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Journal Entry #9

05/12/01

I woke up at 7:30am today. This is "sleeping in" for a weekday. It was raining nice and steadily and I knew this upon waking due to the "tap, tap, tap" of raindrops on my window. It rains often here, but rarely do I actually hear the rain while in my room. Breakfast was the usual cereal, yogurt, banana, and juice. This is pretty good that I'm eating breakfast...my "old" lifestyle at home in California used to be NO breakfast at all (except maybe a soda back in the good old days prior to my braces).

Did I mention that I wear orthodontic braces? Probably not, and most people do not notice because they are invisible "InvisAlign" braces that are brand new technology in the United States. This technology has not yet reached many other countries, and certainly not the United Kingdom that I know of. I hope to be almost finished with my InvisAlign treatment by March, with only another 5-6 months for only the top set of teeth. Until then, I continue to "suffer": I can only take them off to eat or drink and that can only properly be for 2 hours per day (not to say that I don't bend the rules a bit there!).

OK, back to my story. I hustled off to walk through Garscube to reach the vet school by 9:30am for my "Biomolecular Sciences" computer tutorial. The rain made everything miserable and I had to walk on the road to avoid mud (i.e. losing a shoe). The tutorial was easy and mind-stimulating. It was about DNA transcription and DNA translation, subjects that will be on our exams next week (AHHH!). It was shortly over half an hour before I finished. I then walked back to my room at Wolfson as it continued to rain.

I studied my Animal Husbandry by finishing my Sheep Production manual and starting the Poultry Production manual. Then I grew sleepy (I wonder why?) and took a nap for an hour or so. It was difficult to wake up from my warm bed, but I finally did wake and went downstairs to the coffee shop to see what they had for lunch. The soup didn't sound too appetizing (Mushroom), so I decided to try a "cheese and onion pie". I also had baked beans on top of that and (very bad...) a soda. The pie was sort of blah and not tasty. The beans were good, though! I topped it off by digging out my last Snickers bar (even worse!) and eating that. Then I continued to study by completing my reading of the Poultry manual.

After a while I grew sick of studying (I've studied for a couple of weeks now, biomolecular sciences and now am bored with Animal Husbandry). So I played some games on my computer, got my e-mail etc. Around 5:30pm I received a phone call and then a visit from Michelle. We all had been planning on going ice skating after dinner, but it looked like everyone was canceling. We had to postpone it until next Wednesday. At 5:50pm or so we (Rebecca, Michelle, and I) headed downstairs for "the big Wolfson Hall Christmas Dinner". This was to be a catered dinner -- quite a change from the normal cafeteria food.

They let us in at 6pm. We all sat down and noticed poppers and crackers on the table. The crackers contained plastic toys (like a car or plastic lips), a paper crown (which we all wore), and a riddle (i.e. "Which country has the biggest appetite? ...Turkey"). There was Christmas music and the Christmas tree (a real one) was lit up and had been previously decorated. Candy decorated the table, also tangerines. We had a choice of red or white wine. I chose red, but don't really like wine at all. It was less bitter than some wines I have tasted, but I still didn't like it. The appetizer was on the table: balls of melon topped with cinnamon. Then came the entree. I chose the vegetarian option because I don't like turkey (that was the normal option). I had vegetable pie with baby corn, baby carrots, brocco-flower, and chestnuts on the side. Also potatoes (it's a rare occasion when you do NOT get potatoes with a meal here). Dessert was tiny mince pies and a slice of raspberry pie topped with cream. Very yummy!

After dinner we were allowed 2 "tokens" (really just paper coupons) for 20pence total that allowed us to get 2 alcoholic drinks. I used mine towards 2 Bacardi Peach Breezers. After drinking them, I was urged to go to the ceilidh. The ceilidh was held in the cafeteria with all the tables removed. The music was provided by a duo playing accordion and fiddle. I danced 3 different dances and had fun. It was great exercise too! I made it up to bed at 11pm! It was a fantastic night.