flights...

I have a friend who's in the soccer team , they travel almost weekly in plane to compete with other universities.
Free plane rides...whoa...

one of the benefit of having a 'good' job is also the free business trips you can get from your company.....

but after my more then 28 hours straight flights, I am not so sure I am up for plane trips anymore. Sleeping in the plane can kill time, but it makes me more tired.
With luck, you might get two seats for yourself because nobody's next to you. But if not....its just pure cramming.

Ahhhhh...two more hours till the FINAL touch down.

Welcome home, myself.

Deaths

I have no time to document my encounter with deaths. Some deaths feel "nearer" to me than others.

A couple of weeks ago, a prof from Art History dept died of breast cancer. She was 40. I saw her death has impacted many people near me: My current art prof burst out in tears infront of her students in class; my research prof ( who's probably around the same age with her) couldn't really focus on work even though she doesn't know her;I might have taken her class at some point, people said she's brilliant, but most of all, I just found out that she's the wife of my art grant advisor. He has never mentioned it to me, the whole time we were speaking, god must know how hard he has been through everyday.

A primary school teacher just died yesterday. She taught me public speaking. She's always approachable during my visits after graduation. She's my sis's classmate's mom. She's my teachers' colleagues. I talked to her a lot when I was 12 years old in school.

Miraculously, I dreamt of my dear friend who died a couple of years ago of cancer. He was still so warm and friendly in my dream.

RIP.

Mounting pressure from all directions

Like nobody's business..
Have just been hiding trying to keep my pressure cooker from exploding
All subjects have paper due sometime sunday or later but I would not be able to do it on the plane so basically I have to finish it prior.
Am anticipating a reverse culture shock when I go home: language , conversation , culture, food , means of entertainment
Super excited but super worried
Bought tons of valuables and am worried of custom , luggage
Have been rambling about all these to ppl...so I hope ppl don't feel I am too much!
Now back to my papers!

concert tomorrow

The few interesting events that occurred today:

I learned to spell Burkina Faso's capital, i.e. Ouagadougou ( no I lied, I still use the spell check), but yeah, you can never finish learning the capitals of every country in the world. My prof who have been there for her thesis research never stop talking about her experience there. For her, I guess Burkina Faso is Africa.

Came across a friend that I don't usually bump into. He told me he got hired to a very competitive consulting company and is willing to share a tips or two in getting to interviews, getting the job etc. I was happy to hear that he is so low profile and generous to help; you hear a lot about these people getting high prestigious consulting job, but they are usually cocky and not really willing to share their experience. I bet even now, not many know that this friend got into this top ranked consulting company and gets to choose which country he wants to be! Is this a bonus to me ? or should I still stick to looking for my own passion?

I HAVE to talk about SEX infront of my residents next week,yeah part of my job description as an undergrad advisor. So I went to seek advice on how to conduct this potential awkward and chaotic meeting. There comes a time where you really need to confront your inner fear of talking about certain 'sensitive' or personal topic.

Had a long rehearsal from 6- 9 30pm today for my percussion ensemble. I was lost most of the time , cause even I know the beats, I still need to coordinate the beats with the guest performers, which is a 7- people-Cuban band. Using my rusty Spanish, I was able to ask for help, and their music guru, W, was such a nice guy. I have to be frank, I have a musician crush on him. On the other hand, the other band members might have a crush on me too. They came to me and ask for a photo together, and didn't ask the others. good guess? lol.

My voice is still lost, due to me drinking everything but water. But I find my voice kinda sexy, not everyone thinks so though.

ok. adios!

Boston

I was always kinda "forced" to take up some drumming gigs because I belong to the world music percussion ensemble. I call it "forced" because usually these invitation to perform come in really late and without any early notice. Most of the time, I have to readjust my schedule or sacrifice something in order to make those performance happen. Of course, I enjoy every opportunity I have to perform, but when it finally comes to " how can I spend my time for me? " question, I don't think I know how to answer that really well.

So this week, I decided to go with the flow, and just join Kevin and his friends to Boston, and not make it to a concert. We got a free ride ( well in a car, not the $ 50 per person bus ride) to Boston and have a free place to stay ( one of our friends got an interview with a consulting firm, and they gave him a nice big room in a hotel with room service and parking space, food, etc just for the interview) . See if you want to have a good luxury life, see how the companies trying to lure you into the corporate world. It really comes down to the lifestyle you wanna live . $ 300 dollars hotel room for an interview ?? maybe!

I called up Jonathan and Olivia before the trip. Luckily they can both make time to meet up with me. We went around the Boston to search for place eat, and later go out. Me and Olivia got some girl time in a bar , catching up where we left off almost 2 years ago. It feels so nice to have somebody who understand you, and just spill everything without any burden. Sadly, I lost my voice from the day before and it wasn't really pleasant to hear my voice for the two days.

Massachusetts is a really strict state. They are not allow to serve alcohol after 12 30 am and and they don't have trains after 12 30 am. After that its really up to us how we go home. All the taxis were just trying to hike up the price coz this is not New York. High demand, low supply , we have mean taxi drivers. We walked half the city just to catch a bus to go to Olivia's college, Wellesley. Luckily we made it to the bus stop just in time.

So in short, got some real food, real city life, real conversation, real friends, and real time for me!

random observation

I decided that instead of not saying anything about my life in detail
i could spat out stuff that I have yet thought through, most of my time in Dartmouth, I am just rushing from place to place, and haven't have enough time to reflect on things :

Art history department dinner- realized that the department which is located next to the Baker library is used to be the Museum ( studio art department used to be there after the museum is moved , then occupied by art history department)

The everchanging of Dartmouth is witnessed by most staff and faculty more than student
Talked to a Safety and Security officer who has been here since 1982. According to her, she knows the nasty details of the parents ( who are Dartmouth alums) of current students!
As people know, the legacy is really strong here, most dartmouth alum want to send their children back to Dartmouth

CEO of Ebay (who is a dartmouth alum) gave a talk:
his son is a 2009 Graduate of Dartmouth too, he married his wife who is one year older than him in Dartmouth, and ever since then coordinated with his wife for 25 years of how both their careers could fit with each other to start family, advance in corporate ladder etc. All networking starts with curiosity and authenticity of character

The first women editor of the Dartmouth newspaper is now the chief editor of International Herald Tribune , she came back to talk about international journalism, says that her main motivation to go after her career is the lifestyle that she wants ( being abroad) , rather than merely journalism ( cause its very low pay)

Network yourself into a job!!! that's what everybody advices, have curiosity with people !!

My Egg Obsession

I am an addict! An Egg addict! I need a cure!!

I eat egg tarts everyday even though I know the crust of the egg tarts I bought from this particular shop is too flaky. I would order chicken burgers and take eggies from Kevin's plate as additional level.

Eggies I consume:

Egg tarts- one a day

Scramble eggs - one every two days

French Toast -- once a week

Fried Eggs -- if i m not eating any of the above

I thought I just hear my mom's warning of high cholesterol and potential of stroke ..haha

Am I the fish in this tank?

People have told me many times that our Major doesn't necessarily have to do with what we are going to be doing in the future. However,whenever you are asked" what do you study in college? " people wants to, in their head, do the equation and to link your answer to your prospective career.

"Geography" I said. " Oh you like maps? "

"Geography and Studio Arts" as if trying to justify myself " Oh, you like drawing maps?"

"Geography, but I like the human geography part, you know the development and cultural issues? " I thought linking myself to social goals is always a good answer. " Wow, didn't know geography covers that, so what will you be doing then? " So they still can't do the math, cause there is no job that people can immediately relate to a Geography major. In superficial settings, when people initially trying to get to know you, that's dangerous. Cause you can be shoved aside and listed in their head as the " I-can't-relate-to-her" lady.

Yes, we live in the world where people try to simplify things all the time. Simplification allows them to use less to understand more and make judgment. All the ads, the marketing plans, all the business models are simplified so that people could "fall in love" to the products easily without asking too many questions. Thus all the powerpoint work for interns. haha.

What happen to career exploration? ask more questions? question everything?

That's precisely how I ended up in New York City. Testing what I know and what I don't. Testing the tank full of fish, and see whether I belong here.

Turns out I still have to go back to the internet to make future plans. Not that I do not like socializing and exploration. But the city can be mean if you do not know anyone. I can't possibly go anywhere without friends by myself, and its so hard to make plans with friends who do not seem to know how to follow up.

Ideally, I would like to look up random alums with big money and works with big company and just chat with them. But that requires a lot of research and asking the right questions. Better yet, keep a communication log and record all the conversation that has happened. Well, I really like to know how people achieve their career goals!But that takes so much time!

I had a rough start in NYC, maybe I was not careful enough,but it teaches me that unpaid internship can be really sketchy. When there's no pay involve, people could just use you as cheap labors. That's how I feel the only few days at my first internship. They made me make a bunch of phone calls to random restaurants to ask for random donations. Who does that? Why would people help a random stranger ? That is in fact, the key to my discovery in New York.

"Who would help a random stranger?" The answer is of course: NOBODY.How do we solve that problem? By NETWORKING. Over the month, I understand that the core difference between Bribery and Networking. Both involves knowing the right people, but the former requires you to give lots and lots of "present" to make them happy to return any favor, while the later requires a good sense of humor, the right personality to keep those "helpful" people in your loop without letting them know you are actually "networking". It is a paradox, because when networking seems more noble, bribery is more honest, because the objective is clear at the very beginning.

I networked to find my second internship. Yes, I quit, and I was panicked for about two weeks. But thank Buddha that I wasn't alone. I have the best bf and a groups of close friends from Dartmouth. I talked to alums, talked to my mentor, talked to friends and many many more people. Doug, my percussion teacher, was kind enough to point me to a great direction, his best friend, Tim, who is the deputy director for an Arts Management Company. I went straight to their office and got the position the next day I returned from exile in Dartmouth.

Being an intern in this company makes me think even more. Arts industry is a tough world without good business management. This company,working as non-profit, strives to provide different services for the arts community such as software design, insurance, space rentals, fund-raising and more. Most colleagues in the company are smart people with interest in arts and usually have a graduate degree. ( Q1: is master degree a must?) Working in a non-profit sector doesn't mean you don't earn money, is just that you are not entitled to own shares, and become a millionaire over-night because you do well. A common misconception is that a non-profit consists of poor management who always ask for donations to keep a company running. But this company's business model is to get funding to develop new projects so that when the project is successful, they can generate their own revenue and run continuously without more funding.

There are so many questions that I wanted to ask all these smart people around me, but sadly, I am not a vampire. Nobody likes to be asked " what's your life challenge and key to success " everyday. My dear friend Faaez from Pakistan shared with me, " Americans separate their time for serious conversation and non-serious ones, don't ever bring up world poverty during lunch, expect people to discuss with you, they will think that you are an idiot". So guys' lunch conversations are " chick talk, trash talk, and ball talk, lebron james will be a good topic too". Girls, " boyfriends, sex, boys, flirting, sex, boys, sex boys". Welcome to America. (Q2: Then when is the best time to network?).

Day 1-- I absolutely enjoy most of the conversations with my colleagues, cause we talked about majors , studies, and work application.

Day 2-- the whole office was all excited about " the guy in the rainbow" high on drugs You tube clip. ( if you want to know the extend of the interest of this topic which I fail to relate to , watch it, also check out the number of clicks it receives.)

Day 3-- I am swamped with work and I feared I cannot finish my assignments in time. I was to research and compare any software in the internet and market that provides good features for small scale arts organization and arts school. Though having no time to talk to my new acquaintance, I did managed to learn a hell lot about writing a consultation report. Seeing my colleagues have all the time to chat with one another and making jokes, I understand a beginner like me will take more time to finish a task than them, so I do not have the luxury to talk.

Off days (like today)-- I would continue to work for my professor, who is hiring me, despite my lack of attention to the work I was paid to do in the Spring. But since I live in the city and have to get paid, I might as well be a good assistant. Again, the countless " geography major" conversation stuck in my head, and I had to do something about it. One of the summer tasks is to continue to find courses that interest me and keep me pursuing my million interests ( such as Marketing, Art History, Women and Gender Studies) on top of the Geography Major requirements and Modification with Studio Arts course. Moreover, I was suppose to volunteer ( I clearly haven't learn my lesson about unpaid internship) for a Jazz promotional non-profit started by non other than Jude Law ( will never meet him). I had the chance to learn about the principles of PR job , I was suppose to find writers and press who could help the organization promote their latest "gig tool" online. I am even invited to their salon event, which entails cocktail dress, drinks, and jazz musicians!

But I am about to call everything off to go to Motema's b'day in Dartmouth. Reasons?
Yes I could be networking with tonnes of new contacts, but ultimately , I will only receive enough name cards for god knows when to use. A pure superficial event, fun to go if I am with a bunch of girl friends.But I do not even know the organizers ( only thing I know is that they date within the organization, or , they volunteer together), and have only met with my supervisor once.

Based on my experience in Bangkok, it takes more than a month to let people feel comfortable to be around you, to accept you as a friend, and willing to tell you the 'truth' about their world, their lifestyle. That's why I am very much an intruder ( I know that because everybody has each others' skype account in the office and chat except me, everybody could track each other's calendar except for me, I am pretty much out of their intercom network). Which leads to another crucial question ( Q3: How much can you know about a culture and place in 4 weeks? if so, do I really need to go to another study abroad which I am accepted, or should I just focus on career/soul searching for my remaining terms in Dartmouth? )

There are still so much to think about. My life as an intern is not done yet. But I hope I will learn along the way and would one day declare what I really wanna do in the future.

What I did on Monday 8 am to 10 pm (click for photos)

We literally move 6 boats from main road to the lake, built 3 platforms on 6 boats, move all the instruments onto the platform, moved other instruments to three other spots facing the lake, Assisted the performance by playing the thunder sheets, took the boats to the shore, took of the platform, load the boats to the truck and load all the instruments back. Unforgettable group effort and spirits to make music happen.

Check out this video of the performance from 4 45pm to 6 15 pm. ( less than 2 hours is the actual performance!!) and New York Times' review...look out for me among the bushes when u click on 'slideshow' lol....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/23/arts/music/23xenakis.html

persephassa on the lake from liubo on Vimeo.

Liquid....

literally flowed out from my eyes, ears, nose in various color.

I am not trying to disgust you, but its true, I don' t know what is wrong with me.

I am experiencing so-throat, bleeding both my nose and ear, and red eyes.

I guess its the stress-- well, I don't really stress about work.

I guess I don't drink enough water-- maybe, because there isn't enough warm water and I don't feel like drinking cold water all the time.

Well that's my physical condition.

Not too serious to be worrying yet.


Then again, do I really wanna tell you what's in my head, in my heart?

A term's ending is another beginning. There are so many unknown in front of me. I couldn't think beyond June. All I know is , I am going to be in New York, with a friend who's willing to host me, with a job, which I am yet to know what is it about.

I wanted to explore my artistic instinct, whether I am fit for the artsy world, whether I am choosing the right thing on campus, whether I am spending my time wisely. Whether I am learning, and making myself happy and useful everyday.

At the same time, I will be missing a good company. Someone whom I have spent most of my Dartmouth with. I don't want to think about it yet, but its coming. Oh life, why can't it be any easier?

Green Key Weekend

This is a weekend where its perfectly fine to drink the night away and party as hard as you want!
For me, I have been working the whole term for this week, and finally I got to perform in this big event of the year-- Step show ( see video in previous post) !

Memorable moments this weekend:

-When Motema, Sabrina and I coincidentally wore Purple and laugh to a scene under a tree!

-When the dance floor was cleared up and Kevin, the DJ cum BF played specially picked songs for only Motema, Sabrina and Me!

-When the boys and I spent an hour in FOCO and then building 'Eifel' Towers in the room. lol

-When people do not know whether I am hyper or typsy .

- Frat hopping.


Now that the week has ended, I have to study for finals on Monday!

Ujima show last saturday!

Another blog

Hi Readers,

I am keeping another blog for my writing class this term. The posts are more intellectual motivated and less personal, however, its another way of learning what I am doing on campus and what I am learning!

Enjoy.

Si Jie

Have I lose....(click)

my habit of blogging?

Time never seems to be enough for me when classes are on.

But when I have them, over the spring break (the past 2 weeks) essentially,instead of blogging, here's what I did:

1) Overslept till 2 pm due to watching late night movies from iTunes rental store
2) Spent the first few hours upon waking up cooking, shopping for food, and eating
3) Watched more movies
4) Repeated step (2) for dinner, sometimes cooking for a big group of friends

5) Okok I did meaningful stuff too: phone interviews for summer internship (positive:P)
6) Organized late night hang out, dancing the night away with African music
7) Drove 2 hours to Boston to shop for shoes, belts, bags, jackets, and Chinatown food supplies
8) When not shopping in Boston, ate African food in Ethiopian restaurant and Chinese dim sum the next morning
9) Moved into a new dorm where I am hired to be a UGA
10) (since am on the R boat)Talked about future plans involving big words such as "coordination" and "commitment" which is yet to be determined of course

So enough of reflection, what's popping for Spring term (starting tomorrow)?

1) Newly hired as a UGA, basically am assigned to take care of a floor of residents
2) Applying for grants to work in New York for the summer
3) To help envision better network/organization for international students
4) Perfect my dance moves for Ujima ( a dance group i just joined)
5) Continuing to get paid working different jobs on campus
6) Taking exciting classes such as Painting, Writing with Media, and my first LAB CLASS with my bf as the TA (lol, very tricky:P)
7) Embracing Raggae, Bob Marley for the upcoming WMPE concert
8) More future planning...
9) Keeping up with friends...

Ah..the list can go on...But if you don't see me blogging anymore...refer to the list and you'll know why...

Friendship- pause. stop.

Has it ever occur to you that friendships, as emotional attached can one be to them, has pauses and stops? I define friendship as a constant interaction between two people, where potentially through increase interaction, have increase importance in each other life.

Its very obvious in where I live, where the D plan makes it totally possible for you to be in touch or out of touch with someone for a long time. You could be 'best' friends and keeping track with everything each other do by simply being in the same class, doing the same activities. But once the term ends, and you take different courses, you can hardly even find time to catch up when you bump into each other on the streets. Occasionally you might suggest a lunch/ or dinner. But when that happens, you have maybe 8 weeks of gap of stories to tell. Eventually, you don't even bother update each other about your life anymore.

Perhaps I should thank the frats and sororities for holding all the dance parties: it happens almost every weekend, and presumably you go every weekend, you are bound to catch up with people at least once a week. What if you don't drink as much and find the basement sketchy and stinky?

Thinking out of the Dartmouth landscape, I now have friends across the globe where I proudly claim to be good friends with. With the little chance of traveling, the time we could possible meet with each other is when I happened to be in a nearby city our country- I could fly over to visit the place , and also this friend, kill two birds with one stone. Then I find myself over the stretch of few nights, listening to stories stretching as far and 3 to 4 years back. When we finish our stories, we realized, our friendship has paused 3 to 4 years ago, and resumed for that few days. We love and appreciate each others' company but know that we will resume to the 'other' life fairly quickly as we part.

Maybe what I said is not fair to the friends who are now continents and oceans apart, where it's almost impossible to keep in touch frequently. But doesn't it make you think that,being in the same place, same city, same campus, there should be more motivation for us to keep up with friends, and depend less on coincidence?

I never stop wonder what stops us from sending that one blitz/email across for a get together or a lunch date?

Chinese New Year and Valentines:P

Oh forgot to put some pictures from the two BIGGEST occasion in February:P

Africa Meets Asia!!(click for more videos!)

Hi, so I am uploading all the songs we played on last friday's concert! It was a huge success. Sorry for the bad audio quality, this is what happened when you can't make it to the live concert!

Please search for the rest of the video clips on youtube using keywords " Africa Meets Asia" , More to come!!!

When is it okay to be emotional???

When you are a person who get affected by others so easily, you tend to be very emotional. The force of emotions that starts from deep inside the heart find its way to your angry voice, frown face, shaky hands, and maybe unstable waves of feelings that linger in the head....

Once it start, its really hard to stop it. Sometimes you can't sleep. If you do, you wake up continuously feeling like shit. You try to study, work, attend classes...but the emotions follow you like shadow, its hard to dismiss it. You try to talk to close friends, helps to throw something out from the chest...but maybe not all...At this point, you may already know the source of pain, but you can't exactly blame others for feeling this...everybody has different perspective...what's so obvious for you to feel emotional might be very ridiculous for others...maybe its a gender thing..maybe its a personality thing...maybe....all you need is to find ways to channel those burning emotions out.

I walked into the art studio..the nude lady stood still in the middle of the studio..waiting for me to draw her...big sheets of paper were laid on the floor...charcoal are tied up on a long stick...I picked the stick up...breathing hard...the emotions flow down the veins of my hand...I start drawing...fast bold strokes, heavy, black strokes. I underlined her curve, her shades of pink on her breast, her thigh, her skin.

I did not erase a single stroke...I continue to release my emotions to the paper. My professor walked over. Looked. said," she seems to be moving around when she is actually standing still". Guess that describes my lines, my strokes...its not very settle...its in all directions...I successfully put my emotions on my drawing..

and later my drums...my dancing..
That might really explains why artists are weird and hard to understand.. The have mood swings..and they actually need mood swings to channel their skills into good use...Some say its creativity...I say its expression....

Sorry to those who find me hard to get, hard to understand...I guess art can rescue me from you....

I drew with my left hand!!!

Its so cool and liberating...
and its my first time having a nude model in front of me.
its not as exotic as I thought...when you are constantly trying to finish the figure drawing within 5 minutes...we need 9 drawings of different poses in a horizontal paper..

Dartmouth is suffering from 100 Million dollars budget cuts. Though the scale is smaller but almost identical with the financial crisis that just experienced in US....
students two years from now might have more loan than we do....

Successful Winter Ball!!

I am writing to tell you about.......

Dear Family and Friends,

If you think I am ignoring you these days....that's probably TRUE!!

For the first time, I am taking up leadership roles in the College, Organizing big concerts and events for the Dartmouth Community!

Besides the on going process to figuring out my major and future profession, I am also:

1) Organizing an upcoming Winter Ball for the ISA(International Students' Association)
-- Just got elected for this term's Vice President- Social, so that's basically my job scope. On top of that, we wish to implement our collected Dartmouth effort to help Haiti in their post Earthquake trauma. Therefore, I have lots of email flying all over the place.

2) World Percussion Music Ensemble Concert
-- I am bringing lots of songs that I have been played in my high school Oriental Music Orchestra and try to implement it to this year's concert. Hopefully we could do some Asia/Africa Remix!!! Some of the songs selection includes the forever famous " Matsuri" by Kitaro and " Mukala-Mukala" by A R Rahman!
-- Since I am unable to read music notes, I have to literally translate the Numbering system from the Chinese Music Notes to Christina, who will write it into the western music notes for the rest of the Members...then have to find alternative instruments to replace the Chinese intruments....Ahhh......Why didn't I learn piano when I was younger/??

3) Tried to join Sorority but it didn't work out...But I think its for the best, considering so little time I have ..hahhaa

4) Of course all the class readings...this year am taking Human Geography, International Politics and Drawing 1

But I can't describe everything in details guys, I have to read for my Midterm Exam next week, and cook dinner!! Ciaoz....
But even if I have been ignoring you, I still love you!!:P

It's okay....

We always start our drumming rehearsals by grading our day from 1-10. Usually I would be around 8,9 since I am generally a happy person. My music director, Hafiz, already doing what he's doing for more than 20 years...always comes in with a big smile and chuckles in between conversations.

While everybody is busy grading their day....I am still frustrated with the lost luggage...Hafiz suddenly said: "Just one and a half weeks ago, I realized, It's okay when something is not always right..I don't feel the need to stress on everything I do. I don't push it anymore. It's okay to slow down, sit back and see how things go"

He is having thoughts of retirement too. A master drummer like him, who has drum ever since he was 7, starts to look for other things in life to inspire him. He even started to learn Chinese QI GONG, hoping to bring his drumming skills further....

Back to the fast pace life in Dartmouth, when you run between places and only catch up with friends for 40 minutes during meal time, I am determined to instill this philosophy into my head: " It's okay, I still haven't find my luggage...It's okay, sometimes I couldn't finish my reading...It's okay, when people disappoints me,..It's okay when somebody says no to me...It's okay......"

My Boston Flight got canceled!

My Boston Flight got canceled!
Thanks to the strict security measurement due to a fail terrorist attack last week, everything is chaotic in the airports, at least in the US. Everybody’s luggage and body have to be manually search by officers before boarding on the plane, hence all the delays and cancelling of flight. The flight from Barcelona to JFK was 25th in line before landing, and we were just circling the New York sky for almost 30 minutes just to wait for available lanes (Can you picture airplanes lining up in the sky?? Haha).

So after the customs, I have to collect my luggage and then drop them off again. Everything is so redundant, and I have to walk to the other end of the airport just to find out my flight was canceled. Heard it was due to snowstorm too.

Yeah, you can sense my rambling tone, because I am: I have 20 more minutes before boarding to the next Boston flight, and then I am bound to miss my last bus to Dartmouth. So I have to find buses from other companies after collecting my luggage. Which means I have to first get myself to the bus station before searching for a new bus schedule, which will most likely be at midnight. So all in all, I have travelled for more than 1000 miles starting at 8 am in Barcelona, 9 30 am check-in, delayed flight left 2 hours later than scheduled time at 12 30pm, arriving 9 hours later at JFK, 3 hours delayed +1.5 hrs to Boston , 2hrs waiting for next bus + 2.5 hours to final destination aka Dartmouth, which I still have no key to my new room. TOTAL TRAVEL TIME= 22 HOURS!!! (excluding last night’s 10 hours traveling from Nairobi to Barcelona)

No stories about my vacation until my hyper self returns!