Miscellaneous Updates

Yesterday my carpet was damp again, and I thought the refrigerator might be leaking (which has happened at least twice), so I called the apartment office and they sent my friend Jim over, who seems to come a lot because something's always leaking. He said the fridge wasn't the culprit, and felt under the carpet in my room and thinks there's red mud/clay under there, so he looked outside and thinks there might be a little leak in the foundation that is allowing rain and mud to seep into my apartment. Sweet.

Last night I led my first TA discussion of the semester. The topic was "How did China become Chinese?" It was awkward as usual, and when they didn't have much to say and I couldn't think of any more questions (by the way, I can never think of questions on the spot. I have to have them written out ahead of time) I let them go ten minutes early. Don't tell anyone.

Also, before the discussion we were all in class together and instead of sitting in the front row like I did last semester, where you can concentrate on the lecture and not be distracted by the hundred kids behind you, I sat in the back. It really is distracting to see them all IM-ing each other on their laptops and doing crossword puzzles and sleeping, not to mention the room started to smell like a bunch of boys who need to shower.

Today I tried to listen to my iPod for the second time ever as I ran around the lake, but it totally froze and I couldn't make it do anything. Is this a common problem? I had to leave it all day and wait for the drained battery to finally turn the thing off. I think it's working now. And in case you were wondering, with the windchill it was something like 27 degrees outside, but I ran anyway. I'm hard core like that.

In case you thought I was kidding about my interest in the Oregon Trail and westward migration, I'm not. Right now I'm reading a 400 page book by John Unruh titled The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60, and I will write a book review of it next week for my historical writing class.