You can skip this entire post. Job hunting angst. Lots of whine.
It is cold in my office. If I say that, than it really MUST be cold, because I am always hot. My toes are cold, but this is because I insist on wearing flipflops. This summer, I have worn the uniform of jeans + tshirt + flipflops to work nearly every day, because I have Old Navy flip flops in 6 different colors (a joke birthday present from my mother) and I have t-shirts and polos in those 6 different colors to match.
Matching flip flops to your t-shirt is, I suspect, not very high fashion. In fact, I think it may fall under slightly more insulting titles than merely “bad fashion sense.”
About a year ago, I thought I would be maybe, possibly applying for Law School this fall. It quickly became clear that my head was in no way clear enough to begin the process. And also, um…I’m not sure I want to go to Law School. I have moments where it seems like a great idea, but also moments where I think “why the hell would I want to go to Law School?”
The problem is that Law School has begun to seem like an inevitable instead of a want.
So Model EU was not what I expected, but in the end, it turned out okay. The Interior Ministers didn’t really have to tackle anything controversial, so my meetings were kind of unexciting. The guy next to me spent the time making up cheesy pick-up lines with EuroSim references., most of which were funny, but I don’t remember them. (My favorite: Hey baby, can I be the minister of your interior?)
There were also a lot of stupid people at Eurosim, all of them Americans. The European students there were so well prepared and knew the material so much better (granted, most of them were law students). Unfortunately, a lot of delegations were unprepared, and were representing their own opinions, rather then the real opinion of the country, and that was screwing a lot of things up.
The Slovakian delegation was particularly annoying. After doing a 25 page paper on Slovakia in 2 days and killing myself researching it, and being in a really bitchy mood about it, my opinion of Slovakia was already quite low. Now, because their delegation was annoying, I have decided we should definitely bomb Slovakia.
But yeah. This international relations stuff…this is really what I want to do with my life. Go to law school and get a dual degree (Juris Doctorate and MA in International Affairs), spend my time arguing with people from other countries. Europeans are so much better educated than Americans – they know all about our primaries and made fun of Homeland Security and hate George Bush. What do we know about any of their governments, really? It’s kind of depressing. But I met a lot of interesting people, and had more intelligent conversations in this past week then I’ve had in the past year, or more, probably. It’s really great to met people who are interested in the same areas that I am.
In addition, I went out to dinner with a bunch of people on Sunday night, and we all had completely different opinions about so many things, and yet we managed to have a very civilized and interested discussion on a variety of topics (abortion, the Iraq war, the EU, socialism, Republicans, presidents, Jon Stewart being hot). It was wonderful to be able to disagree with people and still feel like your opinion is respected – that is certainly not something you find at Skidmore.
I leave in less than 48 hours and I’m not even packed yet. Going back to school snuck up on me this year, I guess because I’m used to being stuck at home for a week with no one around, since everyone’s school seems to start earlier than mine. Yay for running transfer orientation or something.
I am milling around my room putting stuff in boxes, changing my mind about what box it goes in, and working on my Atlas Shrugged essay that should be done already.
When I get to Skidmore I have a million bureaucratic things to take care of — final plans for transfer orientation, filling out forms for my self-determined major, and finding out more about Washington Semester.
Washington Semester looks like it would be a great opportunity — classes in foreign policy that I can’t get at Skidmore, and have a good internship. Yet I’m still all unsure about going, because in some ways I feel like I just got to Skidmore, and just settled in. Educationally, and even career wise, going to Washington would be the best move. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get the Self-Determined Major committee to approve it. Blah. I have gotten bad with decisions ever since my super bad decision to go the Hampshire
Oh well. I will figure it out, etc, etc, etc, etc. Right now I’m excited to get back to school see everyone, and feel as if I’m accomplishing something.
