I am a Patriot
Not much to report today except that it was a really beautiful day. Maybe 30F and really sunny from 9am to 3:30pm. I woke up at 9 but didn't get to shower before my 10am talk due to a massively badly timed hour-long shower by my flatmate. So I'm a little dirty today. The talk went pretty well, but my jokes were not that well received (are they ever?). I thought for sure John Lott's "what's a quasi-schmasi?" joke would kill'em, but evidently "schmasi" is not a common word in Finland. Who knew?
After that I had lunch with Anna and Haari, two other Ph.D. students. They are really cool and I hope that maybe one day we will become actual friends and not just work friends. But they are both engaged and have "real people" lives, so it's unlikely that they'll have a lot of time to hang. Funny, grad students are more like real people here than at UM, where we basically act like freshmen in college only we drink kegs full of coffee instead of beer, and we dress poorly because "it's ironic" and not "what...this looks good...loser..."
Did you know that I have to delete the word "Anyway" from the beginning of every paragraph (except the first) of every post I write? Well I do. I even had to do it from this one.
I'm hoping to have "American-style" potluck soon. Everybody has been picking on me for being American. Not, mind you, because of our ridiculed foreign policy, ambivalent attitude towards torture, and questionable domestic civil rights policies, but because our food is widely regarded to suck .
So I'm thinking that I'll be able to get a few people singing "America the Beautiful" (ok I don't really want this) by offering a yummy but traditional menu of
I don't know if I'll be able to find all the right ingredients, and I certainly am not going to attempt a pumpkin pie (it might look like a pumpkin, but if it is anywhere in Europe, it will not taste like a pumpkin).
My Finnish quiz went ice-swimmingly; we played the fun "grade your neighbor's quiz" game (why don't I do this with my students? mmmm nevermind I remember). I got 39.5/42. Hyvää! (Good!)
Tomorrow is busy, with
a) laundry apointment at 9am (you have to make an appointment to use the washing machine)
b) lunch at noon with a visiting Russian prospective grad student of Pekka (there has to be a better way to phrase that)
c) coffee at 2:30 with the chair of the "Academic Affairs" committee of the student union (I think he has the rough equivalent of my position in GEO)
d) Finnish class at 4pm
e) the "buddy" program at 6pm (where I get paired up with a real live Finnish person who will hopefully become my buddy).
f) do math
g) sleep
After that I had lunch with Anna and Haari, two other Ph.D. students. They are really cool and I hope that maybe one day we will become actual friends and not just work friends. But they are both engaged and have "real people" lives, so it's unlikely that they'll have a lot of time to hang. Funny, grad students are more like real people here than at UM, where we basically act like freshmen in college only we drink kegs full of coffee instead of beer, and we dress poorly because "it's ironic" and not "what...this looks good...loser..."
Did you know that I have to delete the word "Anyway" from the beginning of every paragraph (except the first) of every post I write? Well I do. I even had to do it from this one.
I'm hoping to have "American-style" potluck soon. Everybody has been picking on me for being American. Not, mind you, because of our ridiculed foreign policy, ambivalent attitude towards torture, and questionable domestic civil rights policies, but because our food is widely regarded to suck .
So I'm thinking that I'll be able to get a few people singing "America the Beautiful" (ok I don't really want this) by offering a yummy but traditional menu of
- Roasted Chicken á la Simon and Garfunkle - a deliciously basted roast with a delicate rub of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme.
- Not Limp Bizkits - purely southern biscuits without the slightest hint of urban flavor.
- Lemon and Dillweed Infused Green Beans - because dillweed makes everything...yummier?
I don't know if I'll be able to find all the right ingredients, and I certainly am not going to attempt a pumpkin pie (it might look like a pumpkin, but if it is anywhere in Europe, it will not taste like a pumpkin).
My Finnish quiz went ice-swimmingly; we played the fun "grade your neighbor's quiz" game (why don't I do this with my students? mmmm nevermind I remember). I got 39.5/42. Hyvää! (Good!)
Tomorrow is busy, with
a) laundry apointment at 9am (you have to make an appointment to use the washing machine)
b) lunch at noon with a visiting Russian prospective grad student of Pekka (there has to be a better way to phrase that)
c) coffee at 2:30 with the chair of the "Academic Affairs" committee of the student union (I think he has the rough equivalent of my position in GEO)
d) Finnish class at 4pm
e) the "buddy" program at 6pm (where I get paired up with a real live Finnish person who will hopefully become my buddy).
f) do math
g) sleep
posted by Kevin at 1:23 PM
1 Comments:
grad students are more like real people here than at UM, where we basically act like freshmen in college only we drink kegs full of coffee instead of beer...
Actually, my habit is to wash down my keg of coffee with a keg of beer - possibly with a bottle of whiskey for dessert. Breakfast of champions, man.
Your idea for "Roasted Chicken a la Simon and Garfunkel" is a real hoot. Maybe for dessert they'd like "Yellow Snow Italian Ices a la Frank Zappa."
Or not.
Post a Comment
<< Home