May 20, 2008 at 11:16 am
· Filed under Back home..., Entertainment, European culture, Fun & Games, Touristy
I’ve lived outside Europe for the last 5 years and, as my cousins proved to me, I am completely out of touch with what’s hot in the European pop culture.
now, I am not sure I care enough about pop culture to feel bad about my lack of knowledge in this area, but I’m kinda glad I don’t have to hear these terrible Euro trash songs on the radio over and over again. (Instead, I have American pop trash and I’m really not sure which one’s worse…)
So, here’s a sample for you:
- Alex C. feat. Y-Ass - Du Hast Den Schönsten Arsch Der Welt
…which basically means: “You have the cuttest ass in the world.” Don’t laugh. BTW, this video was marked “not suitable for minors” on YouTube by the mysterious “our community,” but I have absolutely no idea why.
- Måns Zelmerlöw - Brother Oh Brother
oh, he’s so wonderfully metrosexual… but that’s a topic for another post.
this guy was in the Swedish Idol and I heard this particular song everywhere I went, from the Greek island of Santorini to Scandinavia, from London to Cracow.
- Patrick Jumpen - Jumpstyle
Be patient with this video. The music is just typical Euro club music, the video is lame, but what’s really cool is this guy jumping. It looks effortless, but it’s actually pretty hard to jump like that for a few minutes and even harder to synchronize with another dancer. I know because I tried. This kid in the video is Dutch and apparently he made a fortune on his jumping. Exactly how he did it, I am not sure, but I saw him in several videos of popular European DJs. He’s my cousins’ idol, but my cousins are just 23, so it’s understandable…
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May 18, 2008 at 6:48 am
· Filed under American culture, Back home..., College, European culture, Other cultures, Touristy, me mE ME!!!
I am back in California!!! yes, my plans changed a bit, and so I will be staying in the U.S. until the end of summer and then flying back to Europe.
My original plan was to start a Ph.D. program here in California, but eventually I accepted the offer from Johns Hopkins Univ. The first year of their prgram is in Bologna, Italy and the second year back in the U.S., in Washington, D.C.
This is actually a better choice for me. Sure, Johns Hopkins has one of the top International Studies program, but most importantly, this will give me a chance to live in Europe again, at least for a while.
I just came back from a six-week vacation in Europe and I realized that I’m losing touch with what’s going on over there, in terms of popular culture, lifestyle, fashion etc., so living in Italy for a year should satisfy my craving for some European flavors…
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April 13, 2008 at 8:00 am
· Filed under American culture, Back home..., College, Drinking, European culture, Food, Other cultures, Politics, Smoking cigarettes, Touristy
warm night in Athens, crowds of people on streets, just hanging out, eating great food and drinking wine, smoking cigarettes INDOORS, just enjoying their lives… this is exactly what I missed when I was in California.
it’s really hard to capture this feeling in words. people who visited southern Europe even once know what I mean.
this great time I had in Greece coincided with great news I got from another gard school. Bologna Center + Johns Hopkins Univ. offered me admission to their joint program. that means one year in Italy and one year in Washington, one year in the oldest university in Europe and one year in the American capital.
tough decision.
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April 7, 2008 at 1:52 pm
· Filed under Uncategorized
I swear I typed a nice post from a coffeeshop in Amsterdam and poof! it’s gone, disappeared somewhere in the cloud of smoke, I guess…
I have no idea what happened to it, but obviously that means I am having a good time.
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April 3, 2008 at 8:51 am
· Filed under Uncategorized
I truly like being in Europe, but I just love California… it’s so damn cold here! London was terrible, but what can you expect? by the way, Heathrow opened a new terminal, exclusively for British Airways, and you CAN’T SMOKE anywhere inside it! which sucks if you’re transferring and after 11 hours you simply need a puff. the weather in Berlin sucks, too. nasty rain and dark sky. not good for spoiled Miss California.
this my be my last sober post for a while, because I’m going to party in Amsterdam this weekend!
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April 1, 2008 at 11:04 am
· Filed under American culture, Back home..., European culture, Friends, Other cultures, Touristy
this time for at least five months.
it’s so hard to leave the world I created here for myself, my home far away from my homeland. my friends in particular. that’s the thing with foreigners in the SF Bay Area — we tend to be quite mobile. when I come back, some of my friends are not going to be here anymore. they return to their countries or pick a brand new place to live.
I’m honestly looking forward to living in Europe for some time, but at the same time, I wish I could decide for myself when I want to go there. for now, I have to follow the U.S. immigration laws. and I don’t take shortcuts, so I’m leaving now.
the one positive is that I really do need change. I need to be in a new place and travel. I’ve become too lazy and I’m feeling too cozy here in the Bay Area.
my first stop: London for transfer, then Berlin, Stettin, Amsterdam, Athens and Santorini.
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March 18, 2008 at 3:10 pm
· Filed under American culture, Entertainment, European culture, Other cultures, Touristy
that school I was talking about… they must really want me. they know I can pick and choose, so they decided to offer me some big (and free) money in addition to the teaching position. nice… but I still haven’t made up my mind.
I’m getting ready to go back to Europe. not so much packing and stuff, but just trying to get used to this idea and adjust my attitude a bit. I’ve become a spoiled California snob and some people over there find it quite irritating. and understandably so.
my first stop: London, mainly just for transfer. then Berlin, Amsterdam, Greece and my hometown in-between.
and in response to Oscarandre’s guess: no, I am not Spanish, although our cultures share some common features…
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March 4, 2008 at 7:46 pm
· Filed under American culture, College, Politics, me mE ME!!!
yesterday I visited one of the colleges I got accepted to for a Ph.D. program. one of the most prestigious, I must add.
what can I say… I am in love with that school! it’s one of a few that allow so much flexibility in designing my own program. there are still some core requirements, but otherwise students are really free to shape their own track and emphasis.
I came back from there with an inflated ego. it was sooooo nice to hear that the selection process was pretty competitive, that my writing sample was read, evaluated and appreciated by the majority of professors in my field, and that a few of them already declared they would like to be my advisors. oh, I feel so loved!
it seems that people there are pretty laid back and friendly, which is a big plus for me. the workload is pretty intense, but nothing I couldn’t handle.
I’m still waiting for European schools to contact me, but now they would have to offer me something really special to win my heart…
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