College Life.

I wrote a lot about life in Germany because I wanted my American friends to know what it's like. Now that I'm back in America, I've been having some writers block because life here is boring: same shit different day. Then it ocurred to me that while it may be the same shit for me, American college life is maybe something new and novel to my readers (if any of you out there in internet-land have been patient enough to stick with me through my sporadic posting schedule).

But first, some exciting news - I got an internship with the Philadelphia Flyers! I am one of two people chosen for the Finance department and I couldn't be more thrilled about it. Hockey + Finance = awesomeness in the first degree. I start in the spring and continue into the summer, which means I'll have to stay in Philadelphia forever (or what seems like forever.) Major bummer. Who knows, maybe I'll use this as an opportunity to jet off to London when I can't stand it any longer. A girl can dream, right?

So here it is, the topic du jour: college. A day in the life of Elizabeth Schneider.

Mondays start with my 10:30 principles of retailing class. I usually walk in two minutes late, large coffee in hand, and sneak into the back row as quietly as possible - which never works, but I try anyway. My professor, wearing a hideous shirt and ridiculous jeans, has just started his lecture on some retailing framework he designed which is pointless but slightly entertaining. His PowerPoint slides are colorful and they hold my attention for a bit. My mind starts to wander so I start to look around the class - we have the Asian overachievers who sit in the front row, scribbling down every word the professor says; the ken-doll lookalike who sits in the back row and constantly rearranges his hair between throwing out buzzwords like "branding" and "value-chain management" but doesn't really understand their meaning; the arts and sciences girls who are scattered throughout the class and have blank looks on their faces; and then me, tired and drinking coffee in a futile effort to look alive. It's early. I snap back to attention when my professor says something ridiculous (which is often) such as, "I have great taste. I can't teach it to you, but I just have it." Two minutes later he brags about how he bought his jeans for $3 at Costco. I am a fan of bargain shopping, but his $3 look like something out of a bad 90's movie so that's really not something to brag about. I'm beginning to question his "good taste" and have come to the conclusion that this class is a total waste of my time.

I buy another coffee at ABP before running halfway across campus to German class. Yes, we call it ABP because none of us come from France and we all butcher the pronounciation of "Au Bon Pain." In fact, I don't even know if that' show you spell it. It's just ABP. Magically I get to German early and spend a few awkward minutes talking to my German professor who speaks with a very... interesting... german accent. Lots of "sssssss" and hand gestures. He looks like a caricature and it's highly entertaining. The temperature in Williams is never right - they have the heat on when it's hot outside and the air conditioning on when it's cold. We're not in the Wharton building anymore, Toto. It's a fun game to try and pick the right seat that doesn't have hair all over it; there's some girl with dark hair in the class before me who sheds all over every seat. The static electricity helps to make a very modern-art abstract hair sculpture on the chair that nobody wants to sit in. It's pretty nasty.

The cycle repeats with Finance (and my hilarious professor who wears pink ties everyday) and my Marketing reserach class (which is so boring I have considered inflicting serious bodily harm to get out of going.) Weeknights are spent studying with a healthy dose of procrastination and weekends deserve a blog post of their own, once I've done something worth writing about. Sleep, class, eat, class, study, repeat. The life of an college student isn't as party-filled as it would seem... at least at Penn. Maybe I should have gone to a state school, my oh my life would have been so much easier.

Hopefully this was interesting or at least a pleasant distraction from your same-old, same-old.

Happy Saturday night!