Electrical Issues

As soon as we checked into the hotel, I decided that it was very necessary, after a long day in the airport and overnight flight, to take a shower. But the bathroom was pitch dark and no amount of flipping switches would turn on anything. It was as if the room had no power, which didn't make sense, seeing as the hotel I'm at is pretty swanky.

Then after much exploring I saw a little box inside the door that looked like it swiped a room key card. The light was red. So out of curiosity and hope, I swiped my key card and viola! Light!

So I hopped in the shower, and was halfway through shampooing my hair when the lights turned off again. Pitch dark. Half of me laughed at my awkward predicament, and the other half of me immediately thought of Psycho/Bates Motel. I rinsed my hair, hopped out, and re-swiped the card.

It took until the lights turned off for the third time that I figured I was doing something wrong. I then discovered what I probably should have realized the first time around—you have to leave the room key in the slot while you want the lights on. It prevents people from leaving their lights on all day so they wont waste electricity.

Adventure #1 - Layover in Dublin

That volcano is spewing ash again. Thankfully I was able to get to Dublin with only a minor delay in the form of an hour reroute mid-air. But all flights into France are cancelled for the entire day. No one is getting in.

So Aer Lingus (my airline) has put me up in the Carlton Hotel for the night, and I am mostly comfortably set for an evening in a new country. And while I was in line to rebook my flight for tomorrow, I met another girl who is also in the exact same predicament as myself (trying to get to Cannes, stuck in Dublin). So I’ve made a friend, and we are going out to see Dublin!

Sur l'aéroplane!

Today I leave for Cannes, France. I've never been to Europe before, and I am beyond excited. Of course, I will do my best to diligently blog about my experiences while in such a beautiful foreign locale. You can be sure that, at the very least, I'll blab your ears (or eyes?) off about my adventures at the Cannes Film Festival. Expect pictures of celebrities, excessively long descriptions of the Cannes Market (where films are hoping to get picked up by distribution companies), and stories of miscommunications with the locals (because I do plan to practice my French while there). It'll be an eventful two and a half weeks.

In fact, there'll be a lot of happenings throughout my entire summer, and you can be sure this will remain an active blog during those hot withering months. So while you are lathering on tanning oil and lounging by the pool, be sure to pull out a push-up popsicle and keep VirginiaFilms bookmarked for summer reading. Au revoir!

DONE!

I am now officially done with my junior year of college! Woop! I took my last two finals yesterday and took a little quiz for micro this morning, and I have now officially finished all my requirements for Spring 2010.

So now I just have one year left of college. I don't really want to be a senior though. I honestly feel a little sorry for all those girls who are graduating right now (especially those finishing early). I've never been less ready to graduate. I don't want to leave my friends and heaven knows I still have NO idea what I want to do after donning my cap and gown.

All I know is that after this year, I still have a rather large bucket list of things I want to accomplish during my college years. Looking at the list, its funny because most of the things on there are not academically related. I mean, I feel pretty good about my resume and I have some cool classes and an internship lined up for the fall. So that's good. But I still want to produce another feature. I've also never been to a fraternity date party, never been to the lake with friends, and really want to write a novel (how I'll do that last one is beyond me).

But such is life. I think it's human nature (or my nature) to always have a longer list than can be actually accomplished. Time to sharpen my prioritizing skills (since I definitely let them atrophy* this semester).

*Hooray for big words!

. . .

"The best way to know life

is to love many things." ♥

-Vincent VanGogh

...Or this!

Just pour in hot liquid, and as the Earth warms, the sea level "rises." So great.

If you need Christmas present ideas (for me)...

...AND...

*When you pour in hot liquid, the wives disappear!

. . .

"Slow down and enjoy life.

It's not only the scenery you miss

by going too fast, you also miss

the sense of where you are going and why."

- Eddie Cantor, US comedian and singer

Fascinating Fun Facts about Sustainability

So part of my marketing class is learning about marketing and the other half is watching made-for-TV documentaries about human consumption. They are actually pretty interesting videos, so I'm not complaining. I'm learning lots of interesting things from them.

For example:

- In China, 14,000 new cars hit the road every day.

- Walmart is the nation's largest employer, with 1.4 million workers in the U.S.

- U.S. Custom and Border Protection only inspects from as low as 1% to around 8-10% of all containers entering the US.

- The tobacco industry overall every year pays somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 billion dollars just in taxes (from the seed, through the cigarette, and into the local municipal, state and federal taxes).

- One third of the world's adult population smokes cigarettes.

- Tobacco is the largest non-food crop grown in the world today.

- When someone smokes, they are also inhaling formaldehyde, pesticides, and arsenic.

- If everyone in the world consumed as much as the average American, it would take the resources of four earths to support the planet's population.

- The Himalayan glaciers are the planet's largest store of fresh water outside of the polar ice caps. At the current rate of loss, it is estimated that there will be no more glaciers in the Himalayas by the year 2035 (25 years), dramatically reducing the flow of fresh water to more than a billion people.

- If you have all kinds of appliances that have a little red light on (like the TV), they're using electricity. It's called vampire loads. If every house in the U.S. killed off their wasted vampire loads (merely by unplugging their appliances), we could eliminate at least 18 coal-fired power plants.

- Cars produce nearly 20% of global greenhouse gases.

- The US has 5% of the world's population but we're consuming 30% of the world's resources and creating 30% of the world's waste.

- The average US person consumes twice as much as they did 50 years ago.

- Of the largest 100 economies in the world, 51 are corporations.

- 99% of the stuff we harvest, mine, process and transport is trashed within 6 months.

- Each person in the US are targeted with more than 3000 advertisers a day (more in one year than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime).

- Each person in the US makes 4 1/2 pounds of garbage a day. That's twice what we each made thirty years ago.

THREE DAYS!

I am leaving for France in THREE DAYS! I can't believe it!

Now that my two hardest, soul-sucking finals are over, I have time to breathe and think of all the exciting things ahead of me. And I now have ample time to panic over all the small things left to do before I leave.