How to dress like a European, and smell like one too!

Hello? Is this thing on? There's like an inch of dust on this thing.

So I just got home from what I'm calling my annual "science camp." This year it was at the University of Toronto, and there were around 700 grad students and professors from my field from all over the world. I always get a kick out of how differently European men dress from Americans. In addition to being the annual science camp, these meetings also give me a fresh look at the new trends in European fashion. So without further ado, here is a list of must-do's to look uber cool and trendy (Euro-style).

-Of utmost importance is the capri pant (man-pris). It was like a floodgate of 3/4 length opened and I got caught in it.
-Of lesser, but very high importance is black socks. With sandals, shoes, any other desirable footwear.
-Extreme v-neck t-shirts...time to show some man-cleavage.
-Faux hawks. Nothing says "I'm european" like a huge spike down the middle of your head.
-A last rule of thumb for dressing like a european is the tighter the better.

Now you can all go and dress like european men. You're welcome.

Skies so blue, hearts so true.

Hello. It has been too long, here's what I've been up to.

-Finished writing my grant proposal. I was so excited to be done writing that I literally could not proofread it as closely as I should've - thus it got turned in with a handful of typos.

-A freakin awesome trip to Albany, NY. The highlights included hanging out with Dan alot, a legendary 24 hours in Montreal, hiking to a waterfall in the Catskills, hiking to the top of Black Mtn. in the Adirondacks (or the 'dacks as the locals call it), visiting Schenectady's finest cougar hotspot, and eating lots of Hormel products.

-Successfully defended my grant proposal! I'm now officially a Ph.D. candidate. Thanks to everyone who celebrated with me afterwards with El Camino Real and Habibi - it was a blast!

-Got selected to give a talk at the conference in Toronto that I'm going to in July. Holy crap I'm talking about my research in front of like 800 people. It's kind of a big deal.

-It's summer!

ps. There's a lab full of Chinese people downstairs and they are ALWAYS listening to country music. I don't know why, but it makes me laugh every time I hear it.

EDIT: I almost forgot! I decided that my all time favorite 80's pop songs are Oh Sheila by Ready For the World, Africa by Toto, and Take on Me by Aha.  At least these are my favorites at the moment.

and I just can't hide it....

I'm literally minutes away from taking my last final EVER. This brings great joy to my heart. I'm definitely as happy or happier than this guy.

Fleeting thoughts

Throughout my day, I have lots of little random (and I mean RANDOM) thoughts here and there that I usually don't think twice about. But when I do, I usually get a pretty good laugh at myself. In an attempt to enlighten you with what goes on in my head on a daily basis, I've been trying to remember and write down some of these random thoughts. Here are a few that I've been able to remember from the last few days. For comedic effect, I'm not going to include the context from which these thoughts arose.

-Is your hair really blue, or is my brain playing tricks on me?

-You look kinda gross with your fake-back tan and bleach blonde hair, but I really don't care right now.

-Maybe lightning is what happens when God takes pictures of us.

-You make me feel really awkward.

-Who the H cares if Shirley Temple broke her arm?
-I'm pretty sure you guys record the music for the Weather Channel.
-HOLY CRAP! ASIAN COWBOY!
-Your name totally means "face" in spanish.
-Is it bad that I want to kick that cat?
-I'm glad I'm so entertaining to myself. It's one of my favorite things about me.
-What if there was weed in this?
-I hope I never get attacked by a Komodo dragon.
-Note to self: do not traffic drugs for anyone when you travel. No matter how legit it seems.

Life update

So it has been 20 days since my last post. A lot has happened since then, here goes (not necessarily in chronological order):

-Two AWESOME bluegrass concerts.
-Spring!
-3 birthday cakes. Please stop, Brian. Or keep doing it...I'm really ok with either.
-One of the more enjoyable Saturdays of my life...farmer's market, good music, planting things, baseball game, sunshine, topped off by an awesome evening with bff's.
-Laptop conveniently needs repair when I need it the most.
-Momma raccoon in a cage on our roof, baby raccoons in our walls miss their momma dearly and scream. Alot. In the process of catching the babies - 1 down, 2 (we think) to go.
-First sunburn of the year. Feels so good.
-Finally found a great place for my GPS in my car.
-Ate goat meat and drank goat milk. Not at the same time. The meat was pretty decent, somewhere between lamb and beef, the milk had a weird twang to it.
-Watched the ncaa championship, and by watched I mean sat on Weston's patio and smoked cigars and drank margaritas during the game and went inside for overtime. Fantastic.
-My hair is the longest it's been in quite a while. So far I'm liking it, but I do miss the buzz.

Definitely not an exhaustive list, but that's most of the high points.

Cultural awareness: so hot right now.

I had a very culturally diverse weekend. On Saturday, Brian and I visited three different international food stores. First stop: Betty Jo Corner gas station on Wedington which has a small selection of Middle Eastern groceries. I bought some Arabian cheese (really good!) and some hummus. Next stop: Mexico Aqui Tienda (also on Wedington). I bought a couple of Coca-Cola (hecho in Mexico) in glass bottles and made with real sugar....muy delicioso! Last stop: Oriental market/Philpino restaurant which was next door to the tienda. I bought some cassava chips and coconut milk.

Later that night, Brian, Cara, Laura, and I went to an Indian restaurant in Rogers for dinner. It was pretty good! They had a buffet so we got to try a few different dishes.

To top the cultural weekend off, we watched a movie called Kite Runner last night. It is filmed mostly in Afghanistan and most of the dialog is in Arabic. It was pretty good, I recommend it.

Friday: Weirdos and Withdrawals

Is anyone else concerned/annoyed that it is 30 degrees colder today than yesterday? I am.

I walked to the union for lunch today and the crazies are out, folks. Here is a sampling of just a few of them:
-Guy/girl with green hair juggling by RZ's

-Crowd of medieval enthusiasts by juggler with green hair.

-Some sort of international fair thing between union and library - the international people weren't weird, but the non-international people there were.

-There was a table of hippies with a sign for peace or something at the international fair. That wasn't too weird (it is Fayetteville, after all) but the punk girl with plaid skirt roller skating around the table was.

Yay for diversity!


In a completely unrelated story, I stopped taking zyrtec a week or two ago after taking it pretty solid for several years for allergies. I don't like being on medication long term and it didn't seem that necessary anymore. I noticed that my skin has been really itchy the past few days but I couldn't figure out why. The only thing I could think of that was different was that I wasn't taking zyrtec anymore. So I googled it (as I do) and sure enough, I'm having "zyrtec withdrawals." It's not listed in any of the side effects or in any professional literature, but lots of people are realizing that it's a real thing. Apparently when some people stop taking zyrtec after extended periods it can cause them to have really sensitive and itchy skin. It can be really severe, mine's not though (thankfully). So just fyi, if you are considering zyrtec as your allergy medication of choice (especially now that it's over the counter) you might want to rethink. Class-action lawsuit, anyone? Jk Jk.