Birthday Weekend

Sorry this is so late this week. I've been very tired today. I also don't have any of the pictures from the week up yet so you'll have to wait until next week for those. So let's get to it. Monday we classes as usual. More bone diseases to look at. Then on Tuesday we moved our afternoon class to the morning because our professors had to go to a meeting in the evening and had to leave early to be able to get there. In my second class we looked at animal teeth and discussed how we could use loose teeth to think about animal ageing even though we usually try to work with teeth that are still in the jaw. So that was interesting to think about and gave another source of at least partial information when trying to find out something about the assemblage you are looking at. Having class in the morning left the whole afternoon free, so I managed to to almost nothing as we don't have another assignment due until the 19th. I did go to the grocery store and get the last of the ingredients for my BBQ night though. Wednesday morning I went to see Alice in Wonderland with a couple of my friends. It was pretty good. Not the best movie I've ever seen, but entertaining. What was even more entertaining was that while we were on the bus, we stopped to let someone off. Then as she was going out the door, a man from the back of the bus got up and went speed walking up the length of the bus, got off and continued speed walking up the sidewalk. It was just so abrupt. Everyone still on the bus was staring at him through the windows. It was very strange and very hilarious. After the movie I came home and started cooking the meat for BBQ night. I cooked a pork roast and a chicken. I also made coleslaw, baked beans, brussel sprouts and crescent rolls. It turned out pretty great. I had southern bbq sauce and some regular bbq sauce and I converted the British baked beans (which are in a tomatoey sauce that isn't sweet) into American style ones by adding brown sugar and mustard. The pork didn't pull as nicely as I had hoped, but the chicken turned out wonderfully. I cooked it in one of those oven bags and it was just falling apart. Amazing. I made way too much food though and still have some of it in my fridge.

Thursday I went shopping for a dress to wear out on my birthday. I found a really nice one for that and I also found 2 others that I really liked so I ended up with 3, but 2 of them were on sale, so that worked out well. Plus I have some things that I have to go to in the next couple of weeks that require dresses, so I'll get to use them. After shopping I tried to get some work done, but I have just been really unmotivated all week.

Friday I had class in the morning and we had a guest lecturer who is a PhD student at the university. She helps out in our human lab and really knows her stuff. She lectured on the use of DNA and isotopes in archaeology and how they are starting to help us look at things from a different perspective than was possible in the past. It's funny to think that we can do these kinds of tests now and people in the past could never have even dreamed of such things. Makes you wonder what kind of stuff will be thought up in the future and how much of that info we will have destroyed with our current excavation and curation methods. I stayed after lecture and got some reading and writing done for some assignments. Then I came home and my Indian flatmate Baitalikee was watching cricket because the big Indian cricket tournament was starting. So I watched that with her and learned a bit about how it works. I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but at least I have a basic idea now. It was actually pretty cool. Her team started off really badly, but ended up winning the game. Then they won again today. For dinner on Friday Stine and Sytske made taco pie. It was pretty tastey. Then I went to the weekly beer pong tournament for awhile. There was hardly anyone there this week so I didn't stay super long, but it was fun.

Saturday was my birthday celebration day so I did pretty much nothing once again. I did have to go to the store to buy alcohol though. I had tried to go on Friday, but when I showed my license at the store they told me it wasn't a form of ID that they recognized and wouldn't sell to me. So I was really pissed and walked out of the store without buying anything. So Saturday I went to a different store and bought the same alcohol. They also IDed me but didn't say anything about my license. On my way home a lady stopped me and asked if I wanted to taste-test yogurt. I said sure and ended up trying chocolate flavored yogurts. It was pretty interesting. And I got a pen for participating.

That night we had a party in my flat with cake and presents and then went out to Bournemouth. We went to a club called V that is in a church. They sold the church at some point and rather than knocking it down and building something new, they just took out the pews and put in a bar. So it was kind of weird because it still looks like a church and you're in there drinking and dancing. We got there really early, so it wasn't that fun at first, but it got better as more people showed up. But then there were a couple of huge fights and the bouncers had to drag people out of the club. So, while it was an interesting experience it is not one that I will be repeating. The music wasn't that good and some of the people were kind of creepy. After we left we walked up to another club to meet someone and while we were waiting I got a kebab, which is meat sliced up in a pita with some veggies on top. And you usually eat it with a fork because it's too messy to pick up. British people usually only eat them when drunk, but I think they're really good and would eat one anytime, even though that is uncool :) Then we caught the night bus home and made it in by about 3:30 or so.

Today I've been doing nothing mostly. I have worked on my database a bit, but haven't made the progress that I thought I would. I keep doing things and then realizing that I want to change them so I have to start again. It's getting a bit annoying, but it will be worth it when I actually have to use the database if I take the time now to make it really easy to input data. So that was my week. I was too lazy to put up pics today so I'll have them for you next week. Have a good one! Actually, here they are if you are just reading this :)