On academics..

I'm incredibly frustrating. I know what I need to do on weekdays when everyone's in class. I know when I should go to bed on weeknights when I'm not being productive and there isn't an event to be a part of. I know I should be productive in these rare times when there's nothing else going on.

But I can't! I just can't seem to work hard here. I can read a lot, I can work on a group presentation because the imminent pressure to impress my class and my partner and show my best is there. But when I have what presently seems like hours and hours to work on my essays (though I know putting things off will come bite me in the ass in like, two days), I just can't seem to stay focused for more than three minutes.

And I'm frustrating myself because I've been through this so many times before; I've been a freshman already, I have three years of university under my belt, and though I've never had this little class time and this much "independent work" (e.g. "Write us a 4,000 word essay on this topic you have almost no concrete knowledge of"), it's all the same. You lay out all the shit you have to do academically, you lay out all the fun things you want to do, and you plan out how you can do both, while still taking care of errands, sleeping, and leaving some squish room for spontaneity and the unexpected (which occur quite more often when studying in a foreign country).

But instead of following this simple little plan in prioritizing my time while abroad, my thought process is more like HOLY CRAP I'M IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY THIS IS SO COOL THERE ARE WAY TOO MANY THINGS I WANT TO SEE AND DO AND TASTE AND PEOPLE I WANT TO MEET AND BECOME FRIENDS WITH AND OH BTW I NEED TO GO FIND MYSELF AN IRISH HUSBAND OH I FEEL LIKE RUNNING THAT COUNTRY TRAIL THIS AFTERNOON OH WAIT SALSA DANCING TONIGHT YAYYYY I TOTALLY WANT TO GO OUT TO THE PUBS TONIGHT OH HOUSE PARTY SWEET FOOD MORE FOOD YAY SPONTANEOUS LIFE TALKS AND OTHER TALKS AND TALKING YAY TALKING LET'S PLAN ANOTHER TRIP SOMEWHERE. I can't possibly be bothered to work on anything academic now, right? What will I remember 20 years from now, all these experiences, or writing 12,000 words and reading 5 million books/journal articles?

Not exaggerating.

And this, my [nonexistant] friends [of this blog], is the struggle with studying abroad.