"The Simple Life"

The semester is coming to a close- and I am thrilled. It feels like each semester throughout the duration of my stay here at the University has gone by more swiftly than the previous. This semester began with me feeling things out, like a new apartment and living on my own, new classes and a new dog. Then towards the end of September, an aquaintance from the dorms last year approached me. We've been unseperatable ever since- despite not having a damn thing in common...He is a religious, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, conservative, farm boy who punches numbers, and I am let's say "quite the contrary."

I recently spent my first Thanksgiving away from home in another's home. I visited his farm and it was interesting to see how our worlds collided. At the initial point of my arrival I traded in my Frank Sarto heels for boots, my pinstrip pants for boy jeans with stains and rips and my cream turtle neck sweater for a red flannel shirt- all so we could go four-wheeling and milk cows. This was my first time seeing a cow... I felt like such a city girl the whole time- his friends made fun of me for not knowing what certain farm equipment was and for never skinning a squirrel. For whatever reason his whole family (all 27 of them) kept asking if I was a vegetarian or if I smoked. A city girl, vegetarian who smokes...hmmm, again "quite the contrary... Made me thankful I decided to take out some piercings and cover my tattoo with a watch. I got to jump around in hay stacks, have camp fires, drive a tractor and drive all the way to Iowa to eat at the nearest Pizza hut. I never really thought of myself as a city girl, but I somewhat do now and am proud. I trade stories and paths down memory lane with my friend Ben (who is also from the cities) and we both have similar contentions of driving around lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles and Nokomis. All in all, our stories are the same. People I have met from more rural areas seem to also share similar stories about getting drunk in someones barn and then running into the corn fields from the cops. In my friend Aaron's words, "It's all very perplexing."

This Christmas and New Years I am going to be away from home. Another first. I am flying to Paris Christmas Eve night and staying there for Christmas and New Years and then going to Berlin for a few days. I am so excited- I can't wait to work my butt off for finals then be finished and rewarded with a trip to Europe. Everyone asks me why I chose to do something elaborate like this so spontaneously, and informs me (as if I wasn't aware) how expensive flights are, how rash it is to buy tickets after deciding to go only a few days prior, and blah, blah, blah. I do not have a clever, well educated answer- I guess it's something kind of crazy and out there I wanted to just go out and do. And besides random, rash, spontaneous- are good things...I need to keep that in mind...