In it, Albert says he made a city in simcity named after me. And that the letter was written with a pen bought from Harvard.
Haha, very nice Albert, very nice.
How was Harvard? And Boston in general?
Write me an email, little brother, and let me know. I'm sure it was great.
Home in New York seems so far away right now. And home in France seems even further. It's interesting because, I miss certain aspects of being at home, but at the same time, I love living away from absolutely everything that used to be 'everything'. I also love USC with a passion. Everything about it is great; the people are nice (sort of), the architecture is gorgeous, the teachers care, and the weather is fantastic.
Speaking of the weather, though;
Blue moon tonight!
For the first time since I've been here, it was raining all day today in Los Angeles. Water seems like a commodity in this here dry city in the middle of the desert that is constantly in danger from fire and blistering heat. So, rain! The people here who are from the area, they love it, as they don't see that much rain, ever. My roommate, who's from San Diego, was really into the rainy thing. And yes, I appreciate the rain, but having lived in Geneva for nearly five years, and New York before that, it has become much less of a 'new' novelty phenomena for me. Still though, I appreciated seeing the campus of USC in a light that differed from the constantly, perfectly sunny weather that it usually has.
Unfortunately though, I was caught in the rain with Merlin, as it started to rain during my first class. I had to get back to my room, which was across campus, and I was wearing a t shirt, jeans, canvas shoes, and a large backpack. And I had a longboard with me. So in no time at all, I was soaking wet, as was Merlin. Poor thing, I bet that really hurt his bearings. Anyway, when I noticed that Merlin was sopping wet, I got sick of slogging through the puddles with my soaking wet feet in my soaking wet socks in my soaking wet shoes. So I hopped onto Merlin and sped toward my dorm, which was still a fair distance away. And I didn't notice until I was nearly there, but a puddle of water had formed on the deck (where I put my feet), that was sloshing around and getting everything below my knees soaked.
By the by, this puddle had formed because Merlin's deck has a downward indent in the center. This is known as a "concave" shape of deck, and it helps to 'lock' your feet in while boarding. Hence, it contributes to the immense stability I was talking about in an earlier post, while I was first discussing Merlin.
Anyway, the conclusion of my story is a bit anticlimactic. I apologize for this. The long and short of it is, I entered my building looking like the baby of the Loch Ness Monster and a bit of roadkill that's been lying on the motorway for a good few weeks.
Yay!
And lucky me, I ran into someone I know just as I turned the corner to try to run to my room without being seen.
"Oh hi! Wow!"
"...Yea.... Hehe. I've been, y'know, running around outside. For kicks. As you do."
Whatever. It's all good. [:
Oh! Something else I think is worthy of mention.
Today for the first time in my life, I ran until sweat ran over my skin in rivulets and my shirt was completely soaked, as if someone had dunked it into a body of water. When I touched my face, my hand came away with water running down the fingers. I think even my legs were sweating. HA. I was really into the run.
It was great, though! I'm definitely going to have to make a habit of this running business. Afterwards, I got a wonderful dump of endorphins into my bloodstream, resulting in the well-known "runner's high". I was so happy and dazed for a while. And ah, one of the best feelings in the world: A shower right after you've exerted yourself to the point where your skin feels more like water than skin.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
According to the treadmill though, I only burned two hundred something calories. That can't be right, it felt like I used at least a hamburger's worth of energy.
But that's not of significance. Moving on.
Then, I went and got dinner with my roommate. Ah I love food. Haha.
Wow I'm going to get fat this year, if I'm not careful.
So, I've decided to run every other day, for kicks.
Oh yes and, I don't know how well this is going to go, but I want to be able to do one hundred consecutive good form push ups by the end of the academic year. Heuh.
I figure, I'll alternate days; ie, one day I'll run, the next I'll do push ups, then the next day run again, etc etc.
Well, something will figure itself out.
Ah, either at the end of this week or next week, the official halfway point of the semester will have arrived! That is, I will have completed 50% of the chronological commitment I have to this semester at USC.
Then I go back to New York for three weeks.
I'm excited for that.
I miss Manhattan.
Something I noticed the other day;
My skin is declining rapidly in quality. Maybe it's the lack of sleep I've experienced, or the relatively unhealthy food I've been eating, or an amalgamation of both. I hope I spelled that right. Amalgamation? Heh.
I have no idea if you can see it there, but I tried to take that photo specifically so the poor quality of my skin is visible. I'm indicating my forehead in particular, as you can see, because that's where I seem to be getting a LOT of pimples. AHHHHHHH I HATE PIMPLES.
I haven't changed anything in my daily hygiene routine, so I have no idea why I'm breaking out.
How irritating.
But eh, I suppose that's just a minor thing, nothing to get worked up about.
The main thing right now is, I'm so happy I ran! I really really hope I manage to make that a habit. It felt amazing.
Alright well, that's all for now. I have a quiz tomorrow, and two exams on Thursday to study for. So I'm off to do that now.
All the best. ^^
