travel hell

I've been in travel hell before. On the way to Leiden our plane experienced mechanical difficulties and we ended up spending a night in a hotel in Windsor, CT. The next day, we took off and, yet again, our plane experienced mechanical difficulties so we landed in Boston and ended up reaching Amsterdam about a day and a half behind schedule. Yesterday was pretty much the same situation except I was angrier and I was taking buses and trains, not planes. Somehow made it back home before 7p and did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day. Working at Dzen's 1 - 9p tonight. Then I have to come back and (a) sort through my clothes (b) call student services about my bill (c) make a shopping list (d) email Isabelle (e) organize my books (f) bake. Leaving for Boston again tomorrow morning, but this time I don't come home until Sunday the 7th of August. Then that's it. 10 days until I leave and I spend a bunch of them in DC with Anand. Jeez.

class registration

Finally had my visa meeting! The people at the French consulate weren't nearly as horrible as they've been made out to be. I had thousands of copies of everything, ended up spending about an hour and a half in the waiting room with Algerians and Tunisians who all thought I was whatever they are (vague facial features and brown skin?) so they were really nice to me.

Worked for a new catering company last night at the Holiday Inn. Classiest wedding I've ever been too. Seriously. Never seen so much synthetic material in my life. Teal satiny tablecloths, bridesmaids dresses made out of the same material. Cornrows for the bridesmaids hair. Bride & groom post-nuptial tequila shots (over, and over). Carpeted floors. I would rather not get married. Duh.

STT wedding next week. So excited. Hopefully will have enough money to travel with when I get to France.

Chose all my classes, finally! I ended up having Saturday - Tuesday off, but then I checked Ophèlie's first ever email and it said her English Art History class was Wednesday 2 - 5, right in the middle of one of the classes I'd selected. So now I just have Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday off. One class on Monday...hope it never comes down to traveling for 4 days to visit friends and skipping class...It's a course magistral (lecture), so I probably could have a friend take notes. If there's attendance, that will make me so unhappy. Anyways, here's what the schedule looks like on the Sciences-Po espace étudiant

Monday at 5: Politics in the EU lecture
Wednesday at 10:15: Français, at 2: French Art History
Thursday at 5: Français, at 7:15: UN peacekeeping
Friday at 10:15: The Ethics of War, at 2:45, Strategic Intelligence, at 7:15, Politics in the EU discussion

I need to start making a list of places to go in the first few weeks and I need to start booking tickets to visit my friends staying in Barcelona, Parma, London, Glasgow, Dublin, Milan, Grenada, Maastricht/Leiden, and Strasbourg. Wow...gonna need to work a lot more. Too bad I HATE the phone center.

I'm working a 2 - 5 PM today. At least it'll still be sunny when I get out.