Things I have learned during my summer in New York City, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Bergen, Hamburg, and Berlin:

- It is not healthy to live out of a suitcase for more than a period of three months
- Generally, Europeans are more culturally suited for adaptation and linguistic familiarity
- No matter where you go, outside of America, you will always be Japanese.
- Although Amsterdam is the city of debauchery and sin, it is...interesting, to say the least.
- Fries taste incredible with mayonnaise.
- Distance increases pain, pain invokes regret
- Forgiveness is in the heart of maturity and a learning situation; anger is useless
- Insecurity is uncomfortable, but there is always a cure
- Cabs here roll deep, in flocks of Benzes
- You can actually get around Europe very cheaply
- Food is infinitely better here, bathrooms infinitely dirtier
- About 90% of Germans and Dutch speak very good english, even if they are ashamed to admit it
- Optimism is necessary. It's time to wake up early, hit the gym, clean the room, talk about problems, and generally - live a better life.

It's been a learning-summer. Sometimes fun, other times incredible, always eye-opening, filled with Beethoven, often times painful, emotionally saturating, and otherwise exhausting.

It's time to go home.

Harro! I am come from Amstahdam. Now I am in Hamburg. Now I am going to catching ride to Berlin. Bye Bye.

One more week. Then off to Berlin. I'm bored.

"Part of the appeal of 50 Cent comes from a natural drawl in his voice when he raps, a result of a bullet he once took to the face."

Dawson's Creek: a grossly overrated, melodramtically saturated pubescent-appealing TV show catering to the sentimental-prone 17 year old girl, usually the type who has been recently fucked-over by a guy-trying-to-get-play. I only mention it since it seems to be the only fucking TV show on Holland television.

Yale: a grossly overrated, bureaucratically corrupt conservative institution dominated by the omnipotence-seeking tyrannical type of administration, typically the kind that won't let you use the stapler sitting on a desk for a made-up reason oddly paralleling Hitler's idea of class - "I'm sorry. This stapler is for Yale faculty only. If you would like to staple your paper together that is due in 45 seconds, you could use the one at the student section of the Yale library located much too far for you to make it back in time. Goodbye!"

The Euro: 100 dollars gives you 86 Euro. 2 Euro gives you a can of coke.

One day I will be 30 - a student from many different institutions, without a diploma from a single one. By the time I wear my first cap n'gown, I will be old enough to raise children.

Dual-functioning pianistic and life advice from Marie Francois Bouquet:
"You have two bad habits: you smoke and you use the soft pedal. I would prefer it if you gave up both habits, but for now, please concentrate on getting rid of the soft pedal."

The world of music: 5 of us played the name game today - one from Juilliard, one from Curtis, one from Yale, one from Eastman, and one from Toronto. Together, for 3 hours straight and encompassing roughly over 100 people, there was not a single person named that at least one of us did not know from the past. It's a small world after all.

The streets of Bergen ring with music. Dutch love yo. Dutch luv.

Preliminary observations about Amsterdam:
- The cab drivers drive 6-speed stickshift AMG benzes
- You can smoke in the trains
- It's pretty damn clean
- Renaults are like Civics
- Everybody speaks english
- There's a casino in the airport. When you get off your flight, the sign reads: "Left for Baggage Claim, Arrivals, Customs, Ground Transportation, and Casino"

Posthumous observations about Los Angeles:
- Too much traffic
- Too much traffic

I'm off to Holland - then Germany. If you need to reach me, you can do so by email: carlos.avila@yale.edu.

LATES!