Livin' in the City

My sister is pregnant and getting married in little more than a week. Of course, this calls for family drama. Apparently she didn't invite all of our aunts and uncles. This has led to my grandmother and one aunt, who was invited because she's her godmother, to decline the invitation in solidarity. I get their reasons, but on the other hand, that particular grandmother has exactly 3 grandkids. She's 86 years old and it's not likely that my brother or me are getting married soon. So, she's missing her wedding for that... But while I adore the aunt that is my sister's godmother, she did basically ruin my sister's 30th birthday party because she started a fight with my sister's groom to be and then dramatically flounced off. So maybe it's for the best if they are not there.

I've been feeling emotionally out of sorts recently. My emotions are all over the place since my grandfather died in 5 weeks ago. All the talk about the wedding and pregnancy (a friend is also pregnant) has also led me to contemplate the sad state of my love life. It's the perfect storm of unprocessed grief, coming down from a stressful year of studying and being faced with how much I'd like to find someone. It puts me on edge and makes me prone to cry at a moment's notice. Basically I'd love a real vacation where I don't have to think about school stuff at all and just read lot's of books someplace nice. Unfortunately, that can't happen anytime soon. This summer, during semester break, I get to do a project for school. Because stressing me out for 9 1/2 months wasn't enough, they had to do it all year round. It means I have been working 100% since the beginning of June and will do so til the end of August. It's more responsibility and more expectations from my employer during the project. So yay, more stress on top of being stressed. Can it be Fall 2014 already, please?

I've been on semester break since the end of June. And the saying "Time flies when you're having fun" certainly seems true. I think we're about halfway through it. Now it's just 3 weeks til I leave for my vacation in Turkey. And as soon as I return from that the semester will have started again. On Tuesday, I hung out with Barbara (someone I study with). I haven't seen any of the people I study with since our last exam. But it does seem like everybody else is not hanging out much either. I think we see each other so much during the year that we spent summers far away from everything that has to do with school.

I've been reading a lot. I started reading the Dresden Files series. I'm on Book 10 already. Around book 4 or so Harry Dresden behaved like an idiot a lot, but I really loved the last few books. I think they get better and more complex the longer the series gets on. I've also read "Starcrossed" and "Dreamless" by Josephine Angelinni. It's YA, will be a trilogy (that seems like a major thing right now) and it's has greek mythology mixed in. I liked it a lot. "Insurgent", the second book of the Divergent series, was only so so. It picked up at the end, but in the middle for long stretches the main character behaved like a moron.

I managed to survive exam week. The day after I went to two seperate birthday parties. One was more of a tea/coffee and cake affair, but the other was a drinks in a bar/clubbing all night thing. Because I wasn't tired for once, I was dancing all night and took the first bus home. It was fun dancing, I don't do it enough.

What wasn't fun was the flu I got not 48 hours later. I spent the next 6 days in bed. I had a 10 days off school between the fall and spring semester and I was sick most for most of them. Great, but it gets better. When I returned to work on Monday, my wallet got stolen, containing all my cards and the train tickets I'd already bought for Chur. So my evening consisted of calling to block my cards and going to the local police station to report it stolen. Not what I needed, especially because I still got a cough, so I didn't feel a 100%. I feel naked without my cards.

I survived this week and the four days in Chur. Part of the days were a complete waste of time. But there were bright spots: Information/Media Law was way more interesting than expected. The prof loves to hear himself talk, but he's entertaining. As usual the start of the semester is very demotivating, because you haven't even started and they tell you all the presentations you have to hold and the papers you have to write and so forth.

On a positive note, we got our grades back. I passed the Assessment-Level! Yay! And I managed a passing grade in Information Retrieval, the one exam I really felt I screwed up. And I rocked Programming. I'm really happy with my grades. Now off to semester 4!

I've been reading. Here are my thoughts on some of the books:

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson: I liked it a lot. It's YA, but for once, there's no annoying love triangle. It's about a teenage girl who goes to a boarding school in London as an exchange student. While she's there, some murders that have s lot of similarities to Jack the Ripper start happening. It has supernatural elements, but nothing too heavy. It's well-written.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness: It's not bad. It has some similarities to Twilight, though. It's basically if Twilight had been written by someone who could actually write and does research. There's a lot of stuff going on and the writing is dense. The plot doesn't just show up 2/3 in like in Twilight. It sucks that it's Book 1 of a trilogy. But yes, there's also the Vampire watching her sleep thing and him being patronizing. And her tolerating that and thinking that she was nothing special, but of course, she's a very special snowflake, as the book goes on. The whole "Her falling in love with him" wasn't earned, either. All of sudden, she's head over heels for him and never doubts that, even though it basically starts a war and puts herself and all the people she loves at risk. But those were minor quibbles in a reasonably entertaining book where the characters were actual characters, not just empty shells for the reader to project themselves into.

The secret life of dresses by Erin McKean: It's chicklit, but bittersweet, because there's a character death. And it's more of coming of age story than a love story. I liked it. All the dresses described in it sound lovely and make me want to have a closet like the main character.

I haven't posted in ages. Studying has taken it's toll.

In the last couple of months, I :
-survived semester 1 & 2 in my quest to get a bachelor's degree in Information science.
-turned 31 (I'm old :-))
-went on vacation to Copenhagen & Sweden
-bought myself a Kindle

The icon is from my current obsession. I watched Downton Abbey online, then bought the Season 1 DVD's and I seriously ship Matthew/Mary hardcore. They need to get together and stop breaking my heart every episode. Last Sunday, I stayed up til 2 o'clock to watch the newest episode, just because I couldn't wait to see it.

The third semester has started. I'm mentoring a group of first semesters. And two weeks into the semester, I'm already developing a serious hate of the constant group work. I get the uses, I just don't like it.

I'm very much in love with my Kindle. I read so much more now, I've started to read even in the short time between me getting off the bus and arriving at work. And the text-to-speech is very practical for the times, when you have to do the dishes, but want to keep reading. Obviously, it's not the same thing as an audiobook. I doubt for example that the robotic voice of the Kindle would have made me cry the way Stephen Fry did with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time. School just sort of swallowed me whole.

I did write all my papers and programmed a html site. I sent off my last paper of the semester yesterday. I was very productive this week. So I can concentrate on preparing for the exams in the first week of February. We'll see, maybe I'll start next week. I need a break, just for a bit to get motivated again. I really like studying and my field though.

My 2010 was full of up and downs. It started with getting fired at the end of February, being unemployed for a couple months. I turned 30 while I was unemployed. I had a lovely birthday with my friends and me going to dinner. The upside of getting fired a couple of months before your 30th birthday is that you're totally not freaking out about turning 30. Suddenly you have other problems to focus on. The second half of the year was much better. I got into the school I wanted and I found a new job. I like both and I'm happy. Several people have remarked that I seem so much happier now. I think it's true. I'm much more mentally challenged at my new job than I ever was at my old one. And obviously the school is challenging too. But so far at least, it's the good sort of challenges. I hope 2011 continues in that vein.

Now, I'm off to see "Tangled".

I wish everyone a Happy New Year!

I'm officially a part time student and on the way of getting a "Bachelor in Information Science". I was in Chur from Wednesday to Saturday for our first block weekend. They dolled out a lot of information everyday though. My fellow students are nice and as much as one can tell after 4 days it is how I imagined it to be. It's a bit scary and I have serious doubts on my ability to plan and time manage everything. I've never written a paper with like citations and stuff. But I know, everybody else is in the same position.

The cool thing is, I feel like I'm among my people. They all love books as much as I do. Several of them are working in libraries and book stores. Agewise it's quite mixed, the ages range from 20 to midforties. I hung out mostly with one of the three Barbaras. Tomorrow, we have the first 4 regular lessons.

...but they're calling my references. Yay! I should hear from them sometime this week.

My job search is going badly. I keep applying to jobs, from time to time getting interviews and then promptly getting rejections. It's getting to me. I feel like a gigantic loser. I know, I shouldn't take it personally, but with time you start asking yourself, whether you're the problem. It's just so frustrating. I just want this to end. I'm also starting to get bored. I miss the structure of a work day and the feeling of having done something even vaguely useful. Monday I have another appointment with my unemployment government advisor.

In the meantime, I'm hanging out with friends and family from time to time. Sunday I had dinner at my parents place, Monday I went to see a movie with my aunt, Tuesday Drinks with the girls from my Dance Aerobic Class and Wednesday BBQing with 2 of my friends. I get on well with my new roommate. We talk a lot at sometimes weird hours (a lengthy talk at 3.30 am comes to mind ;-)).

-After a year long search, I found a new roommate. She's German like my previous one, 33 years old and works in a restaurant. She came by on April 29, signed the contract on April 30 and moved in on May 1. Everything was really quick.

-I sent off my application for the school I want to start in the fall. Today I received a letter saying that I fulfill all the necessary requirements to start studying there. I won't know if I got in until June, but I'm still excited and more than a little scared. I'm a little step closer to becoming a part time student in the fall.

-I cleaned out my closet, went through all my stuff. I ended up getting rid of 4 big bags of clothes. I finally have a little space in my closet. It felt really good to get rid of all that.

-I participated in a raffle to win tickets to see "Dear John" and I won. That was very unexpected! I went with my oldest friend. We had fun and got a goody bag from ELF afterwards. The movie itself is not bad, but nothing you need to see. Amanda Seyfried is adorable as always. I have a little girlcrush on her. And they filmed it in South Carolina, which looks very pretty.

-I wrote two job applications. One got me a meeting on Thursday at a job placement / temp agency. It was weird wearing business clothes after about 6 or 7 weeks of wearing very cashual clothes. I should totally write more job applications, will do that this weekend.