Waiting/Hurrying Up

A lot of waiting and hurrying up going on.
I'm waiting to go home for a week, and I'm hurrying up trying to re-pack my things.
I really want to hurry up and go to India, but I'm also trying to wait so that I can say goodbye to all of my friends...

I sat at a Borders all day on Monday, when I found the Women's and Gender studies section, as well as the drama section. Books! I spend all my money on them...

Here's a quick sampling:

The Purity Myth by Jessica Valenti (Founder of Feministing - check it out on my links!)

Full Frontal Feminism (Also by Jessica Valenti) I plan on corrupting my sister with it!I bought this to better understand a monologue from The Vagina MonologuesThis was actually in the Biology section, but it is SO GOOD. I also recommend Stiff by Mary Roach.

So, there's my life right now. Updates coming up with notes from back on the East Coast soon.

Goodbye, Dorm!

Moved out of Sobrato today, this will be my last time living on campus here, most likely. In the Winter, when I get back from India, I plan on living off campus in a house with other girls - all but one of whom are theatre majors. I'm looking forward to it so much, though I know dorm living is significantly easier.
I hate packing. I've become an expert at it, but it is still so tedious.
Now I'm sitting in the laundry room of Sobrato, waiting for my clothes to dry in here for the last time. Oh, memories!

Zombie Like.

AHHHHH.

In One Month

I will be on a plane

To INDIA.

VISABOO.

So I get a call this morning, at like 8AM from the Visa service I am using, telling me that the application I turned in was fine except that I forgot to sign it. Boo. Which means I had to catch a bus to UPS this morning, skipping ballet, pay another 30-odd dollars and the now SIGNED application will be in New York by tomorrow morning. Meaning my visa stuff won't be at the embassy by at least Thursday, and instead of my passport being done and sent off home by the 7th, it'll be later.
I think this won't be too big a deal, but I feel like I'm cutting it way too close with getting my visa, and having my passport out of my hands, in transit and across the country makes me nervous.

Also, I have a congestion headache. And my jaw hurts. And I am in constant fear of my epic nosebleed from Sunday coming again.

Enough whining - this is a bad way to start a blog!
Back again soon without the annoying.

Welcome to the Department of Backstory.

So I got an email this morning from the Visa service I am using to get my Indian visa. They ahve all of my stuff and hopefully my passport + visa will be sent to my house on June 7... exactly a month before I leave for 5 months on my study abroad program. Woah.

Backing up...
I'd say around 3 years ago, I decided I definitely wanted to go to India when I studied abroad in college. I already knew I would study abroad, no matter what - my mom and dad had told me that was imperative. But, I've lived and I guess "studied" abroad in elementary school. I've been to most of Europe, and while that tends to be the most popular destination for study abroad students (especially at my school) it didn't seem all that exciting to me for some reason. Maybe because I'd rather go back and indefinitely live in Europe rather than have a time set on it.
So, what was as far from Europe (and the East Coast of the US) that I could think of? India.
Also, there's this really silly story which truly shows my thought process for some things: I was really sick with the stomach flu about 3 years ago in January, sick to the point where moving made me vomit. So, i sat on the couch with the TV stuck on movie channels. And I watched the movie Bride and Prejudice like three times that day. Now, I was probably slightly out of it from fevers and lack of food and water, and as far as Bollywood goes, an adaptation of a Jane Austen novel is probably not the best portrayal of India, but as I watched the movie I more and more felt the need to go there. Somehow this vague desire and college applications and my deeply ingrained wanderlust combined in my head so that I was set on it.

And here I am, at the end of my sophomore year, mailing out visa applications and looking at the University of Hyderabad on Google Earth, having my mind blown thinking that in a month and a half I WILL BE THERE.