La Vie En Rose for 2004 April

I passed oceanograhpy! Also: B in PoliSci. Meh.

Just got back from meeting Sophie Kinsella! Wheee!

Pics are up, but I am too lazy to link :P

Don't want to start school in the morning.

What a lovely first day of school (ish). I had my EU seminar, & the professor explictedly invited us to do a 199 with him "if we are interested," which is good as I was planning on asking him anyway. Interestingly enough, he is the director of the center for European/Eurasian studies, & the same professor PK (my boss) reccomended to me for my thesis.

I've got a two-hour break, bc boring econ discussion was cancelled, but I didn't think for some reason to bring stuff to do. Neeki disappeared in the textbook store in Ackerman, so I prolly won't see her til next fall--it's quite the jungle in there. I wonder where I can go to find out about my work-study $$?

So that *points to previous entry* was a complete waste of time. I waited around on campus for 2 hours to go & listen to the prof yack on & on about the syllbus. I kept waiting for her to start lecturing, I was actually looking forward to it--Western European Governments--but after 45 min. of nonsense she just let us go. I could have downloaded the syllbus from the website & saved myself hours of waiting! Of course, if I'd had my iBook computer I could have been working...

Went to the UCLAStore & saw my iBook for $999, at least $100 less than at the Apple Store, so maybe I will buy it there. Need to find out about warranty, iPod mini software, &c. This is my first big purchase all on my own (tho Leonard has been on IM support), & I feel very grown up & excited. Printed my governer's scholar award withdrawl thingy, almost there! I can practically taste it!

I actually want to read & get ahead, but none of my books have arrived yet! Of course... I could get started on Econ since I (still) have that book *bleah* or EU, since handily, I already have one of the ones assigned. Yes, I'll do that.

Meeting with Berend on Thurs re: 199!

Done with EU reading... what now?

is it too early to go to bed?

Airfare roundtrip to Heathrow	 700
Travel insurance for 28 days	120
Eurail pass for 21 days		534
Misc expenses			200
$40 per day for 28 days		1120
Eddie Bauer backpack            89
Total				2,763

Summer in Europe: 		Priceless

iBook G4				999
MS Office				99
Wireless Card				89
Norton Utilities			129
AppleCare				128
Total:					1444

Having a computer that loves me back: Priceless

1. 199 advisor: Prof Berend. Woot!
2. 1st week is almost finished, & I still have not got ES 102 grade
3. Dinosaur book, "The Mistaken Extinction" came in the mail. My Dinosaur professor is a sexy Brit with a mac & a PHD in trilobites. Must go to office hours with trilobites of my own digging & pictures mom took of feathered dinosuars in London to... discuss course material.
4. Phone service has been "interupted". Jerks. UCLAStore is supposed to call me when they get more iBook G4s in, too, how will I know??

My phone works again! Huzzah!

Just checking in to say I'm alive. I had a great weekend. More later.

In YRL right now, about to sneak into my carol & have lunch (shh dont tell). I am very antsy to get my new computle. I simply cannot WAIT. I have a name picked out & all: Dave the Laugh (can be DtL for short typing) a la Georgia Nicholson. Keep waiting for the UCLA Store ppl to call. They said early this week.

Scored majorly this weekend: got to spent quality time with Tonksie & see many relatives & eat yummy food at Aunt Pat's for Easter dindin. Little Joel is soo cute; I told Shannon when I have a little boy (in about eight years) I want one just like him. Also: Pat gave me a microwave & I got a bike from Ruth Davis. Whee! Am going to Target later aujourd'hui to get lock & (yes, mom) helmet.

But here's the big news: I FOUND MY GLASSES!!! YES! Ooh I missed them so much & I am wearing them right now! It's a good thing too. I went to Sears & the lady said the warranty doesn't cover loss, I'd have to pay $350 to get them replaced, v upsetting you can imagine as I am supposed to buy DtL this week, & I was so upset I just left & completely forgot to get my sunglasses tightened. Out of sheer desperation I went back to every single place I'd been two Saturdays ago, divising all sorts of horrible punishments for myself--including grounding from all non-academic events & *gasp* internet activities--and, at the very last outpost, where I was almost not going to go bc I thought there was NO WAY I could have possibley left them there, the guy behind the counter at The Book Mark produced them. I stood for maybe a minute in complete joyful shock; I felt like kissing him and crying for joy but luckily I did neither & after profusive thanking I managed to leave with (most of) my dignity in tact. AND I have my glasses. Happy Rachel.

My stupid books for my West Eur Gov't class haven't come yet. I should have ordered expidited shipping. Dunno why, tho, my dino book cam on Thurs. (Ooh! I forgot to bring trilobites for my sexy intelligent dino Prof) It's 2nd week & I'm already behind on my reading (& I've never been so upset about this).

I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it! I got it!

I LOVE my new computer. LOVE it!!!

don't miss out on that great job - get your university degree now! I'm on it...

Today is ride your bike to work day! At least it was for me. I'm setting off again soon, *huffpuff*. But it saves ten minutes from the walking time, and probably would take more if a) I weren't so out of shape (all those hills!) and b)I were bravestupid enough to take the direct big-scary-streets route.

One of my PS books hasn't come yet (I ordered them... a month ago?) & I have a midterm next week.

Taking three classes, one seminar, & one 199 (indpendent research paper). Not to mention working 20 hours a week (is actually more like 17 or 18). Am coming up with crazy schemes to add another 199 if my petition doesn't go through.

Graduation is WHEN?

It's almost May. Hear that everyone? It's almost MAY!

This is my last quarter as an undergrad. Shouldn't I be enjoying it?

John will be happy to know that on the way back from school, neeki & were discussing how to find our point of allocative efficency (where MC=MB) of leisure time vs. working time on our personal production possibilities frontier.

Why am I awake (and even on campus!) this early?

Oh yah, econ...

Because after 10 years of trying everything, none of it seems to have worked. So from now on I'm going to try v hard to only eat organic & non-processed foods. I even ordered a used cookbook by Nigella Lawson from amazon market place (& realized I may have fallen into the marketing trap of "If I buy her cookbook, maybe I'll look like here") to try my hand at cooking.........

..........oooh potato is in the oven. I wonder how long it's been? Better go check!

Happy Birthday to MOMMY!!!!

I got an email saying I had a new Finacial Aid notification, so I went to go visit & was a little alarmed that my scholarship showed up on it, but then seemed to disapear. Call me paranoid, but I've always been half afriad that UCLA would just try & keep the money for itself, so I marched over to Murphy, preparing msyelf to rant & rave; needless to say I was very relieved when the guy at the counter said I should recieve my refund in 5 days.

Sad news, though: my wireless doesn't seem to work in my YRL carole, or even just outside it. Which means I have to plug into the plug outside, as the one inside doesn't work, either. Perhaps I can ask to have it fixed?

Got another email, from PoliSci, saying I could do a 199 instead of one of the lame-o summer classes. Next step: finding someone who actually knows something about the EU (though that bit may not be strictly necessary who is willing to supervise a 199 in summer. Or perhaps I should come up with a different topic all together, since the EU is apprantly not political enough *bitterness*.

duplicate entry. ignore

Lemme tell you a secret.

Here is the reason, the REAL reason, I've started taking notes on my laptop during class:

I love showing off DtL.

I love pretending people are looking at me and thinking, "wow, that girl has an iBook. She's so cool & spunky & different." *hugs DtL*

There is a very large Harry Potter billboard on Wilshire, right by the Westwood AMC. It made me incredibly happy, & I would have taken a pic if the batteries for Bridget weren't dead. It's almost as big & beautiful as the Chamber of Secrets one that was up at Tottenham Court Rd & New Oxford St. Almost.

I liked this entry so much I pushed publish THREE times!

..

A visit to the Grandparent's today, and Grandpa elightened us to the existance of this care instruction label and also this T-shirt. I want the shirt, BUT I really want a bumper sticker, with just the French portion. I don't think one exsists, so I'm considering having one made, or just printing out a bumper-sticker sized paper & laminating it, & keeping it inside the car?

Or maybe enough people want one to make a bulk order worthwhile. Buttons would be cool, too.

Once again: June 19th at 6:30 PM. If anyone besides mom & grandma, gigi & sneeks (I am assuming...) wants to come, please let me know by next sunday so I can order more paid tickets if necessary. Thanks!

Today is the last day that my book should have been here. Even half.com agrees. I ordered it over a month ago, is it here? Noooooooooooooo. NONONONO! Wah! It's not on reserve. I am NOT paying fifty dollars for it in the book store, so the only solution is to find a random stranger & beg to copy theirs, because midtermwednesdaypanic. This is stress I do not need. I am going to leave scathing reviews & demand a refund. Bastards.

Does Leonard know a way to delete duplicate entries?

It's hot as Hades here, & I've drunk through three of my 32 oz eddie bauer water bottle, so I have to run & pee every 5 seconds, which is annoying because my feet are soaking in a pan of cold water beneath my desk (the water is v dirty, I've just noticed).

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I am completely out of it.... was up late studying for midterm, than early for work and study.... then I came home & fell asleep (tho I should have just waited & gone to bed early--econ tomorrow) and now--cafe night?ermmmahhugh. I want the weekend. What day is it?

A la GiGi, go here: http://ucla.thefacebook.com/home.php (am too lazy to look up link HTML formula, and amazingly have not memorized it). If you are not UCLA, I imagine google will hook you up. Google is an essential internet procratination tool.

It's oodles of fun! Like Friendster, only better! Look me up if you join!

I would like to draw your attention to a very important event that is going to occur tomorrow, Saturday, May 1, 2004.

The largest ever expansion of the European Union is about to take place. Ten nations: Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, and Cyrus. The significance of his cannot be over-estimated, yet has been, in my opinion, deeply underestimated in terms of importance in American public opinion.

The members of the EU now total 25, its land mass is roughly equivalent to the United States, and its population about 150% of that of the US. On May 1, the EU will become the largest single market area in the world.

More importantly, ten Eastern European States, many of them ex-communist, three of them even once belonging to the former Soviet Union, will begin to receive the benefits of EU membership, including a freer movement of goods, capital, and labour that will encourage investment and growth, agricultural income support and structural funds to support the expansion of infrastructure, and eventual membership in the euro zone.

The expansion of the EU represents the expansion of ideals that we as Americans hold dear; the EU was initially formed as an economic integration and recovery tool, also to ensure peace and good harmony between the European nations. Since then it has taken upon the additional goals of social welfare and a better standard of living for all its citizens.

The EU is taking a big step towards bring peace and prosperity to a traditionally impoverished and conflictual area; and it is also breaking down, in a major way, the age old division between the east and the west of Europe.

Many are skeptical, just as many have been in the past; no one ever believed in 1948 that Germany and France could ever be close allies. Margaret Thatcher, one of the most notorious euro-skeptics of all, argued in a speech in Bruges, that one of the limits of the EU is it could not be defined as Europe, because it was not Europe: “The European Community is one manifestation of that European identity. But it is not the only one. We must never forget that east of the Iron Curtain people who once enjoyed a full share of European culture, freedom and identity have been cut off from their roots. We shall always look on Warsaw, Prague and Budapest as great European cities.”

Beginning Saturday, the three cities she used as examples, plus many, many more, will be a part of the EU. Gone is the iron curtain divided those who share the same rich and common “European” heritage, gone soon will be the impoverishments that have haunted these “eastern” nations in modern times.

What seems unlikely or ever impossible today (Romania, Bulgaria, the Balkans, even Turkey) is actually quite possible, if the right steps are made, slowly, in the right direction. Peace and prosperity can be obtained, even for the most antagonistic and disadvantaged nations, and ancient rivalries can be replaced by close alliance and close cooperation.

This is real progress, and we are fortunate to be watching as it unfolds.

***Disclaimer: I am not in any way associated with the European Commission, or on their payroll as a propagandist. Really. I swear. ***