Good ol' procrastination

This facebook friend's status update perfectly describes what the weekend before finals is like:

I blocked Facebook from Firefox and it won't let me unblock until finals are over (Thursday 10pm). So now I'm on Safari. I feel like loser and a winner at the same time.

2nd trip abroad

1993 - france again!
went with a group of kids from black pine circle (BPC - kids would call it berkeley prison camp). one kid was named alex, girl was named lucy, two guys with glasses - chris and some other guy. one more guy who was kinda chubby. chris was short & skinny. lucy was a brunette, kinda cute. alex became a bro or a frat guy later on, for sure - mr. cool.
started in france, homestay in suburb of paris. stayed with a family, two boys. in paris for a week, then went to the city of nancy, in lorraine (last province before germany, eastern france). the first night they were there, guns'n'roses had a concert - sean didn't go, alex did. but he could hear the music from the house. at the house, french couple with two kids - first korean connection! because the two boys were adopted from korea. white house, very narrow - like a brownstone. sean stayed in the bottom floor, with a private bathroom, really nice now that he thinks about it. the chubby kid was staying two houses over in a bigger house with a nicer yard. they were there 3 or 4 weeks. french kid named caroline who was a redhead, pretty cute.
his homestay family took him back to luxembourg! on the same weekend, also toured a nuclear plant, and since taxes are lower in luxembourg, they filled up on gas and went to a supermarket.
most embarrassing travel moment of being a douchebag american - he and the group of kids were in strausborg which had a lot of german influence, now home of the EU parliament. were on this river tour, and they were homesick and talking trash and said 'fuck' a lot and then at the end of the trip the people behind them said 'what kind of person goes to a foreign country and just talks trash about it' and it was embarrassing (but well deserved).
statue in nancy of a polish guy who rescued the city from the germans!
buses were really nice and very european style

My first overseas trip

Monday evening I stopped by a friend's place to update him and another friend on the situation described in the previous post. After that, one of them asked me about my travels. That led me to describing a few of my trips. She took the following notes:

1987 - france
stayed in latin quarter
hotel esmerelda - could walk to the notre dame!
loire valley - lots of castles
went to lyon
went to luxembourg because sean studied geography in 2nd grade and was intrigued because it was so small, so he wanted to go! checked out the castle in luxembourg too!
went to mont blanc - tallest mountain in western europe. at the top you're in france, switzerland and italy at the same time! went up the french side and down the italian side - had lunch there outside. sean had pasta with cream sauce - maybe alfredo?? with chunks of ham in it!!!
end of trip, on a river that goes through paris, couple hours outside paris, on the last evening parents went to hotel restaurant, patio on the river, dock with paddleboat! nice restaurant, time between the courses - sean went down to hang out with german kids by dock. kids were daring each other to jump to the boat - sean took the dare, and he landed in the river!!! soaked up to his knees, came tracking back to his parent's table... they didn't laugh. hahaha - mom took him back to the room to change. :)

Feeling good after being rejected

So there is this woman who I've been crazy about for over a year now. I didn't do much because she was taken nearly the entire time. She also never seemed interested in me. Well things have been on and off with her present beau, and her recent behavior indicated she might be interested in me. We also spent quite a bit of time together, and people were wondering what was going on between us (answer: nothing).

Well Saturday it was a bad combination of peoples comments ringing in my head and her beau totally disrespecting her that culminated in me spilling the beans. Her response, "How could you do this to me?" Ha. Not sure what she meant by that. In any event, i explained how people were talking about us, and how her lover (not even a boyfriend if you ask me) is treating her like garbage. After that, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and was at a loss for words. All I knew was I had to get the hell out of there.

So obviously I was hurt and pissed. The entire weekend was an emotional wave (not quite a roller coaster :) ). She agreed to meet me this afternoon so I could say what I wanted to.

And you know what? I feel pretty damn good after doing that. I should have done this LONG ago. That's my one regret- ha. And why do I feel good? A few reasons I think:

1. I verified she isn't into me. No more uncertainty. yay.
2. She's sticking with the guy because she's lonely. Uh yeah, umm hello? I couldn't solve that problem for ya? Apparently not. Guess she has that need to be shat on.
3. She was a robot. I was like ok, I really don't want to be with you.

Perks of Being a Wallflower: "You accept the love you think you deserve." SOOOOOOOO true. I was tempted to say that at the end, but I decided that was too corny.

What it comes down to is this: it made me realize it was HER loss, not mine.

(and obviously this post is related to the previous post)

A-holes and Women

A lot of women complain how few good men there are. We're supposedly assholes, jerks, etc. We treat women like crap. Well ladies, you know why we do? Because you let us. If we treated you like crap and you spurned us, we sure as hell would change our behavior. Instead, you do the opposite, and eliminate any incentive for us to be gentlemen.

Get some self-respect and stop putting up with douchiness. It will do us all a favor.

Fashion advice

Today I met one of my Korean conversation partners for lunch. When I was dropping her off, she asked me how she could make her appearance look more American. I hemmed and hawed for awhile, even though the answer was simple: ditch the short skirt and ugg boots look. That is a step in the right direction. Just dump short skirts in general. I phrased it slightly more nicely than that, but it didn't make a difference. She was obviously hurt. And I feel bad about it... And i've consulted a few American ladies, and they agree about my fashion call, but one said, "Why didn't you just tell her what she should wear instead?" DOH. Good job Sean. That would have been a lot nicer. Positive comments, not criticism. Oh well, I'll remember that for next time.

And anyway, she's leaving the States in August. Is it that important to "fit in"? Seems a little silly to me. And be proud of who you are right? Oh well...

Motivation seriously lacking

So it is my last quarter of grad school. I have 4 more weeks of class. I'm so unmotivated. Last week I did really poorly on a midterm. Do I care? Not especially. I will not be applying anything I learn in this class to my future job. That pretty much describes this whole quarter. Marketing? Yeah, don't think I'll be doing that for the gov't. Japanese? My job is 100% domestic. Post-War politcs of Japan? Not very useful. Could be interesting but the professor is a total bore. 4 more weeks....