mystery solved!

It turns out that the random emailer found my information on my program's website and only made a lucky guess that I was also into postcolonial literature. I've been corresponding back and forth with him over the past week and a half, and I have to say, it's quite interesting to exchange ideas with someone whose background and current context are so different from my own. I recently turned 22 years old (my birthday was on the 24th!) and have jumped straight from undergrad to a Ph.D. program. My e-pal is probably in his 40s (this guess based on the pictures he sent), married with two children (ages 12 and 14), and has an MPhil in International Relations and is working on an MA in English.

In other news, I move back to my apartment on Saturday and will officially be living alone for the first time in my life. I'm pretty nervous about it, though apparently not as nervous as some of my friends are for me. I've heard from quite a few of them that they've had conversations amongst themselves about how badly my first year alone can potentially go. Chief concerns include:

1) My horrible habit of smiling at or enduring conversation from random strangers (I can't help it! I'm from the Midwest, dammit!)

2) What can only be kindly termed as my sheer ridiculousness/impracticality/lack of life skills (as one good friend put it, "I have these visions of the lights going off in your apartment and you not knowing what to do about it." Me: "So true. Touche. Touche.")

3) The way I become a crazy hermit when I'm left to my own devices (namely: I burrow into my room and basically fall off the face of the planet. All the while, my mind wanders into strange crevices of the universe and folds in on itself, usually in ways that do not enhance my already degraded social skills)

4) Me + alcohol (I don't really drink anymore, so when I do, I tend to get smashed, and I'm not using that word lightly) + no one to walk me home + my horrible sense of surroundings (not only do I have no concept of directions, but I'm also ridiculously unobservant. I don't notice when people I'm looking for are literally two feet away from me, which doesn't bode well for walking the streets of a major city at night)

On the upside, though, I have two months before the program starts to feel everything out and hopefully become more of a seasoned individual (seasoned at...life? Apartment-dwelling? Not being a sheltered child? Hmm...the possibilities are endless!). On the downside, I won't have internet service until July 7, so I will be unable to post until then.

Lets all cross our fingers that I don't go wacky from the lack of internet (I compulsively check my email at least 15+ times a day) or else have some other kind of horrible disaster befall me. Positive thoughts, people! Positive thoughts!

strange connections

Came across an unexpected email in my inbox this morning from a person claiming to be an MA student in Pakistan with an interest in postcolonial literature. I have no idea how they got my personal email (or knew that I was into postcolonial lit), but I went with it and responded to their inquiries with a little novel about my particular academic interests (once you get me started babbling about that sort of thing, it's kind of hard to stop. Plus, what better way to spend my time when I'm bored at home than meeting a new friend?)

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else before? I'm a huge fan of correspondences and a generally trusting person (I mean, they weren't selling me penis enhancements or overtly trying to get my bank account information!), but I don't want to be suckered into some scam that I'm not even aware of...I guess I do find it really strange that they knew my email and academic interests. To the best of my knowledge, I don't have any connections to anyone in Pakistan, nor do any of the profs that I've worked with on the undergraduate level.

The only thing is that my name and email are now on the website of my program. While I'd rather not reveal my specific school here, I will say that it's an Ivy, so maybe the person just decided to randomly email me based on an interest in my program? They did say they were interested in pursuing further graduate study in the US...But that still wouldn't explain how they know that I'm into postcolonial lit because that particular tidbit of information isn't available on the site. Furthermore, my intentions are to focus primarily on Asian American lit, so even if I did have a bio somewhere about my research interests, it wouldn't mention that...

Oh, the mysteries of the internet! I seem to be the queen of random communications (I've gotten quite a few messages out of the blue in my day), so perhaps I'll just chalk it up to my good fortune in this area. In any case, I'll keep you all updated (just as you should let me know if I'm being drawn into some scam!)