Here’s a less serious post today. And at risk of this becoming a public dream journal (see this post from a few months ago), here’s the traumatic tale of an ill-fated trip through Copenhagen.
So there I was, driving my car down the crowded Danish streets. The thing about European road design is that they really like roundabouts. The Freudian unconscious within me recognized that fact, but failed to remember that Denmark is flatter than Amsterdam in a Belgian waffle iron, and so I found myself careening down a big-city hill as steep as any you’ll find in Seattle, but with roundabouts strung down the middle of the entire hill.
Now, anyone who’s played Mario Kart knows that you can’t go around a roundabout when there’s a perfectly good path over the middle of the roundabout–and when you’re going seventy miles an hour, there isn’t much choice either way. What followed was a harrowing roller coaster ride. I survived; the car survived; I looked around for police officers; there were none; I drove away scot-free, shaking in my sleeping bones.
Or so I thought, until a ticket for $77,000 from the Danish police showed up in my mailbox. My heart sank. Sure, I’d damaged some city property in my hasty driving, but this was utter financial ruin. I went to my parents, ready to beg for financial assistance, and explained my plight. Ever the pragmatist, my dad offered, “Well, it looks like you’re either going to have to get a job that pays more, or start spending less.” I awoke with bankruptcy pounding in my ears.
So there’s the free financial advice. You can consider that a legal endorsement and everything.
What’s new with me? Well, I’m still in school, on track for a December 2023 graduation with a BA in Linguistics (so far so good). Beyond that, the details are a little fuzzy. I plan on eventually going into academia, and I’ve been taking coursework in English teaching this semester in hopes of getting some practical skills and a background in second language acquisition in addition to just the liberal arts degree. My summer plans are still up in the air. I’ll also be moving apartments in the fall, which is always a gamble, but I enjoy the feeling of starting fresh in a new place.
I’ve been working on a couple songs that I hope to release pretty soon, though there never seems to be enough time to go around. It’s midterm season, which is no fun to write about, but does take up a good deal of time. I hope it all makes me a better teacher one day. ∎
