06.08.2002 – mike, exams
originally written 06.08.2002
so california mike goes back to the states this morning. he’s this kid who goes to ucla and was in my computer security and distributed systems classes. he’s intelligent, clever, nerdy and i had a good time just talking shit with him and his partner in crime, dom (chicago to la transplant). got a text message from him yesterday saying that he wanted to hook up before he left. that’s always flattering because i sometimes don’t know where i stand with people. especially when i can be a real bastard about returning phone calls. part of it has to do with the fact that most previous invitations had to do with going out to some club and i’m always a bit reluctant to go out with people if they’re going to get absolutely wasted. it really shouldn’t be an issue when my tolerance for drunken antics has increased 100 fold on account of my flatmates. perhaps it’s that i just don’t want to be disappointed when i find people who i regard as very intellgent and clever acting completely stupid. there was no reason for concern last night. we went to this chill club on lothian street called medina. it’s a middle eastern themed joint and has these giant couch-like corners where you can just lounge about with your friends (or practically have sex as was the case with the strange couple going at it in the corner). the idea of a chill out club seems pretty foreign to america, or at least the middle america represented by columbus. in columbus, there seems to be two kinds of bars: bars with bad house music and patrons intent on date rape and scuzzy dive bars filled with punks and grad students that are only tolerable because they don’t fall into the former category. so yeah, i’d say that even though it’s not really my thing, edinburgh has a really good nightclub scene, especially in terms of having diverse offerings to appeal to tons of different going out tastes. but yeah, it was great to talk with mike and dom one last time. mike is just a generally gregarious guy who likes engaging people in conversation and isn’t afraid to talk about his jukebox software in a night club. dom is more quite but really intelligent and interesting. anyway, they drank, i talked, and we made tentative plans to rendevous in august for a midwest adventure. it’s always weird going out with other people’s friends, and mike, being the gregarious guy he is, had lots, and it’s even worse when they’re really smart, clever people who can put you in your place. i was able to strike up a conversation with one girl who happened to be from westerville. she had gone to high school with kids i had met during my first year at osu. it truly is a small world after all (insert mental image of singing, smiling, ethnic children here). but yeah, we talked about columbus, siblings, school, etc. i always feel good about myself when i’m able to converse with strangers as i’m normally rather introverted. if there’s one thing i’ve seemed to learn to do a bit better since i’ve been abroad, it’s been the skill of talking to girls. the reason, i think, probably has more to do with the fact that i have a girlfriend, and that many of the girls i meet, also studying abroad, are similarly attached. so, i think that romantic tension that sometimes underlies conversations one has with members of opposite sex when a conversation gets rolling is largely nonexistant. so, conversation seems easy and natural as opposed to contrived and arduous.
i finished with exams today. destroyed human communications yesterday, and computer architecture went really well today (even though i’m pokey and didn’t get to the last part of the second question before time expired).