Becoming American?

So I decided to do something with all my free time. And what is not better then to get a job? Exactly! So now I am working, hence the very light blogging recently. I also think that my light blogging lately is a sign of me becoming American. How so? Well, the origins of this blog was to write about America and DC - and what I thought about it, like, from an outsiders point of view. Because I was an outsider. I came here pretty anti, pretty sceptical. Everything was so big, the cars, the food portions the Coke bottles. I freaked when all Americans kept on asking me how I was, randomly in 7/11 - I wanted them to mind their own business, like we do in Europe. I Needed them to stop asking me if I needed direction when I stopped to ponder something on the street. But I have been here almost seven months now and I now use words like awesome, hook up, senator, spring break, Meet the Press, bud light and when in hell is the Attorney-General going to get fired - on a daily basis. I now answer my friend in the 7/11 on New Hampshire Ave. with a smiley "I am great thanks, How are you today? Busy yeah? Lovely weather isnt it?" I have been known to help strangers on street corners with a map in their hand. My Starbucks order takes more than 20 seconds to pronounce. I have even drank beer out of a red and white plastic cup. So maybe your work is done here - I am American - in soul if not by passport. Oh my am my European friends going to kill me for this post. I consider myself erased from their phonebooks already.

Student Time Management

Are you a normal person? You know, like, you have a job and stuff. If so, I have a really serious question for you; How come your hours are longer than mine? Because for me, going to the grocery store is a good half-day's worth of work. If I, in the same day, go to the gym than I'm practically done for the day. All of the sudden its like 6pm and all I have accomplished is buying avocados and milk and listen through the washingtonpost.com podcast whilst running on a treadmill.
How do you manage a 9 to 5 (most likely longer) job, whilst all so fitting in ANYTHING else? Why does my day go quicker? Its so unfair. Maximum I can do is four things a day, and if I push it I can fit in a Hoegaarden at the local at the end.
Ok so I don't get up at 7am, but I am usually up at least at 9.30 (- and quite frequently, like today, I study in the library till 10pm, which makes it a good ten and a half hour day) but I still manage not to accomplish much in this time.

Like today, 4 things accomplished:
1. Gym. (9.30 till like 12) - Time spent: updating newest podcasts to ipod, walk all the way over there, work out for an hour, walk all the way back, shower.

2. Cook lunch. (12-2pm) - Time spent: trying to cook new pasta-salad w chicken, Dijon mustard and honey -recipe I got from Jude, Eat food whilst watching CNN.

3. Coffee with Zach (3-5pm)- Time Spent: Walking all the way over there, order long order at Starbucks (tall-double-skimmed-latte - takes them 3 minutes to understand my British accent), drink coffee on a wooden bench whilst talking about life's issues of love and undiscovered Norwegian girl-pop.

5. Revise. (5-10pm) Time Spent: 50% Reading about the ambiguity of The Vesting Clause of Articles I and II of the American Constitution vis-a-vis the changing powers of the President, 20% Reading about high-quality advertising campaigns from across the globe, 20% Reading about celebrities fashion faux-pas, 10% Plain complaining.

Thats it. Took me a whole day, shocking right?

Whilst you probably went to the gym, worked a full day, went shopping, read all todays news papers, booked some holiday flights, spend quality time with your friends/family/children/grandmother, AND went to dance class.

I blame the student bubble. You know, when you're at college and you all you do is college stuff, and all the people you meet gets up at 12, and, like, you get surprised when you see a kid because you realize you haven't seen one in 3 weeks. The bubble where a library becomes a social scene and 25% of the people you meet on the street are still wearing their pajamas. The bubble where the weekend starts on Wednesday night and ends on Monday. Ah, I love it.