a red so deep, we sunk

january 22nd! a lot to inform! i guess ill start from where i left off .. winter break was nice, i spent a lot of my time reading a book (personal narrative) about the chechen/russian conflict in the 90s, 'the wealth and poverty of nations,' a play on words of adam smith's 'the wealth of nations' which attempted to explain the cultural and economic development of the world, resulting in the current economic and political map we now refer to, and a "beginner's russian course." russian is amazin', but i unfortunately havent had time to work on it since school started again. christmas was nice -- i got to see my mom and sisters, as well as other family at a few different dinners. my cousin cara made some amazin' vegan dishes, so i definitely ate very well .. ! as far as christmas, i got snow tires and fenders for my bicycle (!!! so fun !!!) and the complete poems of anna akhmatova, a favorite poet of mine. new years was pretty fun .. ive been substance free for the past 6-8 weeks now, and new years was no exception. i went to a very fun party at my friend laura's, met some new people. all in all, a positive event! a few days later, january 5th, winter quarter started. i guess you could call it a 'quarter' .. i dont seem to be doing that much! i am taking a class on french graphic novels, arabic grammar, and an individual study of women french authors (phenomenal!). graphic novels, so far we've only read "tintin en amerique," and for the french women authors, ive read cixous "the laugh of the medusa," simone de beauvoir's "the second sex" and colette's "the vagabond." im making progress through "femmes d'alger dans leur appartement" .. the language is amazing in it. good deal! heres a few pictures of my bike, with the 42mm kwick tires, holiday commuterz:

ive had a blast riding around town, sliding around, basically riding like an idiot. ive fallen a few times even! i LOVE it! i also winterized myself for the -20 wind chill riding conditions :
but maybe not enough! last week i came down with bronchitis, which was becoming a bit debilitating, so i eventually went to the doctor. now the temperature is back in the 20s and 30s, and im symptom free, so all is well! my band has been practicing, and it looks like our first show is feb 20th. we will have to hustle if we want to play well .. but im sure that we'll be fine. im very excited! we have this tight to dream of autumn/bucket full of teeth sound with a bit of hot cross style guitar. que mas? a professor of mine from freshman year invited another student and me to her house for dinner a few weeks ago .. it was very nice! vegan couscous, and best of all, vegan crepes cooked in orange flavored liquor .. wow! we all had a nice conversation, and the other student and i left the house around 11 30 or midnight. thanks gloria! :-D i had my peacecorps interview yesterday (1/21). it was about an hour long, and i feel i had excellent responses to the questions. i feel optimistic about my application procedure. i will find out in 2-3 weeks about my status .. im so anxious! ive really put 'all of my eggs into one basket' on this one, so lets hope it works out. finally, last night kyle, anuj, and i went to see cursive, lacona, and church of the red museum at the summit. church of the red museum was amazing, lacona was a bit boring, and cursive was killer! true to form, tim kasher became progressively drunker throughout the show, until his voice went out and they closed with 'the casualty' wow! one funny event, there were some really aggro drunk girls at the show .. one of whom eventually tried to fight me since i was getting pushed into her .. she grabbed my face 2-3 times, pulled off my glasses, and even pulled out one of my earrings (that i wasnt able to find afterwards!). i guess we're fortunate that im a pacifist, because im sure other people would have hit her in the mouth .. kyle (and others) got on her ass for it, so that was nice. thanks kyle :-D its shocking to me that people resort to violence as an answer to problems, espcially that adults will do so! ill be sure to post again when i find out the results to my peacecorps application. im sure ill either be elated or depressed, haha.

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Listening to: Cursive - A Red So Deep