Winter is Neither Here nor There...yet

Ahhh I don't know what to do for winter break!

I just found out that I could shave off $200 from my plane ticket price to Vancouver if I chose to fly to Seattle and take the bus up....and now it only seems to cost $350 for a round trip ticket to Van. I've got people pulling me to go back to Van, and god knows I want to so badly...my snowboard is over there after all, and I kinda want to bring it back to campus so I wouldn't have to worry about equipment rentals when I want to go snowboarding here.

I really want to go back to snowboard and hang out with my old friends...but at the same time, money's an issue right now. If I stayed, I could probably save the $350 and spend much less going snowboarding in Wisconsin instead. Plus I could probably get a job on campus during winter like last year and save up. Downside: I get to face a ghost town. For a MONTH. *Flashback to last winter's emptiness and loneliness*.

Decisions, decisions. Ahhhhh! I wish I could just be like one of those preppy American middle class people who don't give shit about money and go on trips to Cancun and Florida for every break. I know I have enough money to go, if I wanted to, and that my parents would give me more if I needed. But I just feel like I need to be thrifty about money, and not be like one of those preppy ppl that I disdained against above. My tuition IS like 40 grand a year...a horrible figure.

I need to figure things out. And fast. Well I suppose it doesn't need to be fast, only if I want to go back to Van.

-FCDH

Black Friday

A term that has different meanings in the West and the East. Let's take a look:

In the US, Black Friday refers to the shopping frenzy that comes the day after Thanksgiving. I partook in the frenzy...though not as frenzied as others were. I deliberately brought only $25 with me so I would not spend so much, and I ended up buying 2 long-sleeved winter running shirts from Finish Line for $20. Score!

In Asia, "Black Friday", as dubbed by major Asian media sources, refers to the crash of all East Asian stock markets today due to the news of Dubai World's debt troubles. Dubai World's announcement today that they wished to default on 6 months of interest payments of their $59 billion debt raised serious concerns about nationally-backed corporations defaulting on their debt. Honestly, I don't think anyone should be at all surprised by this development. One only needs to take a glance at Dubai's ridiculous real-estate investments, from the environmentally-insensitive Palm Jumeriah Islands to the Atlantis hotel with the whopping $16 million opening ceremony, to see that Dubai was basically courting trouble. The sky-high fantasy has finally collapsed on Dubai...but I suppose they could always go skiing in the ski slope they built in the middle of the desert.

Just a year or two ago, Dubai was being lauded as being a "financial foundation" that all Arab countries should follow. Today, it's being compared with Argentina and Russia for their financial mismanagement that led to hyperinflation, as two nations that have defaulted on their debt. But hey, as Americans, we should expect it and live with it...as one day it will be us.

Dubai's debt - $59 billion, or $26,106 per capita

US's debt - $12 trillion, or $39,099 per capita

Now won't that be a glorious day..."Hey World, can we stop paying interest on our $12 trillion debt for 6 months?"

-FCDH