Jason's Daily Notes

It's cold outside.
The coldest I've experienced so far this winter. The winds are howling, too.

So life at Duke has been busy. Or maybe that's just life as a fully independent, responsible adult? Either way, I hardly have the idle time that I want. I really like to just waste my time not doing anything, thinking, meditating, drawing, creating, etc. But I have to just rush from one task to another, mostly schoolwork and class-related meetings, but also shopping, cleaning the house, or meeting up socially on the weekends. I guess I feel like I've relinquished a great deal of control over my own life, which is what bothers me more than anything.

Anyway, that doesn't mean that I'm miserable - I'm really enjoying my time here. I just wish I could take time to reflect on what happens each day. I think all the experiences I have will soon fade away into a sea of ambiguous memory.

For the last few days I've been sick. In fact, all 4 of us living in the house have been sick. It came on last weekend, super bowl weekend, most likely from Alex G., who was on antibiotics but went out to the "Edward 40-hands" party and the after party at our house. I drugged myself up to get to school on Thursday, suffering mainly from a sore throat, and on Friday I was feeling even worse. (As I was napping, my housemates got together and cleaned the whole house - oops.)Yesterday I was slightly better, but thoroughly exhausted. Luckily I was able to sleep.

Last night I went out, to celebrate Sebastian's birthday. This was after a night of spaghetti bolognese, prepared by Jonny, and a contentious (as always) game of Monopoly. I didn't really prepare to go out, so I wasn't feeling to energetic when we got to the Tavern.

Today I finally submitted the systems essay to LSE.
Today I donated blood.
Today I started and finished a 5-page paper.
Today I sold a car and bought a car.

Mondays...

I've been in Durham for nearly 3 weeks now.

I don't have a weekend tradition here yet. In London I'd go to Brick Lane or explore somewhere on foot. In LA I'd go for a drive, whether to the beach, around the city, or just to any new neighborhood.

So I read that a great way to be awesome, positive, and successful is to keep a diary of the great things you do each day. At least 3 a day will keep your mind positive and help you build better things tomorrow. So here I go...

1. I drove Stefano to campus. But I needed to go also. Don't know if it really counts.
2. I made nachos for my housemates. But they already had food to eat (and so did I technically). So it shouldn't count.
3. I put two mutual friends in touch since they would soon be living in the same city. Ok, that's pretty good.

Overall, I was kind of a selfish spoiled brat today. In my defense, it was really cold and I still don't feel entirely comfortable driving my new car.

Today I showed my new housemate, Stefano, around campus, getting his ID and some other important things done. But we couldn't start until the afternoon, as we had to stay in the house for the cable guy to come (he didn't). Along the way, we ran into 19 of our classmates just around campus (and in the At&t store).

I got a tetanus shot. Now my upper left arm is sore. I was supposed to keep moving my arm to minimise the pain.

And finally, my IPHONE arrived today! I spent the evening in my room, configuring the phone and creating custom ringtones :) Now to bed, I have pre-assignments and an essay to write tomorrow!

GREETINGS FROM NORTH CAROLINA!

If you didn't know, I'm doing my exchange semester at Duke University! I'll be going back to London in May. But I'll see most of you in the next few months, either visiting on the east coast, or when I'm back in LA this March. The house we live in is very nice and spacious, so you're all more than welcome over!

I just wanted to let y'all know how my first few days have been back in the USA - busy but great!

I arrived Monday night, and my flight was pretty easy for 9 hours (there were 3 classmates on the same flight with me so we kept each other from getting bored). It took over an hour for them all to pass through immigration, then we took a taxi to Durham. It's a small city, and there are trees everywhere. Everything is so far apart, there are no corner markets or cafés. Everything closes at 9PM! The buses only run once an hour. So when I saw this, I realized that I NEED to get a car.

My other housemates (Christoph from Germany, and Jonny from New Zealand) arrived that night and we walked 1 mile to eat real American BBQ! Delicious!

The next 2 days, we spent all of our time renting a car, buying things for the house, and trying to find a good car. We did so much shopping (partly because Jonny had won a case competition and had lots of money to blow), and we got some good deals (a used TV for $18), and I got my car! A 1999 Ford Explorer, it only cost $1500. The car is named Wendy (for being bright red), or Dora (the Explorer)... haven't decided yet.

So North Carolina, Durham specifically, is nothing like LA or London. It's more rural than anything, I constantly feel like I'm driving around a forest. There are no sidewalks. Some areas are ghetto like Oakland, others have really huge houses. Things are not as cheap as I remember, and Hardees is horrible compared to Carls Jr.

But wow everyone is really friendly, I'm not used to that! Lots of churches too, and plenty of places serving biscuits... I'm definitely in the South. I've had to explain a lot of things about the US to my housemates, like all of the driving rules and when you'd leave a tip, etc.

On Thursday I had my orientation with the other international students. It was nice, and the business school at Duke is extremely new and gorgeous - how exciting! There are about 25-30 exchange students, from all over the world (Thailand, Finland, New Zealand, Chile, France, Germany, South Africa...) and they're all very smart business people. The director of our program is really friendly and she'll actually join us at parties!

Speaking of which, my housemates and I are having our first party tonight! Only 3 days after moving in (you know that's how I roll). Anyway, it's going to be legen... wait for it...

Whew, I've been on Winter Break for two weeks now. It feels good, I'm really relaxed, but also have reverted back to being really lazy. It's incredible to me how much I can end up putting things off for tomorrow. But I keep telling myself that I deserve some rest, and to an extent I do, but most days I really have nothing to do.
Here are some highlights:

• 2 weeks ago, 9 December: I was taking my final exam for Marketing. Boy, I was so stressed over it, but it turned out to be not so bad. I somehow was able to predict that the company we'd analyze would be Crocs, Inc. So I felt good! Evie was stressed over the trays of sandwiches left in the room, which amused me a bit. After the exam, I said bye to Diana and Khowla, then joined Thibault, Alessio, Liza, Antoine, and David F for a burger at Byron. It was cold.
• 10 December: The night of several house parties. I ended up only going to two: Sophie's, which was packed as before but full of interesting new people to meet and mingle with. Then Swag and I went to Liza's housewarming/goodbye at her (nice) flat, which was a much smaller party and more of a sausage fest. However, incredibly, at that same party was Olivier, Louise's friend whom she introduced to me when I first arrived in London 3 months ago! What an incredible coincidence. Walking back to Tower Bridge, I found a perfectly good beanie.
• The weather was pretty cold, like 2-5 deg C. And the sun doesn't rise until 8:30, and it gets dark at 3:30. Short days really mess with me. I feel so lazy for not getting up and about, then it's 3 o'clock and the day's over so I figure that I might as well just stay at home. It's a reinforcing cycle of inaction.
• Got to meet up with some classmates (Khowla and Yeng) for dinner at Leon last week. Not bad. I learned how to say it's really cold outside in Chinese (Gin tian how long)
• I have been able to catch up with many TV shows, though I still have quite a ways to go. What I've been catching up on: The Office, Community, HIMYM, The Big Bang Theory, The Amazing Race (which I got my flatmates hooked onto last week), Parks and Recreation, The Inbetweeners, Pete v. Life, The Worst Week of My Life, Weeds, Chuck, Breaking Bad, Glee, The Simpsons, and Modern Family.
• Nike had her goodbye party/gift exchange on Monday. There were about 12 of us, and we ended up finishing 18 bottles of wine, whiskey, and vodka. Says something about Nike's friends, eh?
• On Wednesday (21 December) I had my in-person appointment to finally get my student visa for the UK. I woke up at 6am to be ready and to arrive in Croydon by 8. There were some delays with their system, so I had to wait an additional 2 hours. But having waited over 3 months for this, I was persistent that I'd see it through. I had lunch at a really cheap Chinese buffet. And it was successful! I'll have leave to stay in the country until January 2013!
• Last night we finally tried the Raj Tandoori, an Indian Restaurant near our flat in Rotherhithe. With the 3 of us there, we were the biggest crowd they had seen in weeks it seemed like. But the food wasn't bad.
• Today, Maria left at 6am. She's back in Germany for Christmas. She left us yet another small gift, the game "Never Have I Ever". She gave us advent calendars, bowls of chocolate for St. Nicholas day, gingerbread cookies, and sugar-roasted almonds! I feel almost undeserving of all this Christmas love!

Now it's Christmas Eve Eve and I want to go outside, but it's raining. So I'll stay in and watch more shows, maybe even a movie!

As I slept, I dreamt that I was at the Olympics. But it was no big deal, just like a giant furniture store or something. Alessio was there, and so were several girls, whatever. Anyway, they were sitting having nachos or something, and I wandered off and ended up in the room where the women's volleyball was taking place. There were some other random guys on the court, so I joined in too. I ended up playing volleyball for a while, probably because our team (blue) was not very good. They didn't care who served, how many people were playing, or whatever.

Then came reality.

I had class at 11. It was already 10 when I rolled out of bed, so I had to quickly scarf down some cereal and hurriedly wash up before heading out the door. I was bundled up warmly, because for the last 3 days it's been incredibly cold, colder than I ever remember it being in London, like 2ºC. Well, guess what? Today it wasn't that cold, it was like 10º. So I ended up feeling too warm. Not good for my body.

Got to class, it was Marketing. I thought the period would be spent on exam prep, and it was. But there was also a required reading, which I didn't have time to do. Instead, I read it during class. And the teacher was picking on me for most of the period. I had to deliver the response forms to the student services center. Bleh.

So I went back home, stopping by Tesco on the way. And I studied, or at least I tried. I ended up playing some Civ 5, which I had just downloaded. It was fun to get into, though playing games sucks on a mac.

Bad news struck: I skyped home (for like 2 hours) and my uncle told me that my other uncle wouldn't let me borrow his car as originally planned. This means I'll have to buy a car in North Carolina.

More bad news: Maria II, the second girl who was to move in to the apartment, couldn't do it. So now we're going with the asian girl. We seem disappointed by it. Bleh.

And I still have no dissertation topic! FML.

Now it's 11pm and I'm stressing.