It's now exactly three weeks until the start of finals, four weeks until Senior Week, and five weeks minus a day until I hobble across the stage wondering what I was supposed to be doing. Until that time there is plenty of work to be done. Right now I'm worrying about a German paper for Wednesday, a Math exam for Thursday, some thesis progress for Tuesday, and various other things.

I submitted my 'YES I DO' forms to UVa last week, and my application status has since been changed from 'Accepted' to 'Welcome to UVa!' Now I'll have to find an apartment, get my visa sponsorship transferred, and a million other things. Then I get to go home.

In totally unrelated news, the library now has most of its extra floor(s). The giant concrete walls are up also, on both sides. Sadly, in its current state it's already starting to look better than it did before...

Turns out my academic advisor, Professor Sanchis, passed away this weekend. She had been away from Colgate for about a year due to her illness, so it was not exactly surprising. Before she left, she was basically my point of reference in the Computer Science Department, starting way back in the Summer of 2002 (before I got to Colgate). At Colgate, especially during my junior year, I stopped by her office at least a couple of times a week to debate CS theory and University politics.

The good news is that *I picked* yesterday, and it's University of Virginia. The forms went out today, so as of now it's pretty much set. I'm currently working on the financial certification paperwork and such -- fun stuff. I may also make a quick trip to Charlottesville within the next few weeks (to pick an apartment).

And the theme of this week was... [drumroll] deciding what to do with my life. At this point, I basically get to pick between:

• University of California at Santa Barbara (here)
• University of Virginia (here)
• Vrije Universiteit / Free University in Amsterdam (here)

I visited the VU back in December (before I applied), so this past week I visited UVa and UCSB. Being the brilliant scheduler that I am, I was able to put together a wondefully exhausting itinerary (especially in combination with Kaleena's existing plans for the week). In general terms, this is what I've been up to:

I spent the past two days skiing with a bunch of Colgate students, over at Gore Mountain (a three hour drive). My first time skiing was awesome, though the trip has left me very tired and slightly sore. As always, it was good to get away from campus for a bit. The picture and movie are due to Crys, who was my fellow clueless person (with regard to skiing).

Life at Colgate has mostly returned to normal, except I'm a senior and this is my last Spring semester at Colgate everrrrr. Even the library project seems to be getting along somewhat.

In related news, I now have two grad school offers. Aside from being totally awesome, it is a huge luxury problem. It's starting to dawn on me that, within the next two months, I'll have pick a place to study (and spend at least four years of my life). Eek!

Anyway, it's about time I get my Jeju 'diary' on here. It's a little dry, which is probably because I wrote it at night most days (when I was exhausted and very jetlagged). If that bothers you, just enjoy the pictures.

Day 0: Getting to Jeju-do

Today's trip was pretty exhausting. In fairness, it was really two days -- I just didn't sleep much during the flight to Seoul. All in all, I was traveling for 21 hours by the time I got here, where 'here' means Seogwipo on the south side of the island. My trip was broken up as follows: