GRADUATION DAY!

MY GRADUATION DAY VLOG:
http://youtu.be/obDelrR20UM

Written May 02, 2013:  I really wish I had kept up with these WordPress posts regarding my graduation.  I have forgotten now how exactly graduation day played out; but I know that it was really exciting. 🙂  I’m glad, however, that I made these vlogs.  Otherwise the day might have been lost forever since I seem to remember very little.

It’s now almost a year since I graduated, which is rather odd to think about.  Perhaps since I’ve done very little since then I feel like it just happened.  But at the same time I realize that it had been quite a while since I miss Laura, Greg, Pauli, and Una so freaking much.  It feels like it has been 5 years since I have seen then.  I have a weird relationship with time it seems.

Now my life is so different from the day in the vlog.  Less exciting.  Less remarkable.  Less social.  Sometimes I just wish I could go back.  The vlogs help a little with making me feel transported back there/then.

Much Love to Una, Laura, Pauli, and Greg, (and Mary).
E

G-1: Graduation Minus 1 Day

VLOG:

http://youtu.be/9svA1JluGWg

G-2: Graduation Minus 2 Days

VLOG FROM THAT DAY:

http://youtu.be/mJ6HVP_GaIQ

G-3: Graduation Minus 3 Days

MY VLOG FROM THAT DAY:

http://youtu.be/9v78WP7BqzU

G-4: Graduation Minus 4 Days

BAM. Finished my thesis! WHhoooo!

I wish I would have had about an extra week to finalize it, but I probably would have procrastinated just the same.

I didn’t have the energy this morning to wake up and work on my final thesis chapter, so I ended up sleeping until 11:00.  But seeing as I went to bed at 03:00, it wasn’t quite oversleeping. 

What is rather lame about going to school here is that during finals week, those of us who have jobs through the school still have to go to our jobs.  So we have to juggle work, school, and thesis.  Real life learning and such.  At 12:00 I went to my job at reception, and quickly got all my tasks done so that I could spend the rest of the hour quickly finishing my thesis.

It was finally completed today at 13:30, and I bound it and turned it in to my three professors.  I didn’t have much time to feel relieved since immediately afterwards I had to sit at the finals tables once again.  At 15:00 there was no more food to give away and I left.  After once again breaking into LDV to return the stuff, I went home.

Only to find an email in my inbox from my professor saying that the title page and the contents page needed reformatting in order to be to standards.  I scurried around both campuses grabbing the faulty thesis, printing the new pages, binding it once again, and then running to give it back to the professor.  I finally got home around 18:30 and now I am allowed to just chill.  I’ve been watching episodes of IQ; just relishing the fact that I have no more thesis to write.

MY VLOG FROM THAT DAY:

G-5: Graduation Minus 5 Days

My plan of getting work done in the early morning failed miserably as I peacefully overslept until 08:00.  I managed to wake up and write a paragraph or two, and then left for my library shift at 10:00.  I tried to work during my shift as will but sadly not much was done.  Why can’t I just be done already?!

After my library shift, I had to go to my Reception shift at 12:00.  It hasn’t been hard to juggle work with school until now.  I just felt like I didn’t have time or the energy to deal with work when all I could think about was my thesis.  It didn’t help matters when at 13:30 I had to run over to the other campus to sit and guard the Finals tables.  (Finals tables are tables with free snacks sponsored by Student Government Association, of which I am a member.  My job was basically to sit at the table in order to make people feel too embarrassed to take all the snacks.  Kinda ridiculous.)  I sat at the table and worked on my damn thesis some more.  I was supposed to turn it in today, but that didn’t happen.  It will tomorrow though.

At 15:30 I packed up the tables, and then headed over to LDV were I was supposed ot drop off the stuff.  I haven’t been in LDV for four years, and it was odd to be back there.  I even had to break in through the common room like I used to freshman year.  I felt an odd sense of nostalgia being there, and even went to see the door to my old dormroom. 304.  I noticed in the entry way that they still had the rocks that we had painted during one of our first dorm events.  While it was kinds of stupid, it was cool to see that they were still there.  I had completely forgotten what I had painted, and it took me a while to recognize my rock, but it’s still there which made me feel important for some reason.

I creeped around LDV a little bit more and then headed over to the library to get some work done.  I worked until about 19:15 and then went home.  At 19:45 I had to go help out set up and run another SGA event.  It was an evening breakfast event, and we had to set up and start making the pancakes.  The event was a little chaotic due to a lack of planning and direction.  But the good thing is that I don’t think anyone noticed, and people seemed very pleased.  We invited three professors and the president to come and cook for the students.  It was entertaining and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  Except maybe for those of us running it, since we were running around frantically, and in the end we didn’t really get anything to eat.  Oh well.  At least the student body was happy.

I just got back from the breakfast clean up and it’s already really late.  Must work on thesisssssss.  Must finish the stupid thing!

G-6: Graduation Minus 6 Days

So I have this habit of not wanting to sleep when I have things to be doing.  But not sleeping doesn’t increase my productivity really, well when it’s past 2 or so.  So I just end up depriving myself of sleep, when it probably would have been better for me just to go to bed at 23:00 and try to work in the morning.

Needless to say, I haven’t finished my thesis yet.  I have just a bit more to write, and it is the simplest part, but my brain is just done.  It doesn’t want to deal with this anymore.  Not really an option I’m afraid.  I woke up this morning at around 09:00, tried to write and then cram for my Global History final at 13:30.  I’m a little disappoint in myself.  All year I’d been really good about being prepared for my history class.  Doing all the readings, paying attention.  But the past two weeks or so I completely failed to do anything.  And to my disappointment, the final wasn’t as comprehensive as a would have hoped for.  The majority of the questions and essay topics were on the more recent material, so I’m not to happy with how I think I did.  However, it’s over and all I can do is wait for the grade to be posted in a week.

My muscles still are really sore from climbing the Monte Boglia on Saturday, but my toes seem to have healed and become normal shaped.

My parents came to the residence this morning, and dropped off a couple of things.  Although 2 out of 3 are rather useless:  (1) My mother bought the wrong prescription contact lenses for me so either I have to walk blindly across the stage at graduation or with glasses; (2) The inflatable mattress I needed for my visiting-Una doesn’t have its electric pump so I don’t know what to do; (3) Graduation shoes!

I know the shoes are rather ridiculous, but I really like them.  What do you think? ] I must learn to walk in them before graduation though, so I’m not that girl who trips and spectacularly falls when getting her diploma.

G-7: Graduation Minus 7 Days

Today was mountain recuperation and try to get work done day.

In the morning I went to the post office to pick up a registered letter that had come for me.  It was a graduation congratulatory card from my godmother. 🙂

I didn’t really progress much with my thesis.  I spent most of my day looking at the clock since my parents arrived in Switzerland today.  They came a week before graduation–I’m not sure why–and they arrived today at around 19:00.  Greg and Pauli came with me and we had dinner at a local restaurant.  The restaurant was rather poetic in a way.  Four years ago went my parents drove me here to Lugano to start my freshman year, we had trouble actually locating the campus.  We pulled into the parking lot of this restaurant and asked them for directions, not knowing that the school was across the street.  So now, four years later we are dining there; having learned something in a way.

The dinner wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be (or at least I didn’t think so), and we ate tons.  Pizza, pasta, fondue, and dessert.

We got back to the residence at 23:00 and now there is little time, or motivation, for me do too much studying for my Global History midterm in the morning or any thesis writing.  It kinda sucks.  I really wish everything in my life wasn’t piled on to this one week.   Sooooo stressful!  Half of it is my fault, but the other is just bad planning on the school’s part I think.

Urg,  Wish me luck on my final history exam tomorrow!

G-8: Graduation Minus 8 Days

Living in Lugano means that you live every day looking up at mountains, and every night looking at their blinking lights.  I have lived here for four years and–until today–had never climbed a single one.  Not really surprizing if you know me.  I don’t enjoy doing things that require a lot of energy, or being away from the internet for to long.  So mountain hikes?  Not really my thing.

All this said, much like leaving without jumping from Valle Verzaca, I thought it would be inexcusable for me not to climb one of Lugano’s mountains.  So with really only one weekend left before graduation, and nice weather, I kept my promise to Pauli and Greg and today we hiked Monte Boglia.

We left Airone at 09:10 and headed down to the train station to take TPL bus #2 to Lanchetta, then transfer and take TPL bus #12 to Brè Paese.  At about 10:30 we started our climb up Monte Boglia.

I haven’t really ever done this sort of thing before.  I have climbed Flattop in Anchorage,  but that was years ago and I don’t remember it being difficult at all.  Boglia, on the other hand, was quite hard for me.  It took a total of 4hrs for me to do a 3hrs hike.  And yes, I did get stuck in a tree for a while, but I was slower than everyone else.  I appreciate Pauli and Greg for being patient enough to wait and pause for me.  If they hadn’t been there I would have given up on the entire endeavor early on.

At 14:30 we broke out of the forest and made it up to the 1,516 meters high tippy top.  The view was beautiful.  We could see all of Lugano, Gandra, and other neighboring cities that we didn’t know the names to.  It would have been perfect had we brought a picnic with us, but we forced our hungry stomachs to be quiet so that our eyes could enjoy the view.

Up top there is nothing but three benches, a cross, and a whole lot of flies.  We stayed a bit, enough to take a couple of photos, and then headed back down at 15:00.  The climb down was a lot easier to manage, and a lot quicker.  Only about 1.5hrs.  But it was not better for our legs.  I have blisters on my big toes to prove it.

Finally out of the forest, we waited at the bus stop and eventually made it back to civilization. Exhausted. Starving.

We inhaled some food at a nearby restaurant and now we are home.  Originally, I thought that this adventure was only going to take half a day, and that I would have time to work on my thesis or study for finals.  But we just came back and are too tired to do much of anything.  I started editing the vlog, and Pauli and I watched the new TBBT episode.  Our muscles ache and I can’t walk properly because of my dumb toe blisters.  I’m afraid of what we are going to feel like in the morning.

MY VLOG FROM THAT DAY:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkTiuNK83Uo

G-9: Graduation Minus 9 Days

Today was a repeat of yesterday in a way.  I went to bed around 04:00 after more thesis work, nd woke up at 08:25, five minutes before my Theories of International Relations class was to start.  Needless to say, I was 15mins late to class.  This class is a 400-level class, and basically the last class you need for the IR major; therefore, there aren’t many people who enroll in the course.  Five to be more precise, including myself.  Therefore my tardiness was immediately noted, but at least I showed up.  Two of the other students never came to class, reducing the class size by 20%.  The professor was somewhat frustrated, and after a short presentation done by a student about their research paper (I did my presentation on Tuesday), we all went to the Grotto for coffee.

Afterwards, I didn’t even have time to acknowledge he fact that I had just completed the last class of my undergraduate studies because I had to go to work.  At 09:50 I started my shift at the main library on campus, which is in shambles with it being the end of the semester and all.  I placed cards in books until my shift ended at 12:00 and then ran over to reception for my other job.  An hour later my ‘professional’ obligations were over, and I returned to the library; only this time to work on my thesis.

My thesis has allowed me to find the perfect spot to do work.  Kind of like Sheldon from TBBT I have determined the perfect library location for work.  Large desk room, good outlets, you can observe every person in the library while no one really sees you at all, good cross-breeze, and not-visible by library staff. It’s perfect I tell you.

Anyways, I stayed there until I finished the chapter at 16:30 and then headed home.  I bought a freshly made hamburger from the store on the ground floor, and then spent the rest of my evening not really accomplishing the amount of work that I would have wanted.  (The theme of my week.)  Now it’s late and I’m not longer being productive.  I spent the last 30mins finding good dubstep music and watching gameplays of one of my favorite old PSP games: WipeOut Pure.

But now I wager that perhaps it would be more beneficial for me to go to sleep.  Especially, since Greg, Pauli, and I have made monumental plans for tomorrow morning!