Well. It’s been a long time since I’ve written something longer than a few lines here. I justify it by saying I’ve been busy, and I have been. But still, I should have stopped to write more than a couple of scanty lines.

So what have I done the last two months? Wow. It’s been hectic, and great.

Christmas Break 2004

This was my longest vacation ever. I took a tour of central Europe, starting with Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. This ancient city was tragically beautiful. Next stop was Cesky Krumlov, then Vienna then Budapest. Oh and finally I spent a day in Brussels, Belgium. After 20 days on the road, I returned to Utrecht, The Netherlands, my beloved past home.

I’m skipping the details of each place for now. I have to get to the photos before I talk about the time I spent in each place. All the details are in my Molesine, so I won’t lose them.

The Past Month…

has been so insane. I arrived back in Utrecht on a Wednesday evening. I took care of a few matters there, such as writing a report that was due that Friday. Then I flew back to Denver, Colorado, on Saturday. This flight was miserable. It was long, boring and I had to finish a paper on van Gogh that was due two days later on Monday. The paper sucks, but I finished it somewhere over the Atlantic.

Well, I arrived in Denver late Saturday, since I gained eight hours on the return flight. Customs in Chicago sucked, but I made it after running to catch my flight.

I spent the night in Denver with my parents and younger sister. She left the next morning for Tempe, AZ, and my parents and I drove four hours north to Douglas, Wyoming, the village where I was raised. I rested a bit, but not for long. The next day, Monday, I packed my belongings and moved to Laramie.

I started class the next day, already having missed a week of class. I was behind, and I still had one course in Utrecht to finish. I spent time with friends and forgot about school until the next week, when I was utterly decimated by unfinished school work. I put hours and hours of work into school the next week and finished nearly everything.

My third week back was the worst. I had homework due in all six of my classes, an exam and a final paper for my course in Utrecht. I wrote about the long-distance nationalism of the Kurds, took a physics exam and probably developed an ulcer. But at long last, I’m caught up.

It’s been a week since I finished that paper, a decent effort it was. An A for effort, but weak on content.

Here we are deep into my final semester as an undergrad

It’s going too fast. I’ve already applied for one summer job. I’ve applied to grad school, it’s just a game of waiting now. I applied to three fellowships, and will make it four by the end of the month (the Department of Homeland Security didn’t get their act in gear and have the application due in November like everyone else… it wasn’t even available till late January). My four years at the University of Wyoming are coming to a close.

Drag me kicking and screaming into the future.

Don’t get me wrong. At this point, I hate being an undergrad. I can’t stand how slow we go in class, how much we’re spoon-fed by the instructors. I want to work on big ideas, want to collaborate with brilliant minds. It’s just something that’s not possible in Wyoming.

This year has been about dialectics. I’ve been torn between The Netherlands and Wyoming. And now, I’m torn between the hypothetical future and the present.

And now, I’m somewhere in the middle. I love Wyoming more than ever, but I’m also ready to leave. I love the many sunny days here, something I can really appreciate after weeks of dreary dark days. In the Netherlands, cars would use their headlights all day, because the clouds above blocked out too much of the sun to go without. I love the white blankets of snow covering the grass, yet I find the yellow-dead grass ugly and plain. All the people here in Wyoming are fantastic, though so are the ones I left in Utrecht.

Regardless, I’m glad to be back. This is the land where I grew up, and I love it. I accept having to move this summer, and I welcome the change, but I do wish I could return to Wyoming someday. Sadly enough, it’s not likely that I’ll be able to live in Wyoming again, simply because there’s no jobs for me here.

Well everyone, I hope you’ve been enjoying my pictures from Europe thus far. I’ll try to start doing something I really enjoy. Writing. Writing stories of everything I’ve learned, because I learned more than I could have imagined in just one semester.