Happy New Year!

Has it really been a year since I last posted? 2010 went by so quickly! It's like they say, time flies when you're having fun. (And I think it just gets progressively faster as I get older. Soon I'll be running to catch up.)

My 2010 was pretty much Part 1: one semester of graduate education courses at Lehigh University and Part 2: six month internship in the Department of Public Information at the United Nations, with some shenanigans mixed up in between.

As per my a-photo-is-worth-a-thousand-words trend, here's the year in photos:

Recording Session in one of Zoellner's practice rooms with Greg

Lehigh Orchestra Tour to Europe

Old Charles Bridge (Prague, Czech Republic)

LU Phil in Smetana Hall

Somewhere in Vienna, Austria, the City of Music

Esterhazy Palace, Eisenstadt, Austria

Celebrating my birthday in Eisenstadt!

Budapest, Hungary

in between shenanigans

My little brother Ben's graduation

(They grow up so fast, don't they?...)

Cousin reunion in NYC

The view from Brooklyn

Fulbrights in Philadelphia

Boston (Hahvahd)

I guess we're at that age where our friends are getting married...

UN Internship

My cubicle in DC-1

Some of the amazing people I worked with

General Assembly

Security Council

Richard Quest, CNN

H.M. Queen Elizabeth II

Rockefeller Center before Christmas

post internship shenanigans

Chinese Santa Clown?

FOOD

Yum

Now that we've rung in 2011, I'm starting my own countdown for Thailand! T-5 days before I hang up my winter coat and jet to Southeast Asia for 27 months with U.S. Peace Corps.

LSAT

(Yes, since I've terribly neglected my blog in the past couple months, I'm going to bang out 4 posts in one shot.)

To achieve my dream (see previous post), I've been studying for the LSAT. It's actually kind of fun. Especially when the authors of your LSAT prep book have a sense of humor and are real with you about the LSAT/ law school admissions process.

Excerpt from Princeton Review's Cracking the LSAT:

"How Much Will My Essay Affect My LSAT Score?

Not one bit. ...

"Who Will Read My Essay?

Possibly no one. ...

"Then Why Do Law Schools Require It?

Law schools feel guilty about not being interested in anything about you other than your grades and LSAT scores. Knowing that you have spent 35 minutes writing an essay for them makes them feel better about having no interest in reading what you have written.

"What Are They Looking For?

...essay organization, vocabulary, and writing mechanics...

"What They Are Really Looking For

Researchers at Educational Testing Service ... once did a study of essay-grading behavior. The researchers discovered that the most important characteristic, other than 'overall organization,' is 'essay length.' Also high correlated with good essay scores are the number of paragraphs, average sentence length, and average word length. The bottom line? Students who filled in all the lines, indented frequently, and used big words earned higher scores than students who didn't."

Elle: "I'm reading about the LSAT's."

Serena: My cousin had that once. Apparently you get a really bad rash on your-"

-Legally Blond

Georgetown

This is where I'm going to be in the near future:

Washington, D.C.: Day at the Museums

The Natural History Museum

Can you imagine this running around during the Night at the Museum movie?

(Then again, they did fly a plane around the Air and Space Museum...)

Don't see many museums with signs like this

Nevertheless, the Hope Diamond is still enclosed in a glass case.

"1958

Winston presented the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution. As part of the Smithsonian's collection, it now belongs to the people of the United States of America.

"Cursed?

Around the time Mrs. McLean acquired the Hope Diamond, tales of a curse arose. The diamond was rumored to bring its owners ill luck - even death."

Damn, we're all screwed.

National Gallery of Art

Washington Monument at night

Seeing old friends. :)

Happy New Year!

New Year's is actually my least favorite holiday and usually it's a big letdown after Christmas but anyway... here's to 2010!

Oh and here's the Christmas card I sent out to people in case I deliberately forgot about you:

Hope everyone had a Merry Holiday and Happy New Year!