As it turns out, I'd rather write here than pack. Probably because the first part of packing is cleaning my room. It remains to be seen whether you would rather read here than pack or clean. That's an important test for this blog and this aspiring writer.
If reading is not your thing, maybe you'll enjoy looking at the pictures I've compiled to take to Singapore with me.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Saturday, July 28, 2007
A forced entry
I’ve been toying with the idea of keeping a record of my time in Asia: to do so would be a good exercise in writing and would be a good way for me to share pictures and stories with other people and my future self. On the downside, keeping a blog for 4 months sounded like work and, as I told Michael, “I don’t have a good name for my blog.”
This afternoon this debate was settled – although I did not realize it at the time – when I was at Stoneworks rock climbing gym with Art. There I ran into Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and world traveler (“lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 120 countries, plus all 50 states, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island…a two-time visitor to every member of the Axis of Evil…”). Having first encountered him at a speech he gave at UO last year, I read his articles and idolize his career as one of the options for an economics major (granted, he was also a Rhodes Scholar from Harvard). I am counting this encounter as my once in a lifetime run in with a celebrity. This chance meeting inspired me to write this first post, which also is a commitment to continue this blog for at least the next four months.
It was my freshman year history professor (Fracchia) who introduced the idea of studying in Singapore to me almost 18 months ago. My original plan to go winter term ’07 fell through when the UO Study Abroad office neglected to update the application deadline on the pamphlet they were distributing (“The new deadline is on our new website…which isn’t up yet”). So I’ve had plenty of time to be excited about going – so much so that although I leave this Friday, I’m not as excited as you might expect me to be. I’ll spare you the details of preparing to leave (talking at several bureaucracies in two countries…ick), and finish this post with the most exotic feature of my trip so far:
This afternoon this debate was settled – although I did not realize it at the time – when I was at Stoneworks rock climbing gym with Art. There I ran into Nicholas Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times and world traveler (“lived on four continents, reported on six, and traveled to 120 countries, plus all 50 states, every Chinese province and every main Japanese island…a two-time visitor to every member of the Axis of Evil…”). Having first encountered him at a speech he gave at UO last year, I read his articles and idolize his career as one of the options for an economics major (granted, he was also a Rhodes Scholar from Harvard). I am counting this encounter as my once in a lifetime run in with a celebrity. This chance meeting inspired me to write this first post, which also is a commitment to continue this blog for at least the next four months.
It was my freshman year history professor (Fracchia) who introduced the idea of studying in Singapore to me almost 18 months ago. My original plan to go winter term ’07 fell through when the UO Study Abroad office neglected to update the application deadline on the pamphlet they were distributing (“The new deadline is on our new website…which isn’t up yet”). So I’ve had plenty of time to be excited about going – so much so that although I leave this Friday, I’m not as excited as you might expect me to be. I’ll spare you the details of preparing to leave (talking at several bureaucracies in two countries…ick), and finish this post with the most exotic feature of my trip so far:
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