbye Moose and Angel dinner. Sunday I tried to get a lot of errands done, and things kept going wrong, but a delicious sushi dinner and some friend drinking afterward made up for it. I must say that yesterday took the cake though.

To make a long story short, I got my calculus grade changed, went to Costco twice, went to the mall, picked up a bunch of peruvian money, bought someone a present, dropped off some thank you notes to the postman and sent my rough draft to my manager to finish my grad school apps!


* update: Now I'm in my bed in Lima! I really like it here so far, the buildings are super pretty. Well some of them are. I took a walk around the block and got a little sandwich and some pics. More later :)

polysci

Perhaps this class in blog form will be less invasive to those on facebook who don't care about it. Which is mostly everyone I think. After reaffirming a few times that the midterm will be "around the middle of the term," I was a bit surprised to realize that, the middle of the term has arrived.

The first gem of the night, a little dull and lackluster: When you say to write the essay so your mother could understand it, does that effect the language you use?

Number two: To professor: "Will you be using a specific rubric we can take a look at?"
Answer: "I don't know what that means."

Nixon was a white supremacist apparently. He felt that black people were inferior, but he established programs in order to make them better- Affirmative action

He just told a story about an old man who saw that he had a political scientist badge on once. and the old man said, are you a political scientist? Prof:  yes. OM: Is the social security act constitutional? Prof: yeah. OM whips out pocket sized constitution: where does it say that?

Was this old man just carrying around a constitution waiting to bump into a political scientist?


im losing focus...this was a bit of a fail

I know no one checks this anymore

But I am going to write anyway. I figured that after my return, keeping this updated was a bit silly since no one outside the States reads this, and now we can text!

The reason I am writing is to keep my goals in check. I have 4 months before I want to move and SO much to do until then. I need to find a job, first. Or decide if I want to get a Masters, in which case I need to come up with some MONEY. But probably, a job. Then, I need a visa. Then a place to live. I just checked plane tickets (not a priority now but still) and they are only about $500-600, which is AWESOME.

In addition to that I want at least a 3.5 gpa this semester. Considering my habits of doing the bare minimum for school, I need to work really hard to get this.

Mike left yesterday and I am feeling a bit distant from everything- as though I'm just going through the motions. But Norwich is closer than ever (well, closer than it's been in a while) and I just need to keep running until I am done. I found a really good quote today when I was bumping around on youtube:


The best years of your life are the ones in which you realize your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny. (Albert Ellis)

These are the best years and I am going to make the most of them.

Anyway, nice catching up (if you are reading lol)

Last day of March

Hey errbody :)

So in case you haven't heard, I will be back in the States in exactly one week. I will be in SF until Tuesday the 12 and in SD til the 28 of April. Yay!

In SF, we will be eating lots of awesome food. In SD, we will be going to the beach as much as humanly possible! I have a bet with Mike about who will get a better tan, and obviously I have to win this! Crystal ,I know tanning is bad for the skin and everything, but now it's a bet and my dignity is at stake so...tanning it is! Also in SD, we will be driving! AHHHHHH! I haven't driven in around 6 months. SIX MONTHS. I can honestly barely believe that. But I have new music so we will have lots of fun! And shopping!

Basically, I'm super excited to come visit and see everyone. Love you guys, see you SOON!

Saint Patty's Day

Basically, I love the Irish. They take a former slave who converted the pagans to Christianity and celebrate it in the only way they know how- extremely excessive drinking! Thanks Patty! Unfortunately I did not have the money or the time yesterday to drink beginning at 10 AM, as is apparently the custom for the true celebrators of Ireland's patron saint.

I was writing an essay or trying to force the printer to print it 5 minutes before it was due. The essay was about different factors that affect cell migration. 1500 words. Do you know anything about Rho GTPases or integrins or focal adhesion kinase? Neither did I before yesterday. Hooray!!

Anyway, after turning in the essay, I went back to my room for a nap. I opened the window, but had to close it again because even though my room is at least a five minute walk away from the center of campus, there were SO many people there drinking, I couldn't sleep because of the noise. I was not joking when I said 10 AM. I read an article about a 5 year old (or a 3 year old, one of the two) that was an alcoholic.  No joke. I swear, the English are just as bad as the Irish, and this holiday, which celebrates the Christianity of Ireland (which is also weird if you think about it because Ireland has all kinds of fights and issues due to the geographic split, which I think has a lot to do with Catholics vs Protestants) is dedicated purely to drinking as much as humanly possible. After my nap, Mike and I drank a bottle of wine (he drank most of it) and went to the LCR. So Saint Patrick's Day was pretty good on this end of the world :)

Hope you all had a good day too. I miss you all and none of you ever skype me :(