Ah, the sweet sound of reunion. It's the kind of thing where you won't and can't run out of things to talk about. This is where best friends come to come back. Where everything you say or do is acceptable, and great, and funny, and worth every minute of the experience multiplied by the number of times they are willing to listen to the story without complaint. That's what home is all about.
And naturally this little soliloquy is prompted by something else-that is Brittany. Now I haven't talked much about Brittany here, but there are two things you need to know. 1) She ranks in the top two hug-givers competition. This is an extremely competitive sport, and it's remarkable to hold this position for so long, but if you don't feel loved after one of these hugs, you are made of gears, wires, and mold. You essentially are emotionless and hollow if you don't feel loved after a Krutty hug. 2) She's also one of the top two most genuine and honest people I know. I know a lot of genuine people, and a lot of honest people, but she doesn't have a bad bone in her body. And plus side of all of this is that we could talk for decades. I kid you not, when Brio (for those of you who don't know me personally, that's a girls choir I sang in in HS) went to Austria, on the way back Brittany and I talked for 10 hours straight. No sleeping, no watching movies, nothing but talking for 10 hours. And we could have easily talked for another 10 without thinking twice. Those are the people in your life that you must keep around for as long as possible. And I'm not letting this one go! Our skype date was just what I needed for the first week of real work to begin. Plus, the obvious benefit of skyping her was that I also got to say hello to the rest of the family which is always a joy. Good people come with great families. Good luck to Brittany as she goes on to teach her first class in the morning! Make those kids the smartest Physics kids in town.
Also, as a side note, the whole running along the beach thing has happened. But even more so, it will happen-when Michelle and I reunite this summer. It's going to happen, and the cacophony of talking that will ensue will astound the masses. (mostly because you're not supposed to talk in mass) (unless it's a chant) (see what I did there?) It's going to be magical. Regardless of the Pin vs Stumble debate.
So that was my day. Talking, getting frustrated with my knitting project (that damn hat) and living the dream. Ava moved in today, so the whole gang is here. Well, minus Mariecus who went home for the night (I'm all alone, so all alone). And tomorrow, 108 will be complete at last!
Showing posts with label skype. Show all posts
Showing posts with label skype. Show all posts
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Guilt-tripped
I felt bad not posting, so here I am!
Ok, some things that I enjoyed about today:
1) Drinking too much coffee
2) Watching Ke$ha videos "with" Vanessa before class
3) Reuniting with the "Florentines" (High Italian Renaissance class) and actually feeling like friends and not a collection of people forced to learn together.
4) One class being delayed (for probably a little too long) and another being cancelled.
5) Texting Cadi as she drives through "the south"
6) Finding a moment in the drama
7) Skyping with Alecia and surprise guest Jonathan
8) Writing postcards
9) Talking to a guy in my Philosophy class, making a joke, and waiting until he figured out I was kidding. (Alexander: What are we doing today in class? Me: No clue, want to take bets? [beat] [beat] [beat] Alexander: [smiles])
10) Getting super pumped about Paris this weekend.
And that concludes my life story.
Ok, at least today's portion.
Ok, some things that I enjoyed about today:
1) Drinking too much coffee
2) Watching Ke$ha videos "with" Vanessa before class
3) Reuniting with the "Florentines" (High Italian Renaissance class) and actually feeling like friends and not a collection of people forced to learn together.
4) One class being delayed (for probably a little too long) and another being cancelled.
5) Texting Cadi as she drives through "the south"
6) Finding a moment in the drama
7) Skyping with Alecia and surprise guest Jonathan
8) Writing postcards
9) Talking to a guy in my Philosophy class, making a joke, and waiting until he figured out I was kidding. (Alexander: What are we doing today in class? Me: No clue, want to take bets? [beat] [beat] [beat] Alexander: [smiles])
10) Getting super pumped about Paris this weekend.
And that concludes my life story.
Ok, at least today's portion.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Just like those fatty substitute fillers.
OK, so I started to write this delightfully witty post about how I was late to class, and how I had a wonderful time getting lost and wandering around Rome, but then I got distracted.
"But Kelsey, you're so focused all the time! How on earth could you be distracted enough to not finish writing my favorite source of entertainment? Now I'm sad."
And to that I say, have you heard Phil?
Yes, that Phil. The wonderful Missouri boy that I so desperately miss. I was the luckiest person ever when he decided to call me this evening. So instead of publishing that half finished masterpiece, I am postponing it until tomorrow, and you can read this one about how much I adore Phil.
Phil made my day.
"But Kelsey, you're so focused all the time! How on earth could you be distracted enough to not finish writing my favorite source of entertainment? Now I'm sad."
And to that I say, have you heard Phil?
Yes, that Phil. The wonderful Missouri boy that I so desperately miss. I was the luckiest person ever when he decided to call me this evening. So instead of publishing that half finished masterpiece, I am postponing it until tomorrow, and you can read this one about how much I adore Phil.
Phil made my day.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Digital Interface
This will be short.
Because I'm kind of short.
Highlights of my day included the grand total of 4 hours and 45 minutes I spent on Skype. I'm not sure who came up with this, but whoever you are, you're wonderful.
The first hour or so was with the lovely Claire. And although she is currently feeling ill, she has her ice cream, so all is well. The worse thing is that I miss her desperately, the best thing is that I get to go see her this month! Huzzah!
Much later in the day, after dealing with a faulty airline booking server error thing, (Paris: CHECK). Then i had the stunning opportunity to Skype coach the team from afar. And that's the kind of 3 hour and 45 minute thing that just makes a girl feel better about being so far away. Looking good guys. Just all kinds of wonderful people performing, and saying hi, and eating Chinese food. It's a good life.
And now I'm going to get ready for class. Ciao!
Because I'm kind of short.
Highlights of my day included the grand total of 4 hours and 45 minutes I spent on Skype. I'm not sure who came up with this, but whoever you are, you're wonderful.
The first hour or so was with the lovely Claire. And although she is currently feeling ill, she has her ice cream, so all is well. The worse thing is that I miss her desperately, the best thing is that I get to go see her this month! Huzzah!
Much later in the day, after dealing with a faulty airline booking server error thing, (Paris: CHECK). Then i had the stunning opportunity to Skype coach the team from afar. And that's the kind of 3 hour and 45 minute thing that just makes a girl feel better about being so far away. Looking good guys. Just all kinds of wonderful people performing, and saying hi, and eating Chinese food. It's a good life.
And now I'm going to get ready for class. Ciao!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Not voted off the island this week
I survived! With almost no tears! Aren't you proud of me?
Ok. I'm not being entirely honest. One test was postponed. Now let's get something straight, I had prepared to take 3 lengthy midterm exams today. Not even kidding. One for Italian High Renaissance (51 slides, for 2 comparisons and and essay), Gaga (2 comparisons and an essay), and Philosophy (choice of essay). I was ready for all of them with only the allotment of time to review some things before I actually took the test! Girl Scouts' honor.
So I arrive in plenty of time to my first class of the day, and begin looking over the dates of the slides that I had just learned last night, and after about what should have been ten minutes into class (note, this is not unusual for JCU or for my professor in general. She is often a few minutes late and frantically trying to turn on the projector and usually talking about how her cat is still sick.) a woman from the front office comes in and says that Professor Smyth is going to be late and that the midterm is postponed until next week. How late? About an hour.
The reactions of my class are as followed:
Furious 50%
Relieved 49%
Laughing 1%
I am the 1%.
I just laughed. Seriously, what kind of day could this possibly be? My first test had been postponed, the class would start late, and I just couldn't stop laughing.
For many of you this is not a surprising reaction. Eventually, when you don't sleep enough, or the stress levels just get to you, laughter is the only real response to have. So the other 99% of my class hadn't reached that point and were absolutely no fun what so ever. Boo.
So I spent the next hour sitting by myself dancing to Britney Spears and studying Gaga... (well that's a strange sentence). Professor Smyth (no, I'm not spelling that incorrectly) showed up, WITH HER CAT. Go ahead. Read that sentence again. I'll wait. Ok, yeah, so the sick cat came to school. Not that I'm complaining, I want to bring my cat to school all the time, but apparently with a flooding kitchen, and a sick cat, and being an art history prof, things just got out of hand and we were just going to go to the library instead.
The library across town.
Granted, it's supposed to be a fantastic resource for our projects, and we wouldn't have any idea how to a) get there, b) get books, or c) what do do with them once we found where they were (which is a process, believe me). So we trooped and tram-ed over to Piazza Venezia to find this specialized Art History international library. Good idea? Yes. Different from a midterm? Very much so.
This library can best be compared to a labyrinth. For example, it has many rooms. But not just any silly old rooms, these look like the Beast's library in Beauty and the Beast. You know, filled to the brim with books? Floor to ceiling, covering every wall with steps and a platform to go up to the second level of books. There are maybe 5 of these such rooms, folded in on each other and stacked carefully. The tricky thing is not just figuring out how to get to the upper level of the shelves (there's only one way up, and that means it's only in one room and you have to wander your way around the edges until you get to that one corner of that one room where your book should be). The other tricky part is that not every book is somewhere that you have access to. That means that you have to go through the process of actually finding your book (read: find title and author of book that maybe useful for your research, go outside the library to another room where the card catalogue is, riffle through cards in little bitty baby drawers, (my prof described this process as 'sensuous' but I'm not sure that's the same word I would come up with) find call number, attempt to figure out whether it is somewhere you can get to it, ask librarian who only speaks broken English, they say that you have to fill out a request form) then going to find the place/forms to make your request. Whewf. By the time we got to that part of the tour, my professor was adding extensive editorial remarks about the process which included that idea that once you made your request that little elves, who you never see, wearing funny hats scamper off to find your book and bring it back to you in 30 minutes.
So instead of taking a test, we learned about the Italian Librarian version of Santa's little helpers. Good work.
After that little excursion, I caught pizza with Kate, studied for my next test, rocked it, then decided that anyone with two tests in a day deserves a Nutella Crepe. So I got one of those before looking over my Philosophy notes. Otherwise known as looking at random pictures of Moua that I hide in my wallet. What? That's strange. Oh well.
Back to the apartment where I had the lovely pleasure of skyping dear dear Chloe. We plan on making this a regular occurrence, you know, after she finishes reading the news paper.
And that was my test of survival in Rome. Tomorrow's task? Water obstacle.
Ok. I'm not being entirely honest. One test was postponed. Now let's get something straight, I had prepared to take 3 lengthy midterm exams today. Not even kidding. One for Italian High Renaissance (51 slides, for 2 comparisons and and essay), Gaga (2 comparisons and an essay), and Philosophy (choice of essay). I was ready for all of them with only the allotment of time to review some things before I actually took the test! Girl Scouts' honor.
So I arrive in plenty of time to my first class of the day, and begin looking over the dates of the slides that I had just learned last night, and after about what should have been ten minutes into class (note, this is not unusual for JCU or for my professor in general. She is often a few minutes late and frantically trying to turn on the projector and usually talking about how her cat is still sick.) a woman from the front office comes in and says that Professor Smyth is going to be late and that the midterm is postponed until next week. How late? About an hour.
The reactions of my class are as followed:
Furious 50%
Relieved 49%
Laughing 1%
I am the 1%.
I just laughed. Seriously, what kind of day could this possibly be? My first test had been postponed, the class would start late, and I just couldn't stop laughing.
For many of you this is not a surprising reaction. Eventually, when you don't sleep enough, or the stress levels just get to you, laughter is the only real response to have. So the other 99% of my class hadn't reached that point and were absolutely no fun what so ever. Boo.
So I spent the next hour sitting by myself dancing to Britney Spears and studying Gaga... (well that's a strange sentence). Professor Smyth (no, I'm not spelling that incorrectly) showed up, WITH HER CAT. Go ahead. Read that sentence again. I'll wait. Ok, yeah, so the sick cat came to school. Not that I'm complaining, I want to bring my cat to school all the time, but apparently with a flooding kitchen, and a sick cat, and being an art history prof, things just got out of hand and we were just going to go to the library instead.
The library across town.
Granted, it's supposed to be a fantastic resource for our projects, and we wouldn't have any idea how to a) get there, b) get books, or c) what do do with them once we found where they were (which is a process, believe me). So we trooped and tram-ed over to Piazza Venezia to find this specialized Art History international library. Good idea? Yes. Different from a midterm? Very much so.
This library can best be compared to a labyrinth. For example, it has many rooms. But not just any silly old rooms, these look like the Beast's library in Beauty and the Beast. You know, filled to the brim with books? Floor to ceiling, covering every wall with steps and a platform to go up to the second level of books. There are maybe 5 of these such rooms, folded in on each other and stacked carefully. The tricky thing is not just figuring out how to get to the upper level of the shelves (there's only one way up, and that means it's only in one room and you have to wander your way around the edges until you get to that one corner of that one room where your book should be). The other tricky part is that not every book is somewhere that you have access to. That means that you have to go through the process of actually finding your book (read: find title and author of book that maybe useful for your research, go outside the library to another room where the card catalogue is, riffle through cards in little bitty baby drawers, (my prof described this process as 'sensuous' but I'm not sure that's the same word I would come up with) find call number, attempt to figure out whether it is somewhere you can get to it, ask librarian who only speaks broken English, they say that you have to fill out a request form) then going to find the place/forms to make your request. Whewf. By the time we got to that part of the tour, my professor was adding extensive editorial remarks about the process which included that idea that once you made your request that little elves, who you never see, wearing funny hats scamper off to find your book and bring it back to you in 30 minutes.
So instead of taking a test, we learned about the Italian Librarian version of Santa's little helpers. Good work.
After that little excursion, I caught pizza with Kate, studied for my next test, rocked it, then decided that anyone with two tests in a day deserves a Nutella Crepe. So I got one of those before looking over my Philosophy notes. Otherwise known as looking at random pictures of Moua that I hide in my wallet. What? That's strange. Oh well.
Back to the apartment where I had the lovely pleasure of skyping dear dear Chloe. We plan on making this a regular occurrence, you know, after she finishes reading the news paper.
And that was my test of survival in Rome. Tomorrow's task? Water obstacle.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
I'm going camping, and I'm bringing C-Rad
Things that make me happy: Receiving letters from my mother (with socks... Dobby much?) and MARIECUS. It literally made my afternoon. Not only was it soggy with sassiness, it was practically angelic prose. And I can't wait to respond. It's already begun.
Part 2: Skyping with Sonja and Vanessa. Separately, but wonderful all the same. It's like my life as it would be if I wasn't in Rome.
Part 3: Eating delicious Gnocchi made by Erica. That means that I didn't have to cook. Yay!
Now for the real news of the day, and I've been thinking about this post for a large chunk of time. Honest.
I'm going to tell you a little story about Charles, and subsequently, my assumptions about all degree seeking students here.
Charles is in my Gaga class. (That's Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology for those of you not paying attention) Charles is a fairly tall man with a full beard and often wears a beret when not in class. He is the kind of individual who will physically move a chair to the front and center of the room just so he can sit there. This also means that he is often the only one in the front row of a classroom. But far be it from me to criticize his enthusiasm for learning. As I was sitting down I peered over his shoulder and noticed that the header of his paper was written backwards. We're talking mirror image (including the formation of letters) with the title of the class. I figure, hey, he's been here for a while and got bored. Fine, whatever. We've all been that bored kid in church or homeroom. I get it.
This is where things get freaky.
Part way through class, I noticed that he was left handed. Ok, cool. I know some sweet left-handed people. But I don't know anyone who... TAKES NOTES BACKWARDS! What!!?!?!?!?! That's the most absurd thing I've ever seen in my life. Legitimately writes backwards. Think Leonardo da Vinci in English. Except I don't think this Charles character is a genius... that I know of.
Speaking of good old Leo. In my Italian High Renaissance class (see what no nick name does? It makes you read all of that plus my asides. How not fun is that?) Professor Smyth (not a joke) talked about how Leonardo would follow the strange looking people all day just so he could sketch them when he got home. Awesome? Yes. Would he follow Charles? Probably. Is Charles an Alien? Very likely. (I feel like this entire thing could be filled out a la scantron. A) Yes. B)Very Likely. C)Sometimes. D) Not Likely. E) No.)
But seriously, who takes pages (PAGES) of notes writing backwards!?!?! Who? Only aliens do that. It's the only plausible explanation for this strange occurrence. Like crop circles. People? No way. Aliens? Almost certainly. This brings me to my degree seeking student bit. In this particular class, there are 3 (including Charles) current degree seeking students (this means that unlike the study abroad kids who are there for a semester/year, these people are there all 4 years.) And I think there are two freshmen who are degree seekers as well. I'm not really counting them because they are almost as clueless about JCU/Rome as the study abroad kids (side note on these two, one of them is literally named Chloe R. I'm never sure how to take this because we often sit next to each other. So my Chloe R, pay attention). And if you throw Charles into that group of three, you have: A girl I can't understand who gave a presentation I couldn't understand with pen on her face, a girl who is supposed to be in multiple classes of mine and shows up late to all of them, if at all, and a degree seeking alien who takes notes backwards. By this point I just keep playing the "I'm going camping" game. During one specific bus ride to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Cadi took a turn and listed (and correct me if I'm wrong): light up shoes, radio towers, Natalie, that car, and her cat. What can you bring camping? Anything that Cadi thought might have been an alien. Well I'm going camping, and I'm bringing Charles.
Part 2: Skyping with Sonja and Vanessa. Separately, but wonderful all the same. It's like my life as it would be if I wasn't in Rome.
Part 3: Eating delicious Gnocchi made by Erica. That means that I didn't have to cook. Yay!
Now for the real news of the day, and I've been thinking about this post for a large chunk of time. Honest.
I'm going to tell you a little story about Charles, and subsequently, my assumptions about all degree seeking students here.
Charles is in my Gaga class. (That's Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology for those of you not paying attention) Charles is a fairly tall man with a full beard and often wears a beret when not in class. He is the kind of individual who will physically move a chair to the front and center of the room just so he can sit there. This also means that he is often the only one in the front row of a classroom. But far be it from me to criticize his enthusiasm for learning. As I was sitting down I peered over his shoulder and noticed that the header of his paper was written backwards. We're talking mirror image (including the formation of letters) with the title of the class. I figure, hey, he's been here for a while and got bored. Fine, whatever. We've all been that bored kid in church or homeroom. I get it.
This is where things get freaky.
Part way through class, I noticed that he was left handed. Ok, cool. I know some sweet left-handed people. But I don't know anyone who... TAKES NOTES BACKWARDS! What!!?!?!?!?! That's the most absurd thing I've ever seen in my life. Legitimately writes backwards. Think Leonardo da Vinci in English. Except I don't think this Charles character is a genius... that I know of.
Speaking of good old Leo. In my Italian High Renaissance class (see what no nick name does? It makes you read all of that plus my asides. How not fun is that?) Professor Smyth (not a joke) talked about how Leonardo would follow the strange looking people all day just so he could sketch them when he got home. Awesome? Yes. Would he follow Charles? Probably. Is Charles an Alien? Very likely. (I feel like this entire thing could be filled out a la scantron. A) Yes. B)Very Likely. C)Sometimes. D) Not Likely. E) No.)
But seriously, who takes pages (PAGES) of notes writing backwards!?!?! Who? Only aliens do that. It's the only plausible explanation for this strange occurrence. Like crop circles. People? No way. Aliens? Almost certainly. This brings me to my degree seeking student bit. In this particular class, there are 3 (including Charles) current degree seeking students (this means that unlike the study abroad kids who are there for a semester/year, these people are there all 4 years.) And I think there are two freshmen who are degree seekers as well. I'm not really counting them because they are almost as clueless about JCU/Rome as the study abroad kids (side note on these two, one of them is literally named Chloe R. I'm never sure how to take this because we often sit next to each other. So my Chloe R, pay attention). And if you throw Charles into that group of three, you have: A girl I can't understand who gave a presentation I couldn't understand with pen on her face, a girl who is supposed to be in multiple classes of mine and shows up late to all of them, if at all, and a degree seeking alien who takes notes backwards. By this point I just keep playing the "I'm going camping" game. During one specific bus ride to somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Cadi took a turn and listed (and correct me if I'm wrong): light up shoes, radio towers, Natalie, that car, and her cat. What can you bring camping? Anything that Cadi thought might have been an alien. Well I'm going camping, and I'm bringing Charles.
Monday, September 12, 2011
In reference to at least one 'Monday' song
Today was a day like any other day. Full of adventure, class, fun things, and sweat. At least most of those things go together. That's pretty good day all things considered. I managed to make it to all of my classes, worked DigiPhot (a potential new abbreviation for Digital Photography, undecided. Anyone who comes up with something catchier-and/or classy names for all of my classes-gets a gold star) like a diva, solved the Greek Art and Archaeology crisis (it had nothing to do with actual art, so that's not a problem), and sounded reasonably intelligent in Philosophy class (can I just call this one Moua?). So as far as Monday's go, this is one I would keep.
Looking at my super sweet phone that only texts in 'abc' (NO t9?!?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY!?!?!?!) I found a message from my dear Erica talking about picking up some kind of plain biscuit cookie on my way home. The second part of the message was much more interesting-she mentioned making cheesecake. I'm in. Totally in. Done. So I wandered in the direction of the store, taking a new route and stopping in a church that I pass almost every day (so pretty!) and by the time I get to the store, I walk in and who do I find? Erica and Kate. Beating me to the punch. At that point (since they had already picked up the cookie things, I grabbed some juice, mushrooms, and rosemary, and the collectable "i puffi" cup full of Nutella (we're going to see it in Italian, look it up) then we headed home.
This is where the actual fun beings. We made (we'll make it again, but if you want a slice you're going to have to fight me for it) chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Now wipe the drool off your computer, and continue reading. It has yet to set completely, but when it does, I assure you that there will be pictures in plenty. I'm so excited.
That was followed by the less amusing adventure of making dinner (9:30pm? ok) and eating it whilest skyping with the stunning Sonja in the team room (also got to see Moua-sigh). That conversation had a little coda of talking to Danielle and Josie back home too. Things you should take away from this paragraph: I love my GAC peeps. They make me happy.
Paging Batcave. Paging Batcave. Code on line 42.
BS ----> BA^S+RB=face(t).
So I'm going to finish my Italian Cinema reading, go to bed, and dream of delicious cheesecake.
It's just another manic Monday. In Rome.
Looking at my super sweet phone that only texts in 'abc' (NO t9?!?!?!?!?! WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY!?!?!?!) I found a message from my dear Erica talking about picking up some kind of plain biscuit cookie on my way home. The second part of the message was much more interesting-she mentioned making cheesecake. I'm in. Totally in. Done. So I wandered in the direction of the store, taking a new route and stopping in a church that I pass almost every day (so pretty!) and by the time I get to the store, I walk in and who do I find? Erica and Kate. Beating me to the punch. At that point (since they had already picked up the cookie things, I grabbed some juice, mushrooms, and rosemary, and the collectable "i puffi" cup full of Nutella (we're going to see it in Italian, look it up) then we headed home.
This is where the actual fun beings. We made (we'll make it again, but if you want a slice you're going to have to fight me for it) chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Now wipe the drool off your computer, and continue reading. It has yet to set completely, but when it does, I assure you that there will be pictures in plenty. I'm so excited.
That was followed by the less amusing adventure of making dinner (9:30pm? ok) and eating it whilest skyping with the stunning Sonja in the team room (also got to see Moua-sigh). That conversation had a little coda of talking to Danielle and Josie back home too. Things you should take away from this paragraph: I love my GAC peeps. They make me happy.
Paging Batcave. Paging Batcave. Code on line 42.
BS ----> BA^S+RB=face(t).
So I'm going to finish my Italian Cinema reading, go to bed, and dream of delicious cheesecake.
It's just another manic Monday. In Rome.
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