gainful employment and other follies

Last week, I finally heard from BU. I have a job! I fully expected that I would get the job, but I guess they wanted to keep me in suspense for a bit, which is totally fine. So after a little confusion and my supervisor being in London for a week, I started on Wednesday. It was chill...I just hung out with Rachel, the student coordinator for BU Central. She told me tons of crazy stories. This job will definitely not be boring! Thursday and Friday I sat in the office and observed some more and learned a little more about paperwork. It was good to chat with the activities assistants. They are really cool kids and I'm going to like working with them.

Thursday night I worked my first event, a Valentine's Day a cappella concert. Now, I have never particularly cared for a cappella. The group that opened up was a girls' a cappella group. They were okay...I mean they had good voices for the most part. All the times they tried to coordinate their movements were off though, which was weird. But after that, the Dear Abbeys performed. And they are amazing. They had a really full sound which made them aurally interesting. They could have dressed a little nicer though... I was particularly excited when Hunter sang. Hunter is an AA, and I already was enamored with him because he's from Texas and has that perfect Texas drawl. So the fact that he can sing just makes him even better. And yes, I totally realize he is a student and therefore off-limits. I guess being in Boston makes me appreciate Southern boys even more...not that there are boys like that in Hampton Roads anyway.

Last night was a trivia night. Before I left, Jeff told me that the event would probably be a disaster because there was no advertising for it. I shrugged it off, but he was right. No one showed up. Like, no one. Rachel and her friend and I just ended up hanging out and I read the questions to them. So there was still trivia, just not in the way it was originally envisioned. But it was fun to hang out with Rachel and get to know her better.

Last night was also my roommates' wine and cheese party. Wine and cheese party sounds like a classy type of party that classy people throw. I was thankfully not very involved in planning this party. But as the details materialized I found out that this was to be anything but classy. Of course, it was my roommates. They were buying a case of wine (because of all the alcoholics in their program) and setting up the beer pong table. They also complained about the price of cheese, and when I suggested to Meghan that she could buy the cubed cheese in the bag, she thought it was a good idea. The guest list also ballooned from their typical few select individuals (to keep things as quiet as possible) to over 20. I was not concerned, as I'm sure most of our neighbors could care less if we have a loud party.

I ended up leaving BU Central around 10:45 because I wanted to get home to catch the tail end of the party. I assumed it would be the tail end because Meghan and Devlin aren't the hardest partying individuals. Well, I was wrong. I walked into my house and saw only 2 people I knew. I had to cut through Meghan's room because the dining room was packed. I went in my room for a second to regroup, then I reappeared to immerse myself in the party. I only knew about half the people there, which was weird. Pretty early in the party I got accosted by a strange fellow and was forced to eat a piece of cheese. (I later learned the strange fellow is called Murat, and he's not strange, he's crazy.) By then, I needed a drink in the worst way, so I went into the kitchen to grab the bottle of wine that I already had and proceeded to drink straight from the bottle. After I started on my wine I pretty much mingled the rest of the night. I had to regulate on some girls because they were smoking in my back stairway, not on the balcony. Then the crazy fellow Murat asked me if I knew where to buy weed. At some point in the evening I found myself dancing in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room with some guy and some girl whose names I'm pretty sure I did not know at the time (mostly because I'm a little fuzzy on them now.) Toward the end of the party I had 2 glasses of red wine, and I detest red wine. I was so drunk though I couldn't really tell the difference. The party ended when people just suddenly cleared out at once. I think a lot of people were going to someone else's house to keep the night going.

This morning I woke up with the worst stomachache, as usual when I drink with an empty stomach. I tried eating Korean food since that worked pretty well one time. It worked for a while but I still feel like shit. I also slept most of the day, which at least kept my mind off it somewhat. I'm starting to think that grad school is hazardous to my health...or maybe it's just the company I keep!

flashy and glamorous

Winter Ball 2008. Words simply cannot explain this night, but pictures might do the trick...

au revoir to the boys

I hate goodbyes. I suck at them. Although mostly I'm bad at what happens after the goodbye, keeping in touch and all that. But in the last week I had to say goodbye to two dear friends. They were two of the first people I met in Boston, and they had become pretty important to me, so it was pretty tough to see them go.

Last weekend was Mongkol's going away. He had been traveling in the last few weeks before he left, so I didn't get to see him when I came back from my trip home. I was only able to see him the night before he left. I was meeting him and the rest of our group for dinner at Elephant Walk, a French and Cambodian restaurant. I was upset with myself because I was a little late getting there but since I ran into Brent on the T I didn't feel nearly as bad. Dinner was good and everyone seemed really high-spirited. After dinner we wanted to hang out a little more so we went to Beacon Street Tavern. It was packed so we decided to try the Publick House, which was also packed. Finally we decided on Starbucks. It was nice to be able to sit and talk in peace and quiet. We took lots of pictures and hung out until Starbucks closed. At that point we headed over to Athan's for more conversation. Mongkol told us about growing up in Cambodia and his family's experiences during the Khmer Rouge regime. It was amazing and sobering to hear his stories. It made me realize how much I take my relatively calm life for granted. I was also amazed at how he's such a generally happy and positive person. But before long we had to leave. I don't think it was really real to me that he was leaving at that point. Brent, Laurie, Candice and I waited for the T with him and said our goodbyes. I hugged him and told him I would come visit him, then I said I wasn't going to let go. Pretty soon a train came and we waved as he got on.

I told myself I wasn't going to cry, but on my way home I couldn't help tearing up. The next morning at church was a little tough for me and people said I was visibly upset. I don't know where all that emotion came from, but people were really sweet and reassuring to me. I decided to light a candle of 'bittersweet joy' during joys and concerns. That made me feel a lot better and put my feelings into perspective.

Last night was Brent's going away. Unfortunately I had to miss dinner with everyone because I was going to Theology on Tap. But I happened to be at the bar right upstairs from where they were, so I left a little early to join everyone. When I got there, they were getting ready to head out. We went across the way to a bar called Common Ground. We were hanging out and drinking while we waited for the dance floor to open. While we were hanging out I got a chance to talk to Mongkol on the phone which just made my night! Eventually the dance floor opened up, but the music wasn't very good. We sort of tried to make the best of it and dance some. As the night went on the music got better and it ended up being pretty fun, but not spectacular. A little after midnight, we left. I was heading home with Tim and Yun, so we had to rush up to Comm Ave to make the T. I waved goodbye to everyone. Then suddenly I realized I wasn't going to see Brent again before he left. I just looked at him and we said bye to each other. Not all that emotional, but strangely it was just right. I guess that was because his leaving was so sudden and shocking, and I didn't really have time to get used to the idea of him being gone.

I miss them both so much already. It's going to be so weird going to all the places I was so used to seeing them and not have them there. At the same time it's okay because I'll keep in touch and hopefully see them again soon!

new year, better view

Well, winter break is over, so that means the vacation from my blog is over too. Break was good, quiet, and relaxing. I got back from Newport News at the end of December and enjoyed some quiet time in Boston. I mostly hung around the house cleaning and vegging. It was nice to have the house to myself for a couple weeks. I finally finished reading Marabou Stork Nightmares, which was good and typical of Irvine Welsh, but not quite as mind-blowing as I had hoped. The only social thing I managed was going out for Julian's birthday. I don't even really know him, but I went because a lot of people I know were going. It was at a club called Sanctuary. When I got there the Pats game was still on so pretty much everyone was watching that. Once the game was off, the dancing started. And when I start dancing, what more can be said? It was a pretty typical night, and fun. So now begins the real fun...classes and reading and writing. Yay!