The Argument Clinic

8 classes down, 2 to go.  The final today was frustrating, especially because I actually put time into studying but whatever.  It’s done and can’t do anything about it.  At least I learned some useful stuff in the class.  Now I just have to wait for the grade and move along.

Now I’m done with classes until september 2nd when the next semester starts. 

Two posts in one month?  What’s going on here?    I am slowly getting my energy back since class ends tomorrow (YAY!), I have a month off where I can spend evenings/weekends not doing work (or at least not having to procrastinate about doing work!), and I have vacation coming up.

So 1 day until class is over and 12 days until I leave for vacation.  Going to dexter, maine for a week with my parents and can’t wait!  Planning on doing some kayaking, hiking, relaxing/reading and shopping at LL Bean (of course! it would be wrong to go to maine and not go there!).  Had fun kayaking with my mom on sunday up at schroon lake, the weather held out long enough for us to have fun (it rained slightly for a bit, but it wasn’t bad) and I really like my kayak purchase!

A little more cramming to do for my exam tonight and then I can relax! 

So I have spent most of this week studying so far, though I am hoping the weather is nice enough for me and my mom to get some kayaking in tomorrow.  Really want to try out the new kayak

Took a break this evening to watch a couple movies.  Both of them hungarian films I netflixed.  Really enjoyed both of them.  The first one was called a long weekend in pest and buda, which was about a man who left Hungary in 1956 and came back 40 years later to see a dying woman he had loved years ago and found out he had a grown daughter (his wife at home wasn’t overly thrilled with the situation, understandably).  Parts of the movie aren’t overly uplifting but I enjoyed it and thought the music and scenery were very well done.  Was even more interesting because I recognized several of the places in the film.

The second movie was called kontroll, which was pretty funny and fairly disturbing at the same time.  It takes place entirely in the budapest metro.  I recognized parts of it, though luckily my experiences there bore no resemblance to those in the film!  I was actually impressed by how nice the subway was when I was there, i much prefer it to nyc.  Anyways, the movies were definitely different, really enjoyed them though.  I actually understood some parts of the hungarian without reading and other parts I could pick out the words after reading subtitles, so I am slowly progressing! 

Off to read and then go to sleep… 

I know I have been bad about updating this for a while, I have been spending more time on facebook lately I guess.

Mostly the same old stuff, working, grad school, etc.  The weekend before last I went to boston with my friend val and we had a good time   I love boston!  Saw the dark knight while we were there, which I loved!  Was insane how many people went to see it, huge crowds waiting more than an hour before it started!

This past weekend I bought a kayak at llbean (when I probably should have been studying, oh well, this was more fun).  Picked up this one and am looking forward to using it during vacation and hopefully a few weekends before the summer ends.  My parents came up yesterday to help me pick it up because I don’t have a roof rack on my car yet (that’s the next purchase…).

This past week I read Journey to a Revolution by Michael Korda, which was an extremely interesting book about the hungarian revolution in 1956, read that in a few hours one evening.  I also read the book Embers by Sandor Marai (I feel bad leaving the accent marks out of the author’s name but I can’t figure out how to do that on here), which was an amazing book, translated from the Hungarian.  Really well written and interesting story, one of the best books I have read in a while.  It was relatively short and only took me about 4 hours to read saturday evening.  Probably should have been studying but I find it easier to get through grad school when I allow myself to procrastinate sometimes…or else I would go insane with work all the time. 

My goals for the ~4 weeks off between classes are to read war and peace, a book I picked up on Hungarian history, Celestial Harmonies by Peter Esterhazy (another Hungarian author), and work on my Hungarian more.  I have to fit these things in when I have time (I can’t wait for grad school to end, I really hate it!).  Probably noticing the hungarian theme here (with the exception of war and peace, obviously), I have become pretty obsessed with reading whatever I can get my hands on at the local libraries.  Once I exhaust that I will be searching through amazon…going with the free stuff first

Oh yeah, I also got into a car accident last week, though I am fine (my car has minor damage to the bumper).  Made for a long morning, but could have been much worse.

That’s it for now…

So as of today it’s been 5 years since my grandpa passed away.  Still miss him a lot.  It’s weird because exactly 5 years ago I was heading to the same meeting I am leaving for today (only it was in boston that year, not cleveland)…was a tuesday then as well.  Kind of odd that it falls on the exact same day because this meeting takes place anywhere between may-july.  Oh well, will try not to focus on it.  Hard to believe it’s been 5 years, feels like just the other day sometimes.

Anyway, on to happier topics.  I found out yesterday that I passed the PE exam in env’l engineering, so I am pretty excited about that   No more 8 hour exams for me (that I know of…)!

Other than that, mostly just keeping busy with work, grad school, etc.  Obviously haven’t been busy blogging…can’t believe it’s been that long since my last entry, I just lose track of time when I get really busy.

Off to finish some stuff off at work before heading off to cleveland for a few days.