outdoor ice skating rink in budapest, view shot from bridge

the bridge linking buda and pest in budapest

buda

budapest from a hilltop in buda

i'm getting all of my 900 or so photos developed tomorrow or the day after, so if you'd like to see images of budapest, vienna, sweden, switzerland, paris, and a couple other places, let me know! i'd love to show them.

there are twenty more minutes to wait through until i discover whether i've been accepted to professor grigsby's research seminar or not. there were so many students wanting to enroll that she made each of us write a quickie paper pitching ourselves and why we NEED her class. she will be banning one-third of these people from her course, and hopefully one of those one-third will not be me.  

if i am accepted, i'm expected to produce, over the course of the semester (and here, i quote verbatim -- and imagine this, from a booming, stentorian voice) :
"A GORGEOUS,
AMBITIOUS,
SUBSTANTIVE PAPER."

i swear it, she has the voice of a female god or at least some brand of divine spirit with a feminine psyche.
how inspirational is she??!! she makes me wanna go to grad school reaaal bad.  

my sister is a constipated brat. i buy her prune juice day in and day out, and yet she still remains unable to sit comfortably on her derriere. poor baby, i love her so much.

i went to ucla today with lakshmi with the intent of meeting mish. i also hoped to see michelle, aska, and jen (and sandra, but i didn't have her phone number!!!) i ended up seeing aska for a total of THREE minutes, jen for TWO minutes, and KIM!!! (albeit for ONE minute) and ALISA!!! (for three minutes) it was so insanely hectic but so awesome running into everybody so randomly! talk about the marble effect. what the heck am i talking about

my winter break so far has consisted of babysitting and cleaning and correcting essays and tutoring. obviously, i'm anxious for school to start next tuesday and to settle into my itty bitty dorm room the size of a rat's butt. *probably with rats in it too. my freshman dorm room had mice, and i remember employing ohio's help to build a mouse trap out of peanut butter, cut up coca cola cans and a half gallon of water in a perilous moat fashion.

anyhow, getting back to the focus of this travelogue --
sleeping at heathrow really wasn't bad at all! it was a rather spastic, fitful, light-glaring night i spent on the seats at terminal 3's arrivals. i just hemmed my body in by my bags, pulled my cap down tight, and tried to sleep. and it really wasn't that bad. my flight had some pretty good movies but i still ended up watching seabiscuit four times.

i think my sister is really a man.

the past few days were surreal; i will write more about them later. this morning was very sad.
right now i am in london. in a burger king at the easy internet cafe. at picadilly circus, waiting to find my hostel.

i love it here.

my flight home is on wednesday; i can feel it already, i'm ready to leave but i'm not. wednesday will be a horrible day as well as the best.