home, and just in time

I promise, you will get a full fledged eurotrip-recap-blog-post tomorrow. Possibly even complete with pictures.

But right now, I'm home, and I'm going to run out and meet the swiss kids for August 1st (the Swiss 4th of July) celebrations in about thirty minutes, and my hair is still wet.

However, I'm back in my own room. I'm wearing clean clothes for possibly the first time in weeks. I took a really long shower. So I'm in a really good mood.

Love always,

Clara

in greece :)

In a tourist place with internet. I've got eight minutes left on my euro's worth of time, so this will be brief.
The rest of us are checking out ancient Fira, but I was/am exhausted and decided my morning would be better spent asleep on the beach. Which was awesome, by the way, but now I'm covered in sweat and plan to take a long shower at the end of this eight minutes.

Greek food is awesome. Everything is honey and yogurt and nuts and pastry things. Or it's tomatoes and feta and olive oil. I love all of those things! Curiously, I've been wholeheartedly converted to the camp of tomato-loving people. Curious because, until this trip, I've mostly hated tomatoes. They were weirdly juicy. But I've just had so many fantastic tomato-based experiences over here that I have to change my allegiance.
And that's serious business right there.

I'm reading Bonk right now, which is a book about sex, but from a scientific standpoint. I've read about artificially inseminating pigs and the methods used to study sex in the 1950s and sex inside MRI machies and more. Also reading Lolita.
I guess either of these books on their own would be pretty normal, but together there's a certain theme. According to the contents of my bag, I'm a pervert.

NetCredit is freaking out at me. I should go. But all is well from greece and I'll be home again on August 1.

Love always,
Clara

hi there!

I'm sitting in an internet cafe (read internet-basement-of-a-convenience-store). Figured I'd check in.

The past week or so has been awesome. Yesterday we spent 8 hours on trains but passed the time reading Pretty Little Liars out loud. That's a fantastic book, by the way.

Not much time!
Au revoir, Pomplemoose!

Love always,
Clara

packing

It's hard to commit to carrying three weeks worth of clothes on your back. At least on the Camino there was no expectation to look good. On my trip, I don't think that will be the case.

I think I might finally be finished though. Hooray for that. Packing inexplicably wears me out so now I'm trying to put together an awesome traveling playlist.

I was trying to download a bunch of new music, but that is for some reason incredibly difficult lately. I'm so indecisive about music and I've just go this feeling that all of the songs that I love are already on my iPod.

So that got frustrating and then I remembered that I still have that big folder of music that Thomas sent me, so I took another bunch of songs from there. I'm not sure whether they're summer songs because I haven't listened yet, but here's a sampling.

I'll Hold My Breath - Ellie Goulding

Lights - Ellie Goulding

Salt Skin - Ellie Goulding

Your Biggest Mistake - Ellie Goulding

Oh No! - Marina and the Diamonds

Awake My Soul - Mumford & Sons

Eat That Up, It's Good for You - Two Door Cinema Club

Hermit the Frog - Marina and the Diamonds

The Outsider - Marina and the Diamonds

Re: Stacks - Bon Iver

Stranger - Noah and the Whale

Team - Bon iver

Thistle & Weeds - Mumford & Sons

Undercover Martyn - Two Door Cinema Club

What You Know - Alessi's Ark

In other news, I'll be absent until August 1st. Maybe August 2nd. I might stop in and blog if we find an internet cafe or something. If I don't, it's because I'm too busy being a backpacker, or because I've been kidnapped and sold into sex slavery.

Love always,

Clara

i went and jumped off a bridge last night

I've been kept up late hearing Camino stories from Katie, Eleni, and Cath.

The Camino sounds hilarious, strenuous, stressful, inspring, and mostly exhausting. Which is why we didn't go clubbing tonight as planned, but instead watched "Taken" with my parents and ate chinese food and sat around my dining room table and chatted.

Mom legitimately told my dad to go out and buy "Taken" so that we could watch it before we left. As an educational experience or something. A two-hour-long-educational-experience-with-drugs-and-guns.

Me: Look at Mom, so pleased with herself. She's like "and that's why you should stay in switzerland for the next three weeks!"

Mom: And don't swim in the Aare!

Me: Because there are Albanians in the Aare! With heroin!

The Aare, by the way, is a river. And while I'm sure that sometimes there are Albanian immigrants swimming in the river (because it's quite the Swiss sumer activity), they have no interest in kidnapping any of us or selling us into sex slavery.

Today I did swim in the Aare. I jumped off a bridge into the river and it was probably the greatest half-second of my life. For the record, I did check to be sure the water was deep enough, and I knew I was a strong enough swimmer to take on the current. I'm a safe river-swimmer.

Danny and I were supposed to go at the same time, actually.

Me: Danny, have you never jumped before either?

Danny: No.

Me: We can have our first times together!

Danny: Um...

So he says, "On three..." and I'm freaking out and Chris is behind us. And Danny jumps. And we have to go down in a group because swimming in the river alone is another unsafe thing. So I'm like, "shit, I have to go, because otherwise I'm stuck without the group and/or Danny's by himself and neither of those are good.

So I jump.

Best half-second ever.

Love always,

Clara

P.S. Bonus points to those who got the Eddie From Ohio reference in here.

frogging, flogging, and blogging

Go Spain!

I have no idea how to properly cheer for a soccer game. I really have gotten into the whole soccer deal, but I'm not a pro yet. I can be heard shouting things like "KICK THAT BALL, SPANYARD!" and "NO, DON'T KICK, BITCHES!"

I think the problem is that people don't really do anything other than kick in soccer. Or I just don't know enough about soccer to distinguish the differences between kicks.

Thomas: America is awesome at everything. [rolls eyes]

Me: Thomas! You're my new favorite!

Thomas: What? Oh, clearly you didn't see my eye roll.

Me: Oh. Well, it's what I heard that counts.

Thomas: You would like me a lot better if you were blind.

This sent me into hysterics, of course. Thomas might still be my new favorite, regardless of the eye-roll.

It's up for debate. I'm still not sure who my old favorite was, so it may be hasty to choose a new favorite already.

I've been into this new thing where I threaten to flog people. It's really useful in a lot more situations than you would think. As I learned with Peter, if something is giving you trouble, hit it with a hammer.

Anyway, this new tendency has gotten me into a bit of trouble, because no one understands me when I speak. They think I'm saying I want to "frog" them. "Frogging" has somehow taken on a sexual connotation. How that happened is a mystery.

Me: Danny, I told you not to eat the chips! I will flog you!

Danny: No, don't frog me! I'm still sore from last time you frogged me!

You see how this can get out of hand very quickly.

Flogging people is one of the best ways I know to express myself though.

Sometimes, people just need to be flogged.

Thomas: Are you going to blog about blogging about me saying that you were going to blog me, about blogging?

How am I supposed to not blog that?

Love always,

Clara

yikesss

I like my job.

I do.

Really.

However, something about the government and the standards there just don't grok well with me.

It has come to my attention that my writing style is considered "irreverent".

It has also come to my attention recently that this particular style is going underappreciated in areas other than my blog.

To which I say, to hell with that.

Fuck reverence.

I mean, I suppose reverence as a general concept is worth holding onto in society, for certain circumstances (see: childbirth, pretty sunsets, the president if he's in the room).

But reverence for the sake of reverence because the lack of reverence would be considered inappropriate? That's circular!

I hope to never work in an office. Everything is catty and messy and I want to write a big expose on all of the scandals (OMG someone borrowed our copy of that travel book without asking) except knowing me, it would be irreverent, and that won't do.

No one can step on anyone's toes, but everyone's toes are stepped upon.

And now my toes feel sore.

And I have to watch myself.

And I hate that.

I'm clumsy. I walk into things, people, if it's there, I'll probably stumble upon it somehow. And I've taken this trait and incorporated it into my persona, my affect, my unescapable Clara-ness that would be very difficult to reverse at this point in the game.

I believe I've been known to say too much and maybe that's what I'm doing now.

All of this is just proving to me that I'm not cut out for a traditional career of any kind. Anyone know any non-traditional careers that I might enjoy that would definitely without a shadow of a doubt keep me out of office life forever?

That would be awesome, thanks.

Daphna
I spent like an he subwayibf caarilus places
ok that was ibxomprehendible

I just talked to Daphna on AIM. If it helps her case, she was typing from an iPod Touch.

Love always,

Clara

differences between me and spain

Oren: Are you still alive?

Me: Yes

Oren: That's good. It's a good day to be alive.

Thanks for that, Oren.

Another gem from tonight-

Me: My friends are walking through Spain.

Someone: In the mountains?

Me: No I think it's pretty flat.

Chris: Unlike Clara.

... later...

Oren: You're flat honest.

Me: I'M NOT FLAT.

These are the facts. I'm not flat, but Spain is, in some parts.

Me: Everyone at this school is weird as shit.

Oren: Including you.

Me: Yeah, I include myself in that.

Oren is trying to make the case that this school turns people crazy. I disagree. I was pretty insane before I got here.

Me: I will flog you.

Love always,

Clara

things found while clearing off my bed

• A computer chip
• Five (5) programs for Potomac Graduation
• A photocopy of my insurance card
• My diploma
• Four (4) science-related magazines
• A dinner knife

To which I say... what the fuck?

My bedroom is a disaster zone right now.

Hopefully I can somewhat get my shit together before the beginning of epic-euro-trip-2010, which is going to be fantastic, by the way, if you were wondering.

Non-sequitur: I am always hungry.

Love always,

Clara

chili dog

chili dog, originally uploaded by csb324.

This post might as well be called, "I am exhausted and simply cannot blog tonight and will probably pass out as soon as I click 'POST,' if I even make it that far."

In lieu of my witty commentary on things, I present to you, a picture of my dog.

He is also very witty.

Love always,
Clara

go fish

We played Go Fish tonight.

I have not played such a rigorous game of Go Fish since I was in third grade.

Five guys, two decks of cards, only seven 9s, and one Clara.

Honestly the only insight into this evening that I feel qualified to give is a series of quotes-without-much-context. Any further analysis would be overreaching and would probably mar the purity of the event.

(That's my way of saying, "I'm a lazy blogger tonight, because I'm tired, and these quotes are pretty funny.")

Simone: Gimme your bitch, your queen.

Peter: It's dry now, just all sticky and stuff.

(I believe he had spilled Pepsi on his hand, but who can say for sure?)

Simone: Clara, do you have any bitches?

Me: So many. However, none of the kind you want. Fish.

Kyle: There's my king, there's my dude.

Kyle: All Simone has is bitches.

Simone did end up with a lot of bitches, and by that I mean queens, and by that I mean wow, Go Fish is a really fantastic game.

Love always,

Clara

exhausted

Oh. My. God.

I'm beginning to think that 4th of July is my new favorite holiday.

Today was ridiculous in twelve different ways.

1. I spent three hours theoretically "at work" doing almost nothing, due to some sort of miscommunication between Boss and I.
2. Peter demanded that I donate my presence to the cause of his happiness,* so I had lunch with him.
3. Pictures from the past few nights went up on facebook, which is always entertaining, especially in regards to nights like the last few.
4. I mingled like a boss at the Independence Day event, making witty charming comments about the weather, as if I had been born to have these sorts of pointless conversations.
5. There were bunnies in my front yard.
6. I introduced some co-workers to some very pretty girls, because I am a good person.
7. Someone who called himself a "Rock-Jazz Pianist" was in my living room, and was the source of the most phenomenal sounds I have ever heard from a piano.
8. At the dinner following this event, karma proved herself to me.
9. I drank something called a "libertini"
10. Every question anyone ever had about the internet or social media or documentary film or soccer or Brown University was answered at my table.
11. I managed to get through a vaguely messy dinner without marring the whiteness of my graduation dress.
12. There was a dance party in my living room.

*People should use that sentence construction more often. As if my presence were a gift, and his happiness, a charity.

And now I'm wiped out. Actually, I was wiped out two hours ago, but Blythe made me keep dancing. She also steals people's sneezes. That deviant.

Love always,

Clara

holding my tongue

I'm chilling with Peter and Chris, the embassy brothers productive.

Peter: That was great. Me and Thomas found that.
Me: Thomas and I. No one speaks engilsh here.
Chris: Well people make that mistake in America too.
Me: At my old school, we were all sort of pretentious and we'd correct each other's grammatical errors. I've been holding my tongue all year. I can't do it anymore.
Chris: So... up until this point... you've been quiet?

Fair enough. I'd been holding my tongue about grammatical errors. My tongue had been pretty unrestrained regarding almost anything else.

Well that last sentence sounded strangely suggestive-slash-creepy.

Love always,
Clara

tumbling

Me: I'm starting a tumblr blog.
Peter: Do you tumble?
Me: Yeah it's like rolling down a hill, on the internet.
Peter: Oh. Ew.
Me: Are you saying you don't enjoy rolling down hills?
Peter: Eh, I guess I did in my youth. Once the arthritis kicked in, a lot of things stopped being fun.
Me: I see.
Peter: Yeah, after seventy, everything starts to fall apart.

I am starting a tumblr blog. Don't expect much from it. In fact, I'm going to wait a month before even linking you to it because I've realized the importance of building up some basic material before showing anything off to the world.

Put that on your calenders, kids.

Love always,
Clara

hrmph.

Discoveries made today:

• I'm perceptive.
• Friends are great.
• Salito's-- also great.
• Sex and the City 2-- not great. Hot guys are great, and pretty dresses are great, but watching two hours of hot guys and pretty dresses pretending to be a movie? Not great.
• Spain is also great.
• Miscommunications are lame.
• Robert is a high-class escort service.

I do try to avoid rambling about my social life on here, but let me just have one quick moment.

So many times, something hasn't worked out for one reason or another and people have said "You can do better" or "You deserve better" or something. So why do I always end up with the same thing, which isn't better?

If I can do better, where is that better thing and why can't I get it?

Whatever though. This incident isn't an earth-shattering one, and it isn't anything for the memoirs. Yes, I've had breakups that I plan to include in my memoirs. I'd say, Will in 08 (sorry, but you knew that was going to be relevant) and Phil, also in 08 (for comedic value).

We'll see. One of those might be replaced by a later breakup if that later breakup is either funnier or more era-defining than either of those.

Love always,

Clara

a story about my childhood

Let's talk about fifth grade.

In fifth grade, I was in Ms. Jackson's class. Ms. Jackson was great. She had us do cheers for people when they got answers right. She started us off with just a basic cheer (I think it was the sprinkler), and by the end of the year, we were a professional step team. That's a lie. But it could have been true.

Charlie, on the first day of school, trying to prove how too-cool he was, asked not to have a cheer. So, Ms. Jackson, brilliant woman that she was, declared,

"All right, let us have a moment of silence for Charlie" which sent us all into hysterics.

We got some kind of weekly grade on a 1-6 scale. A four meant you did everything fine and on time, and to get a five or a six you had to do some kind of extra credit. I wanted to get a six every week, because I was just that kind of nerd in fifth grade. My extra credit projects were always pretty cool though. I made a lot of videos.

This was back when, to make a video, you had to record it on a cassette, and to edit said video, it had to do with playing that cassette back onto the television, while recording a VHS tape. Seriously. Don't think about background music or titles or any of that. It wasn't happening.

I did a few of those, which were pretty chill, but what I was most excited about was the class newspaper, The Jackson Post.

I probably wrote half of it. I think writing an article counted as extra credit, going towards my six.

For some reason I'd forgotten about this, but I used to spend hours playing with Microsoft Publisher 2003, and days putting together short documentaries with that horrible camera.

And now, what do I do all day? Play with Microsoft Publisher 2007 (welcome to the future) and take photos with Turtle the DSLR.

My life has themes. And organic unity.

I'm liking it.

Love always,

Clara

do you have money?

Honestly, let's face it: if you have a computer, you probably have $25 to spare.
You should send it here. In the next four days.
You know why?



Because I want this movie to happen. And they're doing the fundraising on Kickstart, which is probably one of the better things about the internet to date. It's a fund raising website, where you set a time limit and a goal, and people donate money, but you're only charged for your donation if they reach the goal. The goal is $10000. The deadline is the end of the month. They've got $9,500 already.
This needs to happen!

So. Donate some money?

I think this issue is an important one, to be honest. I stole The Purity Myth from Katie and it sent me on this feminist streak that's been really interesting. Society is so weird when it comes to girls and anything sexual- it's all or nothing in most cases in the media, and that's ridiculous.
This documentary looks like it could really bring all the strangeness to light.

More info from one of my favorite blogs, here.

Love always,
Clara

P.S. If you donate $25, they can send you a signed copy of the DVD. So you're basically buying a DVD in advance, but if the DVD is never made, you don't pay for it.

you're watching afn

I've been watching a lot of TV lately, basically because summer is the only season that I have the spare time.

Watching TV here necessarily means watching AFN. We have like, 15 channels, which isn't bad, but they're pretty bizarre channels. Although, as long as I can get my fill of Law and Order SVU and trashy movies (currently watching: The House Bunny), I'm solid.

The commercials are all military-interest, which means they're all low budget and fairly strange. They advertise things like army chaplains or online courses or saving water, and they use comic sans ms with zero irony.

(There is, of course, a time and a place for Comic Sans MS. That time is 2008, and the place is my AIM default font, in magenta. That is all.)

I'd say the most bizarre part of all of this though are the ads that sort of, declare the channel. You know the ones, that are like, "You're watching this channel!" which are completely redundant, by the way, because who doesn't know what channel they're watching these days?

Anyway, they have these ads that I can only describe as absurdist.

Example 1:

A man is standing far away in a field. He runs up to the camera (stationary) and, panting, says "You're watching AFN!"

Example 2:

A man in a military uniform says something incomprehensible and then says "and you're watching AFN." There's a subtitle at the bottom of the screen, and it says, "whattheheckisthisguysaying?"

Example 3:

A man (dressed in plain clothes) approaches a man in a scuba suit and asks him, "Hey, which way to the commissary?" The scuba man says, "It's just that way," and the normal man thanks him and he's on his way. And then the scuba man faces the camera and says, "You're watching AFN!"

Just try to make sense of this.

Love always,

Clara

congratulations!

OMG

Dear Clara:

Congratulations! You have been placed in the following course(s) in the
first round of the CAP/FYS lottery:

PHIL:0250:2010-Fall:S01 (Curricular Advising Program)
LITR:0110A:2011-Spring:S04 (First-Year Seminar)

Translation: I'm taking "The Meaning of Life" first semester and Fiction I second semester. And my advisor is going to be a philosophy professor. COLLEGE IS GOING TO ROCK.

Love always,

Clara

out tonight

That's where I went.

Actually, first I went to work.

Then I went home for all of ten minutes.

Then I went to the pool, and got lost on the way there, because some people give terrible directions. I asked for help from a Swiss woman.

Me: Scuzi, wo ist... muribad? aarebad?

Woman: Oh! Yes, straight ahead, and to the left!

My german is so unconfident these days. I need to get back into shape. That is, if german constitutes physical activity (and have you heard those consonants?).

The pool was fun. The water was freezing. Robert sort of threw me in. I say "sort of" because once I knew I was going in, I just jumped in. I'd rather enter the swimming pool on my own terms, thanks.

Then a bunch of us walked down the river a bit and grilled. This sounds like a poorly thought out plan, because it was, but it was also fantastic. Kajus had a bunch of chicken, Matt brought a bratwurst, and Chris had a couple small (but delicious) steaks.

Essentially, what guys think when they think "Let's go grilling!" they think, "What do we need? Meat and flame."

Things such as tongs, plates, silverware, any food other than raw meat, or even a proper grilling surface were considered completely unnecessary. Thank goodness heat kills germs, because there was probably a lot of nature happening* on that outdoor grill thing near the river.

So we lit a fire under this grilling surface, because Kajus is the fire-master, and discussed all that is life, and I was the only girl there (which you know I relish).

Then we headed into town and chilled.

And watched the game, which was kind of sad. I wish Switzerland had made it further, if only because I like the drama of being in a country where people care and the team is doing well. I wish I'd been here when we beat Spain.

Anyway, it was a great night. I need to get film for Diana Mini, because I feel like she would be a good companion on these nights. She's got a flash.

We saw a Danish flag somewhere.

Thomas: It's a Danish flag!

Me: I honestly wouldn't have known that.

Thomas: What? Clara, I thought you were smart!

Me: I know, I'm ashamed. I'm not good with flags.

Thomas: I love Denmark!

Me: Me too! I'm going there this summer! I'm going to Copenhagen!

Thomas: That's awesome!

Me: Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Thomas: What? That's insulting!

Me: It's shakespeare!

That basically sums up this night.

Love always,

Clara

*Yeah, that's right, nature happens. It's an event.