Endings and Beginnings

In case you didn't get the memo, it's Spring. Spring signifies endings and beginnings of so many parts of the cycle of our lives. I'd like to share a few that I've noticed thus far.

Ooooh, pretty.

Livin' It Up

It's been insanity around here.


Last week was Spring Break for my post-secondary students, so I didn't have to teach their class all week. On top of that a couple of my other classes took holiday or rescheduled, so I basically had a bit of extra time to myself. This was honestly a good thing. 


It would surprise you how quickly you can burn out doing this job. There's a reason schools have breaks every couple of months and it's not for the students.


Point: I had no classes on Friday, March 18. 

Chats With Seester

One of my favorite things about having a Blackberry is that I have a gchat  application on it. This means I can basically text my sister and my best friend  from home whenever I want. It totally normalizes my life. That is if you can call this normal:

6:47 PM me: Rain is evil

 seester: Rain makes plants.

 me: Yes

  It also messes up my hair

6:48 PM :(

  And it makes it cold

  :( :(

6:52 PM Miss you!

6:53 PM seester: Hehe... Miss you too!

 me: I'm gonna go eat goulash now

  Because its raining and goulash beats rain

6:54 PM Its like rock paper scissors

  Rain beats hair

  Goulash beats rain

  Hair beats goulash but we'll try to avoid the combination

 seester: Rock paper scissors lizard spock rain goulash? Way complicated.

Damn the man! Save the Mekong!

So we're going to take a little step back to SE Asia for a minute so that I can make what I'd like to call a public service announcement. 

The fate of the Mekong River is in jeopardy and it will essentially all be decided by the Joint Committee of the Mekong River Commission on March 24. I want you to help show that there is worldwide opposition to plans to create 11 (more) dams along the river causing sweeping changes which would devastate the lives of millions in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. 


Here's the gist:

Springing Forward

I keep seeing all these reminders on Facebook to "Spring forward."


It's kind of confusing because while daylight savings happens in America this weekend, it doesn't happen until late-March here. 


Weird.


It'll be strange only being six and eight hours ahead of my parents and my sister respectively. Strange indeed. Although I'm not sure that it'll make much of a difference. I imagine that it will throw things off a bit though. I tend to bump into my sister on the Internet now and then. Hey, maybe I'll bump into Meghan more now.


I think they might have it right here though. We're probably going to get one more spot of cold weather and then it's time for Spring to bring it. I can't wait for 16-hour days, all the sun I can handle and flowers!

Tsunamis Make Me Panic

First of all, I would like to say my heart goes out to those in Japan and with loved ones there. No where in the world was better prepared for a large earthquake and the following tsunami, but there's only so much you can do to get ready for the unpredictable fury that is mother nature.

(Via)

Drink, Drank, Drunk

I know you kids looked at your calendars today and saw it's the tenth of the month and have since been anxiously awaiting the March edition of the Karaoke Ring of Death.


Well, here you go. 

A Funny

I was talking to my sister about books earlier. I was gearing up to suggest a novel for her to read but I had to get the conversation there first. It lead to a funny

5:22pm

do you like existentialism?

I like big words, but I sometimes have to look them up to see if I like what they mean.

well just look at the root word gwenny

it's literature (usually) that deals with the topic of existence

generally questioning it

exist. Yes, I like to exist.

I proceeded to literally fall over cracking up. (Maybe the wine facilitated the level of funny I perceived this to be?) So if you like to exist you should probably read The Stranger by Albert Camus.


Conversations like this make me super excited that she's planning to come to Prague in the summer. 

Happy Birthday, Texas!

“Texas is a state of mind. Texas is an obsession. Above all, Texas is a nation in every sense of the word. And there’s an opening convey of generalities. A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner. ”

—John Steinbeck, in 1960, documented in his book Travels with Charley:
In Search of America.

I truly love being a Texan. When people ask me where I'm from I always say Texas and rarely bother with telling them I'm from America. When you say Texas, people always know where it is.


(Not that I'm not proud to be an American, but I'm a Texan born and raised!)