So suppose I went to study writing. Where would I want to do it? (within the USA)

Emerson in Boston has a program in Publishing & Writing that is just perfect, because it has that little bit of publishing business in it, which I could use as an additional argument of why I want to study it and why it’s a good fit. But Emerson is expensive and my favorite English professor says that Fulbright prefers places that aren’t quite that expensive. She also said that her friend completed a diploma in industrial design and then went to do an MBA in business – her explanation was that there need to be more interfaces between industry and business. Maybe I could integrate something like that into my statement of purpose for Fulbright. And writing would actually go well with the communication part – as I can imagine writing for a creative agency, it goes together, marketing & writing...

I looked at a couple of publishing programs, but most of them really are just that – publishing, the technical/business side of it. I’d like to have a bit of both, but mainly I’m interested in the writing part.

Any ideas? Especially if it’s slightly less expensive, but still good schools – that way, I’d probably have more chances of getting a scholarship for those.

My professor mentioned that there are many good writing programs in the midwest of the US (complete with the remark that „and what an American experience that would be!“), but damn... Is there any secret way of searching for colleges that only Americans know about? I’ve been using www.gradschools.com to find some schools, but is there any more efficient way?
I know I’m pathetic and annoying with this. Sorry. :(

Oh and by the way – I love my professor. It’s the one who I’ve raved about several times over the course of the past 5 years, the English prof. She’s just that great. She was excited because I contacted her, supportive of my ideas, also impressed/supportive of me being brave enough to quit my internship when I’m not getting what I need, and totally willing to write me a recommendation for Fulbright and the colleges, no matter what path I decide to take. I also asked her to sit in on my thesis defense and she said she’d love to, yay. I’d have asked her to be my second assessor if not for the requirement that my second & third assessors be from Moscow and Lille. In fact, I did ask her for my bachelor thesis, but then I found out that the second assessor has to be from Moscow, so it went bust. It just feels so good to have someone be that supportive of your ideas and dreams and hopes. I never have that at home, not for the things that I really am passionate about, like all those creative things like writing and design, or figure skating.

I have realized today that pretending to work is as tiresome as working, or maybe more, because of the fact that you know you could be doing something useful or more fun instead, if you didn't have to sit at work pointlessly. I did get some reading that I might use for my thesis done.

I'm watching the documentary about Kim Yu-Na right now. It's kind of fun even though I don't understand a word of what they're saying... or maybe it is because I don't understand. This way, I can just switch off my brain and enjoy the eye candy. (Yu-Na's 3F+3T really is a treat.) But at the same time, I wish I knew what they're saying, because I'm sure it's interesting. I like documentaries about skaters, it seems. I enjoyed the one on Shizuka Arakawa a lot despite not knowing what they're talking about 99% of the time. I certainly enjoyed Johnny Be Good. I like this stuff about Yu-Na. And I can't wait to see Popstar On Ice. I wish every skater had an hour-long movie made about their lives. :)

By the way, is it just me or is Stéphane's English getting better and better? ;) It would be interesting to hear Johnny's French one of these days.

I am going home for the extended weekend tomorrow. I found a new car-pooling offer from a guy who leaves at 6pm and goes all the way to Pirna, so I'll be riding with him. But I had to cancel the two other guys I'd found before that - one of them would only take me to Dresden, and the other leaves at 1pm and I won't be able to leave work early under the current circumstances. It made me feel guilty, and it didn't help that they were kind of rude over the phone. But at least I called and let them know, right? Not like that woman I'd once wanted to ride with who just didn't arrive and didn't answer my calls, which lead to me being "stranded" in Dresden with no way of getting to Munich for the Hanson concert the following day. (That was in 2005, by the way.)

The weather was nice today, so I sat on the terrace of the cafeteria during lunch and enjoyed the sunshine, my meal and my chocolate mousse. I sat on my own because I didn't know the other interns would be coming to sit outside, too, and sat at a table for two, thinking that maybe Gracey, the Chinese girl, would join me. It was much nicer that way - all the others do during lunch is talk about work and seriously, the last thing I want to discuss during a break is work. When Gracey comes along, I usually chat to her. She's came here from China only for 3 months, she's not very keen on actually working (and she can afford that, because her dad is a big animal at the Chinese branch of the company), so with her, I get to talk about traveling, our interests, fashion (turns out that we both dream about becoming fashion designers - wtf are we doing working here?)... And I get to speak English; you wouldn't believe how much I miss speaking English on everyday basis!

Anyway, I'll shut up now. I must say that DW's crosspost function comes in handy - yes, LJ, this is a DW post crossposted to LJ. Useful. :D

Mood tired Music Madonna - Fighting Spirit Tags: figure skating, johnny weir, stephane lambiel, work what work?, yu-na kim

So, I've got a DW. I don't really have the time for yet another blogging/social networking service, but you know there are certain things I can't resist and finding new, technologically superior ways of wasting time is one of them. (My LJ friends will breathe a sigh of relief - this means that I will spam less?;)) My DW looks kind of ugly; more time will be channeled into learning about the secrets of creating/installing layouts over here.

I will have to head to work in a few minutes. I need to get better at pretending to be busy, and I also should maybe make it clearer that I do not intend to spend my nights at the office like some of my colleagues (including the other interns). I guess that's the main thing that bugs me about work - it eats a horrible amount of time that could be wasted in more entertaining ways.

The weather is dubious, so I'm not even wearing anything very cute or interesting today, just jeans. I need to go shoe-shopping soon... first I need to find out, though, where the good shoe-shopping sites are in this city.

Have a nice day, everyone. (I know that I won't.)

Mood awake Tags: shoes, work what work?