Goodbye... for 3 weeks.

I leave for Prague tomorrow morning. I'm hopefully meeting Caitlin and Liz at the airport, however I have been informed that if they aren't there I'm supposed to just go ahead on without them. That could be more of an adventure than I bargained for, but it would definitely give me something to blog about. So far the most challenging part of my trip seems to be the packing. I am somehow supposed to survive for three weeks out of a small rolling suitcase. Let me put this in perspective for you. When I pack for camp, which is six-weeks, I fill up my entire Jetta. The amount of stuff that my suitcase holds could pretty much fit in my dashboard console. Anyway, I just threw in a few items and decided I needed to just go with it and be more granola. So, everyone cross your fingers and wish me luck: Prague, Greece, and Italy HERE I COME!

Becoming Jane.

I have some sort of weird complex and everytime I go to see any sort of chick flick, I leave the theater with a sad sense of depression that my life isn't like these dramatic screen plays. Anyway, Jane Austen herself had quite a tale, or at least Hollywood gave her one. I'd take Mr. Lefroy any day. But reality check. Actually my life has had its own share of drama lately. Today I was informed that I am a "childish" girl that lets things slip from her mouth that shouldn't. So don't mind me. This is probably just another slip.

I'm a Lover Not a Fighter.

I'm very confused. I think me and my Bulgarian neighbor might be in a fight. It's not like a normal full on fight, and it may even be something I fabricated in my mind, however it seems real. I don't even know how it started, but now it has gotten to that awkward point where no one wants to admit that it is actually happening. I guess now we are in the stage where we just avoid each other all together.

Imperial Leather: Shower Gel & Shampoo for Men.

For some reason I just can't grasp this concept of shower gel & shampoo ALL-IN-ONE. Every morning I find myself staring at this "Imperial Leather: Shower gel & Shampoo" bottle that sits in our shower. First of all the name caught my attention. At first I thought it sounded like something you would rub on a horse saddle or something. Upon futher inspection I found that it seemed to be some sort of all purpose cleaner for boys who only want to deal with the hastle of one bottle.

"Feel fresh with this long lasting fragrance and minerals from volcanic lagoons, combines with a rich, creamy lather for an invigorating shower experience."

I mean if Imperial Leather can create this concoction, I wonder why I spend so much money buying separate shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. On the other hand, I enjoy toting my little shower caddy down each morning and neatly arranging my cute colored bottles on the shelf. I bet one day they will make a "Shampoo, shower gel, cologne, shaving gel" for men that just gets everything done in one quick wash. Maybe it will turn into a tablet that you just swallow when you step under the water. I don't know why I think about these things.

I need a designated decision maker.

I cannot make decisions. I cannot make plans for anything more than a week in advance. I have trouble committing to ANYTHING and everything that involves the future. I am in serious need of a life coach. I always wondered if they actually exist as I imagine them. I once saw this commercial where this guy would do something,like buy a soda out of a vending machine, and out of nowhere was this great applause. That is how I envision my life coach, my own personal cheerleader. They would enthusiastically congratulate me on my every move and encourage me when things get rough. I'm now adding decision making to their job descrption. Ok I'm blabbering on about this imaginary person, and I really just need to address the actual problem: THIS SUMMER. I have no idea what to do. I mean I have ideas, just I don't know which path I should go down. I have the obvious UVA obligation of a summer internship, which I currently don't have. I'm still waiting to hear back from one company, but lets face it, my luck is not the best, so I'm kind of ruling that out in my mind until I actually receive word back. Next option, take classes at NYU for the summer. I've already applied for the summer housing in NYC, and the classes sound amazing. I am not one to enjoy even the thought of class in the summer, however, these are not just ANY classes. A little taste of my options: Photography, How to Write Your Own Autobiography, Exploring the Art Museums of NYC, etc. I mean this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to live in NY for the summer... however I'm probably playing out Sex and the City scenarios of glamor and a posh city lifestyle that probably wouldn't translate into the life of Katie Chapin. Ok, and last but not least I have the camp option. Now, many people have told me I need to grow up and move on... but I can't imagine a summer without camp. Actually I can imagine it. Junior year of high school I spent my summer at the University of Richmond govenor's school and had to wear a button with my name on it for the duration of the 4 week program. Gag me. I just spilled all of that out hoping that writing it down would somehow make sense of it all and lead me to a clear decision. NO SUCH LUCK. Input is welcome.

My happy place.

In case you were wondering, Notting Hill has a cupcake store. And they sell a "bling bling" cupcake. That pretty much made my life.

Fine.

"You'll be fine. I'll be fine. We'll all be fine." I actually just said this out loud. You'd think by now, three years into college, I'd have this whole stress management thing under control. However, I have over the years adopted a strategy of avoidence to relieve my worries. Unfortuately this leads to more stress and then more avoidence. On the other hand my procrastination skills have blossomed in ways even I would have never expected. I offically can procrastinate better than anyone else. And by better I mean the most useless time wasting you could ever imagine. I know you are all thinking, "What could be worse than surfing facebook four hours upon end looking at facebook photos of people you haven't seen or talked to since middle school?" Trust me there is worse. For example, yesterday I spent an hour just playing with my camera. I was sitting here in my tiny box of a room just taking pictures. I'll admit most of them were of me. I was playing this game in my head where I would think up a scenario like "I just won an academy award" or my personal favorite "Think of the meaning of life" or "You just failed an exam miserably and no one cares." The best part of this whole excercise was that when I looked at all of these photos my expression was the same in each one. I finally understood how Zoolander felt. I have one look. So, as you can see I am learning and growing from my procrastination efforts, if anyone ever needs any ideas, I'm here to help.

I saw Harry Potter nakie.

Yes, I went to London not knowing what I was in for. When I requested that we see a show, I was thinking something more along the lines of a Mary Popins, Wicked, or even the odd yet entertaining Blue Man Group... l forgot I was tagging along with the intellectuals for the weekend. Before I knew what I was agreeing to, I had purchased my ten pound ticket to go see Equus. I will spare you the discussion of the overarching themes of the play [they had something to do with the struggle between individual passion and the mundane] and skip to the part where Daniel Radcliffe [aka Harry Potter] strips down to his birthday suit. Yes, that is right. I could literally see the cute quidditch star who I used to imagine wisking me away on his Nimbus 2000 standing right there on stage. Ok I'm obviously way too immature for a twenty one year old, but come on, it was Harry Potter.

"The Room of Love"

Let me preface this story by giving you a little background. When I first moved into my dorm I met pretty much everyone on my floor, except my neighbor. At first I didn't even realize there was anyone even living in the room next to me. I never heard any noise or saw anyone coming in or out of it. It was a few weeks ago that I first heard a voice. It was a girl speaking in an asian language with such a voracity that I thought I was starting to hear imaginary voices. I placed my ear next to the wall and sure enough it was real. Another week or so passed and there was still no evidence of an inhabitant. I decided to ask my friendly Bulgarian neighbor what the deal was since he had lived here during the first semester. That is when I was introduced to the "Room of Love." Apparently this girl, Katherine, has a boyfriend in London and she often stays there most of the time. However, when her boyfriend visits Bath...well it is QUITE a visit. I kind of brushed this thought out of my mind because I still hadn't seen the girl and didn't quite believe she actually existed. On Tuesday of this week, I had my first sighting. There she was. I could see her through the door to the kitchen and I ran to confirm with someone that this was actually her! I can't say that we've ever spoken or even introduced ourselves...but today I feel like I know a little more than I ever wanted to. Today I was sitting at my desk staring blankly at the word document on my computer screen. I was trying to write an essay for my Ecological Thinking class, and I had hit a mental block. All of the sudden I hear this sound. Yes. The bed in the room next to me is being used, and not for sleeping. The creaking of the matress is audible pretty much all the way down the hall. I put my ear to the wall just becuase I can't believe this. It turns out that her bed is exactly next to my bed on the other side of the wall. Needless to say, I don't think I will be getting much sleep tonight.

Photoshop, a hidden treasure.

Ok so I have to admit I purchased Photoshop about a year ago and never really was patient enough to sit down and figure out how to use it. I obviously am no expert at it now, but I have to just RAVE about the SAH-weet effects you can creat on your photos. I think I found my newest way to procrastinate :)

Paris...208 pictures later.

Yes, I know. The moment you've all been waiting for. A POST, and not just any post, one that describes my obsession with little dogs and crêpes. Ok so I think the best starting place for this story is our arrival at our hostel in Paris. We will skip over the Air France plane ride with crazy turbulence and French annoucements, which I could not understand. So we show up at our hostel and go to the desk to check in. Claire, who knows a little French, gave her best shot at trying to say something to the effect of, "We are here to check in and would like our room." The guy behind the counter then precedes to rattle off some French so fast that we had no idea what was being said. He could have been offering us drugs for all we know. We just kind of nodded and gave that blank stare, kind of like the one I give when teachers ask me if I understand a concept. After a few more minutes of him talking, he breaks out and starts speaking English...not just any English, he has a bonafide American accent. Apparently he found this joke to be hilarious, it turns out he is from Washington D.C. Go figure. So we leave Reggie, still chuckling it up behind the desk, and travel down a steep winding staircase to our room (the last door on the bottom floor). Now this is my first hostel experience, so maybe this is normal, but we step into the room to see a bunk bed, another single bed, and then a shower right next to the TV. Let me repeat, a SHOWER NEXT TO THE TV. You might be saying to yourself right now, "hey at least you had a shower in your room." But let me clear that up, this shower had one of those hand held shower heads with no place to hang it up on the wall. I think I could probably write a page just about my first and last shower experience in this particular shower, but I will just skip over that and say that I was dirty for about the next 3 days. So anyway, on to the more substancial adventures. I was just about a touristy as one can get in another country. I had my camera glued to my right hand the entire time. We hit all the major sites: (I'm going to list them in my best attempt to spell them the French way) Tour Eiffel, Le Louvre, Versailles (at which I was thankful for having gone to see Marie Antoinette in theaters, a Hollywood history lesson if you will), Champs Elysées et Arc de Triopmhe, Musée d'Orsay, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Jardin du Palais Royal, Rue de Rivoli, Place Vendôme, and Notre Dame. I wish I could detail what we did at every place, however even now it's all starting to fade from my memory. What I do remember is walking more than I've ever walked in my entire lifetime. My legs were on fire. I'm sure part of this was because there is so much to see in Paris, however part of this pain was caused by the fact that I am directionally challenged, and when put in charge of a map...well, it's just not a good idea. I like to go with my gut feeling rather than actually reading the street signs. However this gave me plenty of time to observe the French culture around me. My favorite part of Paris was the fact that all the Parisians had these cute little dogs that they walked everywhere. I started documenting these "little dog sightings" with my camera. My most treasured picture captured this little dog in its Burberry outfit. Yes, it was at that moment that I could picture myself living in Paris. The only problem is that I think I would have a problem not eating crêpes with Nutella for every meal. I don't know how people aren't fat in Paris. They are the most amazing food creation I've ever experienced. I wasn't so much a fan of the other French food... I decided, instead, to live off of cheese pizza for the week. Lets just keep that between us. Alright well this post obviously has not really told you the WHOLE story, or anywhere even close to it, but I should probably run through my key words from last time just for fun. I saw SHEEP at Versaille and thought it was the greatest thing ever. I trudged through the mud to actually pose for a picture next to the sheep field, meanwhile everyone else who paid their entrance fair to see the palace probably thought I was crazy. PYRAMID, well that is referring to the Louvre, which is the biggest museum I've ever been in. Not to mention the fact that we got lost inside and couldn't find an exit for about a half-hour. TIFFANY's, we we looking for a cheap place to eat one night and we got lost...we some how ended up on the most expensive street in Paris. We walked by Tiffany's and it reminded me of the scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's:

Holly Golightly: You know those days when you get the mean reds?
Paul Varjak: The mean reds, you mean like the blues?
Holly Golightly: No. The blues are because you're getting fat and maybe it's been raining too long, you're just sad that's all. The mean reds are horrible. Suddenly you're afraid and you don't know what you're afraid of. Do you ever get that feeling?
Paul Varjak: Sure.
Holly Golightly: Well, when I get it the only thing that does any good is to jump in a cab and go to Tiffany's. Calms me down right away. The quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there. If I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!

(slightly off topic, I know)

ACCORDION was because they have these little old men that jump on the metro cars and play for you. It feels like you waiting in line at Epcot. And finally, ELEVATOR, because when we went up the Eiffel Tower, the elevator went up at a diagonal . Then you had to get off an get on another elevator that just kept going up and up and up. I definitely realized I have a fear of heights. I think I've been on Tower of Terror too many times. Ok, well that is the end of my story. C'est la vie.