Not one of those lame blogs where I talk about my feelings and stuff...
jeudi, juillet 03, 2008
July 3rd 2008 "to do list"
1. Show up for final oral exam. 2. Don't blow it. 3. Leave Sciences-Po building for the last time. 4. Head to nearest store and purchase bottle(s) of whiskey. 5. Enter state of prolonged inebriation.
Two weekends, two tournaments, two victories just within reach. Last weekend I was in Geneva for Talampaya, an invite tourney for european mixed teams. The competition wasn't amazing, so the first two days were spent steamrolling one opponent after the next. It only got interesting on day 3, for semis and finals. Unfortunately we pulled out our best game for the semi-finals, and totally choked when it actually mattered, and lost to the Dutch in the finals. The loss wouldn't have been so bitter if a week before, us ladies from the national mixed team hadn't lost in the finals of Tom's Tourney (in Bruges) to a Dutch women's team.
Having played in or witnessed my share of women's finals, I can safely say that our game versus the Dutch women at Tom's Tourney was one of the more exciting matches I've seen in a long time. Women's finals don't usually get as many spectators as the Open division - slower pace, less physical, in general not as interesting. But we managed to keep the (large) crowd thoroughly entertained for the entire match. I'm probably a little biased, but losing hurt quite a bit since we definitely deserved it more than our opponents, especially given the fact that they insisted on turning the game into a call-fest. It had been a while since I had seen such blatantly shitty foul calls (UBC girls - remember Florida at Centex?!) and excessively agressive behaviour.
These two weekends also served as a wake-up call re: my physical shape. It is nowhere near where it should be. Oh crap.
1) Segways. Who is the retard who invented this? (Wikipedia tells me his name is Dean Kamen) It has got to be up there in the Top 10 list of most ridiculous inventions of the 21st century.
2) The people who use Segways. The Segway is stupid, therefore an individual who chooses it as a mode of transportation is equally stupid. Now that the weather is getting nicer and the tourists are once again overtaking Paris, my neighbourhood is literally teeming with these idiots humming around on their Segways. Tour groups are already annoying, but the annoyance factor goes through the roof once you stick them on a Segway with a helmet (yes apparently you need protective head gear) and fluorescent yellow vests.
Sidenote: Last September as I was leaving my building, a group of aforementioned idiots were crossing the street onto the sidewalk I was on. The gods must have been smiling down on me that day because the moment I had been waiting for for so long finally occured. A middle-aged american tourist was hurrying in order to avoid being hit by traffic. He was clearly labouring under the impression that a Segway is an all-terrain device, so he proceeded to ram full speed into the curb and completely eat pavement right in front of me while his Segway made bizarre buzzing sounds and tried to stay upright. The hilarity of the situation was so incredible (especially when his overweight wife started yelling "oh my GAWD honey are you alright?!?") that I didn't even try to suppress my laughter and immediately sent text messages to everyone I knew telling them about what I had just witnessed.
3) School until July. I don't get out of class until mid-June. And then I have my final oral exams in July. The better the weather gets, the more depressed I am at the thought of being stuck in class when it's 30 degrees outside. It hit me pretty hard today when the first Respect is Burning party was announced for June 4th. I will still have a full month of school left. Gasp.
4) My oral exam subject.La neutralite a-t-elle un sens? Balls.
Forget Ibiza, the new place to be this summer for all-night parties is...the fictional republic of Kazantip. Every year, this month-long rave changes location, to a new spot along the southern coast of Ukraine, on the Black Sea. One time it was held at a deserted nuclear power plant. Last year it was held on an old army base. The idea is simple: for one month, an autonomous republic is founded. The organizers all hold a position within the fictional government. The event is overseen by a self-elected president (President Nikita), and the rules and regulations are drawn out in a constitution. Of course, there aren't really many rules and regulations. It's essentially a month-long orgy of booze, electronic music and debauchery. It's the most random mix of beautiful women, eccentrics and russian mafiosos. Check out the Vice documentary here.
Well my immune system has officially shut down. I am sick for the third time since the beginning of March. Perhaps it would be deserved if I had been partying non-stop for the last two weeks, but instead I was going to bed relatively early, exercising every day, and staying home on the weekends. So WTF. And now, the last two weeks of physical training are going to go out the window and I have to start from scratch...again.
My Friday night was cut short by the fit that my stomach decided to have after eating the best couscous in town. I managed to suck it up for the duration of the Feadz set, but had to scram before MSTRKRFT came on, which is a bummer because I was curious to see what they're spinning these days. Now my goal is to will myself back to good health in time for Cut Killer on Thursday night, and this:
I am bummed about my ridiculous schedule this semester. Three times a week, I have class until 9:15 at night, including Fridays. I am no longer able to attend frisbee practice Tuesdays and Thursdays. To add insult to injury, my Friday night class is a required course on the United Nations Security Council. I am still waiting for someone to give me a valid reason why I should be spending an entire semester studying an illegitimate, irrelevant, and useless institution that I don't care about.
Furthermore, my lame schedule is making it very difficult for me to keep up with the physical training I'm supposed to be doing for the national team. Being sick for the second time this month also didn't help. And I'm now developping a reputation amongst the frisbee community as the girl who sleeps through her alarm and can't make it to tournaments on time. This weekend was calm in terms of partying, and yet I still managed to show up at the fields ridiculously late both days. Although after the Sunday night party at Paganello, my teammates no longer believe me when I tell them I didn't go out the night before.
Last night a friend of mine got borderline beaten up by the RATP metro security. I can't say that I'm surprised, because those guys are notorious douchebags. But the situation was completely ridiculous and infuriating: he had just stepped off the metro and was walking through the hallways. He came upon a ticket check...about 10 RATP security guys lined up across the hall. He stopped for a second to search through his pockets to find his ticket and two guards immediately pounced on him and began to harass him, thinking that he hadn't paid and was trying to turn around in order to avoid getting caught. He pulled out a few tickets, none of which were the right one, so they immediately assumed that he was lying. They didn't give him a chance to explain himself, much less to search through his stuff to find the right ticket. Once he did find it, one guy pocketed it without checking its validity. Instead they pinned him up against the wall, took out his wallet from the back pocket, saw that he had money on him to pay the fine, and forced him to pay the 40 euros. At first he refused and told they to call the cops so that he could explain himself. He was told that the cops would take an hour and a half to get there. In the end he just gave up trying to reason with the assholes and paid the fine.
What makes this story so infuriating is that it is completely impossible to reason with the RATP security, no matter how calm and polite you remain while they are riffling through your pockets and getting in your face. This is definitely not the first time I've heard such a story, and it is unbelievable that these wannabe cops (with absolutely NO authority to search you) get away with this shit!
I recently discovered last.fm, this website where you type in an artist and it creates a playlist of similar music. This isn't very exciting in and of itself...but this site is awesome because of the detailed and highly informative blurbs that go along with each song/artist. Example: I typed in Yung Joc and the following information came up when a Gorilla Zoe song was played:
"Also, Gorilla Zoe appears to have a feud with rapper The Game, dissing him on the track "1 Sluggg". Gorilla Zoe claims that he made the track because he felt offended by comments that The Game had made on his single "One Blood" about Atlanta's hip-hop scene. Game has never responded to Gorilla Zoe or said his name, but has addressed his reasons for the comment, stating that it was not a diss to Atlanta or the South. Some claim also that Gorilla Zoe dissed The Game because of his friendship with JT Tha Bigga Figga, a rapper/producer from the Bay Area who claims he discovered The Game and is not currently in a beef with."
WHO KNEW?!
Finally, thank you Sasha and Chad for bringing to my attention the existence of this YouTube video:
My suitcase has come back from it's round-the-world trip to land at my parents' front door. It took a month and a half, and I had to spend a bunch of money for new clothes while I was in Vancouver, but shit happens. At least I got my Bon Jovi 1990 tour shirt back!!! Also, now I have two Technotronik shirts, if anyone's interested in taking one of them off my hands...
It's looking like it's going to be a very long semester. I have a steady stream of assignments and projects due every week until the beginning of June. As a result, I've sunk back into old habits, namely not having time to eat 3 meals a day, and not sleeping enough. I'm also essentially dating the library. Sorry boys, this girl's off the market.
On Friday I went to Brussels for an internship/job fair put on by Sciences-Po and LSE. The morning portion was spent talking to various public and private organisations, all based in Brussels and focused on the European Union. Considering that most of the organisations attending were private consulting firms who dish out finance and communications advice to their clients, the event was probably more enriching for LSE students. That's what I get for chosing my Master's degree out of interest for the subject instead of consideration for the future. In the afternoon, we all split up and attended an information session. Unfortunately I couldn't get a spot for the International Crisis Group, so I had to suffer through an hour of the shittiest powerpoint presentation in history, care of the embarassingly incompetent communications department of the European Commission. The presentation was completely unadapted to the audience: we are all pursuing prestigious graduate studies, it's a little insulting when we are asked if we know how many countries are currently in the European Union. Also, it's the Treat of Rome, not Rom. Thankfully my iPod picked up on the Commission's free unsecured wireless.
It seemed like kind of a waste to travel all the way to Brussels just for a day, so I ended up staying the night at a friend's place and indulging in what the Belgians do best: liege waffles and good music scene.
