Upcoming schedule

April 30, 2007Monday
8:00am Molecular Genetics final
6:00pm German final presentation

Tuesday
Birthday (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Wednesday
10:30am French final

Thursday
10:30am Biochemistry final
5:00pm Dinner with nutty grandfather
6:00pm Baking Boston cream pie

Friday
3:00pm Gathering flowers while I may
5:30pm Set-up for in cursu graduation ceremony
7:00pm Aforementioned ceremony

Saturday
5:00am Drive to ETSU for a friend's graduation

Sunday
10:30am Drive to airport for week-long trip to DC and Disney

The next seven days definitely have an upward slant to them.  :-)

Back from Berlin

March 11, 2007I got back from Berlin last night.  Rather than bore everyone with an extended travelogue, I will simply say that I return from Germany feeling happy, productive, obligatorily irritated, bemused, and with pseudo-better German (I at least know the words for getting on and off the metro system).  Check out Facebook for pictures.

Planning a Wedding in Germany

February 10, 2007Anyone ever planned a wedding in Germany?  I'll broaden that.  Anyone ever planned a wedding in another country?  While you're in the US?  For homework?  Lucky you.

So, I'm in this course about Berlin this semester.  And ordinarily, I like Dr. Weidner's assignments.  They're inventive, and we use our German in a variety of contexts.  However...

The assignment is to plan a wedding in the tower of the Französicher Dom (French Cathedral).  Sounds fun and happy.  I found the website for the church (that's in Berlin, that I've never been to) and have looked for information on planning a wedding.  It doesn't exist.  Nothing.  Zilch.  Nada.  There are several lovely vignettes about the history of the church and cute little pictures of the sanctuary, which I would dearly love to see Satan destroy with an earth-shaking boom.

I've worked on this for over an hour, and have unearthed nothing (except my desire to see the church drown in Satanic flame).  I've contacted someone else in the class for input, and will e-mail the teacher tomorrow if the other student can't find anything.  This isn't exactly information I can make up (cost of renting the church, how many people it will hold, stuff like that).

If any of you feel inclined to help, you can visit the following website and search for the word "Hochzeit" (wedding)...

http://www.franzoesischer-dom.de/

Bunnies? Try ginzu knives.

February 04, 2007Allison has bunnies that irritate her by nibbling on her shoelaces and  by occasionally deciding that toe-flesh is more appetizing than nylon.  Lucky Allison.  I have ginzu knives--well, a ginzu knife--stabbing me in the ribs repeatedly.  What is this ginzu knife, you ask?  It is soon told....

My grandfather came by yesterday.  After the usual cringing on my part, I valiantly talked to him, and the conversation wasn't that bad.  My mother and I were getting ready to go to lunch, so time with him was mercifully limited.  Just as I thought I was going to escape relatively unscathed...

Grandfather: "I'll see you later, hon."

James: "Alright.  Bye."

Grandfather: "Oh, someone was asking me the other day--being something of a busybody, which of course, I'm not, hon.  Whenever you and I talk, it's just Grandfather and Grandson talking."

James (thinking): "What?!  Have you seriously deluded yourself into thinking that?  Asking me ~30 questions duirng a 10-minute conversation qualifies as being a busybody."

Grandfather (blithely continuing): "Anyway, hon, just go along with what I told them, and tell other people the same thing.  They asked me if you had been admitted to medical school yet, and I told them you had already been admitted to UT-Memphis and are planning to start there in Fall of 2008.  Like I said, just go ahead and tell anyone that whenever they ask you if you know where you're going."

James: "Exactly who was this you were talking to?"

Grandfather: "Oh, I don't even remember now.  But just go along with it, OK.  Just tell people that."

-----

What is the problem, you may be asking yourself?  It is soon told.... I HAVEN'T DECIDED WHERE I'M GOING YET!  AND HE KNOWS THAT!!  The reason for my exasperation lies largely in the fact that my grandfather's chief hobby for the last 15 years has been to hound me about school.  He literally starting asking me what I wanted to major in when I was in fifth grade.  Freshman year of high school brought a demand to know where I was going to college, and one year later, he prodded to know my destination for medical school. 

He would like for me to go to UT.  Or ETSU.  Actually, he wants me to teach elementary school like he does, and is convinced that I will one day soon depart from my ill-planned medical career and enter the glories of teaching snot-nosed second-graders the multiplication table.  Not that I demean elementary school teachers, but it just isn't for me.  I hardly have the patience for it.

Anyway, I'm not certain what his plan is, but I know it's there.  There's no logical reason for him to just tell someone I've made up my mind to go to his chosen medical school.  My thoughts are as follows:
1. If I start telling people I'm going there (even if it's at his behest), word will eventually get back to him that I've said I'm Memphis-bound, and he can merrily believe and delight in the fact.
2. If I tell people I'm going to UT-Memphis, then I'll be obligated to do so when the time comes.  My actual needs and desires will pale in comparison with my obligation to third-party acquaintances to attend the school that I had previously specified (at my grandfather's coersion).
3. God only knows.
4. Not even God knows.

Personally, I'm split between #2 and #4.  Obviously, I have no intention of telling people that I'm going to UT-Memphis unless I decide that I would like to do so ( not very likely).  So my only real question is this--did he actually tell someone this, or is he just pretending to have done so?

Victory!

November 29, 2006If you have been suspended from the university, you should not come to a meeting with a professor 1.5 hours early, just to linger in the Honors Lounge.  In fact, according to the Dean of Students, if you do it again, you will be escorted away by the police. 

The malicious side of me is hoping it happens.  The nonmalicious side of me is lying dormant.

*evil-ler chuckle than usual*