We’re heading to Lapland!

It feels like we’ve hardly been back for more than a day, but we’re packing our bags to jet off again – except this time, we’ll be taking a bus.

We depart from Jyvaskyla at 2am on Tuesday the 24th and 8 hours later, when we arrive in Kemi, our first stop will be the snow castle. From there we’ll head to Rovaniemi and the Santa Claus village. During the week we’ll take part in an Arctic Survival Course, cross into the Arctic Circle and hopefully see the Northern Lights.

We’re guessing that we’ll be without internet access, so unfortunately we probably won’t be able to update until we get back home on the 29th. We hope y'all have a good week and we miss you!

I not take it from you

One of the most significant cultural differences that we’ve noticed here, aside from getting crazy looks when we smile on the streets or talk on the bus, is the relative safety of personal belongings in public. For instance, at our university, there are coat racks near the entrance of every building where people leave their coats, jackets, scarves, hats, and gloves. We’ve also been told that it’s more likely if a Finn finds something that he will turn it in to lost and found or the Police station than keep it for himself. One of our Finnish moms lost her 800-euro glasses and went to the Poliisi station the next day to find them sitting on a pile in the Lost-and-Found box. We’ve also heard stories of people losing wallets and passports which find their way to the Poliisi station, money still inside. At school we’ve also seen students leave their laptops and bags in an unlocked classroom during breaks.

We have to admit that this is really convenient, and seems to work out better for everyone, though we’re trying not to get too comfortable with it before we head to Russia!

I’ll take you to the Candy Shop

One of our favorite discoveries in Jyvaskyla, though possibly not the most conducive to our studies, has been the Candy Store at the Forum. The Forum, one of several large shopping centers, is conveniently located a mere minute from the bus hub downtown. About the size of our apartment, the Candy Store is covered wall-to-wall with quadruple-tiered candy bins. It also has several rows of bins running the length of the store. It’s really fun to get candy out of the bins, because you have to use a little long-handled scooper. First, you flip the scooper upside down to push open the plastic lid on the bin, then you flip it around to scoop out your candy into a clear plastic bag, and finally push it closed. For more sticky or otherwise difficult-to-maneuver candies, tongs will usually be available, waiting in a handy place.

The only problem with this wonderful method is that all the candy ingredients are in Finnish, and, being that neither of us can read Finnish nor particularly enjoy licorice (which comes in endless shapes, sizes, and colors), we are occasionally plagued by sneaky licorice in our candy bags. The most popular candy brand seems to be Candy King. Of all the candies available, our favorites are: peach gummis, rainbow gummi strips (kind of like a multicolored fruit-by-the-foot), dark chocolate mint cordials, Swedish fish (not sure if these are actually from Sweden, but we figure they have a better chance of it here than in the States), and chocolate covered raisins. We’re very happy to report that most Finnish people seem to enjoy candy too (as our Finnish moms have told us as well), and we are not the only college-age kids (or adults, or seniors) frequenting the candy store.

The Dublin Chronicles

We are now home and fully rested from our Amazing Dublin Adventures. We’ll give y’all the day-by-day rundown of our activities and throw in some pictures to round it all out - hold your pointer over them to see captions. Enjoy!

Day 1: March 13, 2009
Our bags packed and alarms set, we woke up bright and early to catch the 9:22 train to Tampere, an hour and a half southeast of Jyvaskyla. We arrived at Tampere expecting an airport fairly similar to RDU or PTIA, or maybe even the cute little Asheville airport, but were greeted by something looking suspiciously like an empty warehouse, or perhaps a garage! It was about as chilly inside as outside, and check-in wasn’t open until a set time... namely, when they turned around the signs to say “Dublin” instead of “Closed.” After receiving a hand-written ticket with no seat assignment, we waited in plastic chairs, and, while the people on our plane filed out the back, we filed into the front. The seats were first-come-first-serve, so we were really thankful we sacrificed the extra 10 Euro for priority boarding (confirmed by a little yellow slip.) On the bright side, we are happy to report that the Ryanair terminal did not reflect upon the Ryanair airplane... though it did lack amenities such as seat pockets and reclining seats.

Our flight was nevertheless both peaceful and timely; we experienced only one minor disturbance. His name was Johann, and he was four. Accompanied by his classically overly worried mom and happy-go-lucky oblivious dad, Johann wreaked havoc on the Ryanair terminal, from sliding under the makeshift barriers to running atop the makeshift barriers to army-crawling in between people and their baggage. Johann seemed infinitely pleased to have the entire terminal for his playground, while Johann’s parents seemed alternatingly concerned/embarrassed and unaware.

The descent into Ireland was absolutely gorgeous. As we passed through the lowest layer of clouds, the rolling emerald hills emerged before us, in every shade of green imaginable, and occasionally dotted by little white sheep. After we landed, we caught an airline bus to our hotel. Funny thing was, we had a little trouble recognizing our hotel, even though it was a marked stop for the bus. We were dropped off in front of a huge, cathedral-like building. We looked left, then right, then left again (a behavior we would come to correct; more on this later), and finally saw a sign for our hotel on the lawn of the cathedral, in front of a huge fountain. We walked through the wrought-iron gate and passed by the flower garden, and finally realized that the “cathedral” was, in fact, our hotel. We checked in, got settled (it was quite nice inside, too), and ventured downtown to get some dinner. We ended up in Temple Bar – not actually a bar, but an area of the city which we would return to many times, it being a center of pubs, bars, and restaurants. Then we went back to our hotel and crashed for the night.

Day 2: March 14, 2009
Our first full day in Dublin was cool and party cloudy, which to us felt like sunny and 70 degrees. After sleeping in just a little, we headed out to the Medieval-Viking area of town, where we passed through Dvblinia, a Viking exhibit, and saw the Christ Church Cathedral. Then we walked south to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, whose spire Elizabeth pointed out and followed. We also spent some time in a park nearby, where we saw the reputed site of St. Patrick’s Well, where he is said to have baptized the first Irish Christians. We found lunch at a pub on Dame St., where we got watch a Liverpool-Manchester United soccer game with the rowdy locals. (Lunch was great – we tried Guinness bread for the first time, which was brown and sweet.)

After that, we went to Dublin Castle, though it didn’t really look anything like the Irish castles we’d been picturing in our minds. When we got back downtown, we did a little accessory shopping, and saw Watchmen, before returning to our hotel to ambush the Lauras. Laura Francis and Laura Varnier, or the Lauras, as we like to call them, are both friends from UNCA, and had just flown in from Barcelona. We spent many hours catching up and sharing travel stories before tuning in for the night.

We should mention here, being that we had to cross the street from where the bus dropped us off in front of our hotel, that the Irish people believe it necessary to drive on the wrong side of the road. This wouldn't complicate things so much, if the core behavior of looking left, then right, then left again wasn't so ingrained in our minds. We would complete the first part of the sequence, not see any cars, and take one step into the street, look right, and then promptly scoot backwards, as a bus barrels down the road. Occasionally we would catch each other, yelling or physically blocking when necessary. This actually worked out pretty well for us: Elizabeth remembered to look right first when were downtown, while Jaime was much more proficient about remembering when we were by the hotel. We only had a couple of really close calls.

Day 3: March 15, 2009
We spent a little more time catching up before heading out into the city for a late lunch at a pub off O’Connell Street, the main road in downtown Dublin. We spent most of the rest of the afternoon wandering around downtown, exploring stores and shops, and generally having fun with our fellow Americans. By this point in the trip, we had the realization that we have become Eurosnobs, because we have begun to find the common (loud) American tourist super annoying. We also enjoyed the downtown sights, including the post office, and the Dublin Spire - known to locals as the Stiletto in the Ghetto, much along the same lines as the statue of Molly Malone (the Tart with the Cart) and the statue of Oscar Wilde (the Queer in the Square – but you have to say that one with a really heavy Irish accent for it to work out).

The four of us spilt up for the evening, and we headed back to Temple Bar to hunt down a restaurant. We were feeling up for something a little bit nicer than the usual pub fare, and ended up making an amazing discovery: Fitzer’s, an Irish/Continental-European restaurant. It was warm and dimly lit inside, and our table was tucked into a corner beside a floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the main street of Temple Bar. Elizabeth ordered linguine with prawns (large shrimp) and chicken with blush tomatoes in a citrus wine sauce, and Jaime ordered braised chicken over winter vegetables in a tarragon cream sauce, and we shared a little basket of Irish brown bread and herb rolls. For dessert, we shared a lemon tart with raspberry sauce and a warm sticky toffee pudding (more like a little cake) with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. The dinner finished with hot tea, and by that point we were more than ready to get back to the hotel.

Day 4: March 16, 2009
Another cool and sunny day, and we got up bright and early once more to get started on the Dublin Bus Tour, which is a guided tour of Dublin by bus, with hop-on-hop-off sightseeing points. We started off downtown, and then headed to Trinity College, to check out the courtyard and see the medieval Book of Kells – though, since they were demanding exorbitant fees to see it in a large throng of tourists through a glass case, we opted to look at in up-close in books in the gift shop instead.

After that, we hopped back on the bus, and cashed in on our tickets for a self-guided tour of the Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate, complete with complimentary pint in the highest bar in Dublin. The storehouse was a seven-story building, and the tour led us through the beer-making process, including a large waterfall, walls of hops, a huge vat full of barley, a safe of the ancient strain of yeast used by Arthur Guinness himself, roasted barley to taste, and exhibits on quality control, advertisement, packaging, and distribution. As the website mentions, “the core of the Guinness Storehouse is modelled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from reception on the ground floor to The Gravity Bar in the sky. If filled, this giant pint would hold approximately 14.3 million pints of Guinness!” After spending a little time in the gift shop, we headed out, and caught the Tour bus to Kilmainham Gaol (“Kill-main-um jail”), where we booked a tour for later, and got lunch advice from a local.

We were already on the outskirts of Dublin, far from our beloved Temple Bar area, and he directed us on a short walk (actually short here, about 10 minutes) down to the Black Lion pub. Definitely a local dive, the Black Lion was established in 1734 and was tucked into the corner of a little commercial street. Though it wasn’t particularly fancy, it was a traditional Irish lunch meal, complete with huge servings of everything (a “little bit”), including chips and steamy cabbage.

After our relaxing and filling lunch, we returned for our jail tour (preceded by a really awesome piece of black forest cake in the jail’s Tearoom, the existence of which was kind of odd but appreciated nevertheless). We learned a lot of interesting Irish political history during the tour due to the number of political activists that were held in and executed at Kilmainham, including the fact that the Irish flag represents Catholics (green), Protestants (orange), and the hope for peace between them (white). After finishing the bus tour circuit, we met up with the Lauras for dinner at a traditional Irish restaurant named Quay’s. There, Elizabeth tried the Guinness stew, which was beef accompanied by a little bit of potato and carrot, and Jaime tried the traditional Irish stew, which was Little Bo Peep’s Sheep (thank you Elizabeth) with potatoes, carrots, and onion.

After that, we decided to check out the bar scene. Enough said about that. If you would like all the PG-13 details, feel free to email us. We’ll be happy to provide them.

Day 5: March 17, 2009
ST. PATRICK’S DAY! We hung out at the hotel talking for a good part of the morning, then we went downtown to get lunch at the Mona Lisa, a pizza place that the Lauras had found the other day. The streets near our hotel were quiet, with not many people wearing any shade of green, but as we approached downtown, the green exploded with people wearing hats, facepaint, flags, and all manner of Irish regalia. The streets themselves were also becoming increasingly colorful with confetti and decorations such as balloons and banners. After finding an internet café for Laura V to write a paper, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap.

That evening we all headed downstairs to the hotel restaurant to sit in big comfy leather chairs and dine on sandwiches and salad and catch up on the latest news. Afterwards, we spruced up our green and caught a bus downtown, on which we made friends with an American from Wisconsin and her French boyfriend. We had trouble finding an under 21 bar that wasn’t packed, but we eventually tucked into a bar while the bouncers were occupied with a rowdy patron. Temple Bar, at this point, looked like a shamrock threw up, with green everywhere and people packed shoulder to shoulder, Irish music blaring in the streets. After a fun night, we went back to the hotel to finish packing.

Day 6: March 18, 2009
Completely exhausted, we nevertheless successfully caught our flight back to Tampere which left Dublin at 7:30 am, meaning we had to catch the 5:30 bus to the airport. From the Tampere airport we hopped on another bus to the train station where we were lucky enough to only wait 5 minutes for a train to Jyväskylä. Two hours later we were eating lunch at a favorite downtown restaurant before taking our final bus back home.

All in all, we had a great trip. Dublin was beautiful and it was really fun to catch up with old friends. We’re happy to have some time to rest (and wash clothes), but we’re already looking forward to our trip to Lapland on the 23rd.

Cabbage Salad

So, we figure that salad is a pretty universal idea: a large pile of vegetables, typically raw, with some kind of sauce on the top (because, quite frankly, who wants to eat a plain pile of raw vegetables?)

The interesting thing about salad in Finland is how close it really is to salad in the US. First, you put down the green stuff, then come the littler, more colorful veggies, and finally the thick-but-still-liquidy dressing. There are two differences, however, that we are having a difficult time coping with. The first is the lack of anything but veggies in the salad. Topping options include shredded carrots, pickled onions, tomato wedges, and peas-and-corn, but rarely do we ever see tasty details like pecans, or cheese, or croutons. The second is that the green stuff isn't really that green. It's kind of white. And bitter. This is because it's cabbage. Raw, shredded, light greenish stringy cabbage. It's okay, as long as it's coated in dressing, but we kinda miss nice crisp Romaine and Greenleaf lettuce, and crunchy moist Iceberg. Mmmm.

Speaking of green things, we're headed to Dublin bright and early tomorrow morning! We'll be catching a train to Tampere and a plane to Ireland, and we'll be meeting up with some friends there to celebrate St. Patty's Day. We're not sure what our internet situation will be there yet, but we promise to keep you all updated once we get back!

Back to High School

In our attempt to learn as much about Finnish culture as possible, we might have let it slip to our Finnish moms that we might be interested in seeing a school. Being former teachers, our Finnish moms pounced on the idea. Little did we know that, rather than observing high school, we would be reliving it all over again.

First of all, we forgot how ungodly early we had to wake up to get to high school. To meet Marja-Leena and Pirjo outside one of the university buildings by 8:15 AM, we had to wake up around 7. Then, we walked across the street to the Normaalikoulu, or "Normal School," which is attended by kids ages 12-18. A super-nice English teacher whose name we don't really know had agreed to show us around for the day - and by day, we mean entire school day. And by show around, we mean participate.

They did tell us ahead of time that we'd been asked to give a short presentation to one class... but what we didn't realize is that this actually meant giving three 40-minute, class-long presentations. We created a PowerPoint of a bunch of photos from NC and around the US, and then at the end the students asked us questions (or didn't, in the case of one class!)

The school looked a lot like an American private school, and was notably well-supplied. It was also huge, being four stories tall in its main section. Our first class was Spanish. We pretty much just sat in the back and listened as the Finnish students took a vocabulary quiz. We were glad we didn't have to participate in this! After Spanish, we took a short walk (approximately fifteen minutes) to the University pool, where we put little shower-cap-like blue booties over our shoes and walked down to watch the 8th grade P.E. swimming unit... and numerous men in Speedos. Jacob: we saw a red Speedo, and this is as close to your large Scandinavian man in a red thong that we intend to get. We could go into an in-depth analysis of the bathing suit fashions, but we don't want to put y'all through that.

Following swim class, we took another short walk back to the school, where we had a very Finnish lunch of "mashed" (potatoes), sausage (giant hot dogs), vegetable patties, and cabbage salad. Then we went to English class, where we gave our first presentation. The kids in this class were 8th graders, and after a little hesitation, were very eager to ask questions about the States, especially about cultural differences. They found it very entertaining that we are so talkative and tend to get odd looks when we smile at people.

Then we went to a more advanced English class, where we gave our presentation again, to a friendly but slightly less eager audience of older students. They wanted to know our opinions on Finnish music, movies, and what Americans know about Finland. Unfortunately, the answer to most of these questions was not much. Then we went to music class, which was being led by a young teacher-in-training college student. The class was pretty amazing, because not only did it have a ton of music equipment (around 15 acoustic guitars on the wall, a drum set, electric guitar, electric bass, keyboard, and microphones), but the students also started off by singing an impressively good version of an American pop song. At the end, it was like some kind of crazy version of School of Rock, because a bunch of students just grabbed their instruments and started rocking out, while the teacher stood at the board and pointed out chords.

We gave our presentation to one more English class, but they were pretty uninterested. Actually, the teacher spent the entire time asking us questions. We were super, super tired at this point, having stayed up late to make our presentation, but we had one last class to attend. We visited a Visual Arts class, where students were beginning a project trying to emulate the "spirit" of the architecture of the school using 3-D materials. Ready to collapse, we finally thanked our Finnish moms for the day and made our way home. At 4:30.

It's a good thing we're not in high school any more.

A Random Assortment

           


You Know You've Been In Finland Too Long, When...*

You meticulously manage your plastic grocery bag collection.

You don't think twice about putting wet dishes in the cupboard to dry.

Silence is fun. Okay, so not really fun. But acceptable.

Your juice consumption exceeds 3 cups a day.

You pass a grocery store (in the morning) and think: "Wow, it's open!"

Your English has seriously deteriorated. We just can't think of the words we want to hear in our mind. Err. Something.

You associate pea soup with pancakes, and pancakes with berry preserves.

After a presentation, you finally stop asking "Are there any questions?"

Hugging is reserved for family and drunks.

You no longer eat mashed potatoes - you eat smashed potatoes.

You understand why Finnish isn't spoken anywhere else in the world.

You know that "one beer" means "let's get shwasted."

When a stranger smiles at you, you assume he is drunk, insane, or American.

*Adapted from whatever website we ganked borrowed it from.

---

Baby carriages in Finland are like souped-up versions of the ones in the US. They have huge wheels, and several dozen layers of fabric. We also suspect they might have portable heaters tucked somewhere inside. This one looked like it had shocks and hydraulics, because it bounced up and down. Several inches. Click the photo to zoom in on those off-road tires, and the ballin suspension.

And yes, Elizabeth did sneak this picture while the mother wasn't looking. It was only slightly creepy.

Daylight Savings Time

So we heard that the US is Springing Ahead this weekend, and that y'all will now be only 6 hours behind us. We just wanted to let you know that we'll be catching up at the end of the month; in Finland, Summer Time begins on March 29th, and we'll be moving our clocks ahead one hour too. We're super excited about it staying light out until late again, since when we first got here, the sun set around 3:30.

Like our "Spring Forward" or "Spring Ahead" and "Fall Behind," the way a lot of people remember it up here is that during the winter, you put your outdoor furniture back into storage, so during the winter, you move the clock back. In the Spring, you bring your furniture forward, so you move the clock forward. We find this a little more confusing than it's worth, but if it helps the Finns, we're all for it.

Dear Abby, Elizabeth and Jaime Style

Reminds me of Rock Barn...Add webmaster to the growing list of potential employment opportunities after graduation (author, photographer, food critic, US ambassador)
Love ALL the posts!
FAC

Dear Elizabeth's Fabulous Aunt Cindy,
We just wanted to assure you that we are leaving our days wide open for a Rock Barn trip when we get back, so you should go ahead and schedule that.
Love, E&J

my biggest language blunder in chinese was when i was trying to talk about eating tofu and i managed to say "when i touch women's breasts i immediately throw up." it was a pretty amazing mistake.
so spice the blog up a bit and share your worst, aye?

Dear Jacob (We’re assuming this is Jacob. If not, we're terribly sorry),
We don't really speak enough Finnish to make that mistake, but our biggest faux pas has definitely been stealing two elderly Finnish ladies' seats on the train. With our luggage. We'll ask Laura to let us know what stupid things we've done, though, so we'll get back to you on this one.
Love, E&J

Iceskating anyone? Or maybe just a walk around town :)
Hurray for wellness!
Mama G

Dear Mama Gresalfi,
While Jaime attempted ice skating sans skates, as documented by the recent video, we think that Elizabeth might stick to walking for a while. Her post-cast plans include first shaving 6 weeks' worth of leg hair (grossss), and later trying out Finnish ballroom dancing classes. Those also entail physically dragging your daughter along.
Love, E&J

Are you investigating any winter sports?
Allen R

Dear Allen,
Due to Elizabeth's leg injury, the winter sports have been placed on hold, but we can't wait to check out the skiing.
Love, E&J

Onnittelu tyttolapsi!
ajaa eteenpain,
FAT :)))))

Dear Elizabeth's Favorite Aunt Tricia,
We have no idea what this says.
Love, E&J

Awesome pictures! Do they have "walkers" for the ice rink? Haha. You girls are doing a wonderful job sharing your experience with us!
Cindy

Dear Cindy,
No, but if they did we would totally rent one for Elizabeth!
Love, E&J

O Pulla,
Sweet treat in the land of Fin,
Can Rachel Ray replicate in only 30 min?
I wanna, gotta, havva,
Pulla, come to momma!

Love the prose!
But wait, could Pulla possibly be the very same dough of Harris Teeter fame? Maybe just twisted a tad and covered with goo.
O Pulla, is it you?

Dear Mommas,
We love you. You're both ballers, and now we understand where we get our awesome poetry skills from.
Love, E&J

I will be looking forward to your first post about a large Scandinavian man wearing nothing but a red thong.
That will probably come with an increase in temperature.
Until then I'll be looking forward to a post about your first Finnish boyfriend and hope the two aren't aren't related.
Addendum: 5.6 Billion inches of yarn it will take before you knit a onesie that will be warm enough in Finland.

Dear Jacob,
We haven't found your large Scandinavian man yet, but never fear, we promise to post a picture when we do.
Love, E&J

great post guys
win.

Dear Colin,
Your mom's a win.
Love, E&J

We're Absolutely Ridiculous.

But y'all knew that already.

                      
Twirling                                                                        Posing




Jaime skates without ice skates

Jaap, Cucumber-In-A-Bag, And Spa Night

Tonight, we are celebrating the end of our Experimental Developmental Psychopathology lectures with Jaap van der Meere, Elizabeth's MASH hubby. (If you haven't heard of MASH, read this - we volunteer to do the game for any of you!) The class was an interesting change from our UNCA courses, because it had a rather narrow focus; Jaap mainly discussed the research into ADHD he was currently working on. And, even though the lectures are over, we still have to write a final "manuscript." Jaap (this is pronounced "yahhp") has clarified, however, that the initial requirements of "8 pages due in 4 weeks" really could be 6 or 10 pages, due in 2 or 7 weeks. Direct quote: "I will not be sitting at home in Holland with a stopwatch and calendar at my computer, waiting for your manuscript! If it takes you a little extra time, ohhkay. Now, not six months, but you get the idea."

If you call us on Skype, we will gladly do impressions of Jaap for you, because his character cannot completely come through in text. Upon further research, a.k.a. da Goooogle, we have discovered that in addition to being a cognitive psychology researcher, Jaap is a jazz saxophonist. You can watch and hear him playing on YouTube here. Baller.*

After Experimental Developmental Psychopathology class let out, we went to lunch, then another class, then we went to the Prisma, our local Wal-Mart equivalent. We have obviously been Wal-Mart deprived, because we had wayyy too much fun in the store, from playing with dragonfruit to pushing the cart sideways (they have swivel wheels on the front and back AND FISHTAIL LIKE CRAZY). Besides terrorizing the general store population and buying groceries, we also stumbled upon some facial masks and decided that we would have Spa Night. Elizabeth also bought a cucumber for both our eyes and eating. Interestingly, cucumbers here come in plastic airtight packages. Cucumber-in-a-bag. Whole fish come like this too sometimes. Or, alternatively, you can choose your own fish and put it in your own clear plastic bag, which you then swing on top of all your groceries, across your toddler's lap, or over your shoulder. We are not Finnish enough to attempt this yet (actually Jaime doesn't really want to eat the fish and Elizabeth doesn't really want to cook it).

So after dinner, we busted out our relaxing music, chopped our cucumber, and opened our individual face mask packets - which turned out to contain actual masks. Not goo, or cream, but a baby-wipe-slash-towelette mask. We are now relaxed and rejuvenated.

      

*Baller:
(noun)
1. One who exhibits a consistent proficency at-, or exuberant love for the game of basketball.
2. One whose person has been fully and successfully established in numerous social circles
3. One whose status in society has been earned by one's possession of "game" (that is, proficiency at the game of life)
(adjective)
1. Exhibiting those qualitites of a baller; not limited to the description of a person, 'baller' may be used to describe any place, thing or situation.

We Have A Confession To Make

We've been kind of lame lately. Not only have we obviously neglected updating the blog over the last past couple of days, but we've also been falling asleep around 9 at night. Even worse, we've been going to class for seven entire hours a day. We think we lost all tolerance for this upon graduating high school, though, because we ended up playing MASH during our last lecture. Jaime has been sick with a nasty cold, too, and has been lying in her bed and groaning about it in an attempt to recover.

On the bright side, we have a day off tomorrow, Jaime's cold is clearing up, and (possibly the most exciting of all) Elizabeth's cast will finally come off on Thursday!!