Common Sense Magazine

#54 Studying for Finals

The past week mainly consisted of studying and preparing for my finals. As I am writing this post, I am over 85% finished with my studying fully prepared for two tests and about and a little more than half way prepared for the third one. I expected to get my studying done several days ago, but I have had a hard time staying focused. All I can think about is returning to US, eating, and the inefficiency of my studying.

The weather has plunged consistently in the 30’s. Snow will be arriving starting Sunday and I’m not looking forward to it. The cold weather has also made me more sleepy and hungry as now I always want to eat. I have to restrain myself to save money and calories.

Speaking of money, the FOREX has been trading in my favor for the first time due to Greece’s default risk. The euro is down from 1.51 to 1.46 dollars per euro in one week. Too bad I have no reason to withdraw money and will actually have to convert some euros back to dollars on a dollar uptick.

I have finished up my groceries, so I am going to treat myself my last week here and go enjoy authentic Italian food for the rest of the time here. It will be a while before I return to Italy and the food has been one of the best bright spots of my travels. I’m also fortunate that I’m done with grocery shopping is because my fridge broke down a few days ago. It’s the only place in the dorm that is not cold.

Usually I do not care about tabloid related stories, but the Tiger Woods shenanigan has piqued my interest. I always thought Tiger Woods had character, but  I guess not. It is amazing how far he has fallen since I saw that news flash of the car accident on the news in Cannes. It seems like another mistress or two, a lost sponsor (I really like the Gatorade Tiger drink, oh well) plus some strange thing at his house happens daily. To be honest, I find this whole Tiger debacle to be hilarious and it may become the next Mike Piazza joke.  Other news in sports I have noticed are the ten game winning streak of the Lakers (my favorite sports team),pathetic Pac-10 basketball, and the ridiculous decision to have Boise State play TCU in the Fiesta Bowl (at least let them play a BCS conference champion).

For the past few weeks I have been counting down my return to America (even though it will be short lived). There is a laundry list of things I want/need to do before the next leg of the international adventures (the location[s] I reveal later to keep readers in suspense). I need to visit my father for Christmas, cut my hair, talk about American sports (including Tiger woods jokes), politics, and financial markets, play some tennis at the tennis club with my sisters, get my Swiss passport, make my Euro adventures into a book for a Christmas gift, play golf, eat some BBQ, Mexican food American snacks, and more of my non-Italian favorites, catch up with my friends and family, see the Newport Beach boat parade, watch the Lakers/bowl games, play some video games with my brother, go swimming, and experience warm weather. Basically I want to get back to doing everything I wanted to do for four months that I have been unable to do in Milan (except the beach which I will be able to at my next destination) along with some errands. I just hope I can get it all in there in a little over four days.

Right now I’m just going to lock down and finish my studying. Straight A’s and traveling around Europe is not too shabby of a fall quarter. There will most likely be nothing notable happening between now and when I fly back to the US, but I will have some supplementary travel guide post coming including how to spice up your travels by mixing up your modes of transportation and the best ways to save money while in Europe.