Three unrelated vignette blog posts

Last year for Thanksgiving, I brought my RA, friend, and neighbor in Asia House to my grandmother's. We did such exciting things as going to see the community production of Beauty and the Beast, going shopping for a new camera for her, and eating my family's traditional Thanksgiving meal with the neighborhood.

This year, she's in Beijing, so she didn't come with me again. Instead, we exchanged pleasantries over e-mail. I'd try to explain to you what she's doing in Beijing, but I would probably get it wrong. All you need to know is that it's legit real-world stuff, and she hasn't even graduated yet. Some people just really have their lives together.

Monday, I found out something very exciting. Remember the Shansi Fellowship I mentioned a few times before? Well, Monday I was offered the opportunity to go to Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I'll spend two years living there and teaching English.

Excited doesn't even begin to cover how I feel about this. I know what I'm going to be doing after graduation! But more than that, I'll be able to replicate some of the experiences I had in Nicaragua for an extended period of time. I'll get to learn a new language. I'll get to learn about a new culture. I'll hopefully get to learn new forms of music and dance. It's going to be awesome. Hard, too, but awesome.

I'd go into more of an explanation of Shansi here, but former blogger Daniel did a wonderful job in one of his posts. Whatever I'd say here would most likely just be a reproduction of what he's already said.

Here's something great about living off-campus: if you pick the right housemates, they will make delicious food all the time. I got back to the house Friday afternoon and was greeted by pumpkin bread and cream cheese frosting. To be fair, none of my housemates made this particular concoction. It was left over from the Thanksgiving potluck that was held at our house.

So let me give you another example. Today, one of my housemates made pizza for lunch, and very graciously put the black olives that I offered on one of the pizzas. It was, of course, delicious, even if she still isn't sure what type of flour she used to make the crust. (She thought it was all-purpose flour, but it might actually have been whole wheat flour. Or spelt.)

Then, another of my housemates and her guest made eggnog cheesecake. They let me try a little of the batter and it was also delicious. I'll also be able to taste the final product in a little over two hours. I bet it will taste even better.