These days I’m eating, sleeping and breathing doctoral applications. Which are not necessarily all that interesting to talk about, although I’ve done my fair share of complaining via Twitter and Facebook. Not the least of which, might I add, included my saga of procuring my high school transcript. From Renton, Washington. And only using cash or checks for the transcript fee. Extremely convenient when you live overseas. Anyway. Instead of having to mail cash in an envelope across an ocean and a continent, I was lucky that Mom drove to my old high school, forked over the cash and picked up the transcripts before my brother scanned them into a pdf file for me (thanks Mom! thanks Chad!). Please don’t get me started on the fact that even though I’m 32 and have a Master’s degree and a decade of professional experience, I still needed to prove that I got an A in Pacific Northwest History when I was 14.
See? This is my life right now. Boring. Maybe we should talk about what I was doing this time last year? Namely, lots of reading and lots of running, both of which I aspire to do this February too. Especially the running part, since I’ve signed up for the same half-marathon that I ran last year. I plan on keeping myself accountable with you guys on my training, which starts technically now. But have you seen all the snow and ice out there?
Sorry, can’t seem to stop the whining these days. Please stick around though! I promise things will be looking up in a couple weeks. Until then, here’s February 2009:
Lausanne: I was charmed by this Swiss city, by its sloping rooftops, jumble of beautiful old buildings, snowy hillsides and its French-speaking people…
A Story of Race and Inheritance: I have attempted to read books written by politicians before, usually without much success…
Creamy Lentils with Potatoes: Awhile back I bought myself some German cookbooks. Although I regularly read wonderful food blogs in English (e.g, Everbody Likes Sandwiches and Pinch my Salt)…
Sprechen Sie English: One of the “perks” of being the only native English speaker at work is that I am often approached by colleagues to double-check their written English for research abstracts or articles.* Although it sounds like a pain, I actually kind of like it…
Week One: My training for the Hannover Half-Marathon on May 3rd officially started this week. I like to use Hal Higdon’s training plans as a guide for creating my own, especially since you can choose your own level of intensity…
A Mercy: It has been a long while since I have read anything by Toni Morrison (i.e., Song of Solomon, read during my freshman year of college, deserves a rereading, as I am sure my 31-year-old self would have much more to say about it than my 18-year-old self)…
Week Two: I would say that my second week of training was much more successful than my first. I hit just about all my goals for the week, including some speed training on Thursday evening (during a snowstorm, no less) which kicked my butt more than I thought it would (which is the point, I guess)…
Still Not Over You: This past summer, I was super excited to start my new life in Germany. Even so, it was really hard for me to leave New York City (this song by R.E.M. still brings tears to my eyes)…