You make me sick

Has anyone ever had one of those weekends where you need a day off just to relax and get over your weekend? I just had one of those, and it didn't even involve hard partying, drugs, alcohol and all the things people do these days during their time off, no; it was because I have the most awful sore throat and cold. I don't know why it seemed like a good idea to go out for a day trip even with my illness yesterday.

The problem with living in tropical climates is that even the most tedious of activities require double the effort because of the sweltering temperatures. I'd totally be able to handle the heat, you know. Its the humidity that just drives me crazy, and I'm not just being biased against humidity because of my permanently damaged hair. There are days when by the time I leave my apartment and reach the front of my building, I'm already sweating and the whole point of having a shower before leaving home is kind of useless.

Also, I have learnt that being out all day long in the heat when you have the most awful cold in the world is a really bad idea, not only for you, but also for other people around you. This morning when I woke up, I was pretty much unable to breathe because of my blocked sinuses and my voice sounded that of a 60 year old man, and I think at this stage there was nothing left to do but call my boss and ask for a day off. So I find myself on a Monday morning at 10.00 am in bed, sipping tea, with music blaring loudly on my itunes and lying next to a pile of dirty tissues. This would actually be my ideal Monday morning (sans the tissues and coughing, of course) if I wasn't so ill. This how I should have spent yesterday instead of going on that stupid day trip, but the little tourist in me couldn't have missed out a day of Chinese palaces.

I should probably get up, have a shower, get out of my pyjamas, clean up the mess in my room, have hot soup in the restaurant downstairs for lunch, and buy medicine for my cold; but all these things involve me getting out of bed and everyone knows what an effort this is for your dear narrator.

Somebody told me

Someone on facebook had tagged me to do a meme called '25 random things about you'. I thought that it would be better to do it over here rather than on facebook because I'm not actually friends with even half the people on my facebook and meh, I'm not sure how I feel about having random, known people know about the irrelevant details of my life. So here it goes:

1. I don't have too many friends because I'm not a very sociable person, but the ones that I have are awesome. I don't think I could do without them, and I really should put more of an effort to keep in touch with them.
2. I'm a bit of a book snob, but I can't help it! I just judge you by the books you read, but I'm anything but a snob when it comes to films. Its just that watching something is a passive activity, so in my mind I am totally excused for sitting through bad films.
   
3. I'm mildly addicted to reading celebrity gossip websites. I do feel totally trashy when I do this, there is a strange sort of fascination in watching rich people looking pretty and making a fool of themselves.
   
4. I love television shows of all sorts, but more specifically, I love Korean and Japanese TV shows. Not many people know this and the people who do know this are either vaguely creeped out or think that I'm making it up.
   
5. I'm not very fussy about food but there are some things that I am unable to eat: I cannot eat peas in any form (just thinking about peas is making me feel ill right now), boiled carrots and cauliflower. I like meat, but I don't like eating meat or fish that looks like its original animal form.
   
6. I suspect that I might have done better growing up in the 70s.
   
7. I'm not really sure if I can live without my ipod or laptop. I know this is a contradiction of the above point, but I'd like to think that I'd have happily made it through with a gramophone and a typewriter if I had grown up in the 70s.
   
8. I'd like to think that I'm a good listener because people are always unburdening their troubles on me, and I don't mind hearing them out.
9. I don't like talking about myself. I never talk to people about the things that are really important to me. Its not because I'm modest or because I have something to hide, I'm just insanely private about my life, which is another reason why this meme is not being done on facebook but on my blog.
10. I am such a not-so-closeted-romantic. Its not like I believe in romance in real life as such, I just wholeheartedly enjoy it on television.
11. I am very confrontational when I'm annoyed with someone. I blame this on my family! We like to make scenes and argue in loud voices.
    
12. I'm an alone person. I need my space. I'm not sulking, I just like being alone.
    
13. I hate people touching my hair, ruffling it or playing with it. Its just something that irritates me to no end.
    
14. I've bullied one person in my entire life, and this was almost a decade ago. To be fair, the girl I was mean to was really terrible. Of course, that didn't give us the right to treat her like the way we did and I still get guilt pangs about this from time to time.
    
15. I had a really happy childhood. I was the only child and got practically everything I wanted, except that I was never a very demanding kid. I was a little bratty and extremely stubborn, but never in a spoilt, obnoxious manner. Whatever my shortfalls are, they are my own. I cannot blame my upbringing for any of them.
16. I love chocolate in all forms apart from ice-cream. I don't like chocolate ice-cream. I've always been more of a vanilla person.
17. I have an irrational, insane hate for Nicholas Cage.
18. I like being on time. I'm always 5 minutes early and people who are meeting me are always 10 minutes late. This is where having an ipod becomes a must!
    
19. I don't like dogs. Dogs don't like me either.
20. Reading fanfiction on the internet has been my dirty secret since I was 15.
    
21. I secretly love frilly dresses. I have no idea why. I've never owned or worn anything with frills, but I love them because they bring out my inner Scarlett O'Hara.
22. I am obsessive about this show. Go ahead, tease me, I don't really care!
23. I hate ellipses...no one uses them in the way they are meant to be used...if you get what I mean...
24. It is really easy to make me happy. You don't have to try too hard!
    
25. When I was thirteen or fourteen I decided that I wanted to be a philosopher. I liked the idea of sitting around and thinking all day long, while having other people write about my wonderfully insightful thoughts about the meaning of life. Unfortunately, this isn't as simple to do these days as it was during Socrates' times.
    

Cartoon Heroes

I've always been addicted to cartoons. I used to watch Cartoon Network all the time. I know a lot of kids who find them inane (what is wrong with these children?). I also knew a lot of kids who weren't allowed to watch more than one show a day or had some sort of a television time limit. I'm really lucky that my parents didn't bother much about setting similar rules for me.

The only rule I actually remember having was bed time at 10 p.m. I used to like to read before bed, and never followed this arrangement, irritating my parents immensely. I remember crying so hard when my mum had threatened to lock up the book cupboard if I continued not following this rule. What kind of parents threaten their children with keys? They were evil, I tell you!

In any case, I kind of had a free reign over cartoons when I was young, which means I've watched everything there is to be watched, especially it was produced by Hanna Barbera. You name it, and I've probably seen it. It was a time where there was no Disney Channel, and all these creepy Disney child stars didn't exist. No, Hannah Montana, High School Musical, Camp Rock etc. It was all hand drawn old school animations. I really, really loved cartoons and there isn't any explicable reason for this because I find them silly when I watch them now.

There were these shows that everyone loved and I hated for absolutely no reason. Of course, it didn't stop me from watching them, but I remember them just irritating me immensely. I hated Popeye , Johnny Bravo, Pinky and the Brain, Dexter (I hated Dee Dee so insanely), Powerpuff Girls, Coyote and the Roadrunner, Johnny Quest. I also have insane amount of love for some other shows that other people didn't particularly care about like Captain Planet, Space Ghost, Josie and the Pussycats, The Fantastic Four, Top Cat, or The Jetsons, which is the most underrated show ever created. I love The Flintstones and everything, but The Jetsons is so much better and no one apart from me realizes this. There is even a special episode called The Flintstones Meet the Jetsons, which was aired every New Years' Eve and I've seen it at least five times. This channel had the most awesome shows ever, and I can't understand why kids would want to watch anything else.

It just annoys me to see my little cousins watching Disney channel all the time with its ridiculous shows. I knew I had reached the end of my patience with my 9 year old cousin when she started explaining her love for Zac Efron and the Jonas' Brothers to me. Its not normal for 9 year olds to have crushes on human beings. When I was 9, I wanted to marry Aladdin, which is a perfectly normal underage crush to have. I didn't actually want to marry Aladdin. I wanted to be Jasmine, so Aladdin could marry me. When I told this to my older teenage cousin, she looked at me aghast and told me, 'Do you realize that what she's wearing is not even a proper bra?' and I could never look at Jasmine the same again.

The only shows that I never had much of an opportunity to watch was animé because they didn't show animé in India when I was younger. I suppose this is a good thing because it looks really addictive and I get obsessive about things quite easily, but this does mean I have no idea what people are talking about when my friends have entertaining, meta discussions about Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Sailor Moon, Naruto etc.

I was just mentally going through the shows I used to watch as a kid and I have just realized that I watched a lot of television, which explains a lot really. This is also pretty weird because nobody in my house actually watches television. I still do watch a lot of television shows and have been forcing myself off them for the last couple of months because I have the tendency of getting obsessive about things and ignoring everything else that I have to do. I'm so glad Heroes has become crap because now I don't have to watch it any more, and that feels great. I'm just trying to stick to films but the awesomeness of The West Wing isn't really helping me keep this resolution.


NB: The title of the post is the name of an obscure song by Aqua. I must write a post about the joys of Europop one day. Its one of the most awesomely frightening music genre ever!

To Autumn

I know I'm no Keats, and so my poetry writing skills might fall short while describing my love for this season. However, I absolutely love autumn, and it is definitely my favourite season. Growing up in Bombay didn't give me much of an opportunity to experience the phenomenon of seasons (unless you count four months of torrential rainfall as a season), which is why I think I enjoy them more than most people.

The other day when I was going to lectures in the morning, it was a beautiful sunny day, the temperature was about 15°C and the sky was bright blue with not a single cloud in the vicinity. I love it when the weather is like this. I would happily be able to live in this climate all year around. Its warm enough to wear a short or a long sleeved tshirt when you're indoors, but you need a jacket and a scarf to go outside; its too cold for sandals, but you can wear open shoes/pumps without any problems; its too cold to feel sweaty and stuffy, but not too cold for ice cream.

Autumn in Milan is beautiful, especially when the day is sunny. The trees are all red and orange, there are leaves everywhere, vendors have started selling roasted chestnuts, you can see the old trams moving busily along their tracks, people seem to be going about doing their work, the shops are changing window decorations to autumn clothes, schools and universities have just started, and people are out on the street in the evening catching up with their friends after having been away for the summer. All the summer heat and irritation seem to have faded away, and the weather is pleasant enough for you to enjoy without freezing to death.

Spring is lovely, but you always seem to expect more from it. Each day in spring brings you closer to summer, closer to freedom, closer to holidays, and happiness. Its not a season that you can sit back and enjoy, but a season where you are busy with exams and deadlines. I barely even notice spring passing by. Winter; lets face it, winter sucks! I wouldn't mind the cold because I like cold weather, but its the darkness that just depresses me. I can never get used to the fact that the sun in winter sets at 4 in the afternoon. By the time I get out of my lectures at 6, its pitch dark and the town seems empty and quiet. Summer, what can I say about summer? It is never long enough! It passes by too quickly for you to even remember where the days have gone, and before you know it, its autumn already.

NB: I wrote this post a couple of days ago, and its been raining continuously ever since; the sky is cloudy and dark, and there is no sign of any sunlight. It has also become much colder. I think my post has totally jinxed the weather. I've been listening to Edith Piaf all day in my dark house; all I need is some coffee and cigarettes, and I could pretend to be an artsy brooder contemplating the deeper meaning of life and relationships.

9 to 5

I always though that I wasn't cut out for nine to five jobs, but working for three months in an office has made me realize that I don't mind them all that much. Ok, there is the whole 'Oh god, I hate this mindless drudgery' factor, but how many people can boast of earning money while doing something they genuinely like?

To tell you the truth, its not like I earned any money while I was working, since it was an unpaid internship. All I got was university credits and an experience to last me a lifetime, as the internship guide said. The problem with working in an office that is not paying you is that they don't care much about what you're doing, which is not always a bad thing because it gives you a lot of time to do other things that you've always meant to do but never got around doing (i.e blogging, catching up with tabloids, looking at universities, wasting time on wikipedia etc.)

Being the lowly intern that I was, I arrived at office in the morning at 8.45 a.m and was given some menial tasks for the day. I browsed the internet, did the crossword and/or sudoku, worked for a bit, had lunch, chatted with my colleagues, made a few calls for work, updated and charged my ipod, worked a bit more and then got ready to leave by 5.30 p.m. That sounds like a nice day, doesn't it? I don't know why people complain about their jobs so much. This lifestyle suited my lazy self muchly. Most of the day was spent hanging around and waiting for my boss to come to office, which was mildly irritating in the beginning, but I got used to it soon enough.

It wasn't a bad life, but it wasn't a particularly stimulating one either. The week used to pass so quickly that I didn't even have time to think where time was passing, and by the time I realized I was tired, it was already the weekend. If I had a choice I'd probably not get out of bed for two days straight, but my friends wouldn't hear it otherwise, and I used to occasionally be dragged out in the evenings by either my school friends or work colleagues. Before I had time to even think about what was happening, three whole months were already over!

I had a good time at work, but this could be because I wasn't burdened with work to do or because my colleagues were really fun or maybe because it was the first time I was working, so I was over-enthusiastic. Sometimes, when I am drudging through exams and finance calculations, I happily think back about the time where my day used to consist solely of writing emails, making phone calls sending out faxes, and then a nine to five job doesn't seem all that bad!

Parlez-vous français?

As a part of my university requirements, I have to study an additional language this year. When I say additional, I mean that this will be the second foreign language that I would have studied in the course of my three years at uni. My university well lives up to its Eurocentric reputation and only offers courses only in European languages. Hence, I had a choice between Italian, French, Spanish, German and Portuguese. Unfortunately, I couldn't choose Italian as my second foreign language because I had already studied it as my first foreign language, which is why I was forced to choose something else from the above list.

Six years ago when I was still a young fledgling, I had to study French in my old school in Bombay, which basically involved the school giving us lists of vocabulary and grammar rules, and us memorizing them without understanding what we were studying. Can you imagine what Indianized French sounds like? Well, you shouldn't bother much with it because it is quite painful to hear. The only thing my French lessons from school helped me to do was to have a good topography of Paris in my head. I pretty much knew my way around Champs Elysée, Place de la Concorde, L'Arc de Triomphe, Le Tour Eiffel, Musée du Louvre, Rue Saint-Honoré, Avenue d'Opéra, Montmatre well before I went to Paris.

So when the time came for me to choose a language this year, I didn't even give it a second thought and chose French. I mean, however beautiful Portuguese and German may sound, you don't see me learning them in a year, do you? And keeping my love for Spanish men and Spain apart, I couldn't possibly learn a language that sounds as crude as Spanish. No, not even Gujarati sounds as vulgar as Spanish, and so I didn't even think about the other options.

It all seemed simple enough until I realized that someone had forgotten to mention that I had to learn my second foreign language in my first foreign language. Yes folks, I am actually studying French in Italian. All of you can probably stare at your computer screens and look mildly amused, but this is no a laughing matter. I can barely manage speaking and understanding Italian, throw French into the equation and my nerves just crumble like a pack of cards.

Its very scary to be put in a foreign language class with a bunch of Italian native speakers, most of whom have previously studied French the right way in high school. My teacher keeps reciting these long sentences that she wants translated into French. I have to translate the Italian into English in my head and then translate the English back in to French in my head and then actually say it out loud. All of this has to be done in less than a second while the teacher and the rest of the class is waiting for me to reply. Its so stressful, especially since my teacher has to policy of making everyone in class talk at least once out loud during the lesson. This means that I can't even hide behind people in the background and try to merge in with the crowd.

If this was once a week for an hour each time, I might still be able to happily handle it without getting terrified each time, but I have French thrice a week, two one and a half hour lessons and one two and a half hour lesson. This year is truly going to pass very slowly. However, being your spunky narrator that I am, I will not give up without a fight, may it be in Italian or French. I am determined to do well because I've wanted to learn French for so long, and now I finally have an opportunity, albeit in Italian. It is truly a beautiful language and I do have a soft spot for French men, so that is always an incentive, right?

Travelling Fun

I don't mind airline travel. In fact, I quite look forward to it, especially when I'm travelling alone. I don't know why it bores most other people I know. I suppose, it is a bit lonely seeing families travelling for holidays together when you're sitting in a corner all by yourself reading a book, but all in all, its quite a bit of fun. Since I am the laziest person I know, sitting stationary in a moving vehicle has always been a fascinating principle to me, which is why I have always loved plane rides, road trips and train journeys.

I also have mental capacity of a five year old, which means that I am very easy to please. So you just need to give me a book, an ipod and maybe an good inflight movie, and I am the happiest girl in the world. I am also lucky enough to have the skill of sleeping through practically anything, so that also helps me kill the hours. The only thing I need to fall asleep is music playing in the background, and I sleep as well as Fluffy. Ok, bad Harry Potter references apart, this habit of mine does cause me to waste precious ipod battery. However, it is a really great feeling to fall asleep with your ipod on and then wake up hours/minutes later to find it still running. Also, if you're really weird you could just press the back button and see the entire list of songs that played while were asleep and have no memory of hearing any of them (not that I would do anything as silly as this)

The most fulfilling plane journey that I've ever been through is the forty minute journey between Zurich and Milan. It was so beautiful, and if I was any good at taking pictures and if I had a camera on me, I would have taken fancy pictures, and posted them up here, but even those would not have done any justice to that scenery. It just cheered me up so much, and even the prospect of going to lectures the next morning could not have brought me down. What could possibly be better than sitting by the window seat in one of the tiniest commercial planes in the world, on a clear sunny morning, admiring the beauty of the Swiss Alps while sipping watery airline tea, and having the soundtrack of Singh is King blasting into your ears?

That, my dear friends, was true happiness; a kind of happiness that does not come with spending an evening with your friends or buying new shoes or watching a good film; no, it was a kind of happiness that does not have any reason at all, a sort of happiness that makes you feel completely satisfied with the big scheme of things. Just for that tiny, fleeting moment, you are at peace with the world, completely satisfied with what you have, and have no desires of any sort.

I just got back last Tuesday and have been so busy with the start of a new term at uni. Its hard to imagine that I was in Bombay, getting into moving trains and buses, fighting the rain and the crowd, and eating unhealthy, roadside junk food just less than a week ago. But its been good to get back home. I am always complaining about Milan, but whenever I'm away from here for long periods of time, and come back, I always get the feeling of coming back home. OK, I finally admit it after six long years of living here, Milan is home, and I truly love living here regardless of all my complaining.

Life as a n00by b00by

I was so ridiculously nervous on my first day at work. If I hadn't been so terrified, I might have seen the humour in the situation. I am very ashamed to admit that before this internship, I had never worked before in my entire life. Twenty years without doing a decent day's job is something that doesn't go well on a person's CV, and so I decided that to use this summer to do something more useful than lying around on a sunny Mediterranean beach.

I landed in Bombay on a Saturday night and my internship was to start on a Monday morning. I knew that I was going to be in Bombay right in the middle of the monsoons and kind of expected all the rain. However, I wasn't expecting the heavens to start celebrating with my arrival with a deluge of tropical rainfall. I figured that the rain would subside by the time it was Monday because it couldn't possibly rain continuously for more than twenty four hours, could it? Clearly, six years away from the city had taken away my memories of its wild rainfall.

It rained on Sunday morning, on Sunday afternoon, on Sunday evening and on Sunday night. I went to bed hoping that it would subside by the next morning because I didn't particularly relish going to work on my first day under the pouring rain. But luck, as usual, deluded me and it was pouring so much on Monday morning that I couldn't even look at the building in front of my house through the window.

I decided to take a taxi to work instead of trying to brave it out and wait for the bus like I had initially planned on doing. I was also very paranoid about reaching late, so I left extremely early and was wearing formal clothes and flip flops (and carrying my nice sandals in my bag). As a result, I arrived at work at 8.30 instead of 9, which was actually the time I had to report.

The first thing I noticed was that the office was flooded with ankle length deep water and one of the doors to the office was blocked due to the creation of a large muddy pond. Additionally, everything, including the computer CPUs and the wires were swimming around in the water. The office was also practically empty. I mustered up some courage and bashfully introduced myself to the receptionist who had thankfully just arrived. She told me in the nicest possible manner that one could to tell me that she didn't think that anyone would actually come to work today because of the rain, and I could sit wherever I found some space in the office.

Slowly people started trickling into office by around 10.30/11.00 in the morning and I had to undergo a very painful experience of explaining my life story, the circumstances under which I had come to live in Italy, study in Milan, and come back to Bombay. After knowing all they had to know about my life in under ten minutes, people eventually lost interest and went about doing their work as I sat uncomfortably counting the cracks in the ceiling. I was so worried the office was going to blow up any second because of all the wires that were floating in the water and that we were all going to die that I kept thinking of creative ways of quickly exiting the building. However, everyone else seemed relaxed enough as if this was a regular occurrence and continued working on their computers.

I sat on a chair all day, did the sudoku in the newspaper and read a fashion magazine until someone finally noticed that I existed. They were very nice and told me that my boss wasn't going to be in office for the day and that they didn't know what to do with me because there was neither a seat or a computer free for me in the office. There is clearly not much one can say to that. I got back home feeling very lonely and left out.

The next day, the sun was shining brightly; I got the bus on time; the office was no longer immersed in a puddle of muddy water; I took my laptop to work; someone created space for me to sit; people seemed friendlier; I was given my own stationary pile (and we all know that nothing makes your narrator happier than the sight of new stationary); someone invited me to sit with them for lunch; and my boss came and gave me work to do. It was what an ideal first day should have been!

Friday is my last day and work, and I am truly going to miss coming here daily. All these people that initially seemed scary and unapproachable turned out to be really nice and friendly, and I sort of feel silly for being so nervous around them.

Blogshead Revisited

Its been more than a year since my last blog post and I know that I have been missing for a ridiculous amount of time. To tell you the truth, I've been wanting to resume blogging for a very long time now, but have been putting it off at the back of my head. The thought of starting over from the very beginning seems very daunting, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure that the handful of people who might be reading my blog earlier have probably removed it from their sidebars.

I don't have any nice blogger friends any more, apart from one, who I'd like to think is also my friend in real life. But I have bravely decided to start blogging again, at least for a while and see how it goes. I'm sure its going to be as much fun as it was the first time, and I promise to try my best to update as regularly as possible.

A lot of things can change in one year, but nothing much seems to have changed in my life. I'm a year older, and that isn't as fun as it used to be. I still remember how desperate I was to become thirteen and I had made this whole countdown upto my birthday. But once you become twenty, birthdays just remind me of how time is running out. I feel old; everyone else seems to be younger and more accomplished than me. Ok, I admit that this doesn't take much effort, but earlier at least I had my young age as an excuse for my laziness, but now even that seems to have gone away.

However, on a less depressive note, there have been a lot of changes. I've travelled quite a bit in the last whole year, and I'll be surely be talking about that in my future posts. I'm just a year away from getting out of university (but I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to dread it or look forward to it, although presently I'm tilting towards the latter option).

I've been in Bombay for the last three months working an as intern here, which is as lowly as it sounds. I have always heard horror stories about interns being used as slaves in the offices that they are working in, but my experience here has been surprisingly pleasant. Also, living in Bombay after being away for almost six years has been wonderful. I know I always look at Bombay with rose tinted glasses, but I can't help it, I've always been like this. I've been braving the monsoon and taking public transport every day for the last three months and I still don't seem to mind much (even though I shriek like a twelve year old every time my hair gets wet!)

I still have a couple of weeks to go before uni starts and I'll try my best to be prolific before that.

AWOL...

I know, I haven't been the most faithful of bloggers recently, but as I've been complaining to everyone I seem to know in the virtual world, I've been busy. I have exams in April. I also have extremely difficult subjects this semester. Therefore, I have not been updating or reading other blogs for quite a while now. I apologise to everyone who thinks me to be an ungrateful blogger because I haven't been commenting on anything for a long time now.

Its really strange, I have so many things I could post about these days, but I just don't seem to have the time to do absolutely anything that I seem to want. I could blog about my visits to this extremely illegal photocopy shop or review Elizabeth I, that I watched yesterday from 4 in the evening to 8 at night on TV. If I wanted, I could also post a lengthy review about Notes on a Scandal and wonder in amazement on how the movie is an amazing cross between the scandal in my school last year involving a 15 year old girl and a Geography teacher and The Collector by John Fowles.

I could also write a wonderful post about spring time and how spring in Milan is my favourite season here. Nothing can make a me happier than the early days of spring. It is such a lovely season. I could, if I wanted, whinge about my semester (not that I've not already done that above) or write a long post about my amazing grandma, who is presently visiting us or narrate my first baby sitting experience (which was extremely surreal, by the way)

Another thing I could probably post about is how excited I am to my upcoming weekend in England. I'm vising TPF next weekend because we have a long weekend and I really need a little break. I'm leaving next Thursday evening and will be back on Monday.

As I said, there is a whole list of topics that are just demanding blog posts from me. But right now all I seem to want to do is go to bed because its 1 at night and I woke up really morning and have been at uni all day today.

I love

I'm not a very hard person to please. I'm a bit fussy about some things like margins and justified text and highlighters, but apart from all that I think its really easy to make me happy. But I'm not one of those overly bubbly people. I cant stand people who are cheerful all the time. I'm sure they are really nice people, but it really irritates me for some reason. Anyhow since, I've been extremely grumpy all day today, what could be better than making a list of things that might help me feel better?

I love:

1. Getting under my duvet on winter afternoons to read my book and then napping for a few hours. I love afternoon naps. I normally don't ever have time for them and they make me feel very grandmother-ly, but I do enjoy them very much.
2. Kissing my dad (on his cheek, of course) after he's just shaved and smelling his aftershave.
3. Having chilled coke on a hot summer day. Mind you, if you put ice into it I shall be very annoyed.
   
4. Watching a good movie on my own on television. The worse thing you can do in my house is watch a movie with my parents because they keep talking randomly all through movies. I don't think they get the seriousness of listening to each and every dialogue in a film.
   
5. Wearing tiny skirts with flip flops all through summer and not caring about how chubby/fat I think I look because there is always someone on the street that looks worse than me.
   
6. Eating ice cream with TPF. I'm one of those people who do not like to experiment with new ice cream flavours. I suppose this would make me an old school ice cream eater. Also, I dislike chocolate ice cream. I'm a terrible person. I love chocolate, but cannot bear to eat pure chocolate ice cream. EW!
   
7. Walking from the tram stop to my house after uni every day with my ipod. Mind you, I only like walking back home, not walking towards the tram stop because that means that I have a whole day of lectures ahead of me. I also like taking the tram instead of the bus or the metro to uni, it makes me feel very quaint.
   
8. Scarfs. I love scarfs and everything about them. I love how they feel nice and warm around your neck and how warm they feel because of your body heat when you take them off.
9. New episodes of my favourite TV shows. I religiously watch Lost, Scrubs, Desperate Housewives, Heroes and Veronica Mars every week and I need to have updates otherwise I get very, very irritated at the world.
   
10. Being nice and dry under an umbrella when its raining. I love umbrellas enough to write blog posts about them too. I know, I should really stop being sentimental about inanimate objects.

and one more because I like prime numbers

11. Getting into bed each night. The Scarlet O'Hara in me still has a small hope that everything is going to be alright when I wake up the next day.

Dear Diary,

Exactly one year ago, on this day, I finally decided to enter the technological world of geek-dom and get myself a blog, an online journal of sorts.

I know I haven't been the most faithful blog writer in the world and have let you down so many times. You have to understand that I am but an inexperienced, fickle, hormonal teenager quite prone to angst filled outbursts (for one more year, at least) and this sort of behaviour is what is expected of me. Sometimes, pressures from the society can be quite burdening, and I am forced to behave in the manner people expect a person in my age group to behave in.

A lot of things can happen in the period of a year, but a lot of things can remain the same too. I have not yet managed to find solutions to issues that I promised to last year. The world still has a lot of problems such as global warming, Dan Brown, nuclear weapons, K-Fed, Iraq, Paris Hilton's wardrobe and Darfur; but rest assured, I am still working on them, and maybe one day, who knows, I might actually miraculously do something to solve them.

Even though I haven't done much in this whole year, there are some things that I have successfully managed to accomplish. I have gotten myself successfully out of high school, for one. Sometimes, on the most angst filled days of my teenage career, it used to seem that my school building was going to keep me hostage in its murky corridors for the rest of my life. But I have managed to surpass my fears, graduate from high school and have gotten myself enrolled into a university.

My entire blogging experience has been disappointingly wonderful. I do not have scary stories of Internet stalkers to narrate to my grandchildren. But I have met some really great people though you, my dearest journal. Both Ash and Szerelem did not turn out to be porn stars in disguise, paedophiles or middle aged men with no life, but relatively normal people. I have also not succeeded in maintaining my anonymity thanks to certain people on here who couldn't resist looking me up on facebook.

I am not going to make you fickle promises for next year, dearest diary because I don't intend to keep them. But what I can assure you is that I shall do my best and become the better person you want me to be.

With much love from your one and only,
Pan

Christmas!

I know, it has been ages since I last posted. No, I'm not dead, in case anyone was wondering or pretending to care. I've just not been in the mood for blogging lately. Its not like I've been overly busy with work or something of that sort. To tell you the truth, I've been doing everything but work these days. My days generally consist of endless procrastination, heavy lecture skipping, talking to TPF on the phone, going out with TPF when I'm not on the phone and attending various social events.

Yes, I did say those magical words, social events. It is after all the time of the year where Pan actually goes out for social events and does not shut herself up in her bedroom, listening to alternative music.

I have always viewed Christmas season with a mixed feeling. It is one of the few religious holidays that I'm not totally indifferent to. I, for some strange reason actually care about Christmas (I blame this completely on my convent school upbringing). However much of a clichè this might sound, Christmas season makes me cheerful; the lights, the decorations, the irritating repetitive songs, the silly red hats (especially the ones with stars that light up) make me happy.

The best part of Christmas is Christmas carols. Anyone who knows me can confirm this. I love Christmas carols. I make it a point to sing them randomly all through the year. I also happen to be one of those creepy people who know the lyrics of the second and the third verses of 'Joy to the World' and 'Silent Night'. I can never make up my mind on my favourite one though. It changes from year to year. Presently, I'm stuck somewhere between 'The First Noel' and 'White Christmas'. The only problem about Christmas carols is that ahem, I don't sing very well. Sometimes I feel sorry for the people I hang out with. They must really love me if they can bear my rendition of 'Silver Bells' or 'Winter Wonderland' and still speak to me after that.

Another great thing about Christmas is Boxing Day. The thought of Boxing Day shopping is already making me smile.

I suppose, the whole deal with singing about reindeer and Christmas trees is all very silly considering the point of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (who might or might not have been born on the 25th of December). But nobody cares about these unimportant details, do they? This point always seems to get overlooked for some strange reason.

But Christmas season isn't always full of joy and happiness. No, Christmas has a dark side that also needs to be explored. It involves Christmas presents. There, I've gone and said those evil words. Every single year, I have to spend time, energy and money on buying Christmas presents to a whole load of people that I don't care much about. I'm not even Christian, so I'm not quite sure why I'm buying these presents, but that is how it is! Christmas presents are really stressful. They involve a whole load of strategic planning. Its not just the money that is the problem, every year I keep running out of creative ideas on what to buy for people. I cant get someone a scarf because I gave them a scarf last year. I cant give someone a pair of gloves because that is what they gave me last year and thus, the problem continues.

Christmas in Milan is no different from Christmas anywhere else, although it involves a whole load of pandoro and panettone. The problem with both, panettone and pandoro is making up your mind, which one you prefer, and this decision is not half as easy as it sounds. Its almost like Sophie's Choice actually (by the way, has anyone apart from me actually read that book? No, having watched the movie does not count!).

Audrey!

To say that I love Audrey Hepburn would be an understatement. It is actually surprising that I've never mentioned her on my blog before. I know that a lot of people think that she is over rated, and I suppose they might be right, but I fall into that mainstream category of people who believe that she was the most beautiful person they have ever laid their eyes upon. My current Audrey Hepburn merchandise includes:

1. A large Breakfast at Tiffany's Poster.
2. A small poster from Charade.
3. A small poster from War and Peace.
4. A small screen shot photograph.
5. A hand bag with a screen shot photos on both sides.
6. An Audrey card that TPF gave me last Christmas
7. A bookmark with a Breakfast at Tiffany's picture.
   
8. A big, door poster that I'm not supposed to know about because it's my Christmas present this year from TPF

This list will probably go on as time passes because I don't see myself getting over her any time soon. I know it is very superficial to like somebody because they are pretty, but however cruel this sounds, looks are quite important. Why do you think people worship Becks? No, it's going nothing to do with football. Its just that people can recognize a fine piece of ahem, booty when they see it. I'm not trying to say that Audrey has a fine piece of ahem, booty here. In fact, people hardly think about any of her other assets because they are so enamoured by her pretty face.

She almost makes acting a dignified profession. You can't imagine Audrey Hepburn baring it all on screen because the role demanded it or even participating in a sex scene in any of her movies, can you? She is a dignified person who wouldn't stoop to that level, even if the role demands it. People can see that she is beautiful woman, even without her showing any skin at all, and that is a rare quality in a person.

The first Audrey Hepburn movie I watched was My Fair Lady. I was quite young when I first saw it. It was a great movie and I loved it. I could never quite figure out the end actually, but I thought that it was a wonderful movie in any case (and Audrey totally deserved that Oscar that went to Julie Andrews for Mary Poppins that year!). I've actually not even watched too many Audrey movies. I've just watched My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Charade, Wait Until Dark, Roman Holiday, Sabrina, War and Peace and Funny Face. Actually I was re-watching Sabrina on television the other day and it struck me that she wasn't just beautiful, anyone can do beautiful. She is charming and elegant and stands out, and this is what makes her different from all other Hollywood actresses.

I didn't particularly like Breakfast at Tiffany's actually (because I read the book a week before I watched the film and the end of the film is completely different from how the book ends), but I thought Audrey made a delightful Holly Golightly. I thought that Wait Until Dark was a brilliant, but it scared me. I can't take thrillers, its just too much suspense and I get frightened quite easily. My personal favourite is Funny Face, because you get to see Audry Hepburn dancing with Fred Astaire in Paris. What more can one want in life from a movie?



As a short footnote, I would like to apologise for the infrequent blog updates. I've been really busy with real life lately. Its driving me mad. Sigh!

And she's back...

After long night of sleeplessness and dreadful days that didn't seem to get any shorter, I'm back! Have I mentioned somewhere on this blog that I hate exams? Well, I've never met anyone who actually likes exams in my entire life (unless it's TPF who says that she had a lot of fun doing the SATs), but I happen to dislike them more than most people.

Ha, at least I've finished my midterms now. I have more exams in the first week of January that I'm not even going to bother thinking about at this moment because I suspect that I'll start worrying if I do think about them. I know, I can never be happy, can I? I keep worrying about everything!

Hmm, this blog post doesn't have a point if you're wondering why I'm not getting to it. I don't have any news, and I haven't even been following world news for me to discuss what is happening in the world. Actually, I do have some little things here and there that have been happening. So let me write a small list of the things that have been going on lately:

1. I fainted. It sounds rather funny when I write it down, but it did happen last week. I'm not sure why it happened or how. It was at about 5.30 in the morning. The alarm rang wasn't supposed to ring until 6. I should have known something was wrong, since I had actually woken up before it rang. So, as soon as I woke up and got out of bed, I started shivering. I went to brush my teeth and started feeling rather ill. Then, I started sweating and feeling very hot. I finished brushing my teeth and started walking towards my room to go back into bed because I was feeling rather ill. On my way back, I lost consciousness for a few seconds and found myself on the floor. After an another hour, I started feeling completely normal and nothing has happened ever since.
2. I had a terrible sore throat and cold all through my exams courtesy TPF, who passed it onto me the weekend that she were here. It just couldn't have been worse, could it? I've never felt this ill all through exams ever before.
3. If I cough once more, I might consider strangling myself because it is seriously getting on my nerves.
4. I have a Facebook account. I feel strangely exposed. It even has photographs of myself. I'm paranoid about putting my pictures up on the internet. Facebook is repulsive to me and therefore that makes it extremely addictive at the same time. I considered linking up blog up there for 10 whole seconds and gave that idea up. I don't think I am comfortable with a whole load of people who I know in real life reading my blog. (Also, if they started regularly frequenting my blog, this would mean that I couldn't bitch about them any more.)
5. My Facebook account lists me married to TPF. It feels great to be married!
6. My beloved ipod has officially stopped working. You can't even switch it on any more. I miss it. I'm going to buy one of those cool, new 8GB Nanos some time next month, but I would much rather prefer my old second generation, bulky, scratched ipod. My mother thinks that I'm the most sentimental person she knows, but I can't help being sentimental about inanimate objects.
7. The love of my life, Julia has also ceased to function. She refuses to start up anymore. It's making me miserable. I hate living without her. I'll have to contact the support people after I get back from England. *sigh*
8. I'm leaving for England tomorrow. YAY! I still have to pack though, and am not sure when exactly am I going to find the time to do so because I have to go out tonight and I have lessons at uni early tomorrow morning. On a second thought, maybe I should be doing that now instead of updating my blog.
9. Have I mentioned somewhere in here how ill I am? I'm really ill. I've been following the sit-com routine lately.
10. I have dark circles. There was a time once when I was actually proud of them because they made me look mature and old. Now I just look old and ghastly.

And one more because I lurrrrve prime numbers

11. I've become stalkerish in the last few weeks. I'm such horrible person because I don't even feel guilty of my clandestine activities. I keep looking up random people on Google and Facebook searches. You'll be amazed about the kind you stuff you find out about people on the Internet.

That is all from me for now. I promise to be more interesting for my next post. I'll be back from England by then, and I'll have loads to write.

Diwali!

Happy Diwali everyone!

Diwali is the most depressing day of the year in Italy. Also, if having a depressing Diwali in a European country wasn't enough, it had to rain all day and be dark and cloudy. However, it could be worse, right? I mean, at least this year Diwali has fallen on a weekend, and so we have some semblance of a holiday. For the last three years, I've been going to school and pretending that it's just another day.

*sigh*

University Reds

First of all I must apologise for my recent disappearance from the blogosphere. University began a few weeks ago, and therefore I have been pretty busy lately. Also TPF is leaving for Uni on Wednesday and I have been spending every bit of my spare time with her later.

What can I say about Uni? It's different, very different from high school. Everything seems so completely and frighteningly big here. When I say different I don't mean bad different though. But I miss my friends and Dave. TPF darling, it's not the same without you! *sniff* I can't make silly jokes anymore or make obscure references and have someone actually understanding them. On a lighter note, I emailed Dave a few days ago and he replied today *fangirlish squeal*. It made my day. I don't sound like an almost 19 year old University student, do I?

For those who are actually interested, I am getting my degree in a course called, International Economics and Management. I'm sure it sounds more impressive than it actually is. It is not as cool as it sounds (well, this is assuming you think it sounds cool) It just involves a lot of Maths, Economics and Law, at least for now that is. I've been meeting loads of new people, practicing my Italian (which sucks, by the way) and pretending to actually care about my studies. I can't believe I actually have three hour lectures. My longest lesson in school used to last for 70 minutes. Yes, I am whinging here, so please bear with me.

Social life seems to be on a weird high (kind of). I just got invited today to go to Germany this weekend for three days for the October Beer Fest (which is a beer festival, as you must have already deciphered from it's name). The festival involves going to Germany on Friday, drinking beer all of Saturday, getting hung over all of Sunday and coming back to Uni on Monday. If people have already started tutting and mentally chiding Pan off, I am not actually planning to attend this thing. I am a responsible young, adult who would not even dream of going to weird alcohol festivals.

I've been meeting a whole lot of new people lately and I'm terrible with their names. I don't remember the names of half the people I've had conversations with. Therefore, I've been a very horrible person and come up with mental nicknames for people. These include AcneBoy, FizzHead, HotBoy, CuteRear, NerdyGirl, FashionVictiom etc. I have also started catagorising people by their nationality, which admittedly is not a very nice thing to do. But I'm always going to be known as IndianGirl to people, so it is not technically horrible of me to call people NorwegianBoy or HungarianGirl, right?

Anyways, after more than a week of attending Uni I have come to the conclusion that the world is full of a hell of a lot of weird people and I happen to be one of them.

Happy Birthday, Mummy!

Today is my mum's birthday. My father was thankfully nudged into remembering it by me last night because I didn't want him forgetting her birthday three times in a row this year. Luckily for him, my mum is one of those people who does not care much about birthdays; so my dad'’s forgetfulness was not too much of a big deal.

My mum and I normally don't exactly get along. We fight a lot. This is actually an understatement. We fight all the time is probably a more accurate description of my relationship with my mother. She always tells me off for not being more useful around the house. I always tell her that she should appreciate having me as a daughter and be thankful that I'’m not a drug addict, teen angsting, alternative music listening, purple haired creep, which I could have pretty much turned out to be if I had wanted. But mostly we fight for the same old reasons, and normally require external assistance in the form of my father to send us into our respective rooms in order to have some peace and quiet in our household.

What I personally love about our fights is that she is always the first one to make up. She can never be upset with me for more than an hour. So I guess, there'’s no bitterness in our relationship. As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, my ability to judge how much I love a person comes from how much that person can affect me enough to get on my nerves. Sometimes, I have to guiltily admit that I feel like throwing things at my mother.

My mum can actually read my mind. It's scary, but it'’s true. Sometimes when I was younger I used to think that she was literally inside my mind. She always tells me that she just knows. Now, I don't even bother asking her how does she always know. I never need to tell her how I'’m feeling or how my day was. She claims she can read it on my face, however well I'’m trying to cover it up. This makes it very difficult to lie or conceal things from her.

According to my father, the only thing I've inherited from my mother are my procrastination abilities and my immense dislike for any sort of work. Both of us don'’t even bother denying, this. What can I say, there has to be something other than my height that I should have got from my mother'’s genes. My mum is tiny, she'’s really small and thin, well, smaller and thinner than me at least. This makes it possible for her to have a complete access to my wardrobe. We fight over my clothes all the times. I hate it when she wears my clothes. She never minds when I wear hers.

My mum was relatively young when she had me, and she'’s managed to age quite well. Most people normally mistake us for sisters. I love people complimenting my mum on the fact that she looks so young. It makes me happy because she'’s so pretty. She always tells me that she was too young when I was born, and had no idea how to deal with children. Well, I personally think she did a fine job. Mum'’s also great with people. Everyone who knows her loves her including the people she works for and all the cleaning women. What wouldn'’t I do to have her social skills?

My mum is rather absurd. She comes up with the silliest suggestions, which involve no logical thinking whatsoever. She is terrified of heights. See, the fact that she has problems with heights wouldn'’t matter much to me, but the fact that she insists that I keep away from them is what leads to our inexorable arguments. My mum also has every phobia in the world -– heights, darkness, closed spaces, crowds, insects and every other thing one can think of. But she i’s always a good sport and doesn'’t mind our incessant teasing.

She likes things done her way all the time, which inevitably leads to our numerous arguments because I like the same. She never ever gives in when we fight. She i’s the most stubborn creature I'’ve ever come across. She is more stubborn than I am and that takes some effort.

She always falls asleep mid way of movies, a habit that I'’ve recently started finding adorable.

She is also obsessed with cleaning. If I could divide every person in this world into six different groups based on the characters in Friends, my mum would definitely be a Monica. She'’s scary when she cleans and the problem is that she'’s always cleaning.

She is great at finding missing property. It's a skill, I tell you. She once managed to find a pair of our house keys on the street two days after our maid had accidentally dropped them. I've lost count of the number of times she's retrieved lost items for me - missing earrings, bags, food, books, important documents, keys and the list continues.

However she may be, she'’s still my mum and I love her from the bottom my heart. She i’s the bestest mother in the whole world according to me, and I wouldn'’t replace her for all the riches in the world. So, here'’s wishing her a very happy birthday.

Independence Day

Tomorrow, 15th August is the Indian Independence day. Yes folks, at the stroke of midnight exactly 59 years ago, in the year 1947, we became free. Freedom is a very subjective word in this context, I suppose. It is also the first date I actually remember memorizing after my own birthday.

When I was younger, my dad and I used to spend the Independence day morning watching the national parade on television. He always made me stand up when they played the national anthem because according to him it is blasphemous to sit down when the national anthem of any country is playing. So we stood up as soon as the President's orchestra started playing. I loved standing up. It was always a special occasion for me. This was because, on most other days I never had the opportunity to consciously stand up straight, while looking at television for a few minutes. Then, we used to watch the President's speech, whilst I normally lost interest in it mid way because I could never understand the big Hindi words he used in this speech. Mind you, this wasn'’t because I was a stupid child; colloquial Hindi is so much different from formal Hindi, that I still normally don't understand all of the President'’s speech.

As I grew up, it became mandatory to participate in the school independence day celebrations where we had to stand in the hot sun all morning, sing patriotic songs in three languages (Hindi, English and Marathi). Then of course, there was the flag unfurling ceremony where we sang the national anthem. I loved singing our national anthem and still do enjoy singing it, even though I haven'’t had the opportunity to sing it in the last four years. I don't think I liked it because it made me feel patriotic, but because I always felt that it was a beautiful song.

I'’m not exactly what you call a nationalist, well not consciously at least. I'm the first person to criticize my country where it deserves, which is what I normally do. But today I have decided to do something else. I ha’ve decided to talk about why I like my country and not why I dislike it. I'’m not going to talk about the hypocrisy with which Indian culture treats women or how religion is going to be the end of our people or about the absolute poverty, illiteracy and corruption, but about why I love it so much. Whatever faults India may have, it is still my country and I love it very much because it defines who I am and where I allegedly belong, well according to my passport, at least.

I love my country because I grew up there and whatever little morals I may have, they are because of my upbringing there. I love it because of it'’s wonderful film industry (yes, I am one of those one billion suckers that actually likes Bollywood movies). I love it because we have great food. Seriously, which other country can boast to be more creative than us where vegetarian food is concerned? When I talk about food, it encompasses all kinds of foods including snacks, three course meals, street food and junk food. I love how we like to Indianize every western item we come across, even McDonalds rather than fall pray to plain old westernization. I also love it because we have seasonal fruits that you don'’t get anywhere else in the world.

I love it because our national sport it cricket and we'’re great at it. The World Cup is next year, and wait and see, we'’re going to be absolutely brilliant. I love it because of it'’s chaotic traffic. You never feel alone or lonely, at least in Bombay. I love the fact that you can never be alone on the streets whatever time of night it may be because there are people everywhere, all the time.

I love it because we have the monsoon season, which according to me is the best season in the world. I love it because we have a great sense of style and clothing. In India, I can wear a pair of jeans with a kurta and not have to face hoards of people looking at me strangely. We have even managed to make ourselves look hot in saris, a garment which was created supposedly to cover up our bodies. I love it because everyone there is so friendly and I wouldn't even think twice before asking my neighbours for any sort of help. Here, I don't even know who lives next door to me.

I love it because we have so many languages (and yes, they are languages with different scripts and not just dialects. The next person to ask me about this is going to have to listen to a long rant). You just grow up speaking and studying two, three different languages and understanding at least one or two more. I love the fact that whenever I am there, I always end up speaking in a bizarre, incomprehensible mixture of Hindi/English/Marathi all at the same time, and everybody still understands me.

I love it because every single person you meet from there comes from such a diverse cultural background that everyone might as well come from a different country, and yet we manage to love each other just fine. I also love it because in India you grow up having a lot of friends everywhere. I knew practically every kid my age on the whole street where I lived because everyone always knows everyone else. India is a country where it is very difficult for someone to keep a secret. But what I love the most about it is how people like me can grow up there retaining our own culture and languages, while watching American sitcoms, movies and speaking fluent English. It'’s like you grow up belonging to two different worlds. I can listen to Led Zeppelin and love Bollywood music all at the same time.

So there, that is how I'’ve spent my Independence day this year. I can't watch the parade on television here or sing the national anthem, but what I can do is give us a fine tribute that even the President in his fancy Hindi might have problems trying to compete with.

Mera Bharat is truly mahan! :)

Introducing Julia!

I would like everyone on the blogosphere to get acquainted with Julia. Yes, I am officially replacing TPF from her 'best friend'’ status. TPF lost this position the moment she abandoned me in this strange, foreign country and returned to her native land. I am fickle enough to replace and abandon old friends as soon as I find new ones that I like more. Julia is beautiful, interesting, intelligent and all other adverbs of admiration one can think of and I am totally enamoured by her. She is also the best thing that has happened to me since cable television in this country, which clearly shows how much she means to me.

For those who has not figured this out yet, Julia happens to be my new laptop. I have always wanted a laptop ever since I heard about them. I mean, what could be better than a computer, a computer that you can use in your bed, of course or on your couch or in the bathroom, for that matter. For the record, no I am not using my computer in the bathroom, but I would like to have the option to do so in any case, thank you very much. Julia also happens to be password protected, which means that I can write/view pornography on it without my parents knowing or checking my browser history. No, I am not into writing/viewing pornography, but I still like keeping my options open. Privacy matters, especially when you have a teenager with nothing to hide. That is why I like to pretend that I have a big secret up my sleeve or in this case, in my computer.

Julia is a graduation present from my parents. Initially I was going to buy a Mac because Macs are so cool in teenage land, but then I started looking beyond the pretty looks and being the non conformist teenage that I am, I decided that I was not yet ready to try to learn to use a whole new operating system all on my own. I also figured that my Mac dreams could wait until I started earning my own money and let my parents save bit more for my future educational dreams. Turns out, Julia was a bit more expensive than the Mac that I wanted, but it was love at first sight and even my parents couldn'’t deny that to me.

No, I'’m not getting rid of Quincy (my old computer) or forgetting him as soon as I have a prettier replacement with no sexuality crisis. What kind of a person would that make me? A teenager, I know, but as I previously mentioned, I'’m one of those unconventional types, therefore I am still emotionally attached to Quincy. He has been with my through my good times and crashed through my bad times. I love him very much and will always care about him even with Julia in my life, however pretty her in-built web cam may be or however cool her in-built DVD burner is. Yes, even though Julia may have the beautiful blue lights and the in-built wireless connection, but Quincy is still my hero.

These days, I feel like a computer whiz. A few days ago, I made my home wireless entirely by myself. Alright, I'm sure this is no big feat to most people, but trust me if you had to call up Internet technicians and ask for computer help in Italian when you don't really speak Italian, it is a big deal. Therefore, yes I am proud of myself.