frigid-air

Apparently, by the book of MAC Property Management, there's an all-or-nothing policy when it comes to heat. Which is to say, either it's 900 degrees in here and we're all sweating and basically in our underwear and opening all the windows in the middle of the Chicago winter, or they turn the heat off entirely. It was circa 50 degrees the other day (which was AMAZING, my joy was paralleled only by that of the little bird that washed itself in the little puddle on an ice sheet on someone's lawn and the squirrel that made eye contact with me) and so, rightly, our heat was turned off. But they haven't turned it on since, and this is CHICAGO, people, which means it's back in the 20-degree range again, at least for a while. So we've closed all our windows and bundled in blankets and I took a ridiculously hot bath tonight and even drank some of the coffee T. made with soy milk. Which might explain why I'm serenely writing a very detailed post at 1AM in the middle of yet another overwhelmingly demanding week.

On Soy Milk:

So I've recently been really disturbed by milk. And eggs. And, well, I've been having vegan tendencies. It's taken me a while to come out and admit that, because of my avid fear of "becoming" something just because I have friends who've gone the same route, but I've been very interested in the topic of food ethics lately (some 4/5ish months ago my vegetarian kick became less about the environment and more about animal ethics) and what I've read about the dairy industry makes it seem no friendlier than the meat industry, really. The difference between veganism and vegetarianism is HUGE though, in terms of demands. Vegetarians can still maintain a pretty spontaneous dietary lifestyle, but most vegans I've hung out with have a very difficult time eating out, etc. I'm sure you can live just as freely, it's just about effort, but I'm a bit worried about balancing the surrendering of dairy while simultaneously maintaining a healthy diet while simultaneously not smashing my head into walls over suddenly-assigned-papers and weekly tests and midterms coming out the ass.

I'm thinking about doing an experimental vegan week spring quarter, however.

But anyway, what I was talking about in the first place was SOY MILK, which I bought the other day and tried to be really optimistic about. I tried it on my Raisin Bran yesterday morning and it made me feel vaguely nauseous in a why-is-this-bizarre-watery-yellow-crap-in-my-mouth kind of way. Perhaps it gets some getting used to. But it's not bad in coffee.

On Hindi:

Finally today I've memorized the entirety of my lines during the Hindi skit. I can recall it all independent of my cue cards. That's not to say it doesn't come out choppy and strangely emphasized, much like the English equivalent of "I love grapefruit because... it's so.... unusually tasty... when.. eaten with...... sugar?" I also can't guarantee that the tenuous string tying my brain to the progression of words won't be severed upon the impact of 10-ish all-too-attentive faces. But seriously. I've got like 4 months of the language under my belt, how spectacular and Angelina Jolie-ish am I expected to be? I'll fall to my knees and weep tears of sweet satisfaction when I'm done with the whole mess at approximately 2:00pm Thursday.

On India:

My fantasies involving Jaipur have gotten a little too intense lately, likely due to the fact that finals week is quickly approaching. Among the unhealthy things I've done in relation to the fact that I might be in India next year:

1. Fantasize about writing a "Namaste, there!" letter to my host-stay Hindustani family. This would happen in late summer, and I would discuss where I go to college, my family members, and where I live (I also imagined drawing a US map and putting a star on MI to indicate where I grew up).
   
2. Google "Jaipuri woman".
   
3. Wonder about the Hindi word for "camel", so I can talk about how excited I am to see a camel.
4. Consider googling train rates so I can see how easily and cheaply I could get to the Himalayan foothills from Rajasthan.
   
5. Activate my University of Minnesota email address and think fondly of beautiful, wonderful Minnesota.
   

Stuff to remember (SELF): The NSEP is an intensely competitive scholarship, and this year there were a record number of applicants. Consider that your fate rests in the hands of probably some greasy DCers with stinking-bad cologne and hence you probably won't get funded, and hence CAN'T go to JAIPUR and must settle for CHICAGO which still has decent masala dosa in DEVON.

I'm going to Boulder soon (!!!) for spring break to see my sister and become physically active and maybe go camping and eat at the teal-and-pink and other-colored Dushanbe Teahouse and also eat Nepalese food and walk barefoot in streams and read books and write maybe, and look for a summer job?

ALSO: I might take a class on Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain" next quarter; read in conjunction with Nietzsche and other philosophers who informed his work. It sounds kind of ridiculously amazing, and also it fits into the IS "area and civilization studies" track and also I really feel the need to channel into my Germanness (Germanicness? Germanity?) and maybe this is how I can do it. I mean, I could have just as easily grown up speaking Deutsch. I should at least read a book from the fatherland.

This is totally what I'm going to think about during my skit, damn it.