Yes, I remember how to do school work.

This past week was very different from any thus far here in Dundee. It was different in the sense that I had to remember what it was like to do homework, study, and well, to be frank, learn. It is about 10:30 Friday morning here and while most people at home are sound asleep I am done for the day. Usually on Fridays I have history tutorial and then I have to rush my buns to physics lecture. Today was nice in the fact that our physics professor (who was new to us this week, and a pleasant change from our last professor because she is nice and does a better job explaining the material) had to be at a conference, which meant we did not have lecture.

Today was not so nice in the fact that I had to give a presentation in my history tutorial. This is where the remembering how to do homework comes into play. Up until this week, I have had no assignments apart from reading, so this was my first assignment...of the entire semester in any of my classes! For history we have to give a 15 min oral presentation over a topic of our choice and then write a 2,000 word essay, no big deal right? Well, I have come to realize that it is kind of difficult to learn about another country's history, especially just jumping into the 20th century. All of these names of people and political parties I have never heard of are swirling around as well as references to previous events in history. It is just very different than learning U.S. history which has basically been beaten into our heads since the age of 5.

Anyway, my presentation was a success! I chose to look at the Sinn Féin political party in Ireland and their rise to power during WWI and their involvement through the Irish War for Independence and the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Really light-hearted fun stuff. Needless to say after countless hours reading about this Irish Nationalist party (who until about 2 weeks ago I had no idea they existed) I was able to learn something and act like I knew what I was talking about for 15 min. I would like to give a special shout out to Don (physics professor at Guilford) and the rest of the physics department, as well as my experimental class last semester, for helping me put together an excellent powerpoint with just the right amount of words on each slide and for helping me polish my presentation skills :-)

Now that the presentation is behind me I can relax...briefly because I have a film paper due on Monday. Luckily I got a good start on it last weekend so it should be a breeze to finish. I will stop boring you with the school aspect of the week and tell you about the fun things. Yes, despite the fact that I spent a lot of time reading, so much that I thought my eyes would fall out, I did manage to have some fun.

As I left you last post I was preparing to climb a big hill (I now know it is called Law Hill). However, the lovely Scottish weather put a damper on this outing as it was pouring down rain when we were going to go on our hike. Needless to say it was postponed. So no pictures this week...sorry to disappoint...I will just try in entertain with the written word.

Monday was Valentine's Day and after spending a lot of time in the library I returned to my flat and had a lovely evening with Christina. We made and ate dinner together which is always nice. We fill each other in on the events of the day: I tell her about physics (and history this week) and she tells me about life as an art student. We then ate chocolate hearts her mom sent and marshmallow peeps my mom sent while watching The Wedding Singer a cheesy romantic comedy perfect for the occasion. It was very nice!

This week Lauren, Esther and I held our third weekly "heart-warming family potluck" Wednesday night. Lauren was in charge of dessert, and she made delicious apple cobbler complete with vanilla ice cream! Esther made haggis and brussels sprouts , which were both very tasty!! I had never had brussels sprouts before so this was a new experience. They surprisingly were not that bad despite the reputation many people give them. I also think they look like a rather happy, cute veggie, like lettuce or cabbage but mini! Anyway, this left me to be responsible for another side. I had lofty goals of making a delicious combination of sauteed onions, potatoes, and red peppers. I guess the goals were not all that lofty but it did not go as smoothly as I hoped. Please understand I am rather new to the whole cooking thing. I can blow anyone out of the water when it comes to baking, but cooking is a different story. I mean who needs to know how to cook when at home you have a father who is an excellent chef and at school you have a meal plan? Guess I have to learn at some point in my life...so why not now? So, yes, back to the sauteed veggies. They were not a complete disaster, but I realized that potatoes take forever to cook. So, after I had got it started in my flat, it was time to go to Esther's where we were eating. I took my half-cooked veggies and olive oil and we plopped them back in the pan while we enjoyed haggis and sprouts. In the end all they needed were about 15 more minutes in the heat, so I did not ruin them :-)

The evening was nice and relaxing after attempting to learn all there is to know about the Sinn Féin party. We also have finalized all of our plans for Paris. As I am writing this I realize that in exactly two weeks I will be strolling the streets of Paris! The three of us (and Christina might join in on the adventure) are super excited!! So all of our train tickets, plane tickets, and hostel reservations are booked and we are more than ready to go. In fact, last night in between rounds of practicing my presentation I "packed" for the trip. Yes, I am aware of the fact that we are not going for two weeks, but I wanted to see if I could get everything to fit in my backpack. Normally when you fly you can have a carry on and a purse (ya know 1+ rule) but apparently with RyanAir you are only allowed one total and it has to be small. I was successful in cramming lots of stuff into my deceivingly small backpack! I say it is deceivingly small because it appears small but I can get a lot of stuff in it!

Also last night at the Union was a "Plain White T's" event. It is where you wear a white t-shirt and take a marker and write on people's shirts. I would not normally have gone because I had my presentation this morning at 9 am, but it was a fundraiser for the boat club, which Esther is a part of. So, being a good friend I decided to go for a little while with Lauren and Esther. I am so glad I did because I had so much fun! I think it was just the relaxation I needed so I would not continue to stress over my presentation. I left relatively early and got plenty of sleep for my presentation. I didn't want to leave though because I was having so much fun!

Well, I am going to go enjoy my Friday complete with swimming laps, hitting the gym and not doing homework!!

Happy belated Valentine's Day and even more importantly Happy Friday!!

Cheers!