Procrastinating

Yes, stop the presses, wake the kids up-- I am posting a blog entry. Procrastination has definitely got the better of me this time. Did you ever realize that the stuff you do when you should be doing something else is always more-effort consuming than the actual task itself? I don't know how many times I've sat up and read about some damn historical tribe of New Zealand on Wikipedia, or decided to randomly calculate the distance the Earth would have to be from the Sun so the average surface temperature would be JUST enough to boil the oceans? (8.88x10^10 m, btw. By comparison, Venus is about 1.08x10^11m). Point is, yeah, I should probably be working on the half-page single-spaced french "écrite libre" I have to have for tomorrow, but meh. It's a lot more fun writing a blog post instead!

Anyway, yeah, it's been way too long since the last "hey what's Will been up to recently" post, so I don't really plan on tracking through, what, 5 months of random shit. But meh, we'll see where this goes.

Biggest thing I'm looking forward to currently is my 6 week study abroad in France. That is going to take place May 24th-July 7th, and I couldn't be more psyched about it I don't think. The application along with a bunch of other crap is due next Friday, and I still have quite a bit to do. Worst thing is the essay-- "What do you plan on accomplishing overseas? How do you think this will better yourself as a person?" Does anyone else hate those types of question as much as I do? It's like, who gives a flying fuck guys... honestly. Oh well, gotta do that at some point.

But I'm already planning ahead for what to do there. I'm leaving Pittsburgh on the 23rd probably... not sure if I have to fly out of Pittsburgh or fly to New York or what (they don't tell me these things), but I'm going to land in Paris that night hopefully. The experience officially starts on the 24th, so my guess is we'll all meet up somewhere then and go from there! We're spending Thursday-Saturday in Paris and then taking a train to Nantes on Sunday where I'm actually going to be for 6 weeks. Going to be taking 2 classes there... both of which will probably suck more ass than Mike Haley (oooooo burned... I just said that because you probably won't be reading it. :) ), but meh, those two classes are probably going to be the least of my concerns while there. I'm sure bars will be frequented nightly and hopefully there are other things to experience.

At some point, though, I'm taking my ass to Amsterdam. I don't care if I have to go by myself for Christ's sake, but there will be a side trip. :) Ryan said something about coming over, but he's flaky and he'll probably bail on me-- but no worries. I suppose I'll have to do that one of the weekends I'm there, which probably makes the most sense.

I'm staying with a host family which is probably the thing I'm looking forward to least. While I'm sure they'll welcome me with open arms, there's always that chance that they won't. Also, I don't fricking speak French. I can understand it almost fluently, but expressing ideas into words is my biggest fricking problem. I can't see myself holding large-scale conversations with them without throwing in an english word with an "é" at the end and them looking at me like wtf. It'll probably be like that for the first 2 weeks, but I'm hoping I'll grasp the language for at least the last 2/3rds of the trip.

That kinda makes me have mixed feelings about it. Although there's no reason why I should be anything but ecstatic to have this opportunity, I still always manage to make those tiny negative nuances so exhibited that it almost makes me not want to look forward to this. I gotta work on that. Big time.

Anyway, what else? Oh! Orchestra! Yep I bought a bassoon and joined the Pitt Orchestra. It is amazing, to say the least. The songs are ridiculous and it's been quite hard trying to pick it back up to the level I was at, but I think I'm getting at least a little bit better. I have been neglecting to practice, which I have to get back into the habit of doing if I want to survive through these concerts. We're doing Beethoven Feb 7th, and our main piece is Eroica -- 3rd symphony. It's close to an hour long, so I'm kinda buggin out about that one. It's a lot of (COMPLICATED) music to learn, and I rarely have the time or the energy to sit down for long periods of time by myself and crank out note-by-note the pieces. Guess I should find time and energy.

Work has been getting kinda busy too. Over Christmas I ran my first job and got about 30 hours over 3 days, which hurt-- quite a bit. But it was worth it. Time flew, and the paycheck was hella nice. Since it's slowed down considerably, but that would be because I do not have a mode of transportation the 5 days of the week they need me the most.

Eh, anyway I've gotten bored. I'll update later. (I'm lying here. I'm sure I won't, but hey, stranger things HAVE happened.)

Update: Woops, it's his 3rd symphony not his 5th.