Random Update (12.16.12)

The last day of classes was last Monday, which is followed by 'study days' until finals, with exams running from Thursday until the following Thursday the 20th. I had a Spanish essay due last Monday and an honors paper due on Wednesday which I have turned in. Earlier this morning (Saturday) I had my Spanish final exam, which was pretty easy. What I have been studying for the most is Economics. Rereading chapters, taking notes on them, reworking tests, etc. I'm about 65% done and have all of Sunday to finish up the more recent material, which I'm hoping is a little fresher in the ol' noggin. So I have an Economics exam on Monday at 9:00 AM, an honors exam on Tuesday at 9:00 AM (+ a talk with professor Cohen which counts as the final essay of the semester), and a Physics exam on Wednesday at 9:00 AM. I am a little scared of Physics, but after Economics I will basically only be studying for that for two days, and then I get to fly home! So it will be worth the effort. Oh, and I also have a 12 page history paper (1.5 spacing! Ah!) due Monday by midnight. I'm 9.5 pages into it, so no worries there. 

Midway through the non-stop studying and essay writing, there arose a need for a break. That break took the form of a 16-man FIFA 13 knockout tournament with a mix of roommates and intramural teammates (we lost in the quarterfinals in the intramural playoffs... maybe I forgot to mention that before). Anyways, the invitation was sent out, and 15 glory-hungry Boston College students arrived around 7:30 PM earlier this evening (Saturday) to duke it out (one of our Spanish-speaking roommates feared he would shame himself and his family by losing, and dropped out with little warning, giving Patrick a first-round bye). Attire for the event was suit and tie. Rules for attire were loosely enforced. After about three hours of yelling, Torres jokes, and quality simulated football, we arrived at the final match, staged in London's one and only Wembley Stadium. Barcelona (Frank) vs. Arsenal (me, somehow). After a quick two goals midway through the first half by Theo Walcott and Lucas Podolski, Arsenal was looking strong. However, even the home-field advantage could not hold back the silky goal machine of Barcelona. A quick goal before half, and two more in the second secured them more silverware, despite Gervinho's heartbreaking shot off the post and Walcott's late header over the bar. 

FIFA Formal, as we called it, was not a normal tournament. There were some added rules for football flavor, taken from the wonderful, creative playground of the internet. These are known as FIFA Apology Rules. They read as follows.

Lose by the following number of goals and face the following consequences:
5 - Write a Facebook apology to your opponent praising them for their brilliance. 
6 - You must kiss the feet of your opponent. 
7 - You must make your opponent a tasty sandwich. 
8 - You must be the slave of your opponent for an hour. 
9 - You must eat a tablespoon of various kitchen ingredients of your opponent's discretion. 
10 - You must send a Moonpig apology to your opponent 
11 - Winning player gets 11 minutes on the losers Facebook to do whatever they wish (No changing passwords). Whatever is put on there has to stay for at least 11 hours. 
12 - You must play the next game fully naked 
13 - You have to go to your next door neighbours and start describing the game in its full detail, minute by minute, and where fundamentally you went wrong; if they shut the door move on to the next house and pick up where you left off. 
14 - The person must wear a custom t-shirt, designed by the winner, it must have on the back, " I lost by 14 on Fifa 13 " on the front, it can have what ever the winner desires. The loser must then walk around town explaining to 14 different people why they have lost so badly and get them to sign the t-shirt. A picture must then be uploaded to facebook with the T-shirt on for further abuse. 
15 - You must send a letter to FIFA explaining in great detail why you lost by 15 goals. 
20 - You are not allowed to play FIFA, ever, ever, EVER again. 

Player Rules
Score a hat trick with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink against someone else and they must refer to you as *your name* of *your town of choice* for a fortnight. 
Score a hat trick with Park Ji Sung and your opponent has to jog everywhere he goes, instead of walking. 
Score a hat trick with Andy Carroll/Torres/Moura and your opponent must go into a shop and insist on paying more for an item than it is worth. 
For every headed goal you concede to Aaron Lennon - you will have 2 slits shaved into your eyebrow. 
Score a hat trick with Dimitar Berbatov, and in the next game you play against your opponent, their striker cannot use the sprint button. 
Get a man sent off while playing as Arsenal and you must play the remainder of the match blindfolded. If Wenger did not see the incident, then neither shall you. 
Lose against Accrington Stanley with any top tier team, loser must reply with "Who are they?" to anything said to him for 24 hours, unless someone says "Who are they?" to which the loser must reply "Exactly". 
If you score with Phil Neville, your opponent must go to bed for the rest of the day. PENALTIES DON'T COUNT! 
Score with a hat trick with Emmanuel Adebayor against Arsenal - Your oponent must run the full length of the garden and powerslide, regardless of the weather conditions, while all others present pelt with rubbish and leftover food. 
Score With a Keeper Twice in One Game - Your opponent must buy you food from a take-out to the value of 7 quid under the name of "Fabianski". 
Score with Rory Delap - Your opponent must dry everything with a towel before use for 24 hours 
Score a hat-trick with Sotirios Kyrgiakos and your opponent must dress as a Spartan, go into their local supermarket, and shout 'THIS IS SPARTA' until thrown out. 
Be awarded 2 penalties in one game with Neymar/Busquets/Suarez - next time you are in town you will fall over dramatically 5 times when brushed by any passers by. If you wish you can scream REFFFFFFF while falling. 
Score the winning goal with Ryan Giggs against Arsenal and your opponent must replicate the celebration in your local street - swinging the shirt above the head is a must!

A brilliant bit of human creative genius, that. If you notice in the following photo, PSG lost to Barcelona 7-2. Here is what a FIFA 13 Apology looks like (an original creation!)

Dearest Frank, 

This past Saturday night, I did you the great disservice of wasting 10 minutes of your time in challenging you to a FIFA 13 match. It was with great hubris that I attempted to fell the mighty tree that is your FIFA prowess. Like the foolhardy Icarus, I ventured too near your burning sun of skill that gracefully sheds its warmth on us all. Gods should not be challenged, rather they should only be revered. So I, with a heavy heart, do intend to remain humble forever more. 

Sincerely, Airen [middle name] [last name] (esq.)

Final Bracket

Oh, and there was a big meteor shower on Friday night at 2:00 AM. That was cool.

Random Update (12.2.12)

Campus was pretty dead two Saturdays ago when J.M. and I got back from Thanksgiving in Maryland. So not that much happened Saturday night, and Sunday was a lazy day full of FIFA 13 and then some pesky Paradise Lost reading (it just takes so long... silly 17th century English epic blank verse). The truly exciting part of last week was meeting with my study abroad advisor on Tuesday afternoon. We went over studying abroad in Spain. I want to go for the entire year. The tricky part is deciding if being abroad for a full year is worth it, for example I'd miss a bunch of people at BC and family and club soccer, but also everyone I talk to who has been abroad says to go for a year if it's feasible. Which it is. I was leaning towards Barcelona for a lot of reasons. They have a great school for economics (Pompeu Fabra) they have beaches, they have unlimited soccer, and they have a ton of other stuff that I'm excited to go find. My biggest concerns are the size of the city I decide to go to, the quality of education there, and safety. I like smaller towns for the last reason, plus a smaller city is much easier to get to know quickly. However, not going to a school like Pompeu Fabra is hard to do as well. So, deciding what place for how long is the big issue. But the best thing is that I have options, it's all possible, and I'm flexible. Next year is going to be a blast. 

However back to this year, we celebrated Veb's 20th birthday this weekend, Friday night to be exact. That was a lot of fun; our 8-man suite was full of friends and everyone had a great time. Jim and I had a great photo, which you'll see displayed  below. Saturday evening, stopped by Sam and Matt's Christmas party they had in Ignacio, which they really did well. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for too long because I had to catch the last show that a school comedy group was putting on at 10:30. The group is called "Shovelhead" and a couple friends from Newton are in it. It was hilarious; I watched with Nick (roommate this summer) and some other folks. After that, I pretty much went to bed, after grabbing some food in Lower with Alex and Pat and people.

Today was a day for thinking. I read Paradise Lost for a few hours in the library. Then Christine invited me to a casual bible discussion with a few people she knew. So, I went to Cleveland Circle (a short bus ride away, CC has a bunch of little places for food and other little things like haircuts and CVS products). I got a haircut and then the four of us went to Chipotle for dinner. We talked for about 1.5 hours about Christianity, God, faith, heaven, Jesus, sin, love... you get the idea; we talked about a lot of questions to which no one has a satisfying answer. Then since Christine is losing her mind because her dreams are slowly becoming reality, she and some roommates watched the trippy movie Waking Life (2001). Oh! Also, my friend Lev had a little t-shirt project this summer, and it came through using kickstarter.com, here are the fruits of his labor. Also, it snowed. A little.

Synonymous T-shirts

Jim and I (Gemini). Frightening, I know.

Random Update (11.19.12)

Thank goodness Halloween is over, that is such a silly holiday for college. It's outstanding for little kids (free candy everywhere) but for college students it simply strikes me as silly. We can eat candy for dinner whenever we want! It was kind of funny how Halloween comes right before the presidential election. Let's chow down on some candy and wear costumes of gorillas and faeries five days before voting on who the most important person in the world should be. Seriously? America is so weird. 

I watched the election over in Edmonds hall with some friends from last years honors seminar. My friend Paul popped some popcorn (in a pot, on a stove, with oil) and it was very yummy. Boston College was pretty overwhelmingly democratic. Or maybe the democrats were loud. I'm not sure. But I was expecting more Romney-ers here. Also, Donald Trump is hilarious on Twitter. And by hilarious, I mean it's hilarious that what I read is actually what he thinks: "This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!". He's right about the second part. We're a federal republic!

Daylight savings time is always so awesome. Just so awesome. 

Unrelated to daylight savings time but related to daylight was the all-nighter I pulled on that Thursday to finish a Spanish paper. I always think those are much faster to write. But that's not correcto, I learn time after time. I did write the essay well, though. Hopefully that is returned tomorrow.

So I've been trying my best to use the services that Boston College provides, because they cost a good bit to have for only four years. There's this thing called "Sophomore Quest" run by the career center which was basically a bunch of programs to make you think about your career and then to help you get a move-on with what you might want to do. Also, if you go to these programs, you might win an iPad or some cash or something in a raffle. Surprising that not more people did it, but better odds for me! And so anywhos right now there is an overload of things I am looking to do. One of the programs was about Advanced Study Grants. These are summer grants for independent study on topics/research of the students design and fancy. Which looks awesome. I want to do something with the stars and physics in an observatory or something. But that deadline is early next semester. I also had an outstanding conversation with two of my soccer friends, Both and Ethan, about their time abroad during their junior year. Both went to Barcelona and Buenos Aires; Ethan went to Valencia. The stories and amazing experiences they had have convinced me wholeheartedly to try to go abroad for a full year. Ideally, I would be at Pompeu Fabra University all next year (my economics advisor holds it #2 behind LSE in Europe for economics). So I would fine tune my Spanish and take some Economics classes over there. I am meeting with the Study Abroad Advisor right after Thanksgiving break, and I am very very very excited to make this work. Finally, I would like to get some sort of internship at a small start-up business this summer and see how that sort of business works. I like the idea of starting your own business. Actually, finally, my friends JM and Alex both have a place to crash in Sao Paulo during the world cup in summer 2014. So that would be the icing on the cake if I can make some dough to buy a ticket to Brazil. It's a lot to plan and sort out, but it's exciting and worth it. 

Spotify is a great invention. I've been using the free trial, and it's great. Basically, I can see what songs my Facebook friends listen to, subscribe to playlists they make, and send them songs to listen to, all for free (with commericals) or for $7 a month (no commericals + iPhone app). I'm on the month of free trial stuff and it's great. I'm really into folky-chill stuff right now. 

And at last, I cannot wait for Thanksgiving. However, after getting back a physics test that I did well on and then realizing I have minimal work for Monday and Tuesday class, I'm enjoying these last few days before break immensely. Last night, I went with Angela, Alex, Christine, and Pat to "El Habibi", a hookah lounge (wow that sure was interesting!).  Blowing smoke rings and chilling on couches is fun, but light-headedness and nausea are not. I'd only go once a year maximum, and only if invited. Today we had a quarterfinal game for intramural playoffs... we lost (3-0 down at half, lost 3-2 after so much pressure! Angry we didn't pull off the comeback). Tomorrow all the roommates are going out to dinner at Fire and Ice (delicious Mongolian stir-fry cooked-in-front-of-you restaurant). And Tuesday I am watching all of season three of Lost before flying Wednesday morning with JM to Baltimore!

Random Update (10.31.12)

First, some catching up. On Wednesday the 17th I went to see a band called The Wombats with Jeff and Hannah, which was a blast. They're from Liverpool! And this was their last show before shipping off, so the opening band thought it'd be grand to dress up as the Ninja Turtles, Gandalf, and Robin, run onto stage after the encore, and have a ten minute alcohol-induced jam session. It was pretty crazy, I must say. Unfortunately I also missed out on an intramural derby match against some senior friends of ours, which we won, 1-0. We are tied for 6th place going into the post-season. And this is the big leagues, not the lily-livered freshman outdoor soccer league. It's very competitive. 

Two days later, around 2:17 PM, the BC club soccer teams departed to Downington PA (male and female teams, that is). It was a long ol' bus ride, full of witter banter, interesting and new smells, and sleep cycles that varied like sin and cos curves. We arrived late at night to the Sharaton or Hampton Inn, I forget which, to find out that we were playing the best team in our group at 8:00 AM the following morning! So we slept quickly after we settled into the rooms, and in the morning we got up and bused out to the fields at a local high school. We had an amazing start again UConn (6 seed), we scored off a free kick midway through the first half and went into halftime up 1-0. All our hard work went down the crapper with one mistake from our keeper, though. He came out to punch a lofty ball from a free kick, missed, and the ball trickled into the net to tie the game. We pressed to get the lead again, hit the post, had a lot of shots, and got counter-attacked to lose 1-2. That really sucked, I hated losing that game. We had worked really hard and now our chances at advancing from our group were slim indeed. Losing the afternoon game to Johns Hopkins confirmed our early departure. Bill and Sue showed up though! That was great to see them, they dropped off some food as well, which quickly disappeared. Unfortunately they had to watch my (and our) worst game this season! Men's co-champions: Navy and Harvard (we crushed Harvard 3-1 the previous weekend... so upsetting). Also, the women's BC club team were co-champions too. We had a long bus ride back.

Monday the 22nd was exactly what I needed to lift my spirits: Demetri Martin live-tweeting the presidential debates. My roommates and I were in stitches. He is so funny. Last weekend was the beginning of Halloweekend v1.0. Since Halloween falls on Wednesday, that is license to party in style for seven days and two weekends. People are funny. There were some costumes I appreciated a lot. Top Three:

1) Replacement Refs: referee shirt + blindfold

2) 70's Gameshow host: ugly plaid coat and tie

3) Elton John: swag red fuzzy zebra trim shirt + swag red fuzzy zebra trim pants (Pat's costume below)

This Monday a hurricane named Sandy hit the East coast. There was a lot of wind and water; I had purchased lots of Brie and smoothie materials so I was set. We played cards, played risk until risk-overload, watched terrifying movies (like Insidious), played FIFA 13 (fantastic game), and basically just had a good time on Monday, because classes were cancelled! It was great. I felt guilty for not doing school work... but not for too long.

Left to right: me, Erik, J.M. (coming to t-giving!), Veb, Jim, Zach, and Pat in the middle thinking he's cool

Random Update (10.16.12)

Some of the anonymous commenters have been wondering about the blog not being updated for a while, and while I cannot give a reason, I can give an update. 

So the Friday of the Northeastern game my phone got soaked and for the next 9.5 days I was sans iPhone. Which I thought might be bad. Which was not bad. On the contrary it was kind of liberating and I would not have minded going for another few weeks... except other people started complaining and it was probably best I had a phone. So I got a new iPhone 4S on Columbus day. Oh, and I don't know why the iPhone 5 is so awesome. Also went into Boston on Sunday with some friends to buy a new pair of shoes and just hang out, which was really fun. 

From Monday night up until this past Friday, I was pretty overwhelmed with school work. I had two papers, one history and one Spanish literature, each that kept me up late two nights. I had a Physics midterm last Tuesday and an Econ midterm last Thursday. And I spent all Friday afternoon doing a pain-in-the-posterior physics lab with Mike, one of my roommates who's in Waves and Vibrations with me. This week is pretty laid back, thankfully. Oh, and what with overloading classes and club soccer, I decided not to do 4Boston this semester... I do not have a free day and I have so much to do it just wouldn't make sense this semester. 

Soccer is going really well. We played BU at home two weekends ago and a whole bunch of friends came to watch. I played the whole game (hamstring felt pretty ok) and almost scored! Had a shot that got saved and parried off to the side, and then quickly finished by Smeallie to put us ahead right before half. This was a league game and we ended up winning 3-0, which was crucial to qualifying for the regional tournament that's going down this coming weekend in Downington, PA. As a warmup, we also played Harvard again last Saturday and won 3-1, which was sweet (hamstring 98.46% recovered). Now for some photos, which is the only part of the blog I'd probably look at if I didn't write it.

Lineup for Regionals. We are seeded #7.

Red Bandanna run. Got 18:12 to finish 4th place. Top three ran sub-17! Crazy.

Rita has arrived. Pat and I got a poster.

He's from Macklemore's song, "Thrift Shop". Inspiring. Just inspiring. 

Brie.

Fall.

Pumas.

Dempsey is the man.

Random Update (10.1.12)

Weekend of September 21st-23rd recap: 

Pat was gone home to Maine for an ultimate frisbee tournament on Saturday and Sunday. There was a club soccer party at some of the guys' off-campus place on Friday, which was entertaining. The BC varsity soccer game on Saturday was nuts: 2-1 win over USanFran in 2x overtime with 11 seconds left! The Acapellafest concert later that night was also a success; a couple of friends are in various singing groups... Garrett and our RA Steven to name a couple. Saturday night saw an ordering in of delicious Indian food which was slightly too spicy, to which Mike can attest. Sunday the club team played Harvard in the afternoon at their place. Their field is terribly tiny and terrible in general. I started at central defense and played the whole game, which was outstanding. It's far more than I expected to be playing so much my first year on the team! We ended up drawing 1-1.

Last week recap:

Nothing really stands out... I read some cool short stories in Spanish... yeah. OHHH and FIFA 13 came out on Tuesday so I went with Zach, Alex, John, and Miguel to get it from Gamestop. That game has a bad influence on my schedule. 

This weekend recap:

We played Northeastern on Friday night in the rain on their very nice, FIFA regulation sized field. I got the start again and we were miraculously up 0-2 within 15 minutes! Unfortunately, I tweaked my left hamstring about 4 minutes before halftime and could not sprint without fear of more serious injury. Anywho, Northeastern really turned up the heat second half, getting a goal back and almost stealing a tie in the last few seconds. Our goalie foiled these efforts, however, and we won 1-2 to take 1st place in our division, a big step towards going to the regional tournament later this fall. The rest of the weekend was pretty non-eventful... I have a lot of work this upcoming week so I got a head start. The whole weekend was rainy, but today looks to be sunny and in the 70's.

Random Update (9.20.12)

Been busy. Last weekend Mitchell and Dad visited which was nice. Shout out to Jane for her birthday yesterday. One year closer to death! But yeah I have been busy. Club soccer has practice 2.5 times a week, I'm taking 19 credits of classes (5 classes + lab), and then there is, like, college: the (allegedly) best time of my life going on that I should gobble up like I gobble up Cool Ranch Doritos. But I do find time for the important things in life like puns and blogging. 

Here are some puns (all original, but the good ones are usually not mine):
Why are solar-powered cars so popular in Southern Africa?
-They never Madagascar.
Why does South America smell so bad?
-Peeeeeeeeeru!
Why did the East African wear high socks and short shorts?
-He only wanted to Tanzanias. 
What do you call mosques in Quito?
-Mosquitoes. 
Why can Ecuador open locks with its feet?
-It has a key-toe (Quito). 
Why are writing classes so hard in Nashville?
-They have to write Tennessees a week.

Apparently now is the time to sign leases for off-campus housing for junior year. Freshman year just ended and people are planning for junior year. I have 4 years of housing and I also will be living off-campus for the rest of my life. I will not be part of this off-campus scramble. A similar time-crunch is experienced with regard to the study abroad office. I want to go to Spain in spring of junior year, and applications are due early next semester. Meaning decisions about those applications are due much sooner. My major and core requirements do not share my desire to go abroad. They scream, "Stay and finish us, you lazy, worldly bumpkin!". To which I reply, "Be quiet. I order you to be quiet!". To which they do not reply, because this personification of silly things has gone far enough. But the picture you get.

JM, Jim, Veb, Zach, Mike, me (Pat and Jose m.i.a.)

Not doing names here.

Freakin' sweet.

BC

Caaaaaalling all squad cars in the aaaaaaaaarea!

Random Update (9.8.12)

Well the big new is, I made the BC club soccer team. I had trained all of August with my old coach, Rob, and my goal was to make the team. We have a game today (Saturday) at Yale, so I'll be waking up around 10:30 AM to get in a van and bus over with the new teammates. They are some chill guys. Also, looks like I'll have some home games for parents' weekend, for those who are interested.

This evening, the varsity soccer team played Maryland (#4 in the nation) and lost 0-4 despite our loud and boisterous cheering. My friend Ethan from 4Boston has organized the fan section pretty well. He done made BC soccer proud. Clever cheers are the best. My favorite (G-rated) is when the goalkeeper walks around his goal-box, we yell "LEFT! RIGHT! LEFT! RIGHT!" as he takes his little meaningless steps. Then when he stops walking we yell "STAAAATIONARRRRRY!". It's good fun. Also we knew his girlfriend's name.

As far as classes go, I found out that it's not recommended to take Micro and Macro Theory at the same time next semester, so instead of taking Micro and Macro Principles this semester, I am taking a Chinese history class to fulfill part of the BC core requirements, and only taking Micro principles. Excitement. Oh, and Micro/Macro refer to economics courses. Sorry.

The spired building on the left is Gasson.

#19

8th floor is where it's at.

Random Update (9.3.12)

Moved into the new room Thursday afternoon after adventures in New Jersey, such as camping and experiencing the infamous Jersey Shore. On camping, I like it. On the infamous Jersey Shore, I don't see much hope for some of its people. But anywho Hannah, Angela, Lauren, Christine and I bused up to Boston and thus began sophomore year. My dorm is on main campus and has ready access to classrooms, gym, dining hall, soccer fields, and subway. Oh, and the roommates are Pat (direct), J.M., Veb, Zach, Mike, Jose and Jim. This is an outstanding crew. It's also outstanding that classes don't start until Tuesday. But it's also outstanding that they do, because I bought all my textbooks for my humanities class and my Spanish class and they all look quality, top to bottom. Here are the classes I'm taking:
Principles of Economics I 
Principles of Economics II 
Waves and Vibrations + Lab 
Western Cultural Tradition V-VI 
19th Century Fantastic Short Stories (Spanish)
It's just felt right to be back. Basically the last couple days have had no schedule and involve going wherever and seeing whoever happens to be there that I haven't seen for a while. I've also met a bunch of new people via the new dorm neighbors, new summer friends, and soccer. I really only feel like remembering Sunday, so I will briefly go through it. I got up at 8:30 AM and went for a few laps around the Reservoir, then went to the plex and did some exercises, then did about 3/10ths of a mile swim. Then I washed off back in the room and took a 30 minute nap until a big introductory meeting with the dorm staff in the theater. After the meeting I played soccer with a bunch of people on the new football field. Then I went with my friend Ethan and two other guys to watch the Barcelona-Valencia soccer match. Ethan is a Valencia fan and I met him through volunteering/playing soccer last year, just to let you know, if you're curious. After the game, Ethan's friend (from Barcelona) who watched with us tells us of some more evening soccer going down on the baseball field. So I go play soccer again with a bunch of Spanish-speaking Boston College kids, which was a blast. After that, I showered and got hungry, so Miguel, Pat, Mike, and Christine all went to a nearby burrito place and got some late night food, ate, and returned to watch the movie Drive which is a quality film. Then we played cards and people shuffled in and out of the room and now I type this and Now I'm going to sleep.

Arcade shenanigans. 

 New York.

 Those clouds.

Those sands.

About One Year

I met a lot of new people and also got to know myself a lot over the last ~year. I want to pat my year-younger self on the back for starting (and also give Luke a firm handshake for inspiring) this blog. It hasn't been much more than the title: little peeking holes into whatever the  hell , I mean heaven, I'm doing in the world. While it certainly isn't everything, when I look over a couple old posts my brain fills in the in-between with terabytes of memory. When you have all that assisted memory recall, it's makes writing a summary a lot easier. I have arrived at the following, followed by the list of what I've learned.

The Following
Being eighteen was a blast. It was my first time being an adult. That didn't scare me. I had never been more in-tune with my # age and how old I felt. However, it probably scared some concerned family members pretty darn good, though, them tossing the lines to dock and letting me go on my own for a little bit. I will start from the first week of college. It's a bunch of recently-christened adults pretending to be less nervous than they are. Some adults discover that things they thought they couldn't or shouldn't do before, can be done now. Some adults want to find his best-man or her maid-of-honor for the wedding: they're ready to make friends. My roommate Jeff and I decided to have fun, and see where it took us. If you meet your best friend for life, that's cool. If you just make a sick catch during pick-up ultimate and never recognize anyone you played with ever again, so be it. With this in mind, I did what I do best: find a soccer ball, quote Monty Python like it's my job, and see what this whole "Boston College" thing is all about. It's been working out just fine. I've tried to do as much as I can, to do what I can do well, and always to look for better things to do. My head is like a magic sorting machine for people and activities. The lesser are left behind; the worthy remain. That may sound strange when talking about people, but it's not a pessimistic mindset... it's more like always looking for outstanding friends. It's easy to only hang out with one group of friends all the time. The truth is, there are a lot of people out there to find. So I try to. Now for some supporting evidence. I met Christine right before Thanksgiving by randomly introducing myself at lunch. Laura and I only started hanging out a lot right before Christmas, same with Pat after Christmas. Sam and Matt I met on spring break, Dennis a week or so after that. Charae and Nick I got to know really well only just this summer. Other friends don't apply to this ongoing search; I knew in the first week or two: Alex, Matt, Jeff, Lorena, to name a few. The end of year-one is a contrast with that first week. At the moment I'm getting ready for year two, and the long-awaited reunion after summer. And that's how freshman year goes: come in wanting something new, leave missing something old. 

The List

1. All Brazilian IDs are fake.
2. Squirrels make ACC football games mildly entertaining.
3. Monty Python is the fastest way to find great people.

     3a. I like traffic lights.

4. Midnight is a darn tootin' early bedtime.
5. Fenway is a classy ballpark.
6. Thanksgiving comes at exactly the right time.
7. Boston has beaches.
     7a. Maine has nicer beaches.
     7b. Duxbury has nicerer beaches.

     7c. Santa Cruz wins.
8. Newton campus is a good time.
9. Newton bus is not.
10. Climbing a mountain is really something.
11. Federal drinking laws are more of a suggestion for most people.
12. Dining Bucks die quickly, and there are no funerals.
13. The Emirates Stadium is gorgeous.
14. Spanish-speakers cannot understand you when you speak English extremely quickly.
15. The Boston Symphony Orchestra is stunning.
16. The Boston Celtics are not, but it was worth going once.

17. The dudes in Dispatch are awesome dudes. And talented. 
18. 48 Hours < Appalachia.

19. Lost is a quality show.
     19a. ditto New Girl
     19b. ditto The Newsroom

20. You can see Gasson from the top of the Prudential building.
     20a. You can see the Prudential building from the top of Gasson.

21. Marathon Monday: 3 hours of sweat and heat, 3 days of pain, sweet accomplishment.

22. Jello shots: 1 cup water + 1 cup "water" + Jello mix.
23. Having a soccer field at your doorstep is heaven.

24. Dr. Pepper is delicious.

     24a. ditto Brie

25. Radiohead knows how to end a show.

26. Brasil can play soccer.

27. I attract crime.

28. The New England soccer chant, "Re-vo-lu-tion!", could mean something entirely different if it were chanted somewhere else in the world.
29. Santa Cruz relaxes the soul. Brah.

30. It's nice to be home.

Random Update (8.13.12)

New room + boxes

New room - boxes

Random Update (7.22.12)

Going back to Thursday (7.19.12), Pat, Chris, Matt, Emma, and myself drove down to Nick's house in Stone Harbor, NJ for a mini BC summer fling at Uncle Buzzy's famed getaway, Manland. Although the weather was overcast, swimming in the bay was quite refreshing; Nick's house is right on the water with the back porch morphing into a dock. Thankfully there was a bunk room designed for such large gatherings of friends and family. Thursday and Friday consisted of hanging out and around Stone Harbor with friends; late nights finished at the house, for it was well-stocked with food and drink. Saturday, July 21st, my birthday, was fantastic. My to-be-roommate Pat and I woke up at 6:30 AM for the Manland Triathlon which allegedly started around 7:30 or 8:00 AM. So we walked over at 7, registered, and were told to come back before 8:00 AM. So we walked a few houses back to Nick's place and wrapped ourselves in blankets (it was slightly chilly that morning). At 8:00 AM we all jumped into the bay and tread water for a minute or so. We started the race with a quarter-mile swim. I struggled. I moved on to an eleven-mile bike. I was average here. Having not been on a bike for nigh on six-years, I was pleased with this. I moved on to the run. Based on splits, I finished 2nd in the run. Overall I finished 28th with a time of 79:55. Pat (darn it!) beat me by two minutes and change, finishing in 21st. Afterwards, there were refreshments for the athletes. Nick's mom took a lot of photos, which will be up as soon as I get them. from 11:00 AM to about 2:00 PM I slept. From about 11:30 AM to 3:30PM, Pat slept. Boy, that was a wonderfully deserved nap!

That afternoon, Nick's cousin Quinn, Pat, and a bunch of other guys went to the basketball court to play some ball before the evening festivities. The highlight of the day (besides going 6-2 in 5v5) was the most epic almost-alley-oop ever from myself to a Pat flying down the paint from the free throw line. So close. Sooo close. After showering, we held off our appetites for the Manland festivities. Essentially around 80 of Nick's family and friends all come to his great Uncle Buzzy's famed Manland, a converted-garage old-guy-with-some-dough creation. It's actually quite modest. Just a small bar and stuff. But it's decked out with some sweet stuff. Couldn't name it all, but there is a "Mancipation Proclamation" and a shot-ski. Anywho, there was a ton of food and drink, and it was a great time over at Uncle Buzzy's just chilling with friends and enjoying a perfect summer evening after a hard morning of athletic achievement. After food, Nick and company meandered on back to his house for the remaining of the night. Highlights include playing Settlers of Catan, a few folks singing classic and new-classic songs outside with the wonderful talent, Quinn's sister, and on the whole enjoying my birthday immensely. 

Before swim (I'm in the white shorts, Pat's in the black)

After the swim. On to the bike.

Random Update (7.15.12)

Friday was my last day of work, and it was really fun. Each day we go in different "crews" around to different areas of Boston. My last day I got to chill with Mark, Ogechi, Meredith, and Felix, all of whom I knew really well. We got to skip some all of the more monotonous car training, so we jammed out and hung out on the way there. The whole group did really well, in terms of raising money. Together we raised $1,368!
Fridays after work there is a ritual. Everyone goes to Kung Fu Garden, a hole-in-the-wall Chinese place in Chinatown to eat. It is also referred to as "KFG" and my personal creation "Kung Fu Panda". They have amazing scallion pancakes. So I said goodbye to some of the people I work with after having a good time eating good food. But it wasn't a last goodbye for everyone! Yesterday night I invited a nice group of guys and gals over to have some good food and good music. By the end of the night there were much more people than I imagined, because my house roommate Charae had also invited some of her friends! It was a nice way to say goodbye to Boston for the summer. I cooked a bunch of hotdogs and learned how to make a cork-screw-like hot dog by slicing diagonally around the dog. It cooks deliciously and crispy-ly throughout!
This morning everyone headed on home after a few hours of crashing on the couch watching The Iron Giant. This afternoon Nick, Sam, Dennis, Joe, and Amanda went bowling downtown. Tomorrow I'll be going to New Hampshire for a water park adventure, Thursday I head down to New Jersey, and Sunday I'll be in California!

Random Update (7.8.12)

Worked on Thursday and Friday, and I ran into some more memorable characters.

Dominican Sustainer

So, in the canvassing/membership business, there are folks who give once a year and folks who give smaller amounts every month. I had just talked to one side of a two-family building in Salem (the witch city). The wife warned me that the woman next door didn't speak English very well. She was correct. And I talked to her in Spanish for about half-an-hour about her son who's studying finance and marketing at Suffolk and currently in Japan, about Gabriel Garcia Marquez and his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, and about what I'm studying. Did I mention it was in Spanish? I translated our memorized speech into Spanish and walked her through the process of being a coveted 'sustainer'. It is fulfilling to use Spanish for something productive!

Absent Control Freak

They weren't home. The only reason I actually knocked was because I wanted to confirm that the creators of this sign were insane. 

Saturday I played some soccer for a few hours at BU's turf field. That was lovely. Then I bought some brie and diet Dr. Pepper and headed on home. I got some grub with Nick and Mike at Chipotle, and then relaxed on my own with some music from The Head and the Heart. Today I went to see the New England Revolution play the New York Redbulls with Sam, Dennis, Meredith, and Amelia. What a nice stadium, it was pretty full for an MLS game. And I knocked off one more "Boston Bucket List" item.

Random Update (7.4.12)

After a long weekend home, I'm back in Boston for the last installment. I worked Tuesday, and I was really excited because my whole crew did really well! It's nice working with cool people. I took the 4th off, and slept in a little until rousing myself slowly with some music by The Head and the Heart. They are class. For lunch, Sam, Dennis, Matt, Zach, Najee, and a few other folks meandered on down to Boloco for lunch. After eating and debating the legality of littering compostable plastic cups. Zach wants to plant some and see what happens. This also brought up the question of littering biodegradable items like banana peels. We need a president who knows the concerns of its constituents, right now both candidates are so out of touch. They have no idea of our concerns and questions.
We walked back to the house, and lots of friends of friends were over doing American things like playing "Born in the USA" (ironically a very critical song of America!). Matt is up from Jersey and back from Ecuador, he's good at FIFA. 

Prudential building and moon.

Random Mobile Update (6.23.12)

Duxbury is awesome. Pat, Matt and I caught an early train down to Kingston and Diane picked us up around 10:00 AM. We got a quick driving tour of the town, and then we went to their house. Their house has a primetime overlook of the Atlantic and some beautiful green marshes. After helping Sherm and his son load a 76-year-old boat on to a trailer, Pat and Matt and I made sandwiches and listened to some music while overlooking the marshes. It was so relaxing! After lunch we took the old Ford to the beach. Duxbury has the largest wooden bridge in the USA. We drove onto the beach and slept for a few hours, read, went in the water, and then headed back around 4:00 PM to wash up before dinner. We showered and then played croquet I their backyard, while Sherm's son cooked steaks. We watched an enormous storm front approach. We shot a potato gun at the marshes. It started raining just in time to move into the screened-in porch to eat corn, steak, and other assorted food. We all talked a lot. Diane and Sherm are going to Italy so I told them some stories about our adventures in Belforte a few years ago. Pat and Matt also had a great time today. Tomorrow should be fun too! Photos.

The Hoyts' backyard overlooking the marshes.

Season of Life, a really good book. And marshes. 

Storm brewing.

It bright out. 

M*A*S*H

Duxbury beach.

Random Update (6.17.12)

So what I'm doing this summer throws me at the public, one person at a time. I talk to people. Lots of people. The people I talk are not (all) dumb. They are full of stories and opinions. I am going to write about them. Not all of them. If I wrote a sentence for each time someone said 'no', I could be a widely published author. These people, however, were more memorable than those who merely shut door on me.

The Canada Hopeful

This old guy listened to my little memorized speech, and then told me what he thought. He believes that solar energy will only work from the top down. The federal government should do it, and no one else. Since New England and Canada are more progressive than the rest of the United States, the only logical outcome is for the two to combine. Yes, he firmly believes that New England will leave the Union for Canada within the next forty (40) years. I believe that change at the federal level happens if there are existing, positive examples of support in multiple states. That's what I'm a part of, expanding a solar energy program in Massachusetts. Maybe a similar program can be part of something bigger, but getting it to work here first is important.

The Electrician

He works with energy and power. Solar panels don't make sense. They require so many special materials to manufacture and leave a huge carbon footprint. They need replacement parts after a few years.
Mac and Cheese House
A really awesome couple. They were very calmly yet excitedly interested in what I had to say. I told them all about the issue, and they were all for it and gave a really generous lump of money! I talked to them around 4:30, and the wife drove by me again around 8:00. She invited me to get some Mac and Cheese because she was amazed that I was still out there. So I stopped and had some Mac and Cheese!
Wednesday Night Magic Director
I was looking around a house while a guy was filling out a contribution form, and I see a hefty stack of magic cards. His wife plays every wednesday and organizes the Boston card group or something like that. We bonded.
Old Coots
I probably spent twenty (20) minutes talking to these two old conservatives about politics, life, and the why the world is the way it is. They were not fond of government/politicians tampering with utility companies and their ways of doing things. The first thing they asked me was "Are you a liberal?". We talked about how important voting is. They remember when a certain huge electric company was split up by government on the grounds of monopoly (I think). This company worked so efficiently and well, it made little sense to them why it was broken up. It's easy to see why people do have different opinions. As someone once said, there is nothing more dangerous than a man convinced beyond all doubt that he is right. Talking to other people and playing devils advocate in my mind is very educational. The husband was (is) a marine and looked like Uncle Doug. The wife was pretty standard looking, I don't remember her much. They were lovely people and it was nice to disagree nicely.
Babe Ruth (Mrs.)
Went to this one house, and the nice lady told me that I was standing in the former... um... gentlemen's retreat of Babe Ruth.
The Tracker
Talked to this guy, and he said he was moving in a month to california, and that he was really busy doing something. He tracked me down later in his car and wrote a check! He felt bad.

Random Mobile Update (6.7.12)

Best week of work, by far. I've taken a crew of folks out to Harvard, MA each day this week, and it's been a good time. It is not the Harvard you're thinking of. It's the county an hour northwest of Boston. And it has an awesome cheap pizza place we stop at for "lunch" called Pizza Bella (although I bring my lunch). I say "lunch" because we eat around 3:00 PM. Then we 'canvass' for 4.5 hours, and head back to the office. Canvassing is going door to door, saying a memorized speech, and basically selling our idea to people. We want lots of money-giving members to fund advocacy, research, and public outreach. And I have to plan where people go, get people where they need to be on time, and make sure they are awesome at raising political support and money for this cool solar energy campaign. Harvard has been great. I took my crew to this awesome lookout I found before heading back today. It made us 15 minutes late, but I'm sure you can see why that didn't bother anyone.

Random Mobile Update (6.3.12)

Pat, Pat's friend Pat, Alex, and I drove down to Mansfield, MA in the silver car loaded with Dr. Pepper, donuts, Devil Dogs, and roast beef sandwiches from Amato's on Tuesday afternoon. We met Nick, Emma, and some of their friends in a big parking lot outside the big Comcast Center where the concert was being held. We got seats on the lawn and chilled while the opening band opened (Photo 1). Radiohead played well. It was a privilege to see my favorite song of all-time played live (called Reckoner). They ended the show with it. 

Emma drove Nick, Alex, and me back to our summer-rented apartment. Alex and I decided to just stay up all night because we had to get up at 5:30 to catch a 7:00 bus to Washington DC via New York City. We made the first bus in ample time. While trying to enter Manhattan, a big boat wanted to go up a river on the Bronx side, so the Madison Ave bridge was closed for 30 minutes. This almost ruined our day, because instead of arriving at 11:00 AM for our 12:00 PM bus to DC, we arrived at 12:13 PM. I say almost because we were the very last two folks to walk on the bus (Photo 2) So, after traveling for 10.5 hours, we arrived in DC and ate food around 4:45 at a nice Chicago pizza place. Alex was not impressed by the shortness of DC. I tried to explain that no building could be higher than the Washington monument (up for debate) but he simply did not like the mediocrity of shortness. After food, we walked to the Metro and took it out to FedEx field. Our cheap seats were not very good. So we snuck up and got an amazing view for the entire game (Photo 3). Security was not too heavy, thankfully. We had to leave around the 75th minute to catch our bus back. Unfortunately the game was over by then anyways, Brasil 3 USA 1 (They scored 1 more to make it 4). We got off the Metro around 10:30 PM and ran just over a mile to catch our 10:45 PM bus. We made it. The bus was overbooked, we got the last seats, barely. So then we got to New York around 4:45 AM and proceeded to be exhausted, smelly, hungry, and smelly until our 7:00 AM bus to Boston. We were late to Boston. We got a taxi back to my house, Alex showered, and then I said bye. He had a 3:15 PM flight to Sao Paulo through Miami to catch.

I worked Friday. I went swimming and watched MIB 3 on Saturday. I played basketball and bought groceries for the week today. These updates take a while to type on an iPhone.