I've been meaning to blog for sometime now. A lot has been going on around NC's home away from home. Unfortunately I have developed a habit of sleeping terribly late. Around 5 hours before I actually fall asleep, I tend to become completely unproductive. So basically I cannot work at night, and can't get up early enough to work before my classes, which leads to a lot of guilt all day. I lug myself around from class to work to meeting to class only to wish I was in bed at home. 

Anyway, now the fun stuff. I bought my round trip ticket to Croatia! I got a super great deal on a student travel website. The only worry is that I still don't have a visa to that country. In the next 3 weeks I have to prepare for my 10 week long holiday term, apply for and miraculously attain tourist visas to Italy (meaning the whole of EU) and Bosnia, go to NYC for the same - all of this obviously after I complete my film, my rotoscoping assignment, and write two more essays for that godforsaken Middle Eastern film class. And then I'm all set for the Dalmatian coast :)

Other fun news: I shopped. Three cool t-shirts which gets my t-shirt collection into ten figures. Two summery shoe like things. And one beach flip flops with a palm tree and beach pattern on them. 

What else. I had a historic meal last weekend. At my professor's house. I had a feeling it won't go well. I was wrong. It was the most painful 3 hours of my life. Really. 

I always thought she talked too much. In my individual meetings with her regarding my project towards the end of last term, she paid less attention to my pathetically assembled multimedia than she did to my exotic roots. I enjoyed it, of course. Who cares about making meaningful films when the professor makes you feel like you're doing a great job by just talking in fluent English coming from where you do and all. 

That's not entirely true, actually. She's sort of motherly - and has had a lot of professional experience - so I guess she's always concerned about the bigger picture and all that. Anyway, the strange thing about that night at her beautiful house was that she didn't get a chance to talk much. That's because her husband, who also happens to be a professor at a different university here and teaches German philosophy, loves the sound of his own voice and cannot speak in English. (Maybe that's why my prof was so impressed by my language skills :P) He only speaks in the native tongue of academia. As a result, everything flew over my head. 

I was trying to adjust to this foreign man when the food was served. It looked lovely until I was proudly told that it was completely VEGAN! I somehow swallowed the two kinds of mushrooms in the cauliflower wraps (I have a deep unexplainable disliking for mushrooms). It was only the glass of red wine that kept me sane. I had to meet some friends after the dinner. They called a couple of times and I just couldn't answer the phone because he just wouldn't stop talking!

His favorite subject was of course the book he is writing. I don't get how people can say things like, I know that my book is going to be one of it's kind - the world needs such a book - I am the King of the World crap. I can tolerate confidence - but over-confidence is a BIG no-no.

Going back to the food - don't get me wrong. I am not against Vegans. It's just that when you invite someone to your home, you generally ask about what kind of meat the guests eat or don't eat, right? On the same lines, shouldn't I have been warned about the Vegan dinner I was going to be served? If she had informed me, I would not have refused, but at least been better prepared. Or if I had told them that I enjoy meat (more than anything else in the world) we could have eaten out where everyone would get a chance to choose their food - vegan or not. 

Anyway, you would be happy to know that I have recovered from that meal (I really had a strange stomach ache after it) and had around twenty five chicken momos with chilly garlic sauce for dinner tonight, just like home :)