Bundle up!!

Uh oh! Snow flurries!

Thanksgiving (I promise I won't whinge much)

Why I loved yesterday:

• Thanksgiving
• Making Parker House rolls
• They fixed my heater! I can now sleep with only one layer of flannel instead of 3!
• My supervisor LOVED my research plan - and says that I should make sure I get to the beach (hey, there are migrants at the beach!)
• My supervisor thinks I'm fairly smart, said it was clear that I have an affinity for feminist methodology, and believed the BS I gave her when she asked me what were the most importan parts of that methodology that I want to inlcude...
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• I bought a mug that says Trinity Hall. I'm having coffee in it now.
• And, of course, I have discovered my affinity for feminist methodology and the activist principle. Sweet, that sounds REALLy smart!
• She also thought my bibliography was a good length (I thought she was going to say, that's all you've read?)
• International Thanksgiving dinner on Bateman St.
• Christine made pumpkin pie
• No class till Tuesday
• And then only 2 more days of class in term
• Scott made a flaming German drink
• I nicked a bottle of wine that was left over
• Have been requested to make mashed sweet potatoes for house Christmas dinner
• Mom calling while we both made Parker House rolls on opposite sides of the Atlantic

Things I disliked:

• It took them till now to fix my heater...and it took 2 minutes to fix it, why did I have to wait 3 weeks?
• Too few cooks for too much food (Christine, James, Elly, and I cooked dinner for 15 in tiny kitchens scattered around Cambridge)
• No good masher, making potatoes a real workout (actually, I suppose that could go in the positive column)
• Too few leftovers!

So, good day. Lovely. And today I'm off to a film festival in London with my coursemates.

So, Happy Thanksgiving! Hope to see lots of you very soon. Hurray for the end of term (Assuming I get through exams alive)... I'll be back across the Atlantic in just a few weeks!

November!

Wow, November already!

Well, I think my short, yet brilliant hockey career may be over, at least till the spring...It turns out we don't have any more games for the term (and I finally bought the shin pads and mouth guard!).

It's starting to get really cold, everything frosts over during the night and doesn't de-frost until late the next afternoon, if at all. I hate the cold, although I guess it's a good excuse to buy one of those Cambridge scarves...

Other news...hmm....

Am getting to the end of term, not really hard or surprising since a term is only 8 weeks long! I'll be home in less than a month (part of my series of whirlwind tours that have been so popular in the last year and a half!). I plan lots of TV watching, sleeping, shopping, and drinking decent coffee that I don't have to make myself. Then, it's off to Costa Rica for fieldwork...plus a week of fun in the (hopefully) sun for Christmas and New Years with Chris' family and the Curridabat crew.

Our plans include such classic Costa Rica/Curridabat activities as the fiestas in Zapote, lots of arroz con leche, going to the re-modeled Pica (there're two floors now!), a possibly beach expedition - depending on cheap cabinas and weather, of course, and general hanging out in San Jose. I want to ride on the train, since it wasn't running when I left, but I just read that there was a crash between train and bus yesterday - so that might need to wait till they put up all of those train crossing signs and barriers....

Have little faith that my contacts will actually be helpful in organizing my focus groups and interviews, so am practicing going up to complete strangers and asking if they're Nicaraguan and would like to talk about their experiences...People here seem a little confused by it, but I'm confident that my spiel sound friendly, intelligent, and inviting...

Oh, and I've officially been elected to the MCR committee at Tit Hall, ie the graduate student government essentially. That's right, I'm their first straight LGBT officer....don't really know how I got co-opted into that one, but it should be good times, and I keep getting letters of support from people who didn't know I was out...which is nice and means we have a very supportive and open group of grad students. My policy has been not to make an issue over it and let people think whatever they want, which leaves everyone very confused because my friends all know I'm straight, as does the old committee, but mostly everyone else thinks I'm not...and so there are some quizzical looks circulating in the MCR...