Early Summer Thoughts

So, I just thought I'd update you guys on some things happening in my life. A good old fashioned social commentary blog entry should come pretty soon.

Leaving Chile

I left South America less than two short weeks ago. A long flight route which I was dreading was actually much smoother than I had anticipated, especially considering the problems I encountered at the last minute about my ticket! To make a long story short, the folks at TACA had two tickets for me to go one way from LAX to SCL (Santiago de Chile). Obviously I only went on one of the itineraries, making me a "no show" for the other, which told TACA to cancel automatically the rest of my itinerary (ie, my flight back to Montreal). After several aggrevating phone calls (and one trip to the airline's office) I restored my flight. At first, they only decided to restore half the itinerary, but at the end, it all worked out well. I left Santiago at the ungodly hour of 6 am, with a short layover in Lima, Peru, and then a very long layover in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Not lacking the energy and optimism I had during my layover in San Salvador (and not willing to pay any entrance fees and departure taxes, and not sure if there was anything worth seeing in San Jose, or if it was even safe to walk around!), I decided to wait out the 6 hours in San Jose's airport. Unfortunately, San Jose's airport is most certainly not the best to kill a long layover - even San Salvador had a nicer airport. I would even go so far as to say San Jose has the worst airport I've ever seen (well.... maybe with the exceptions of Vientiane and Rangoon). It wasnt even so bad because it was dinky and third world (although it was- to some extent). I hated it because it seemed like a run-down American airport. In other words, it both lacked the charm found in many non-North American airports, and the vastness of many American airports. To give an example, the food court (and ONLY food options) consisted of three watered down American chains, with prices even higher than one would find in most American airports!

Fortunately though, it only cost $30 for the VIP lounge. While paying this fee might make me a sinner in the eyes of the backpacker gods, for a 6 hour layover in an otherwise depressing airport (while running on a dire shortage of sleep) seemed like a worthwile investment. I was, sadly, unable to get the sleep I so badly wanted (mostly because of my own inability to sleep in non conventional places), but, I had complimentary snacks, juice, coffee, and internet access. In the end it wasn't all bad.

This was followed by another long layover at JFK, which I was dreading even more. The plane landed at about 2:30 am, and my next flight was at 8. But by the time I got off the plane, went through passport control, got my baggage (which came quite late), it was already 3:30. To my hapiness, I discovered that there is life at JFK overnight... I even found arcade games I could kill some time (and a little bit of money) at. By the time I changed terminals and got my next boarding pass, it was already almost 5, and I slept an hour on the floor of a surpisingly nice American Airlines Terminal. By 10, I had arrived in Montreal, where, for the first time (ever!), I was greeted and welcomed at the airpot (by some really cool people).


Graduation Week

By Tuesday the first of my coterie of relatives (my mother and stepfather) had arrived. By Saturday, I didn't want to see a lot of them for a long time. I guess that's exaggerating a bit.

Thursday was the graduation ceremony. I was looking forward to a graduation similar to what the folks experienced last year. Well, the ceremony itself was fine, but shortly thereafter it became cold and rainy, and the reception was awkardly moved to the lobby of Leacock. Not really the lasting image I wanted for myself or my family. TO make matters worse, I come from a family of perpetual complainers, who wanted to make sure I understood very clearly how miserable they were in the inclimate weather.

That night, I was allowed to pick a restaurant. After all, it was my special day. This restaurant selection, of course, came with a large restriction: it couldn't be anything exotic (which, anyone who knows me well enough might know that these are my favourite restaurants) - since certain members of my family won't eat anything not traditionally eaten by white people. This left me to book a French/Italian restaurant in Montreal. Couldn't go wrong right? What I didn't count on was the worst transit crisis in 7 years. Three lines of the metro were shut down, and there weren't any taxi cabs available. The utterly miserable weather made it a pretty unviable walk, especially for most members of my family for whom mobility is limited. After an hour of having to listen to bickering and complaining, and faced with the possibility of having my graduation dinner in the hotel restaurant, we were all finally able to find a cab. Happily, the restaurant itself was actually quite nice, and I think everyone there enjoyed themselves (we also had the whole restaurant - and pretty much all of Old Montreal - to ourselves). I also had a special someone with me, making the experience exponentially more variable.

The following day was perhaps the most anticlimatic birthday I ever had. Waking up, it was actually easy to forget that it even was my birthday! That night, for some reason or another, my relatives which were still in Montreal (my grand-parents had left, leaving my mom, stepfather, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew), decided it would be appropriate to have dinner. There was a long ordeal of finding a restaurant suitable for everyone... which involed the older (ie, over 30) folks bickering about restaurants, walking out of two of them, probably forgetting that it was someone's birthday at all! Despite all this complaining and unpleasantness, the restaurant we ultimately found was pretty good.... and the complaining itself aside, I (ironically) had nothing to complain about!

My departure from Montreal was rather awkward. Saturday was moving day. I had only started packing on Friday night. I attribute this partially to my own irresponsibility, but also partially to the constant juggling of high-maintanance relatives and the emotional difficulty of packing up my Montreal life. This left me in a panic on Saturday morning, exacerbated by certain irritable members of my family, and the fact that not everything I wanted to keep even fit in the car! (Luckilly, I had a Montreal friend come and pick up what remainted)... I even had to trash things I might have considered keeping.

To make matters worse, I got a rather mean and emotionally unsettling email from my previous landlord, whom I had gotten to know as a friend over the last two years. I will not go over the details in the email (which was probably about 50% unreasonable ... he even started to blame me for the potential break up of his current marriage!), but let's just say he's never going to want to see - or hear from me again. Objectively speaking, I shouldn't be so upset- since I was never going to see him again anyway. It's just sad to have what I considered a nice relationship end on such a horrible note, and most of it be my fault.... it's a humbling thing I hope to learn a bit from.

Happily, this will not be my last experience with Montreal, because....


Dep't of State Fiasco

Those keeping track of my prior entries might remember that I was planning to intern with the department of state this summer. This of course was pending an extensive security clearance process, which commenced back in early February. I was told it would take about 90 days, but as of today, I have not yet heard the results from it. In mid May (while in Easter Island), I emailed them, and they responded telling me that they do not know when (or if for that matter) I will be cleared. Of course, at this point, even if I found out tomorrow that I was cleared, it would be too late, as I have less than two months left in the summer.

So, what happened? It seems unlikely that I actually failed the security clearance.... after all, I don't think there is any evidence that I pose a threat to the US. More likely, this was just a low priority for them (especially with all the other issues going on), and they haven't gotten around to clearing me yet.

This is not the end of the world.... it was tight as it was, and I could always just try for it again after I finish grad school.


Rest of the Summer

Where does that leave me for the summer? Well, it's June 4th now. I actually HAVE to be at NUS by July 29th to register in person (apparantly they don't do these things online). I thought I would give myself a couple of days to recuperate from Jet Lag. So, I leave the US on July 21st and arrive in Singapore on the 23rd. This actually leaves me about 6 weeks - enough time to be bored, but not quite enough time to undertake anything seriously.

Fortunately, I have friends in Montreal this summer, and although I no longer have my appartment, I have people who will set me up. I have nothing to do there except see people, but I suppose being bored in Montreal is always better than being bored in old Robbinsville.

So my plan is to split up my time. Next week (mid or late week) I will head up to Montreal for a couple of weeks, come down here for a week or so, head back up there, and come down here by the 17th of July (I have a wedding to go to on the 18th). Actually, I'll probably have to make two trips just to take the remainder of my stuff back down.

Grad school and beyond(?)

Which leaves us at end-summer and grad school. Although I have long been looking forward to this, the imminence of going to grad school leaves me with a lot of doubts. AM I cut out for grad school? WIll I manage my thesis? Will I enjoy my time in Singpaore / at NUS? Was NUS the right school? Will people respect my NUS degree? And, given the awkwardness I experienced in moving this past week.... where will I go after that?

I of course have an answer to all (or at least some) of these questions. Singapore is not the most fantastic city I've ever seen, and I don't expect to utterly fall in love with it. It is, however, a nice enough city which I expect to make an adequete base for the next two years. As for whether going to grad school (or, specifically, doing my masters in social science) is the right decision, I can't think of a viable alternative. Getting a job (with a BA, no real experience and a shitty economy) is almost a laughable idea. Law school could have been an interesting alternative, but I would probably have had to go to a university which did not appeal to me so much- and pay them lots and lots of money.

So, is NUS the best place to go? Well, it is ultimately the only place that took me (even though I only applied to one other school), and I'm not sure if there are many (or any) univeristies which seem so much more appealing to me. When push comes to shove, I'm not paying them anything, and it's enough to buy some time until the job market gets better (hopefully getting some legitimate qualifications at the same time!).


Conclusion

No, I did not intentionally structure this like a term paper. It's just that right now this is a very awkward time and I have some awkward thoughts in my head. The transient life path that I have chosen is one that comes with its own set of ups and downs. I get to see things and experience things (and meet interesting people) that many people, especially Americans and especially in my own family, have no clue about. For this I am utterly thankful. I, however, have to deal with such unpleasant things as moving periodically, reducing the stuff (valueable, sentimental, and otherwise) that I accumulate, losing friends, and dealing with logistical annoyances.

I am in a strange phase right now. I have no place I really consider home... in other worse, no place I can see myself living in for more than a few years. I have a family with whom I feel mostly out of touch. I have a few friends with whom contact is greatly restricted by geography. And I have a future career path which is far from certain- not only in the economy, but in my head- as I do not have as clear of an idea of my future as I would like to at this point.

So I write this not to complain or to evoke sympathy... I write this so that I can let people know what's been going on with me, and so that I can think aloud and help myself figure things out.

Thanks for reading and take care!