Exhausted! But can't sleep...

What time did I sleep last night? And other musings...

17 or so hours of traveling on Sun/Mon + a full day Monday + what I can only imagine to be jetlag = an exhausted-but-unable-to-fall-asleep Clyde. I think I went to bed at 11:30 last night only to toss and turn until about 1am, 2am? (yikes!). So I decided to skip breakfast this morning... oh well. The school has a continental style breakfast on weekdays for those who live at the DA, but it's only available from 7:45 - 8:30, I think. There's a bit of conflicting information... What happened to the days when I could roll out of bed at 11 and walk to the dining hall in shorts and flipflops to stuff myself with those delicious English muffin sandwiches from Lower??? Oh right, I graduated and got old. Now I'm supposed to wake up at a normal hour and dress nicely like an adult. Sigh.

This has nothing to do with sleeping or not sleeping, but it's definitely been a bit sobering to meet everyone here and to realize that I'm one of the oldest people here. Unless all the people I know just happen to be all the younger ones. At least people say I look young? Anyhow, there have definitely been times when I feel pangs of regret ("Why, oh why, didn't I do this earlier?"), but I'm reminded that it's a great privilege to be here and I'm thankful that I'm at least here now, rather than maybe 5 years from now when I'd be a REAL dinosaur.

I'm still practically living out of my suitcase, haven't really bothered with unpacking or any of that nonsense. Apparently, here at the school, wearing shorts is frowned upon and if I wear a T-shirt, it better be covered by, you know, a real shirt. Looks like I'm going to have to go shopping... again... (Wait, does that mean I can't wear my red BC hat??). $20 bucks says that at some point in the year, I get asked to change into more "appropriate" attire. Anyone? Bueller?

There's been a lot of administrative stuff to take care of, I'm still not done with most of it. Gotta set up a bank account, gotta get my residence permit, gotta get some other ID etc.  Also, trying to get a cell phone contract here seems to be a disaster if you're not from Europe. Anyone care to send me an unlocked phone? Maybe I'll just try to get a new SIM card. Haha. No, but seriously, anyone?

Lastly...

For you Highrockers out there, here is a special picture:

Yes, that is my name tag. 

Yes, that thing on the bottom is the top of my laptop. 

Yes, the laptop is on my desk. 

Yes, I am sitting down.

Why is it up there? Because they don't want us sticking things on the walls. 

Why is the damn thing so high? Umm, maybe I'm just a short Asian and this room was not designed for me.

Finally, here is my address:

Clyde Choi

c/o Diplomatische Akademie Wien

Favoritenstraße 15a

1040 Wien (Vienna), Österreich (Austria)

I suppose you could write it in English too, but that wouldn't be as fun, now would it? Although, I may have my doubts about the US Postal Service's linguistic abilities... Yea, write it in Englisch. Or English. Ou en Anglais, si vous préférez.

Please feel free to send me letters, pictures, food, any unlocked smartphones you may have that are gathering dust (still serious), or anything else you might feel compelled to send. Getting stuff would be quite exciting! Ok, this is wayyyyy too long and I prob have somewhere to be. Until next time, "Keep on travelling" (thanks Rick Steves).

Tschüs!