MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Lately I’ve been receiving the sporadic e-mail from concerned/curious friends and family members enquiring as to my whereabouts, so I decided to finish out this blog with an entry that should have been written at least a month ago. Long story short – I’m back in the good ‘ole U.S. of A. Germany was great and I have plans to go back and study there after I graduate.

This is my last year at the University of Texas and I’ll be graduating with a classics degree in May. Classes this semester are interesting and I’ve recently begun taking Turkish language classes with a tutor in my spare time. I also have a ‘job’ as a guinea pig in an experiment in the UT Psychology Department. Basically, I come to a lab for two hours everyday with six other girls and we sit in a soundproof room and listen to various beeps and clicks. It’s rather mind numbing, but it pays well and I took it upon myself to organize a snack ring, wherein each girl is assigned a day to bring food of her choice. Yesterday Tiffany brought in caramel apples, which proved to be very popular amongst the girls. The week before she brought in a homemade banana cake, so needless to say, she is winning the popularity contest when it comes to baked goods. The study will last throughout the end of the semester and though at first it was excruciatingly dull, I find myself now enjoying the time I have to sift out life’s little problems while staring at a wall, watching little flashing buttons and lights. Well, to be perfectly honest, I only think about real-life issues for the first 30 minutes or so. After that I become utterly convinced that someone out there (usually a Russian) is trying to send me coded messages disguised by these little beeps and whirrs. Today I had the feeling Englishmen were trying to contact me in order to explain the topography of England from an Englishman’s perspective (this part was very important and heavily emphasized), but I had second thoughts about my perceived messages during the break when I had time to really reflect on the matter.

I will post more pictures soon of Prague and my last weeks in Germany on my photo page (http://picasaweb.google.com/racheldubya). Thank you very much to all that sent e-mails and greetings while I was away and thanks also for reading my blog. I apologize to those people who stumbled across my blog searching for something entirely different. I know this happened quite a lot, as the number one search term for people landing on my blog was "thagee camera" (thanks to a comment on my first post), followed by full name in second place, and a distant third for "dog poops while walking" (I'm not making this up).

Thanks again to you all and feel free to get in touch with me anytime, especially if you make it down to Austin.