school is my friend school is my friend school is my friend school is my friend
school is not my friend
Arf. I am getting burnt out on school. It's not that i don't enjoy school or learning, not at all. I just don't have a very good relationship with homework, and after a while i get very very sick of it all, and rather behind. That's what's happening now.
I took a German course over the summer, and i'm wondering now if i really should have done that. It was 12 hours a week of classtime, plus homework, for nine weeks, rather intensive. I probably could have used the summer as a break from schoolwork. I did simply blow off some of the homework over the summer, mostly because i was tired of school.
Now i'm back in Minnesota, taking only three classes, and i'm probably going to withdraw from one of them. I go to class, listen but float, and generally appear that i'm in another world. I do some of my homework, ignore some of it. This is getting rather pointless.
So, i have an idea. Maybe i should take a break. Maybe i can take next semester off. And what would i do then?
i can ride my bike across the country!
It's probably not the best weather to be starting that in January, but i don't know that i could finish the trip over just the summer. So i'll go home for winter break and not come back to school in the spring. I'll try to seek out some form of temporary employment in this wintry economic climate (unemployment recently reached 6.4% in Oregon, the second highest rate in the country), save up money to buy things like panniers and a tent and some road tires and maybe a bicycle seat that won't make me impotent. Meanwhile, i'll go on long rides in the mild Portland climate to prepare me for my trip. Then in late March or early April, i'll head south.
I'll go south through California, maybe as far as Los Angeles. I will touch the Pacific Ocean. I will go east along a southerly route. I may go to New Orleans, i may go to Memphis. I will touch the Atlantic Ocean. I will go to the northeast; i will visit New York. I will ride back west, eventually reaching the Twin Cities, where i will visit Joyquality. Depending on time, i will ride or take the train home.
I'll camp in the middle of nowhere; i'll stay with family and friends; maybe i'll end up in a motel once or twice. Maybe i'll stay with strangers. I'll visit noders along the way (/msg me and i'll stick you on my map!). I'll eat fruit leather. It will be hard. It will be fun.
whee!