Blue

Recently, Nidhal bought a new computer for his studies and possible internships. His old one (Toshiba) was on the verge of death. The new one, a nice Sony, is small, light, and practical with a backlit keyboard. The only downside is that the sound quality is awful and the volume does not go very loud at all (watching a movie on Netflix with the volume turned all the way up and headphones on is barely loud enough). Anyway, I love the backlit keyboard and the fact that it doesn't try to roast my legs.

Graduation was over a week ago, my only exam was last Monday, and today the grades were posted. I am pleased to say that I passed with flying colors, and my final cumulative GPA is a 3.92.

I planted a bunch of basil seeds a while ago and now a bunch of little green things are beginning to pop up out of the dirt. I hope that after these plants mature, we will never have to buy basil in the store again. Now I just have to plant the mint, rosemary, and the flowers.

Done, Indeed.

Latest news:
-I graduated on Saturday with a Master's degree in TESOL.
-No jobs yet, but I'm thinking about putting posters up for some private tutoring.
-Nidhal is still working on his MBA, looking for internships, and playing soccer.
-Real Madrid beat Barcelona today, 1-0... the referee was bad but the goal was fair.
-It snowed on Monday for my last exam.
-I planted a tray of basil seeds and they are just starting to pop up.
-Mom gave me a lily plant for graduation and right now, three of the flowers have bloomed.
-The house is still great though a bit chilly.
-If we had a ton of money, we would build a big house just north or west of Ann Arbor, buy a 3 bedroom apartment in Freiburg, buy/build a house on the Mediterranean in Tunisia (Nabeul, Bizerte, or Tabarka region), and buy some hunting land in Au Gres.

Graduation was nice. Five of my classmates participated in the graduation (only three of them were actually graduating at that time). Afterwards, a couple of the professors from the department had a little party for us. My parents came for the graduation.

It's weird suddenly having nothing to do. I didn't have a lot to do during the semester, but this absolutely nothing is just weird. PhD? Maybe. Job? Hopefully I'll find one between now and the possible PhD.

Not Quite April Fools

I'm ashamed to admit that I've found a Justin Bieber song that I like. Even though he seriously looks like a girl, even though he seriously sounds like a girl, even though I thought he was three years younger than he is, even though he has the same kind of annoying following as Twilight, there is a song that I like. But before I reveal the song, I need to tell a story.

One day a few weeks ago, I was sitting at my faithful computer looking at I Can Has Cheezburger and the affiliated Memebase page. I had seen a lot of pictures related to days of the week and some random girl, and I finally became curious enough to investigate what this all meant when the song in question was humorously compared to Bieber's song Baby. So I watched the song in question on YouTube. Stupidest, most annoying song ever. And I'm convinced the voice distortion thing is used to try to hide the lack of talent. Anyway, the song had been compared to Baby, and so I had to find that song on YouTube so that I could compare it to the other song and finally understand the joke. There was a strange anticipation as I prepared to listen to a Bieber song for the first time, or so I thought. Imagine my astonishment when the song started and I recognized it somehow. Imagine my astonishment when the song got to the chorus and I realized how I recognized this song. Yes, from the radio, but also, this was the song that I had always imagined was sung by a female, by a slutty female no less. I about died laughing. I had been using headphones so as not to disturb Nidhal. He became curious when I started laughing, and so I took out the headphones and asked him if he knew who was singing. He didn't, and when I told him, I think I partially shattered his world. He had always pictured this song being sung by a hot sexy, blonde woman. His reaction was priceless.

And then iTunes had this deal, 38 songs for $10, and I thought that even though a Bieber song was included, there were enough songs that I liked to make the purchase worth it. As it turns out, however, the Bieber song was actually enjoyable. The song is titled Pray, and I liked the general melody before the words but the words are nice, too. So yes, I admit, I like a Justin Bieber song.

Moving on to my usual reason for complaining: EMU. I had checked the date of graduation at the beginning of the semester on the academic calendar and it was April 17. I had checked the date again in the middle of March on the graduation information website when I put the event on my phone's calendar. And then this past Wednesday, a friend of mine who is also graduating had just printed out the page of graduation instructions and brought them to class. On the top of the page, the date of graduation had magically changed to April 16. I don't normally use such expressions, but seriously WTF Eastern? Change the date of graduation without officially notifying anyone? You have got to be kidding me. This is just another example of the total incompetence of EMU. How unprofessional can you get? I thought they had about reached their limit (I couldn't imagine how it could get worse), but they seem determined to outdo themselves. Unbelievable. I am so glad that I will be graduating this spring and therefore be rid of this awful place. I regret ever giving a cent of my money to this ridiculous "university".