:: eye of the storm ::


About Me

A 27-year-old PA student who wants to visit all seven continents, write a book, work at a pediatric clinic in Africa, and basically meet as many of the world's challenges as possible.

View my complete profile

current mood:
current mood

Life List

(already accomplished)

Become a PA

Visit all 7 continents

Take a SwimTrek trip

Bike through Western Europe

Raft the Grand Canyon

Improve my Spanish proficiency

Go on safari in Africa

Trace my roots at Ellis Island

Vacation in Hawaii

Work on a hospital ship in a Third World country

Celebrate New Year's in Times Square

Visit all 50 states (29 to go: AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, RI, SD, TX, UT, VT, WA, WV, WI, WY)

See the ruins at Pompeii

Swim in Capri's Blue Grotto

Tour Mt. Vesuvius

Throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain

Tour the Colosseum

Visit the D-Day beaches

See the Mona Lisa

Visit the palace at Versailles

See the Acropolis and Parthenon

See the Egyptian pyramids

Hike the Inca Trail

Walk El Camino Santiago

Take an Alaskan cruise

View the Taj Mahal at sunrise

Hike Table Mountain in South Africa

Climb through the Amazon canopy

Walk at least part of the Great Wall of China

Get laser hair removal

Learn to surf, ski, and snowboard

Learn to drive a stick-shift

Learn to play the piano

Go on a tropical cruise

Ride horseback on the beach

Ride in a hot air balloon

Get tickets to the Olympics

Go to adult Space Camp

Witness a shuttle launch from up close

Build a full-sized snowman

Sew a quilt out of my old race T-shirts

Update and continue my Life Scrapbook

Become the oldest person to ever do the River Run

Live to be a happy, healthy 100 years old - at least!

(unlikely dreams)

zondag 18 januari 2004

Current Music: Marco Borsato – “Je hoeft niet naar huis vannacht”

Hoi! Well, I looked up grad schools – there are about 15 of them in this country if you include the technical institutes and all. I found a list with links to the sites for each one, so I spent a little time looking at that, eliminating the technical schools and the schools that had no linguistics-related degrees available (plus Groningen and Maastricht because I don’t really want to be at the tail end of the country) – and it turns out there are 4 possibilities for me, 2 of which look really cool: Universiteit Utrecht (where I am now) and Universiteit Leiden. The Utrecht program is in English lasting two years and the way they set it up looks really neat – you pick a ‘major’ and a ‘minor’ from the 8 interest areas of the program, things like language acquisition (which would definitely be my major!), syntax, psycholinguistics, etc. And Leiden is cool for one reason: they’re in the process of developing a new master’s program called ‘vertaalkunde’ (vertalen=to translate, -kunde=art, so something like ‘the art of translating’)… which if it pans out is something that I would DEFINITELY want to do! Except I think the program may be in Dutch… oh well, we’ll see, that’s still years away. But at least there are possibilities here… and good ones at that! Anybody ever heard of a master’s degree in translating? LOL! Me neither! :)

And I’ve struck a deal with O – I’m going to give her swimming lessons, LOL! Well, one swimming lesson, anyway. Which is going to be fun – I haven’t seen her since August so that’ll be really nice, and I suspect she’s right and it’ll turn into a ‘lachdagje’… (lachen=to laugh, dagje=’little day’… sounds cuter in Dutch). If we get half as crazy as we do over MSN (sample of topics: my seven children (don’t ask), sex in shopping carts, and opening a commercial company), then it’ll be a verrrry interesting day! LOL!

What do people here do for their birthdays??? Mine is the day after I get back from my trip home, the 30th of this month, and I feel like I should plan something, but I don’t know what. I’ve had some great parties at home – the indoor pool, the rock climbing wall, etc. – but if I were home now… well… if I were home now, I’d probably just go to Olive Garden with my family, and maybe do something else with a few G-ville friends. Nothing big. But everybody’s so spread out here – it’s not like you call people up and if they’re not doing anything that night they walk over to your dorm. The people that I would really want with me are at all ends of the country… L in Leeuwarden, A in Breda, D in Raalte, P in Buitenpost… everybody’s so spread out, and plus they’re all working. I mean, I could maybe get T, P (the Utrecht one), and M over here, but I don’t know what I’d do with them once I got them here, LOL. I guess I’ll be antisocial this year and sort of ignore my birthday… or maybe inspiration will strike somewhere over the Atlantic, LOL…

The international office here SUCKS! I’m afraid my translating class (the one in Dutch) that I’m signed up for this block has been canceled – I can’t find it on the website anymore. Plus nobody has gotten any confirmation from them that we’re actually signed up for these classes at all. Anyway, so I’ve e-mailed them, but I haven’t gotten an answer yet. And if that class HAS been canceled, then I need to know NOW so I can sign up for something else, otherwise UF is going to start sending me those threatening e-mails with something like “You are currently not enrolled for enough credits to remain a full-time student…do something about this…”, LOL… So: answer me, you morons!

Can’t believe I’m going home in three days! I’m not going to get to see E in Atlanta after all because my layover is only an hour… *sniff*… but I still have all kinds of plans for good old J-ville and G-ville. Many of them involving MY CAR!!! So – hey little sis – we may end up fighting over it… but I’m only there for a few days and I’ve dumped a ton of money into that car… so be nice… OK? ;)

Okay, going now… don’t know exactly what I’m going to DO, but going now.

My Stuff

Blogs I Read

Blogging Since 2003


Free Blog Counter
Poker Blog

Powered by Blogger