Speaking of bad tourists, fifteen years ago a professor in Mankato, MN made a Fake Mankato city web page to show his students how to not trust everything they read on the Internet.

Fifteen years later, tourists are inquiring about the Famous Underwater City.

Yes, I am up due to pain, so I decided to inflict some...

Bon Voyage, NoiseDesign!

Just like how we don't have voodoo in Jamaica, but people figure if it is good enough for one island we probably all do it. Thanks, mate.

Hah. I got in an argument about this with my dad just the other day. (FTR, I was right.)

There are definitely some Canadians who are a little too much on their high horse about not being American but they also take a lot of crap. It's one of those slow burn things - the constant default assumption is that you're American, and then the habit of people (mostly themselves American) to announce that there's no difference anyway, can get seriously aggravating.

And I'm both Canadian and American. If I find it grating, I can certainly see where Canadians who do not have any connection to the US find it much more so.

I read up on obeah last night before I crashed like whoa. Wow, so tired!

In London, I ate mostly potatoes, samosas and pasta because I was so goddamned broke, but then, I was a student. We DID make it a point of hitting a Pizza Hut in every city we visited for our Ye Olde England class, but it became a trope -- we were so amazed and amused to find a PH in Bath, that it became a Thing. Canterbury! Pizza Hut! Crazy. We would take pix to add to the collection. Hey, we were 19 and 20.

And it was England. If we were spending the semester in Italy or Greece, I don't think we would have done so.

De-lurking to ask, for registration ends in a month: my university suggests scholarships for semester 2 of 2011 in Europe (late January or early February to late June). One of the universities which seems like A Really Tempting Idea is Sciences Po in Paris.

Anyone heard/knows something about it, or ever better, been there? Should I really go for it, considering I only have 4 classes to take next year to finish my degree?

I mean, they're French and all.

Shir, I know nothing about it, but I would say if you can afford it, and know decent French, go for it. Study abroad is worth a little extra time, IMHO.

However, I don't know what kind of program it is, but I have heard that French academic programs are pretty much sink-or-swim for non-native speakers; the rigor is high, and the coddling is very low to non-existent. I would definitely want to have a good grasp of French to study in France.

They say that you have to know English or French for it - I'm not counting on my French to be improved enough by then. Also, it's a scholarship - so I don't have to pay a single shekel.

It's part of the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window: [link]

Shir, I have not been to Sciences Po, but I did study abroad in Montpellier, France. Make sure you understand how the grading will be done - we took classes right along with the French students and were graded by the French teachers but our American program director took that grade, our written eval of the teacher, the teacher's eval of us, and the average grades of native speakers, and "translated" it into an American grade. French grading is designed to weed out weak students - 12/20 passing, 16/20 is pretty damn good, and God wouldn't get full marks. I don't know how grading works in Israel, but it's just something to make sure you understand.

All that said, HELL YES GO STUDY IN PARIS.

I really want to, I'm just not sure if that will be possible. It kindda sounds too good to be true. I need my braces to end till then and hey, to get fucking accepted and chosen in the first place.

12/20 passing

I don't mind getting 12-14 the whole term if I'll get to study there (the grading here is a lot more generous).

HELL YES GO STUDY IN PARIS

SO MUCH SHOPPING TO DO!

To me, humidity is like a slap in the face that's trying to drive me to the ground. But I have been in the desert for 25 years.

Yeah, when I lived in New England, these many...weeks ago, the humidity would drive me insane. But it's ALL THE TIME here so I have decided to embrace it otherwise I would be miserable all the time. Also, A/C is everywhere, wheras NSM up north.

And I found that once I accepted it and relaxed into it, it became somewhat of a joyful thing.

As Daisy's cousin is so fond of saying, people will spend lots of money to sit in a steam room, but not so much to sit in a freezing cold room.

smonster: BACCHANAL!!! Love.