School Schmool

(Blogger's working again, so here's the picture I would have put up in the first place! Left to right, it's Janet, her new housemate Miriam who we all just met that day, me, and Rebekkah. To the Oregonians: please pardon the California Sweatshirt I'm wearing. I promise I only borrowed it and harbor no secret california loyalties [except, of course, to Emily])



School started this afternoon. Yesterday after church a bunch of us were lamenting this fact and the girls decided to have a "school schmool" party and bake chocolate chip cookies and commiserate together. We sorta forgot to check to see if we had all the ingredients first, so we endded up having to call Valda and run over to her flat, let ourselves in with Janet's key, and "borrow," aka pinch some baking soda, salt and two eggs. Then we ran back home and finished our dough, but we didn't quite get around to baking all of it, so I baked this morning too. I was going to add a picture of us up to our elbows in flour and chopped chocolate bars, but I think blogger is slightly broken at the moment and the 'add image' option doesn't appear to be working. I had my first two classes today. The first was a lecture on the rise and fall of Apartheid in South Africa with the afore mentioned fantastic Patrick Harries. The class had well over a hundred people in it and probably 15 or 20 of us sat on the floor. (Note to self, get to class a bit earlier!) Then I had a lecture at the Tropical Institute, which I thought was the beginning of the Current Topics in Epidemiology lecture series, but it turned out to be a farewell lecture by...well, I'm not sure who he was exactly. But a very funny, cute old guy who has been working with the tropical institute for more than 40 years. The lecture was in German. So were most of the slides. I didn't really follow everything. I'm afraid it may be a bad omen for my semester, too, since I have 2 lectures in German (Tuesday and Wednesday). Both professors know about my linguistic handicap. They say I can find some translations or read some supplemental stuff, and I can take my exams in English, so I'm going to give it a shot. Nothing like a little challenge to keep the semester interesting, right?! and if nothing else is gained, at least my English/German dictionary and I will be very good friends by the end of the semester.