In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Jealous?

You should be, because I was in Santorini this weekend, and it was unbelievable. So beautiful. Of course, now I’m broke and will be staying in my little village for the rest of the month, but it was worth it. For example:

oia
Oia

More below the fold, and even more here.

santorini1
Red Beach

Fira
Fira (the main city) at dusk

sunset
Sunset

harbor
Harbor

oia
Oia

oia
Oia


32 thoughts on Jealous?

  1. I assume you imbibed enough of the local wine to have an opinion. How did you like it? Santorini is one of my favorite white wines, though it is a bit pricey in the US.

    And thank you for the photos – they will help inspire me to get off my butt and get to the islands.

  2. Yes, but then most people don’t have the kind of money it takes to go on a European vacation much less doing so while paying for law school. I certainly don’t. Really good for you, but opening with “Jealous?” is rubbing it in our faces.

  3. Ron:

    I don’t know Jill personally, or anything about her financial situation, but I do know about law school financing. Let me assure you that most people don’t pay their way through law school – they take on an enormous amount of debt in the process, which it will take them years to pay off.

    Obviously, there are choices involved, and a cost-benefit analysis, but it’s a little more complicated than what you’re thinking.

  4. Ron,

    Did you get your penis caught in the pencil sharpener this AM? Geez, quit hating!

    As I recall, this is UNPAID, so it’s not like she’s rolling in loot.

  5. She’s not on a “European vacation,” she got a summer job in Greece.

    I’ve heard that things are really cheap in Greece – is that true?

  6. This post title struck me as gloating. It is a priviledge to have the opportunity to work in Greece for the summer. If it is unpaid, then it’s an even bigger priviledge. My lawyer family members and friends couldn’t have done that because they needed to earn every dollar they could over the summers. I like Jill’s writing and truely hopes she enjoys herself. If someone is going to have that priveledge, I’m glad it is going to someone who is currently working for the betterment of women. The post title just really chapped my wallet this morning.

  7. This post title struck me as gloating. It is a priviledge to have the opportunity to work in Greece for the summer. If it is unpaid, then it’s an even bigger priviledge. My lawyer family members and friends couldn’t have done that because they needed to earn every dollar they could over the summers. I like Jill’s writing and truely hopes she enjoys herself. If someone is going to have that priveledge, I’m glad it is going to someone who is currently working for the betterment of women. The post title just really chapped my wallet this morning.

    …Yes, but those lawyer family members and friends of yours also possessed a huge amount of privilege, didn’t they?

  8. Small world. I too was just in Santorini this past weekend, which I loved and think my liver has only just dried out from.

  9. Piny, not in the same league, no. But that is really besides the point IMO. I only brought it up because an earlier poster assumed I didn’t know that most people get through law school with huge student loans. Which was my point. Most people don’t have those economic opportunities, they cannot afford to not earn money. Pointing to your advantages and asking if we are jealous is gloating.

  10. Of course, now I’m broke and will be staying in my little village for the rest of the month…

    Boo-friggin-hoo.

    I hate you.

  11. Also, while my comment #14 is in jest, i’m inclined to agree slightly with Ron O. I didn’t immediately interpret the post as gloating, but it’s very very easy to see how it could be interpreted as such.

  12. I grew up dirt effing poor, and part of my requirement for earning my degree was spending a summer abroad. I had to take out an enormous loan to be able to do it, and I’m still paying it off, but it was a wonderful experience, and it was worth it.

    My point is that even extremely poor people can sometimes manage to find clever ways to finance trips to other parts of the world, and there are plenty of benefits to doing so, so if you can go, GO. I know there are often extenuating circumstances that can make it pretty difficult to ever see the Louvre, but you scrimp and you save and you make compromises and you do it, if it’s that important to you. You don’t snarl at people who (you think) can do so effortlessly because of all this “privelege” that they have.

  13. I know I sure as hell couldn’t have afforded to work for free during law school, let alone get myself overseas to do it. I could barely pay the rent even with the minimal stipend I got, and until that came in, I was fighting homeless guys for bottles to return (10 cents in Michigan!) and doing my laundry in the bathtub.

    There was an article in the Times not too long ago, discussed by Ezra Klein and others, about the unpaid internship and how it tends to further concentrate influential jobs in the hands of those who can afford to work for free. There were plenty of interesting internships and summer jobs and permanent jobs I’d have loved to have gone for, but for the small fact that I need to eat and have something to keep the rain off my head.

  14. Zuzu, I can completely relate. I had no internships at publishing houses or in contemporary art museums–my summers were spent delivering pizzas or mopping floors when I could find a job at all. Not having the option to do internships over the summer also affects your eligibility for a lot of jobs–with nothing on my resume but a string of fast-food jobs and a BA, I could hardly get a job at the local grocery store. I had this $90,000 degree and it couldn’t even get me arrested, so it was pretty depressing, creatively and financially. Especially since I was borrowing against the promise that I’d be a super-desirable employee after I graduated, and that just wasn’t the case.

  15. You don’t snarl at people who (you think) can do so effortlessly because of all this “privelege” that they have.
    1. I have no desire to be mean to Jill, but I will call her on it when I think she’s acting like a snot.
    2. Never said she was doing it effortlessly, just that it was a privilege to go and rude to gloat about it.
    3. I’m a lousy typist AND speller. So shoot me.

    If she had used a different title, my reaction would have been different. I am glad for her as well as irritated.

    I did use some of my money (earned as a golf caddy by day and Chinese food delivery driver at night) while in college to take trips. Mostly it was camping in the midwest, but I did get all the way to Rosarito, Mexico one spring break. And I consider myself lucky to have done that. The first few years out of college, I was considerably poorer trying to pay off loans while working at a non-profit. I could not even take a week vacation.

  16. Ron,

    3. I wasn’t trying to rub your nose in your bad spelling, I… just coincidentally spelled it the same wrong way that you did. Sorry that it came off that way!

  17. There were plenty of interesting internships and summer jobs and permanent jobs I’d have loved to have gone for, but for the small fact that I need to eat and have something to keep the rain off my head.

    I got a research internship as an undergrad that I turned down to lay baseboard for the summer. I worked for the school doing dorm maintenance to get a free room. I built loft-beds for spare money. I graduated a semester early to go trim houses and live with my parents while I saved for law school. I couldn’t find a paying job for my 1L summer and trimmed houses instead.

    And I wasn’t poor. My parents were middle-class, but the family business didn’t produce enough to make educating two kids a painless endeavor. Several times, the plan was that if the quarter went badly, I would drop out and work to get my younger sister though, and then I’d finish when I could.

    My mother, she was poor. Seven kids in two rooms, no running water, no father around, keep chickens to have enough to eat, babysitting money was part of the family budget poor. She lost all her teeth to malnutrition in high school. She was an All-State field hockey player, on a diet of catch-as-catch-can. She was tough.

  18. I do think that there are ways, including loans or even just maxing out credit cards. And quite frankly, if you’re already looking at $90,000+ in loans…

    So, I still would not assume that someone who is in law school and is abroad is rolling in dough. Quite the contrary, they might be rolling (sinking?) in debt.

  19. I’ll just say this:

    Jill, glad to see you’re enjoying yourself. I’ve never been off of the North American continent myself, but that will come in due time.

    As a graduate student who thinks a lot about debt, and the fact that I will probably die with it because my field is not a high-paying one, I’ll leave any comments about that for another thread. 🙂

  20. I had no internships at publishing houses or in contemporary art museums–my summers were spent delivering pizzas or mopping floors when I could find a job at all.

    I could barely pay the rent even with the minimal stipend I got, and until that came in, I was fighting homeless guys for bottles to return (10 cents in Michigan!) and doing my laundry in the bathtub.

    Gosh, I feel better already. If anyone here thinks I’m an asshole, you should meet my brother. He passed on college and created a multi-million dollar company out of our garage. Now Bill Gates, Jr. walks around with his hands in the air, exclaiming, “I’m God. I’m God, I’m God.” Well fuck him. I hope he ends up a paraplegic. I’d disconnect his battery on his wheelchair and push his ass out in rush-hour traffic. “Come on, Tiger,” I’d yell from the sidewalk. “Let’s see you work a miracle now!”

  21. Yes, but then most people don’t have the kind of money it takes to go on a European vacation much less doing so while paying for law school. I certainly don’t. Really good for you, but opening with “Jealous?” is rubbing it in our faces.

    First, I don’t have the kind of money it takes to go on a European vacation. I’m not vacationing, I’m working at a public interest group here, and I’m not getting paid for it. I took out a loan to cover my expenses for the summer, and am basically living on a shoestring — this weekend was my single extravagance for the summer, and now I’m literally living off of crackers, nutella and yogurt. I made the choice to try and travel a little bit rather and live out in the boonies off of very little than to live more comfortably and stay put. I also came to Greece in part because it’s cheaper to live here than in New York, even when you factor in the plane ticket. If I was back in the city, I’d barely have enough money to cover my rent. So save it.

    And when I wrote the “Jealous?” headline, I was actually imagining the voice of Jon Lovitz, not trying to be snotty.

  22. Totally jealous. S’ok though, I got Germany 🙂 World Cup Babay.

    No, I grew up dirt poor, and sure, I might have envied my wealthier cousins in Grosse Pointe. But if there’s one thing my father taught me early, it was that you can never be too poor to appreciate and enjoy culture. Sure, I might not have been able to travel when I was younger, but there were libraries, and bookstores, and good cafes. So while I might not have been able to take trips to, say, Santorini, I never resented those who could afford to do so. Anyone who resents anyone else’s finance is clearly not finding enough to do in their own lives, I think.

    Forget that crap, Jill. You enjoy your trip. I look forward to seeing more photos.

  23. She was probably having a great time–then she logged on and had to read this crap. Gawd, I’m laughing my ass off right now. Some of you guys are like a hybrid between Mr. Spock and Adolph Hitler. LoL…

  24. I sent my parents to Santorini last week for their birthday and they loved it but my dad said it was very hard to walk (he is disabled-leg injuries).

    They said it was beautiful though.

    I hope you have a wonderful summer!

  25. Lets take up a collection and send Jill a case of Nutella. I spent an entire summer in London eating out only one single time because I could not afford to do otherwise. I had 6 roomates in a two bedroom apartment that backed up to a KFC. My laundry smelled like original recipe from hanging out back to dry. I paid my rent weekly in cash to an exiled Iranian landlord, and hitchiked everywhere I could not take the bus. Jill, if it makes you feel better, my new BMW is now parked downstairs and the loans are paid off. Hang in there, and enjoy the freedom, if you will, of having no stuff, and therefore few commitments to the material world as compared to what you will probably have in the future.

  26. Jill I apologize. That opening brought up some bad memories of nasty people with entitlement issues. Since I think you are a decent person, it was more hurtful than if someone I thought was an asshole said it. I should have put more thought into the first post before firing it off.

    IMO, that line only works because: who would be jealous of Jon Lovitz? (really his personna-I’m sure he’s quite charming otherwise)

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