Random Pictures

Went to a famous local restaurant that supposedly has the best mufalettas, Liuzza's. The above drink was called a BushWhacker that consists of a "stealthy" concoction of alcohols. Three out of three of us agreed that it was basically a White Russian with some sort of coconut rum, probably Malibu. It was superb.

The above photo is the sandwich. Actually not a traditional mufaletta b/c it is made on French bread - thus, a frenchaletta. It was HUGE. But amazingly warm and delicious, and I think I gained about 10 pounds eating it in conjuction with that drink and some savory onion rings.

The demon cat Hermione.

Waiting for food. I love this picture.

Random tree outside of my mom's work place.

The Piney Woods.

Kishka Adventures: Day 3

I think we are sort of friends now. Except when he does something that I don't like, and I yell at him. Then he growls and hisses. Which is actually still all of the time. He is out of the "hiding under couch phase" and into the "lets explore everything" phase. Essentially this means that he tries to drink out of my glass, eat my food, climb on my computer, sleep on my clothes, turn over the garbage can, and sit on the book I am reading. So, I redirect him in a nice way like "hey kishka stop that!" and then he turns his head and makes a vicious demonic sort of noise.
Funny moment that I heard, but unfortunately missed... he had some sort of run in with my desk chair. I think he tried to jump on it, not realizing that it was going to move. I found him looking a bit shocked lying underneath the chair. Where is a camera when you need one!

And in the midst of such cat induced mayhem I almost forgot to mention that today was the very first day of the semester. I taught three classes. In each one I managed to forget something super important, but I think they will survive. My two morning classes are 99% Freshman. In fact, in one of them, I have all freshmen and then one lone senior. He looked a bit overwhelmed to hear that. I of course redirected all campus, UW questions to him. He laughed thinking I was joking, but actually... Anyway, my second section is also all freshmen. They all seem friendly and talkative though, which will be good. What else, oh I was mistaken for a student today. That was funny "are you in our class too?" "nope, I am your TA."

Wednesdays are such long days, as are Thursdays. I am on campus from like 9:30am to roughly 7:30pm. I know it is like having a real job. I shouldn't be complaining, but my response is to say I just think I will go to bed early tonight. By the way, I did read like 4 or 5 articles for my own research ( I know!!). And started reading this really interesting book on Ukraine. And by "interesting" I mean full of useful sources and very recent (2008?). So, I am actually rather proud of how productive I was. If only I could be like that every day....oh, wait I wouldn't still be in graduate school - I would be out, doing someting useful, like fieldwork. (cue manaical laughter in the background).

Cat-Sitting: Day One

I agreed to watch my friend's cat for like 2 weeks. I thought this would be great b/c I love cats. Kishka ("cat" in Ukrainian) has been here about 2 hours. First he hid underneath the couch. His owner tried to get him to come out so that she could say goodbye to him, but he just hissed at her. I will try to keep that in mind when he starts hissing at me...oh, I mean I should keep that in mind while he is hissing at me now. Yeah, he finally came out from under the couch and ended up in my closet. I saw him and started talking to him (in English though apparently he speaks Ukrainian) and he started making some odd noises. Sort of like sounds of discomfort. So I got up and walked in his general direction - he started hissing. Full out, fangs bared.

I guess I could say then that so far the experience has been great! :) Hopefully he will come around, and also hopefully not break anything while I am gone all day tomorrow.

Summer?

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter breaks wherever they may be. It was like 80 here for Christmas, and most of the week. Today its a bit cooler, 60ish I think. I have been relaxing and eating too much, with only a couple of emails from students concerned with their grades. I don't have anything of interest to report, so I thought I'd post some pictures:

First off: Random spooky trees....

Christmas Sun

Ivan

Hermione (Demon Cat) (orange one at bottom) and Nikolai (right below)