last day of work in 2008

Seven hours until I am freeeeeeee...

One of the most wonderfully fabulous things about my job is that I have off from Christmas Eve until January 2nd. And, being that January 2nd falls on a Friday this year, the officials at my institution have generously expanded the holiday break to January 5. SCORE!

I really really really love my job. I get a ton of holidays, paid time off, and sick days. My benefits kick ass. Seriously. I don't know too many other people who get health insurance as cheap as I do, on top of dental and vision. I can take 2 undergraduate course units a semester (2 classes, or 1 class if one of the classes is a lab). If I want to get my Masters, I pay only the taxes. My gym membership is dirt cheap (or should I say my would-be gym membership). I have the opportunity to work with the top people in the field from all over the world. I can keep going, but I sound pretty lame. Honestly, the only other people my age who can say all these great things about their job are other university employees.

Oh, and my actual job duties aren't bad. I guess I should mention that.

For years and years all I wanted to do was get out of this general area. No more Philly, no more Jersey, no more East Coast, no more USA. I had visions of just about anywhere but here - New York City, North Carolina, Seattle, Portland, Montreal, Vancouver, Prague.... And here I am. Sometimes I think I should have gone to graduate school immediately after undergrad. I wish I had more money saved up so I could have gone to learn how to be a ESL teacher in Prague. I wish I wish I wish I wish. I was miserable for a long time. But now? This job has turned things around, mostly because I know I won't be able to find anything else like it anywhere in the world. And I'm HAPPY. So now, here I am, exactly where I never wanted to be but fairly content with it.

Funny how things work out.

"Veronika Decides to Die"

Veronika Decides to Die is one of my all time favorite books by one of my all time favorite authors - Paulo Coelho. I had no idea that this movie had been filmed, so this was definitely a pleasant surprise. I've never been a big Sarah Michelle Gellar fan, but Paulo seems to think she did the part amazingly well, so I trust his opinion.

I've read all of Paulo's books except for his newest one, which I plan on reading during my 12 day holiday vacation (w00t w00t!). I have to say, I'm not too surprised that this is the one chosen to be made into a film. I'm super excited to see this - I hope other Paulo fans are as well.

Enjoy!

Survey says...

...two out of five stars for the Weihnachtsmarkt of Philadelphia. I would have given one star, but I'm trying to be understanding of the fact that I went at the beginning of December and the tree in Center City wasn't even properly lit yet. I think my expectations were too high as well.

I was pretty pumped about this Philadelphia Christmas Market (as you can see from earlier post), so I was practically dancing all the way to City Hall. What a let down! They had all these nicely constructed wooden enclosures, just like Europe, but they weren't decorated or painted! Ok, most of them weren't decorated. Two were - the two owned by German corporations. The others, mostly operated by local artisans, looked like they set up camp that morning and didn't do squat to make any effort. It was kind of sad. The food places had no German food... I'm sorry, grilled hot dogs don't make a bratwurst. The Lebkuchen they had was like $6 for some sad looking cookies.

Bah humbug says I. I'm going to go back next week with a glimmer of hope... Hope that they just weren't prepared for me and my high expectations and they've actually tried to make the market Christmas-y.

Weihnachtsmarkt

Christmas Village in Philadelphia

I have been oddly obsessed with Christmas Markets the last 2 years. I think Madrid put a spell on me. I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Madrid in 2006. One night, as I was wandering aimlessly around Madrid, I came across the Christmas Market in Plaza Mayor. It was pretty sweet - lots of hot drinks, beautiful hand carved nativity sets, ornaments, etc.

I returned to Prague that Monday - and what do you know! - there was a Christmas Market that kicked Madrid's butt. The Market in Old Town Square was fabulous! There was a real nativity scene with real animals and a real big tree and lots of real nasty grog [never try grog] and a freaking ton of people. I love love loveddddd it.

Oh no... it gets better... My old roommate Ana and I went to Dresden at the beginning of December and they had an even BETTER Christmas Market (Weihnachtsmarkt - or technically in Dresden it is called Striezelmarkt). The most delicious food, more beautiful crafts, freezing cold weather, a ton of gifts I left in the hotel in Dresden... blech. Anyway. Only happy memories now!

So that's the story of my Christmas market obsession.

I have come to find out in recent times that there is a Christmas market in Bethlehem, Penn. I hear it is really nice. Here is a website. I will say that I have a major problem paying money to go shopping. But anyway, if it's super nice, I'll pony up the $8.

Ah but now I can keep my $8 (or better yet, spend it on monstrous amounts of Lebkuchen (gingerbread). There's one in Philly! The link is above at the top of the post. The market looks fairly small, but I believe this is only the first year. GO GO GO! Everyone go so the market gets better each year and I don't have to drive myself to Bethlehem or fly to Deutschland! The food looks good, crafts look very nice (lots of German and local artisans), plus it's on my bus route. Even better.

Have I mentioned that I think you should go?

I already hate Blogger. I typed this nice long post, and then I tried to format my HTML, and then my nice long post was deleted.

ARGH!!!

I took a class my junior year of college. The class was titled "Writing, Resources, and Technology." One of the many projects we worked on was blogging. BLOGGING. For a COLLEGE CLASS. I thought the whole thing was stupid and that it would be some stupid fad that would fade away.

Apparently I was wrong. Oops.

I guess I'll use this as a medium to post pictures, websites, and the like. I'm not too big on putting my feelings out there for the world to read, but we'll how that goes.

Important post #1 to follow. These last two posts are merely practice. Look at me go.

hello all

Patrick Swayze welcomes you to my blog.