DISQUS

Frank · 1 year ago

I don't think you know what the word "corollary" means.

Lena · 1 year ago

Probably not.

Allison · 1 year ago

I loved this. So funny. Except, you know, for you freaking out and whatnot. I think I prefer your Tumblr, though. It seems like a much better mix of "you" and gives me a slightly better perspective when it comes to reading about your relations.

- A fan.

Jake · 1 year ago

Guys who buy you a ticket home so they can tie you up like a roped steer and use you as a pin cushion probably are not keepers. Just an opinion.

Lena · 1 year ago

Clearly, you have not experienced the wonders of metal restraints and ball gags.

Kate · 1 year ago

worry not, we've all had our fair shares of breakdowns in Europe. However, not all of us can write about it in a funny way like you :)

JD · 1 year ago

Wow...Only you, Lena. Only you. But hey...I guess at least I learn from you???

And as for that guy, don't listen to the asshole above. I think being a roped steer is hot. And he is definitely a keeper.

Trixie Firecracker · 1 year ago

The best is winding up in a foreign country where someone throws you into a pool and you lose a contact lens. Trouble is, you don't know your presciption off the top of your head, didn't bring any backup, and are stuck wearing glasses for the rest of the trip. No concierge either.

wanderlust · 1 year ago

Glasses? <gasp> Darling, how DID you survive?

wanderlust · 1 year ago

I heart middle-class striver college kids travel stories.

Jesus! Strap on a barely full backpack and a pair of flip flops, leave the credit cards and computer at home, and spend six months in India and Burma.

candywrapped · 1 year ago

Airline tickets are not cheap. He's a keeper.

Lena · 1 year ago

I paid him back as soon as I was on American soil, but it was the effort/concern that counted.

prorsum · 1 year ago

Haha what an accurate description of the horrors of international travel. It's worth it though. Thanks for your amusing take on it, very fun to read.

TR · 1 year ago

Great entry! I once got stuck in Ireland....f'ing national airline strike, and I had to be in a wedding party back in the US. It took 3 planes, a bus, subway, 2 taxis, 3 sleepless nights (2 of which were spent in two different country's airports) to make it all work. After all of that I came home to find out later that my then g/f tore up all of the pictures of girls she thought I slept with in my photo album, rearranged them so I wouldn't notice, and added many more pictures of her in there.

ps. I was told that the wedding wouldn't go if I wasn't there.....too bad, I could have saved them 4 years, since that didn't exactly work out.

zoeynym · 1 year ago

Sounds like a keeper to me. Party with me in Madrid this summer woman!

Lena · 1 year ago

Done.

Annie · 1 year ago

You also missed Jezebel calling you a girl that they'd like to hang out with.

michael · 1 year ago

well not all europeans are as dumb as you describe us :) you just haven't been in austria, that was your fault :)

nice post, i liked it a lot.

Ryan · 1 year ago

This is my favorite of your posts in a long time. Dunno why, as I've never done the travel through europe thing, but it's got a fun screwball comedy zaniness to it. Did you really try flashing the French to get on a plane? I'm not surprised it didn't work ... those french are so over boobs. Anyway, glad you had fun. Say "hi" next time you're in nyc, yeah?

Harvard Alum · 1 year ago

Because he spends money on you, he's a keeper? Because of the sexual favors with which he knows you will reciprocate? Or be submitted to?

You are partially correct to say, "dignity cannot be regained." It can, but only with difficulty, with time, and with patient, conscious effort. Here's hoping you realize soon about your power-imbalanced relationship and move to reclaim that dignity.

Lena · 1 year ago

For someone who's not IN this relationship, you have a lot of opinions about it.

Harvard Alum · 1 year ago

does that make them any less valid?

Lena · 1 year ago

"Power-imbalanced"? Insinuations that I've lost my dignity, that he's paying me for sex? Um ... if you're going to have opinions THAT loaded, you might want to check that you're basing them off a solid knowledge of the facts and are not seriously extrapolating from limited info. You're not me, you're not the person I'm seeing, and you don't know either of us, so I'm guessing you're in no position to tell me about the state of my dignity or the power balance in this relationship.

Jake · 1 year ago

I think nude pictures online, public admissions of drug use and a three year track record of squandering opportunities offered by Harvard qualifies as a loss of dignity.

Harvard Alum · 1 year ago

Agreed, Jake. Lena, you will really miss these days of being undergraduate at Harvard and the lost chance to take advantage of the brilliant people--both professors and classmates--you had.

And, yes, I stick by the claim that you are in a power-imbalanced relationship. Tell us why it isn't when a not-yet-21 student dates someone older, off-campus, and with plenty of money to burn on you.

Darcy · 1 year ago

Lena, after all this blogging you've done, I'm surprised you still defend yourself against being judged this vehemently. If you don't want strangers to comment on your relationships based on what you write, it'd make sense to stop blogging about it.

b · 1 year ago

ur back ur back! after starting reading your blogs a few days ago since your nytimes i'm hooked to reading your blogs. please dont stop writing. i feed on it. whatever u write.


a fellow ivy-league-er/someone who can be in your shoes

rlauriston · 1 year ago

I thought you came off well in the NYT article. Your blog is funnier, of course.

Valley Girl · 1 year ago

In the States, making out with your best friend will only egg the guys on. I take it lesbianism isn't as hot in Germany? =)

Teresa Wu · 1 year ago

This was hilarious.

byrd · 1 year ago

She couldn't control the nude pictures online, most people 'admit' to doing illegal activities (underage drinking, drugs) via their facebook profiles and squandering opportunities as an undergrad (whether on purpose or inadvertently)? Who HASN'T done that?

Lay off.

Anon · 1 year ago

Patrick Hamm is a dumb ass.

smiles · 1 year ago

Lena, if this comment does not make you want to close up shop (or at least make your blog private to only those that you love) then I don't know what will. This is an infringement of privacy that is so ridiculous it is beyond belief.

Harvard Alum · 1 year ago

What was the comment that was removed? (The essence of it, as I'm guessing the substance was objectionable.)

Blah · 1 year ago

Privacy?! Lena has no idea what that means. She publicizes her own shit, and that stuff stinks.

Blah · 1 year ago

She has no concept of privacy.

Jeff Bilkanich · 1 year ago

Your writing is both interesting & witty - enjoyable reading; however, if you're going to use a foreign word please spell it correctly: "no" in German is "nein" (not nien), o.k.?

MHL · 1 year ago

If you don't want German guys to hit on you, don't do stupid things like going topless in a German restaurant (as evidenced in your Chicktionary shots). How gratuitous, how pointless, how idiotic.

You show a remarkable lack of good judgment and personal boundaries.

Meghan · 1 year ago

I'm on study abroad in England right now, and I have experienced every single one of the things you have listed x8...except for the lost luggage thing.