“People go on about places like Starbucks being all unpersonal and all that, but what if that’s what you want? I’d be lost if JJ and people like that got their way, and there was nothing unpersonal in the world. I like to know that there are big places without windows where no one gives a s**t. You need confidence to go into small places with regular customers-small bookshops and small music shops and small restaurants and cafes. I’m happiest in the Virgin Megastore and Borders and Starbucks and PizzaExpress, where no one gives a s**t, and no one knows who you are. My mum and dad are always going on about how soulless those places are, and I’m like, Der. That’s the point.” ~nick hornby

This is Nick Hornby week. Which means every day that I post I’ll start with one of his quotes. I love today’s quote. That’s exactly how I feel; I get uncomfortable in those small stores. I love getting lost in a store. There’s no pressure on you when no one notices you. Yes, I’m anti-social and I never quite feel completely comfortable around people (those I like, those I don’t like, those I know, those I don’t know), but at least someone understands. Never mind the fact that those feelings are shared by a character who tries to kill herself. The point is, the novelist wrote that, and even if he doesn’t feel that way and is just giving those ideas to one of his characters, he was able to articulate the feeling and had to think of it in the first place.

Have you ever heard the question, Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language? I’ve thought about it before, and lately I’ve come back to it. As I’ve been getting to know Perrine over the past few months, I’ve discovered that she’s really funny. And I think she must be even funnier in French, her native language. She’s got pretty good English, but she seems somewhat reserved and uncomfortable and worried whether or not she’s saying the correct thing when she speaks in English. Now that she’s been here a while and I’ve spent more time with her, she’s been opening up more. And she’s absolutely hilarious. And I know she must be even funnier when she’s speaking in French because she’s more comfortable with the language. I’ve seen her with French friends and, even though I usually can’t understand everything she says, I can see a difference. She talks a lot, she speaks incredibly quickly, and she laughs more. So I can understand why people have said that you have different personalities in different languages. I would slightly amend that statement, however, to say that your true personality is best expressed in the language with which you’re most comfortable. It’s interesting.

Ooh, guess what? PATTI SMITH IS OPENING FOR U2 IN NOVEMBER! I'm excited to see her. She's much better than some of the other opening acts for this leg of the tour (and needless to say she's also a lot better than the opening act for the first leg of the tour).

The women's final of the U.S. Open is starting now. I want Clijsters to win so badly. But I know not to get my hopes up.

"As my memory rests but never forgets what I lost, Wake me up when september ends." ~green day

In my Education class today we had a guest speaker who spent some time in NYC as a literary consultant. She really pissed me off. She worked in the Bronx for a few months. I know the educational system there isn't perfect, but it still really annoyed me to hear someone else (particularly a foreigner who only spent a few months there) criticise it (which is mainly what she did). And I think the class got the idea that the entire American public education system is like that (in shambles), which it isn't. She didn't even live in the Bronx, she lived in Manhattan. You can't fully understand the system when you don't even live in the same environment where the kids come from and when you don't even spend an entire school year there. I know that I haven't experienced that school system yet, but I know I'll be teaching and living in NYC (probably one of the outer boroughs) right after I graduate college. Anyway, she pissed me off. But I didn't say anything.

It's really difficult to write an essay with a partner. I'm working on that now and I've learned that I'm an independent worker and I'm not very patient. My partner is one of my friends and I get along with her and I really like her, but it's still hard. She's been typing, and I'm used to typing and revising as I go along but it's harder to do that now. I'm used to doing projects together, but not writing 5-page essays. I suppose it's a learning experience that will develop my cooperation skills.

I'm in love with Nick Hornby. Add him to my list of future husbands. I don't know how I'll manage to marry all of them. But he's definitely on my list. He's a genius. Never mind that he's a middle-aged Londoner who doesn't know I exist and who is probably married (I don't know if he is, though. I'll pretend he's not). I want someone like him who's witty and articulate and hilarious and who "gets" me (isn't it funny that I feel like he "gets" me and we've never met?). I'm afraid I'll never be satisfied if I don't marry a famous novelist or a rock star or something like that. I've got to lower my standards, because I don't think Nick Hornby will be knocking on my door any day soon. Besides, it seems like those famous geniuses (writers, musicians, etc.) are the ones who are often troubled. Like the amazing qualities that make them so appealing are the ones that end up bringing them down and making them miserable and misunderstood. So I should probably try to find a normal, average, happy bloke and be satisfied with interacting with those extraordinary guys through their art (reading their books, listening to their music, etc.).

Oh, and another thing. I can't stand Andre Agassi. Robby Ginepri better beat him in the next round (I've met Robby and he's a nice guy).

And another thing. I'm in a computer lab right now, and there's only one other person in here (which normally would be a miracle, except it's pretty late right now) and she's talking to herself. Which is a little creepy. She keeps mumbling things and seems to be getting really worked up.

And one more thing. I'm obsessed with eBay. Someone needs to keep me away from that site. I've spent way too much money there, especially lately considering the fact that I haven't made any money in a while and am spending lots of it. That is all. For real. I think.

"And if you jump, you just might fall..." ~u2

I'll start to post pictures of my mid-semester break. So here are some bungy jumping pictures. I'll post a sequence of them. The first one is a far-away view of the bridge, the next one is me jumping (check out my perfect dive), the third is me bouncing back up after being dunked in the water, and the last one is me falling back down.






By the way, the comment on my last entry was so comforting. I really needed that reminder of the effects of the huge amounts of junk food I've eaten in the last week. *eye roll*

“He looks at her and he says, ‘We’re going to a party. It’s a birthday party. It’s your birthday party. Happy birthday, darlin’.” ~bright eyes

I love that song. I love that album. I love that band. I wish they would open for U2. Still waiting for an announcement on the opening act for my show(s). It should be soon.

Thanks to everyone who’s sent me happy birthday wishes. It was very sweet of you all. :-)

It’s funny how the littlest things can be so important. A simple ‘Happy Birthday’ sign from my flatmates made me so happy this morning. I didn’t think they’d even remember my birthday because it’s the last day of the holidays and they’re all getting ready to go back to school. It was my turn to cook tonight but instead they took me out to dinner. Then we drove up to a great lookout of the city; it was absolutely beautiful to see all the lights of Dunedin. Back at the flat we had one of the best chocolate cakes I’ve ever had. They got it from this really fancy bakery in town, and it was soooo rich. Matt tried to convince me to go out to the bars tonight but I wasn’t in the mood, so we stayed in and watched the movie A View From the Top. It turned out to be a really good day. Almost as fun as my kidnapping on my birthday last year. I’ve only lived with and known these people for two months, but they’re like my family here and they were really great today.
I got some great birthday presents from the fam. The O.C. complete season 1 dvds, tickets to “The Woman in White” on Broadway for when I get home (2nd row!), and other Broadway-related stuff like a few cast recordings and a great book on the history of Broadway.
I can’t believe I only have 6 more weeks of classes here. It’s gone by pretty quickly. I think I’ll miss it when I go back home, even though right now I do miss a lot back in the U.S. I’m weird like that; I’m never satisfied with what I have at the time. I guess it’s kind of like “you never know what you have until you lose it.” Right now I appreciate everything back at home that I usually take for granted, and when I’m back there, I’ll begin to appreciate the amazing opportunities I have here.

"They're singing, "Happy Birthday," You just wanna lay down and cry..." ~jonathan larson (tick, tick...boom!)

It just turned midnight here, so I'm officially 21 (well, I guess so, although it's not September 4th in the U.S. yet). I'm not sure what I'm doing tomorrow (or today I guess). Probably just work. I go back to school on Monday and I did nothing over the break. I said goodbye to my family awhile ago, and I miss them already. We celebrated my birthday tonight because their flight is early tomorrow morning so I won’t see them before they go. We had a great week, though. I want to try and write down everything we did, mostly for my own purposes (because I know I’ll forget and I want to remember). Perrine came with us on our vacation, and it was great to have her there. She’s my best friend here. I miss all my friends back home; everyone's back at Richmond now, and I wonder what I'm missing. To cheer myself up I'm recapping my week.
Saturday: We saw the All Blacks play South Africa in a rugby match. It was so much fun to watch, even if we all didn’t really understand everything. They do the wave here, except everyone throws beer cans in the air when it gets to them, and beer showers down over the crowd. It was gross, but sort of funny.
Sunday: We drove to Te Anau, a really cute little town. We stopped at the Lord of the Rings filming site for Fanghorn Forest. That night we went on a glowworm tour, which was cool. We took a boat inside a cave, and there were glowworms hanging from the ceiling. They looked like stars. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, so you'll have to imagine it for yourself.
Monday: We took a ferry up Milford Sound. It was absolutely amazing. There are lots of Lord of the Rings filming sites there; I think they were Isengard, Rivendell, and some others that I don’t remember. We saw dolphins and seals and the most beautiful scenery.
Tuesday: We went to Queenstown, a beautiful town. I went bungy jumping, at the site of the first bungy jump ever, where it was invented. It was so much fun. I’m an adventurous person, I love doing stuff like that, but even I had butterflies as I looked over the edge before I jumped. It was scary. The jump was over the river that was used as the River Anduin in the Lord of the Rings. I asked to touch the water with my hands, but they miscalculated and I ended up being dunked from the waist up. And remember it’s winter here. The water was freezing, but I didn’t even feel it until after the jump. It was such an exhilarating experience. My mom and my brother jumped as well. My dad did paragliding instead.
Wednesday: Skiing! In August! On Brett’s 18th birthday. The snow wasn’t great. We’re all good skiers (we mostly stick to black diamonds; I’ve been skiing since I could walk) and there weren’t many good black diamond (expert) runs open. In the morning there was lots of ice and by afternoon it was mostly slush. But we skied a full day and it was still fun.
Thursday: Jet-boating up the Dart River, then funyaking down. The wind was incredibly strong and it blew dust on us the whole time. I’m still picking sand out of my ears. I had to close my eyes during most of the funyaking as I paddled. But it was absolutely beautiful. More Lord of the Rings sites there, and sites where they filmed the new The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie coming out in December. NZ is so amazingly beautiful, like nowhere else in the world, so it’s the perfect setting for those fantasy locations like Narnia.
Friday: Arrowtown then back to Dunedin. In Arrowtown we saw my favorite Lord of the Rings site, the Ford of Bruinen. That’s where Arwen (Liv Tyler) rode on horseback across the river carrying Frodo in the first film.
Saturday (today): the Otago Penninsula. We saw penguins! Yellow eyed penguins, the rarest kind in the world (only found here) and blue penguins, the smallest kind in the world. We got so incredibly close to them. We also saw seals.
Tomorrow I’ll post pictures. Now I’m tired.