Real Swing Dancing Tonight!

I've been spoiled with libraries lately. I don't think I will ever feel the same way about them after spending a term at Harris Manchester.

The library here at IAU certainly has it's charm. The IAU school is located in an old church that they created rooms in. The library is a funny shape and about a quarter the size of HMC's library. I really shouldn't compare the two. It's not right. It'd be a bit like comparing Frankie Manning to a dance instructor in Indiana. There are excellent dance instructors in Indiana. I know a lot of them and they're fantastic. But Frankie Manning had the age and wisdom that comes with just simply being Frankie Manning. His knowledge was unique and unmatched in his field.

I just feel a bit sad when I go in there because I miss the HMC library with an intensity I didn't know I could feel for a room fulla books.

I hope I can still appreciate UIndy's library when I get back.

I still think a bit like I'm traveling.
For example: my host mom wanted my laundry so she could do it and it's just weird. Someone else to do my laundry? I don't have to pay for it? And when deciding what's "clean" and "dirty" it's a little more like deciding what absolutely has to be washed that moment and what can go another week without getting rank.

And so. When traveling you have x ammount of clothes. You have x minus what you're wearing at the exact moment you will do laundry. So what can go into the wash at this point = x-w. (where w represents the clothes you're wearing). If you have to let your clothes air dry you have to be careful because sometimes it takes a full day, or a day and a half for them to dry. Towels and jeans take espeically long. So if you need to shower that day you have x-w-t = l. (where l represents laundry). Sometimes if t is dirty, but you cannot do l right away, then you must use w to dry off.

Anyway! The point is that there is a limited supply of x. So when my host mother asked for t1 (the t she gave me) to wash, I had to think: "If I give her t1, which she gave me at the beginning of the week, I won't have it for my shower. I have MY t (=t2), which is slightly less dirty, because I used it as a mat for my painting. I can use t2 for one day while t1 dries."

But this kind of math is only necessary when the supply of x is travel limited, not house limited. Lo! and behold, t3 appeared on my bed while I was eating breakfast!

And she helped me strip and make my bed. How weird is that? It was really weird.

I dropped my phone yesterday. Off a wall. It fell about 10 feet to the stone ground below. Every piece that can be taken apart came apart. I thought for sure this was the end of this terrible phone. I was wrong. It still works. But I don't have a key pad any more. That piece fell into a grate and could not be recovered. Now I have to use a pen to poke at the sensors. I have to count where the numbers are and texting a simple message will take me 10 to 15 minutes to complete.

I hate this phone but I must give it credit. It basically shattered and it still does my bidding. I can't wait to put it down for good when I get back to the states in, cringe, 31 days 7 hours 44 minutes. I'd invisioned throwing it agains a brick wall, driving over it with my car, dropping it from a 5th story window, putting it in the yard to get mowed over, or just plain taking a hammer to it. Now I might give it a proper burrial and just let it become one with the earth.

We'll see. It's kind of like a blackberry phone now, though, cuz I have to use a stylis. But it's not a blackberry. And it's only a little funny.