Fun Night Out

Last night was another long night ... at the bars with international students.

It was really interesting. At dinner, there were:
1 Texan
1 Oregonian (me, that is)
1 German
1 North Carolin...ian (ok, someone from NC)
1 French
1 Spanish
1 Swiss

Most of them are older than me ... well, actually all of them. All of them MBA students.

So Swiss, Spanish and French went home, and left Texan, Oregonian, NC, and German to go to the bars. Ahhh, Long Island Ice Teas. And yay for free drinks on the house for the ladies. :) And dancing to music that I know! Oh, how I miss home.

The next time I go back to school, I'm going on an exchange!

Of course I cherish this time I have with these new people, but it is also such a great adventure for me ... not exactly to meet new people, but to experiment with being "me."

I have wanted to improve who I am. I want to stay who I am, and more. I want to be stronger than ever. I want to be someone who loves herself. I want to be assertive, and I want to speak my mind and do what I think is right, yet at the same time, comfortable with being alone and being quiet when everyone else is talking (instead of feeling "pressured" to speak just to "stay cool and in the loop"). I want to feel ok about being different; it's ok be feel small, and even BE small, because my path is different. I don't want to be funny for the sake of attention, but just for fun. I want to feel fine, feel acceptable to myself, to be careful, to keep distance, to say no. I want to be who I want to be.

And fortunately and unfortunately for these kids, I get to experiment on them.