Words, words, words

I have utterly failed in my attempts to keep a regular record of my thoughts. Despite setting up this blog, buying Moleskine notebooks at sale price, and even getting my hands on this really pretty daily planner with a cover design by SCAD, they all contain tragically blank spaces between the start of this semester and now.

Here's my New Year's resolution: Keep a daily record while in Scotland. Maybe a change of scenery will induce me to start writing again.

Hello autumn

Cool air, warm sun, wearing trainers regularly instead of flip flops, turning off the air conditioner, frequent searches for hot drinks.

Hello October.

Duality and anarchy

While this internship was definitely, chaotic, it sure as hell wasn't boring. Administration is probably wishing for boredom right now though.

I happened to choose the summer when they were moving the entire Ships History department from one building to another, so the place is pretty much chaos because the movers have to be supervised for security reasons and there's a lot of paperwork involved. Add personnel issues and a weekend flooding and the place gets a little stressed, to put it mildly.

This last week, however, you could definitely smell it in the air. It began with the whispered conversations, then a sudden axing that apparently should have happened a lot earlier and was met with a fair amount of happy dancing.
I really don't know how much I should say about this, but now the issue seems to be the muddling of military and admin hierarchies; slightly reminiscent of band at times?

I love the people, I really do. I'm going to miss them loads. But when you can feel annoyance radiating like a furnace off the person sitting across from you at the staff meeting and the rest emitting varying degrees of tiredness/frustration/exasperation, it's like some weird tension soup is being diffused into the atmosphere.

I just really hope, most likely with a great deal of naivety, that band season doesn't end up like this.

Coast hopping

So I'm in the 2nd to last week of this internship and while I can't wait to get back to LA, move in, see everyone again, get all my stuff unpacked and get ready for band camp (woo?/!), I'm gonna miss the time in DC. It wasn't one of those self-discovery journeys that inspire Oscar-winning films, but it gave me the chance to do things I wouldn't normally do elsewhere. Like get up at the crack of dawn to go to Gettysburg. Or camp out at 5pm to watch 9pm fireworks while being serenaded by the US Army band. Other things:

I still can't answer where exactly I come from (up to 3 different answers now), my hair is now a strange shade of brown/burgundy/orange, and I think my accent has taken on tones of the Mason-Dixon states as well as picking up certain military/nautical terms. I survived 2 months without murdering (or getting murdered by) the Notre Dame tuba or the UCLA alum officer. (Should I have? Most likely yes. But I'd rather not get in trouble with the US Navy, thank you very much.) I avoided getting questioned by the NCIS over classification issues. On a whim, I took the 6 hour Amtrak up to Providence, bruised my arse and killed my lower back on an hour of polo, watched a polo game, stayed up till 5 to go and have breakfast at a diner, and loved every moment because I did it with a friend. LA transportation seems even crappier than before after the lovely DC metro (minus the Red line crash). Shellbacking makes frat initiations seem like a welcome tea party. It's way easier to travel on the East coast than I realised. Thanks to the good ol' grid layout of DC, I visited most of the Smithsonian museums in a week by walking. There are people whom I would never have hung out with had we not ended up in the same internship, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to miss them. And while the reference letter is nice, I'm just glad I got to work with the people in the archives and hope I will see at least some of them again after all this.

Not a bad summer, by all accounts.

Capitol, capitol

I just realised I've spent 3 weeks here. That actually flew by pretty quickly.

Things were a LOT more lively once the (only) other intern arrived at the Operational Archives. Now I have someone else to chat to; not that the regular staff aren't talkative and friendly, but it's really nice to have someone else of similar age. (I'd love to have a beer with anyone from the archives, to be honest. Yes, even the commander who's a fucla alum.) We have met up with a lot of the other Navy Yard interns though, thanks to the field trips, and they're all a really cool lot. Some of them are living as far out as Baltimore, which makes me feel a lot better about my 1 hour commute from start to finish. I think the others have been pushing for more trips since we don't see each other during work, being closeted in our various buildings (most work in the museum, I work in a small part of another building that's often freezing to keep the documents intact).

Went to Mount Vernon today, courtesy of Tourmobile. The estate was very pretty and had some interesting stuff, but it was a bit of a downer because we only had 4 hours to see the estate, and 1 hour was spent waiting to get inside the mansion itself. I also nearly didn't make it back to DC because I did not see where the Tourmobile stop was. Oops.

So all in all, I really enjoy working here. I also really like living here so far. The one downside is that there aren't any good supermarkets or shops near where I live. They do have some interesting boutiques, but I'm cheap and need to find something like an Old Navy nearby. The nearest one is in Pentagon City across the river.

Plan for next weekend is Gettysburg. Assuming the weather isn't too bad, it should be a great trip.

Hello from DC part 1

I meant to blog a little earlier but I've only just got over the jet lag.

So DC is absolutely amazing. Easy to walk around, less humid than Hong Kong, good metro, and I still haven't begun to explore the surrounding areas with the cheap but diverse restaurants/entertainment. Went to the American History museum today and spent nearly 3 hours there, especially in the sections on communities and war. Must go back to the gift shop at some point too.

The Navy Yard is also really cool, although the constant escorts and security checks are a bit of hassle. And I get to handle the actual documents instead of going through books like I've been doing all YEAR. I saw McCain Jr.'s box while in the archives; pity I didn't get to open it. And yes, most of the time I'm scanning stuff and helping to "stabilise" the papers (putting them into acid-free folders and reorganising them into new boxes) but it's still pretty cool.

My dorm does kinda suck on the other hand. I'm pretty sure it's one of the older more run-down buildings compared to other places on GWU, but the paint is a little shabby and for some reason I don't have blinds.

Also, it's suddenly started raining and we have a thunderstorm too. Meant to go to the Lincoln Memorial tonight but that is so not going to happen.

Not entirely sure what to do this weekend, but will most likely be in Virginia, either Arlington or Alexandria.

And the twain shall never meet

Tuesday's phone call with Mum revealed fundamental differences in priorities that I found hilarious.

She wants me to seriously reconsider playing rugby because she's worried I may get permanently injured.

I, on the other hand, was more upset about failing my driving test than splitting my head open.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Ahh, the joy of generation gaps.

Yay blood!

I just discovered today how bipolar I can be when it comes to injuries and pain.

According to the others, I tried to tackle someone and she swung around. All I remember was a collision with a hard object and flying back a few feet with this massive pain in my left temple. I decided to lie there for a bit since I couldn't get up without my head spinning. Then I decided to remove my hand a bit to see what was going on. Biiig mistake.

Seeing my entire hand covered in blood (and realising that it was streaming into my eyes) sent me into this massive panic attack. I mean, I've seen what cleats can do (see Zidane) but it's kiiiinda different when it happens to you.

Hearing that it was only a small cut sent me into hysterical laughter followed by frustration that I couldn't go back and play again.

Now I just want to sleep.

And on the sixth day

I caved in and drank a Coke. I'd hoped I could make it to Sunday (at least I surpassed Wednesday), but the number of naps I was taking in the afternoon/early evening was detrimental to basic functioning. Feeling drowsy and falling asleep at 9:30pm should not happen.

Thus, the seventh day shall be the day of rest. (read: COFFEE TIME)

Day 2

Yay for Jamba Juice.

PE also has its upsides, especially if your teacher breaks his nose the lesson before and the TAs take over instead.

Going cold turkey

So I'm going to try and spend a week with no caffeine. No coffee, tea, or coke.

Let's see if I'll make it by Wednesday.

Spring Break

I feel sooo fat. Fat as that last Peking Duck we had.

And tired.

And happy.

That pretty much sums up Spring Break back in Hong Kong.

Though I do wish my friends had been back as well, but nooooo UK doesn't start break till this week.

That said, I'm definitely missing the food and shopping already. And legal boozing, hah.

And I don't want to do any work.

Time to finish unpacking.

It's a zoo out there

The antics of the "wildlife" at USC never cease to amuse me.

I saw the raccoons for the first time this semester, once out by Cromwell and the second time right outside my building. I was leaving for rugby and suddenly this huge fluffy thing lept down from the dumpsters and froze right above the drain. Cue the mini staring game between me and the raccoon. And while it froze in the futile hope that I would leave it alone, it was a perfect Kodak moment on a crappy mobile phone camera.

Squirrels. 'Nuff said.

I used "wildlife" earlier because the pigeons here would not survive very long in the wild. If they can't detect the clattering of my bike as I head towards them on the narrow path until I'm TWO INCHES from having pigeon paté on my wheels, they won't detect any predator.

Adopt an elephant!

Okay, not really. Though it would be cool.

I'm referring to this article: Population: the elephant in the room

This is the main reason why, at this current stage of life, I would choose adoption over having a kid of my own. Too many people, not enough families for kids already on this planet.

Also, the nine months of pregnancy kinda scares me, because I am a wimp.

So uncreative I even forgot the post title

I make it a policy not to read reviews. Instead, I measure them with a ruler. The longer they are the better I feel. - Joseph Conrad

Hey, he has a point. I wouldn't read fanfiction unless it had a substantial number of long reviews, not just a torrent of "ZOMG i <3 it plz rite moar!" or "OMG u suck u should neva rite againz!" At least people found the time to read and post in detail what they liked/loved/hated/wanted to set on fire about the story because they thought it was worth it.

That said, I have written fanfiction. I just never posted it anywhere, not on fanfiction.net, nada. Actually, I never really finished or wrote out the many plotbunnies that developed in my head. Which is kind of sad, because I think I had way more creativity as a 15 year old than I do now. I seem to have used bigger words too, oddly enough. And my only completed work is a mild 1 page humor fic on Sir Andrew Ffoulkes attempting to tie a cravat - I had several serious plotlines regarding Les Miserables but felt almost too depressed to flesh them out. (Except for that one weird one using Nightwish lyrics to highlight the students at the barricades.)

Instead, I have a 5 page essay on the Salem witch trials looming up in a week. And actually, being the history nerd I am, it's not that bad. Except for the page length. Meh to that.

On a final note, my favourite Grantaire actor from Les Mis is playing the Phantom over in Vegas. I so want to be there.

Hello spring semester

And I began it by hitting one person and nearly running over another two while biking to my first class. Whee.