Hot House

So I gave in. I installed the big window air conditioner for my living room. Now I have a fully cooled bedroom and living room.

Yesterday it was very uncomfortable sitting in the living room, aka My Office. By the end of the day the temperature was 89 degrees, and this morning it had "cooled" down to 88. I was holding off installing the big A/C unit because I knew that if it was there I would be tempted to use it, and thus start paying big electric bills. But yesterday was just terrible; no amount of ceiling fan could make the room comfortable, and it was impossible to be productive. Seeing the 1 degree temperature drop this morning sealed the deal. Ah, the minutia of my life....

Speaking of minutia, the water line coming into my house is broken underground somewhere outside. And water is leaking into my basement. And the City of Newton makes the homeowner responsible for everything up the water main. Speaking of the water main, did I mention that it is across the street?? And under concrete?? The plumbers will have to drill a new line under the street to replace this old, leaky one. Speaking of plumbers, "across the street" means "double the cost" and "not gonna start until Thursday". On the upside, the outside underground shutoff valve was too rusted to turn, so they can't shut off the leak (and thus my showers) until Thursday. Always a silver lining!

I'm gonna bask in the A/C and cool off my brain for a while....

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Balance

I've been thinking alot lately about balance. Not tightrope walking, either. Balancing everything in life is challenging for me sometimes. Sometimes I think I have the type of personality or brain or whatever that can only handle one task at a time. If I try to accomplish too many things at once, I get overwhelmed and shut down and do nothing. Nothing except play videogames or surf the Internet.

I'm trying to figure out how to balance my professional, personal, and social lives. Right now my professional life is finishing up my Master's degree and starting my PhD. Social life is keeping in touch with those people I care about, both friends and family. Personal life is a hodge podge of reading, eating right, staying active, and maintaining my house. All of this falls under an umbrella of living simply, something I feel very strongly about.

It's not easy for me, and I get frustrated when I don't accomplish enough in a day. I also get frustrated when I completely ignore my social life just to accomplish more for school. And vice versa. I can't tell sometimes if I'm too hard on myself or not organized enough. I feel bad when I don't get enough done for school, and I feel bad when projects at home don't get finished. I really feel bad when I see friendships detoriate because I don't spend enough time on them. Last night before I feel asleep I was feeling especially guilty about this, and began to seriously contemplate making a list of my relationships, prioritizing them, and assigning tasks such as e-mails or phone calls to nuture each relationship. That was my list-oriented mind at work. I didn't make that list, but I am contemplating it....

There is no point to this post. I don't have a punchline or funny picture at the end. I need to get these thoughts out because, well, I've been told it's good to get them out. Therapeutic and whatnot. And this is what blogs are for, right? At least it's what my blog is for. At least today. My friend B told me that it was interesting to read sometimes because it was like a diary. Lately I've been needing one. Balance.

But maybe this post does serve some purpose. In a way, it's my public apology for being so damn self-absorbed that I couldn't take the time to write, call, or visit. I'm sorry if I've been a bad friend/son/nephew/neighbor/citizen lately. I'm working on it.

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Positively Green

It's good to read optimistic articles now and then, because the majority of news can be quite depressing. That's why I liked reading this article from MSNBC/Newsweek about the positive things Americans are doing all across the U.S. in regards to environmentalism.

Hope you enjoy it, Birchibald!

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Look at the Size of that Snail!! And other experiences in Europe.

Dan & Kerri couldn't have picked a better time to come. The month of May was a low cycle for me. I was unhappy with school, unhappy with the friends I made there, and unhappy with Graz in general. Right now it is hard to imagine being unhappy there, but I was. Living in Europe for six months as an exchange student may SOUND like a nonstop party, filled with wine, women, and song. But in reality..... wait, that's mostly how it was. It was alot of partying and going out, and beautiful European college women were everywhere. Did I mention that bars there don't actually close like they do in the US? Well they close, but not at the normal 1am or 2am where can actually get home and have a reasonable night's sleep. Noooo, they close at 6am or 8am. I'm talking sun coming up, stores opening up for the day, and you're trudging home wondering where the night went. Getting to bed at a reasonable hour requires self control, something the government there doesn't mandate.

Anyway, back on topic. I wasn't happy in May, and all the partying had a lot to do with it. I was getting tired of a vapid, void lifstyle. Some of you may be sitting in your cubicles right now wishing you could strangle me with your mouse cords, but bear with me. Partying all the time does get old. Even though as I type this I would love to be back in those European clubs filled with beautiful European college women, at that time I was really craving some intellectual stimulation. Because when you get down to it, I'm a geek. And geeks like to use their brains... occasionally.

Enter Dan & Kerri! Good friends that I've known for a long time. And anytime we get together, we have the most interesting conversations. Topics can vary greatly, but I always enjoy it. The first day they came, we went to dinner at a restaurant and stayed for several hours and several drinks. It was just what I needed.

I don't want to give the impression that the friends I made in Austria were some Eurotrash hipsters who had nothing intelligent to say. I had plenty of stimulating discussion with them too, but there was typically a limit to the depth of the conversation because of language difficulties. Probably also from lack of patience on my part....

I need to shut up and post the pictures. So no more words (besides photo captions), here's the pictures!That's a big snail! We found it on the walking path while climbing the Schlossberg and thinking it was a rarity, decided to save it from careless feet. As we walked more, though, we saw that large snails are a common sight in Graz.Dan & Kerri sitting on English saddles in the Western themed bar in Hungary that I mentioned earlier. Small decorating errors aside, it was a thoroughly executed approximation of an old-timey Western bar. The waiters all wore denim shirts with badges, and they even had a covered wagon in the courtyard.See how happy it made us?? We couldn't even shut our mouths, we were so happy!!!Sopron had even more to offer. This is the Fire Tower in the center of the city. I should point out (again) that the tower is not actually leaning. After paying a few Euros, you can climb it and see views like this:And this:Wait, that's not from the Fire Tower. It's from this weird wine cellar that we visited. Some travel guide recommended that we visit it and sample the wines they sell. When we went inside it was quite obvious that it was only locals there and we stuck out as tourists. Also, it appeared that they were serving wine out of large stainless steel buckets with ladles. That wasn't going to stop us from our cultural experience, though! After wandering through their seating area and finding a table away from the smokers, we ordered a liter of wine and three glasses. The wine came in a carafe and tasted like it had been open for days, maybe weeks. It had that rubbery, oxidized, slimy taste. But hey, we drank it anyway! When in Sopron, do as the Sopronis do....

I have more pictures from my travels with Dan & Kerri, but the rest are from Vienna. I'll get those up soon, but as always you are free to harass me in the comment section if I am too slow.

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Acclimating...

Jet lag is harder to kick than I initially thought. It's 3 in the afternoon and I am really wishing for a nap. But to force myself back into this new schedule I won't allow it, so hopefully this big green tea will give me a boost. Later tonight there is a welcome back party being held in my honor, and I don't want to be tired for that. It's exciting to be seeing my friends from here that I've missed for the last 6 months, not to mention my brother (I love my brother!). We are all meeting for dinner in downtown Des Moines, then presumably hitting the local hot spots.

On a side note, I am quite impressed with how cool Des Moines has become in the last 5 years. When I first came to Ames for college in, um... 1993, it seemed like a wasteland. Even though it was only a half hour drive from Ames, we never went down to Des Moines to hang out. But the town has been changing, I think. Maybe it's because I've been living here for so long and am forced to look harder, but there are truly alot of cultural and social activities available, and the cost of living can't be beat. The downtown area is my favorite, with the interesting neighborhoods, shops, and housing being built. I keep telling people that Des Moines is on the cusp of coolness, and in 5 years it's going to be the newest hip place to live. Mostly I get laughed at when I say that....

Today I went with a friend to run some errands at Wal-Mart. It was there that I realized how much I'd forgotten about "sizes" in the US. When I say "sizes", I am referring to many things: vehicle sizes, traveling distances, store sizes, product sizes, portion sizes, and also people sizes. Everything is bigger in the US, so it's not just Texas that can lay claim to that honor. We live in a big country, so I can accept the fact that everything is bit more spread out than in Europe. It's easier to build out than it is to build up. Easier, but not better. So perhaps as a consequence of this our cars are bigger since we spend more time riding in them. I don't like this argument much, but I'll accept it. What I don't understand though, is how our products, portions, and people got to be so big. How did this happen? Is this because the US is such a rich country? Because we have been wealthy for so long, is it a natural consequence? There has to be more to it than that. Europe is not a poor continent. It is wealthy, and has been for quite some time. Yet when you go into the restaurants and supermarkets there, you don't see the jumbo-sized products and portions that Americans have. And when you walk around the streets you don't see the jumbo-sized people that result from the large portions.

So there has to be another factor, and I don't know what it is. I'd love to hear some insights on this.

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Back in the USSA!

So yeah, here I am. Sitting in the living room of my sparely decorated house, eating a bowl of Cheerios. My plane got in to Des Moines last night at 6:30, twenty one hours and thirty minutes after I got into my taxi in Graz.

The traveling went pretty well, considering how far I had to go. No delays or missed connections, or even lost luggage. On the flight across the Atlantic I wasn't able to sleep, due the combination of daylight, crying babies, and loud talking Chicago women. In Chicago I had two and a half hours to get through customs, re-check my luggage and find the next gate, and by that time I was feeling pretty restless and tired of sitting. I also was beginning to re-acquiant myself with the curse of being able to overhear other people's conversations. In Austria, I had to try really hard if I wanted to know what the people sitting next to me were talking about. But when sitting next to Americans yesterday I was able to hear the complete breadth and (lack of) depth to everything being said. I truly did not WANT to know what brand of ginger ale the college student sitting near me preferred and how often she shaved her legs in the last week, but I found out anyway (Canada Dry and Zero, in case you were wondering).

Flying into Iowa was quite nice. The sun was going down, and as we decended towards Des Moines I could look out over the beautiful landscape, and even pick out some landmarks like Lake Red Rock. As I was walking through the Des Moines airport, I passed Tom Arnold hurrying towards a gate, followed by some woman. I wouldn't have even noticed him unless the woman following him hadn't said his name and complimented him on some speech he made. I recognized his nasally voice, and yes he sounds just as annoying in real life as he does on TV.

Jilly picked me up at the airport, and even wore her Austria shirt so I would be able to pick her out from the 12 other people in the waiting area. She's always thinking! We got some dinner at Court Ave Brewing, and then headed to Newton. I got 9 hours of sleep last night, and feel much refreshed from yesterday, but still a bit groggy. I'm not taking any naps, though. I want to get back into this time zone as soon as I can.

Everything seems familiar, but also strange. I remember where everything is, and the habits of cleaning, eating, and sleeping came back quickly. But it's still strange and I can't quite put my finger on what it is.

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What I've been doing.

Wow, this blogging has not been happening for me lately. Maybe it's a lack of inspiration, or the pressing issues of getting ready to leave Graz. Here's a list of what I've been up to, in no particular order:

• Navigating the bureaucracy of 2 Austrian universities to transfer my grades.
• Navigating the bureaucracy of the Austrian dormitory system to check out.
• Sorting through papers and possessions so everything fits into my 3 bags.
• Trying to spend as much time as I can with my friends before I/they leave.
• Watching many World Cup Games (Italia!)
• Saying goodbye to so many good people. It's getting really hard lately.
• Saying goodbye to the city which became my home and a part of me over these 5 months.

This will be my last post before I arrive back in the States. To my family and friends there, thank you for all the e-mails, care packages, kind words and support you've given me during my time here. I look forward to seeing you, and watching the fireworks on the 4th of July.

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