Universities

So yeah, I know that I haven't posted in a while. It's mostly because I haven't found it really worth it that much. But do not worry, because I am posting now! Besides, this blog started out as a daily thing and it's definitely not going to stay that way, so this has turned into more of a whenever-I-feel-like-it kind of shindig. I suppose it's mainly the fact that I have 5 different social networking sites and Facebook always seems the most appropriate, seeing as it's in my bookmarks bar and won't require more than 200 characters per post, as well as the fact that I'm not willing to devote my valuable precious free time to typing, it'd probably be more something along the lines of sleeping.

Bref! I've decided to develop my own website for this stinky blog because it hasn't been fun managing two different blogs for whoever wants the french or english version of my posts. Hell, the posts that I put up usually aren't even about the same thing! So I'll develop it into a website and switch over to it. Haven't really figured out how I'm going to manage an RSS Feed and Facebook link functionality, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

So some of you might be asking, "Jack, how was France?" And to be honest, words cannot describe the amazing experience that I had there. Photos can't even describe the sheer awesomeness of my friends, their personalities, the breathtaking nature of every single monument that I've visited and the experiences that I had had there. So I'm going to answer to you, dear reader, as I have to everyone else, that it was simply amazing. It sounds boring, and you may want to ask me more, but I honestly can't fit all of it into words. I will never stop missing the amazing friends that I made there and the wonderful people and teachers that I had met. I will definitely be going back there someday and without a doubt I will try by all means necessary to make it there during this summer.

So that was my one paragraph on France. I'm sure it deserves more but I'm not going to give it more because if I did this post could be stretched around the earth several times. On to the real meat of this post, which was explained by the title: Universities! That's right. As a junior half-way through the year, I now have the right to start worrying and biting my nails over a very scary prospect: Applying to universities. On my list currently:

• UCLA
• Berkeley
• maaaybe Stanford
• Harvard
• Tufts
• Amherst
• EPFL
• Carnegie Mellon

It's quite a list. On the top of my list is EPFL, an engineering school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Not only is it in the French-speaking part of the country, but it's also halfway between Paris and Rome. Can it get any better? Yes it can. The school is positioned right across from Lake Geneva and will be just a train ticket or two away from my French besties, probably two if they've landed in England. I'm going to Boston next weekend to check out Harvard, Tufts and maybe Amherst if we have the time, considering that we only have two days to visit all three of them and I've heard that Amherst is a bit of a drive away. Also, only to twist the screws, all my EABJM buddies will be going to Boston this weekend, not the next to attend a mock-Congress at Harvard. I wouldn't have minded maybe a 4-week distancing, but one? C'mon life, that was a bit too much.

With that I resume developing my awesome new blog. I hope all of you are doing splendidly, and have an awesome day / night / dight / nay wherever you are.

On the Road to Geneva

Well, this road trip has no doubt been one of the longest I've ever been on. Thanks to the fact that I didn't sleep poorly enough to actually spare myself from part of the ride, as was what had happened the last few times, this ride has been the longest 6 hours of my life, if it's even been 6 hours. It feels more like 7, which wouldn't surprise me considering we had to wait in a really long line to get into the Mount Blanc tunnel, and thanks to things just taking longer than they normally should. So We're all still in the car, I'm about to lose my posterior, and the moods are not warm at all. We did get to drive through the mountains, though, although in Europe they take a more literal approach to the experience, they literally drive through the mountains. No slopes, just bridge-tunnel-bridge-tunnel. The few views you get in between, however, are really stunning. I'm pretty much just posting this because I'm bored out of my mind and want an excuse to publish the awesome photos I took.

Before we left for Geneva, we toured Florence one last time to "run some errands", which in code apparently meant do some last-minute shopping, because the only real errand that was ran involved packing our car. My mom bought a whole bagful of ceramics, my dad bought a cool guitar-handbag for my sister, and we toured the Florentine stationary shop, where I bought a surprise gift for my friend. It's unlikely this certain friend is reading this, if this certain friend can even guess that it's them. Excuse the previous grammatically incorrect sentence, it was a thinly-veiled attempt to hide the gender of this certain friend. I was tempted to buy everything in that shop, because not only did they sell beautiful stationary, but they sold leather-bound books with calligraphy parchment inside, fountain pens, ink, stands, and quills. Sadly, though, I only had 15€ left, so I had to settle with a bit of stationary, and then we took off. Adding to the "fun" was the fact that I had twisted my ankle fairly badly on the curb, so instead of enjoying the views as I walked back I had the priviledge of limping the entire way. Fantabulous. Whatever, here are the last few photos I took of Florence.

Update: As it turns out, we crossed into Switzerland right as I was writing this post, so here's the incredibly unexciting video of us crossing the border. It was our 3rd country in 3 hours. Only in Europe, Baby.