breakthesky.neti'll break the sky, for you and i are going nowhere.

I travel a lot. I fly back and forth between school and home during the academic year, and I’ve grown up in a jet-set type of lifestyle because I have family and friends all over the world. I am generally a good person to have around when traveling via airplane because I am the most experienced with that form of travel as opposed to cars, trains, etc. However, when flying to my school’s city yesterday, this belief of mine was proven wrong.

First, my flight was delayed, which wasn’t really a surprise as it’s not unusual for flight delays to occur in the winter due to weather. However, this delay actually wasn’t anything weather-related. It was caused by a broken lavatory on the plane, and one of the flight attendants informed all passengers that if they couldn’t fix the toilet, we’d have to be moved to another aircraft. I’ve never had a flight delayed because of indoor plumbing, but luckily, they fixed the toilet without major disruptions.

Next, I was at the baggage claim waiting to get my suitcase. Not even ten seconds after I arrived at the carousel, the carousel broke down and all of the luggage had to be shifted to a nearby carousel before any passengers could claim their suitcases. By the time the switch took place, three full flights were assigned the same carousel and claiming luggage was an absolute mess.

Last, I was taking the Metro to get from the airport to my school. After I got on the train, the doors open and shut no less than twelve times before the train was able to be fully operational and depart the station. When I was transferring train lines, all of the up escalators had broken down (the down ones were working just fine, however). I had to loop all the way around the platform with my gigantic heavy suitcase in tow before I could locate the elevator, and by some miracle, it was working, so I managed to get to the upper platform for my connecting train.

Thank God there were no mechanical issues with the shuttle I had to take from the Metro station in order to get to my campus. If there had been, I think I would have just about given up getting back to school in one piece!

Long story short: don’t travel with me. I seem to leave a trail of mechanical failures wherever I go!

I’m not really a resolutions type of girl, because I either forget about/have failed them by the second week of January. Instead, I’m going to try and set some goals for myself this year¹.

• Read more (fictional) books
  I have always adored reading but my life just got so crazy in 2009 that when I did have free time, I wanted to spend it either sleeping or doing mindless stuff like watching TV. I definitely want to read more this year cause I miss it!
• Complete Project 365
  I did Embodiment successfully for the first half of 2008, and then I just petered out due to lack of time. I still want to document my year, so I’m going to try using photography instead of writing. I created a Flickr account for this, and my most recent photo is featured in this blog’s sidebar.
• Get into a year-long study abroad program of my choice for next academic year
  I have my heart set on getting into a year-long study abroad program for the 2010-2011 academic year in Beijing, China. If Beijing falls through, I’m looking at other places as my overall goal is to go abroad for all of next year no matter what the place.
• Maintain good grades and get on Dean’s List for spring 2010 and fall 2010 semesters
  I’ve been on Dean’s List for all of my semesters in college. This is something I want to continue and hopefully it will be pretty achievable.
• Finish first draft of my novel THE MOST HAPPY
  Last summer, I began writing the first draft of my novel THE MOST HAPPY. I was aiming to finish it sometime last semester if I found the time, but that never happened. I want the first draft completed this year or else I’ll never finish it.
• Comment on more blogs/comment more often
  I very rarely had time to comment on any blogs in the last half of 2009, and when I did, a lot of my favorite bloggers were on hiatus/disappeared. Assuming real life doesn’t get too insanely busy, I want to comment on blogs more often as well as discover new blogs to comment on.
• Focus more on the “now” rather than the future
  This has always been a problem for me as I never see any point in following through something if I know it won’t pan out in the end. While that makes sense logically, it means I miss out on a lot of the little things, especially when it comes to friendships and relationships and being a teenager/college student in general. I’m aiming to be more relaxed and carefree when it comes to allowing myself to enjoy things now rather than discarding the opportunity altogether because it won’t work out in the long-run. Maybe that means I’ll be a little wilder and more reckless but hey, this is my last year as a teenager so I have to make it count! ;)

1. Or maybe I just like the term “goal” better than “resolution”, cause they pretty much amount to the same thing. [↩]

Coins Not Accepted Here

I absolutely love these English red phone boxes. They’re very iconic and I’ve always had this strange fascination with them. When I went to England in November 2007, it didn’t matter how many red (or black) phone boxes I saw, each time I saw one I let out a squeal of excitement. I can’t remember how I started this mild obsession with English phone boxes, or why they hold such a strange captivation for me. But nevertheless, they do.

What I don’t understand about this particular phone box, though, is how coins are not accepted. If a phone box doesn’t accept coins, what does it take for payment? Bills? Plastic? Checks? Poker chips? I thought all public pay phones accepted coins universally??