Packing Shmacking

Despite my best attempts to par down, as much as possible, the amount of crap I'm lugging with me, I still feel like I'm taking so much stuff. One huge (I mean Moby Dick sized) duffel, another medium-sized duffel, a backpack and a small shoulder bag. Geez, I thought I was trying to train my over-packing genes out of me.

There seems to be an incredible absence of communication between the administrative offices at Harvard. I keep getting emails from the various departments telling me I have tuition to pay, classes I need to be prepared to pick, etc. Yesterday I received an email from the Student Receivables Office saying I still had money to pay on my TermBill, and until it's paid I will be unable to register for the coming term. What in the world is the Student Receivables Office? I haven't the faintest, but they apparently think I'm still a student.

This is the email I was SO INCREDIBLY TEMPTED to send back:

Dear mysterious anonymous office worker at Student Receivables,

Okay, people, seriously, get your friggin act together. I haven't paid the money nor will I be registering as a student either this fall or this coming spring because I am on an official leave of absence.

My father and I have contacted the University Registrar, the Financial Aid office, the Office for Student Life and my Resident Dean's Office multiple times about this issue. How many more people do I have to email about this before the paper-consuming bureaucrats are sated? I suppose the janitors who wipe the condoms and cum off the floor of Widener library also need to be told? Last time I emailed Barry Kane, he assured me that I am as official leave-of-absence-y as one can be. If this is so, why am I still receiving all these damn emails? Why are there still errors in your records? Wait, let's back up. You do know who Barry Kane is, right?

I am leaving tomorrow for Italy and will not be returning to the States until May 15th, 2009, so this had better bloody well be sorted out. I promise I'm a nice personn, but I am absolutely appalled at the complete and utter lack of communication between the upper-level departments at this institution.

Fix the damn mistake.

Thank you very bloody much,
Maya S

P.S. Barry Kane is the University Registrar. He's the one in charge of scheduling all classes and official assigns everyone their grades at the end of semester. Probably one of the most powerful people at Harvard.

I did not, however send this email, don't worry. The one I did send was a much calmer and more tempered version of this (thanks Mom). So I can only hope that this will resolve itself.

And now I pack. Or attempt to.

It will be a few days before I can post again. Apparently when we arrive in Milan, they whisk us away for the first three or four days for bonding and general make-everyone-feel-cozy-and-warm-fuzzies. I'll be back! I promise.

"Every exit is an entrance somewhere else"

---Tom Stoppard, "Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead"

Love that play. By the way, I just saw a production of "Hamlet" in Stratford, Ontario. I love "Hamlet," but this production was awful. Don't bother. See "Cabaret." So amazing. Seriously, there are no words...

Now to business.
Who: Call me Ishmael. Just kidding.

What: The purpose of this blog is to chronicle my exploits and misadventures as I take a gap year from Harvard and travel to Milan to study opera and vocal performance.

Where: Cambridge, MA; Detroit, MI; Milano, Lombardia

When: Sept 1, 2008-May 15, 2009

Why: I'm a nineteen-year-old college student, who at the beginning of her sophomore year of Harvard (yes, that Harvard, stop drooling), discovered she was miserable there. There were a plethora of reasons to leave, and so rather than suffer through two more years of the same grind, depression, competition and unfulfilling attempts at academic grandiosity, I decided to take a gap year and do what I love best: sing opera.

I promise you all right now, I will keep the angsty, whiny, existentialist postings to the bare minimum. That's what LiveJournal's for.

That said, I've spent my last couple of weeks in simultaneous anxiety and ecstasy. On one hand, I've done the whole "going-to-a-new-place-starting-over" schtick so many times. I know I'll get through it. I'm very glad I'm not returning to school. Being able to relax and breath without feeling like I'm wasting time will be wonderful.

On the other hand, that doesn't make the actual act of going there and starting over any easier.

Full confession: I'm kinda sorta a little bit terrified of the other people on this program. I've had way too many bad social experiences stemming from these type of moves to think that this will be any exception.

It might not be. On the other hand, one thing has changed a whole lot: me. It's taken so long, many disappointments and heartbreaks, a lot of lost weight and overhauling my look and style, but I've finally managed to get to a point where I look in the mirror and I like what I see. I like who I have become, and I finally, finally feel like a whole real person with enough confidence to carry any kind of weight or responsibility on my shoulders.

So here we go. I'm going to take this new me and litmus test her in Milan for a year. See who she makes friends with, who she's attracted to, what/who's attracted to her, how her worldview has and will change. Pitch her against the ignorant douchebags and the spoilt princesses that I constantly encounter and see how she holds up.

Bring on the gelato, baby.

In other news: Palin? Holy freaking shish-kabobs I am moving to Australia.

Stay tuned! More to come.