discoveries
BUENOS AIRES IS SO BORING
no one ever told me that study abroad was for partying and watching tv. my advice: don't do it. if you want an "adventure," join the peace corps when you graduate. if you want to "really learn something about yourself," spend a few months at a Buddhist retreat instead.
my classes are completely worthless, my spanish is so far from fluent it's a joke, and buenos aires is great for materialism and steak but not much else. i miss feeling like i was getting smarter by being in class, i miss studying, i miss nature, i miss vegetables. i miss not missing brandt and i wish i didn't have a growing fear that if i had just broken up with him before i left i would have been a lot happier here.
if you want adventure, which is what i wanted, skip all the study abroad fees and tuition and just go explore a continent with the money instead. south america, southeast asia, europe, anything. if your parents are on the wealthier side and you don't have to get a summer job, even better. you don't have to miss out on a semester with your great friends and your amazing professors and your wonderfully huge libraries. and your wireless.
true, i have learned some things about myself. one: in order to be happy, i need to feel like i'm accomplishing something. two: i hate cities. three: i hate going to out to giant clubs full of well-dressed strangers. four: i hate materialism and i hate how it worms its way into my subconscious and subverts my young, susceptible value system. five: America is a really great place to live. six: i hate money. seven: i hate discovering things about myself by discovering that i hate a lot of stuff. i know that knowing what you don't want is really important for knowing what you do want about your life ("If you don't know what you want, you'll end up with a lot you don't" - chuck palahniuk). but making so very many negative discoveries without making hardly any positive ones (although, of course, a positive discovery is always present in a negative discovery, but if it's the negative discovery that's made tangibly, then the positive one is sometimes too abstract for much comfort at the moment of negative discovery... now i'm losing it)... where was i? right, making so many negative discoveries in a row really gets you down.
let's end on a brighter note. my classes end june 21, and my summer plans are: spend a week in peru with my grandmother (finally, seeing real south america and not some wannabe-euro-trash bubble!), spend july and august working in ithaca and living with brandt, and visit missoula for hopefully two weeks in august. missoula friends, will i see you?
people who are having/have had their own study abroad experiences - make me feel better by joining in my venting or sharing your more positive experiences?
no one ever told me that study abroad was for partying and watching tv. my advice: don't do it. if you want an "adventure," join the peace corps when you graduate. if you want to "really learn something about yourself," spend a few months at a Buddhist retreat instead.
my classes are completely worthless, my spanish is so far from fluent it's a joke, and buenos aires is great for materialism and steak but not much else. i miss feeling like i was getting smarter by being in class, i miss studying, i miss nature, i miss vegetables. i miss not missing brandt and i wish i didn't have a growing fear that if i had just broken up with him before i left i would have been a lot happier here.
if you want adventure, which is what i wanted, skip all the study abroad fees and tuition and just go explore a continent with the money instead. south america, southeast asia, europe, anything. if your parents are on the wealthier side and you don't have to get a summer job, even better. you don't have to miss out on a semester with your great friends and your amazing professors and your wonderfully huge libraries. and your wireless.
true, i have learned some things about myself. one: in order to be happy, i need to feel like i'm accomplishing something. two: i hate cities. three: i hate going to out to giant clubs full of well-dressed strangers. four: i hate materialism and i hate how it worms its way into my subconscious and subverts my young, susceptible value system. five: America is a really great place to live. six: i hate money. seven: i hate discovering things about myself by discovering that i hate a lot of stuff. i know that knowing what you don't want is really important for knowing what you do want about your life ("If you don't know what you want, you'll end up with a lot you don't" - chuck palahniuk). but making so very many negative discoveries without making hardly any positive ones (although, of course, a positive discovery is always present in a negative discovery, but if it's the negative discovery that's made tangibly, then the positive one is sometimes too abstract for much comfort at the moment of negative discovery... now i'm losing it)... where was i? right, making so many negative discoveries in a row really gets you down.
let's end on a brighter note. my classes end june 21, and my summer plans are: spend a week in peru with my grandmother (finally, seeing real south america and not some wannabe-euro-trash bubble!), spend july and august working in ithaca and living with brandt, and visit missoula for hopefully two weeks in august. missoula friends, will i see you?
people who are having/have had their own study abroad experiences - make me feel better by joining in my venting or sharing your more positive experiences?