On The Move…

Wow, it’s been a busy couple of days.  But mostly fun-busy, I think.  But perhaps that’s just selective memory.

I threw another party tonight, mostly in honor of pre-frosh weekend, although I think I eventually only met a handful of prefrosh (the rest of the time I spent running about searching for refills, cleaning up and greeting people I know).  The party was pretty successful on the whole, and it did end at about the time I’d been planning.  I’m proud that I kept fairly close to budget, despite the fine selection of finger food and cocktails served.  My favorites were the English cheddar with carmelized onions and the seafood paté on melba toast.  More pictures and so on will have to wait.

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In a couple of hours I will drive Ming, Nathan, Justin and myself down to NYC for Singapore Day.  And then at about 3am on Sunday morning I will drive Rika, Justin and myself back.  The next 36 hours are going to have to be about many naps…

There is a lot happening this weekend.  Dozens of parties, a whole slew of student-run activities (SEA Night, Fiesta 2007 etc. etc.), people visiting, free trips, plans to catch meals together.

There’s also been a very elevated incidence of baked goods from Rosie’s, and chocolate.  All the benefits of thesis-induced starvation are quickly becoming a distant memory.

I’m not complaining.  If only I had the motivation to also study for the Ec midterm I have next week.

… is the only way to go! 🙂

Everything has come together very nicely indeed, thank God.  I leave tomorrow morning for Mexico City (via Houston, Texas) and I’ll be flying back late at night next Tuesday.

Today was spent hurrying through the many errands that inevitably arise before a trip.  I got a new prescription for Cipro (I used up my stash on World Tour).  I printed out my boarding passes.  I got a haircut.  I’m not sure how I’m going to write the two essays due immediately after I get back, but I’ll think of something.

My happy story for the day happened right after my haircut near the Prudential Center.  As background, since last night I’d been looking around for an inexpensive travel guidebook to Mexico City.  Naturally, all the copies in the Harvard library system had been checked out, presumably by other students on break.  (Don’t even get me started on trying to find a Spanish phrase book in the system – that’s a story for Ryan!)  So this evening, after managing to catch the stylist at his only open appointment for today (Kent squeezed me in while the guy before me was waiting for his highlights to set), I wandered over to the Barnes and Noble at the Prudential Center mall and browsed through the travel guide section.  As expected, I was loathe to pay the $30 (including tax) for a shiny new Fodor’s or Frommer’s that I would only use for a week.  But then lo and behold, when I reached up and pulled down a random copy of the guide book I really wanted–the latest Lonely Planet Mexico–I found it marked with a “50% Off” sticker!  Turns out that one copy was discounted on account of being “damaged”, i.e., the spine was a little creased as you can see in the picture below (maybe it was dropped in the stock room).  Looks good to me!  And I’m sure it’ll look much more damaged when I get back in a week.

Perfect timing, I say 🙂

Today I woke up feeling incredibly wobbly and with a steady headache, and found my room completely trashed.  Very collegiate, no?

Except this wasn’t a hangover of the partying sort.  This was the thesis hangover.  After a week of not really sleeping, two weeks of not really eating, and a month of not really relaxing, it’s really no wonder that I slept for 17 hours straight and woke up feeling only partly revived.  I weighed myself this morning and was pretty shocked to see how much weight I’ve lost recently, which only confirms what I recognise (unprecedented for me) to be a thesis-induced skeletal look.  Very runway 🙂  I think my complexion for the past week would be best described as “death-mask”.

Thanks to the seemingly endless supply of fancy food at HUCE, my diet the past few weeks has been a combination of: (a) nothing, (b) horrendous junk food, or (c) very rich fancy food.  Which may explain the frequent nausea.  An illustrative food diary:

Wed 3am-6pm: four Ferrero Rocher chocolates.  Endless litres of water.  Jelly beans.
Wed 6pm-9pm: dried figs, rabbit paté on crackers, and some hard cheese.  Nausea.
Wed 10pm-11pm: spicy Doritos.
Thu 3am-8am: nothing.  Many litres of water.
Thu 8am-10am: chocolate butter croissant, iced lemon tea.  More nausea.

Meanwhile, my room…  woah.  I don’t think it’s ever been this trashed before.  When I finally woke up at 7am this morning I was startled enough to take a few pictures to record the damage.  (Laurel, this reminds me of your blog post from the day after you finished your dissertation.)

Which reminds me, I should get back to tidying.

(9 Feb 2007)

At long last I’ve gone through them and thrown a bunch of them onto Flickr…  although I haven’t labelled or captioned any of them.  I’m sad that I didn’t take more pictures at the CNY potluck dinner.  Oh well.

There should be a lot to say, but blogging seems a real luxury right now.  I had two thesis-related meetings today; wow do I have a lot of work left to do.  On an unrelated note, I hate being stranded away from my dining hall and missing mealtimes.  Prior to dinner at 5pm I had a banana, a serving of Lay’s potato chips, a slice of choco-banana bread (someone baked a loaf for HUCE!) and a milky mug of tea…  which was still probably about 800 KCal, but nonetheless didn’t feel very substantial.

:/

PS: I cannot wait to throw more parties!!  Also, I’m excited to have my cousins visit in April!! *waves* 🙂

So, according to research led by a visiting fellow here, big brains are better for birds.  Very fluffy!

In hindsight, this picture is especially funny because:
(1) It claims that I’m on sale, at a 25% discount
(2) It coincidentally pictures approximately 25% of me in the frame
(3) I am just about to turn 25 in a week.

Thanks to Steve for taking this picture, and for the other Dins who spotted this banner in the Vitamin Shoppe somewhere in midtown Manhattan.

Taken from the Greyhound bus enroute to New York City.  I am always struck by the beauty of light filtering through the clouds.  A little cheesy, maybe, but nonetheless inspiring.

At least the first snow to actually stick around for more than 15 minutes.  Taken by Andrew from our common room window.

What can I say?  It’s fun to *finally* be able to wear my new long coat, courtesy of Mr Pinky, whose exceptional tailoring services are now available internationally online at www.tailorclothes.com.

Especially since it’s been nearly 7 months since I bought that cloth at my favorite fabric store in London and then proceeded to lug it through another 20 or so cities over the next two months on World Tour.