This is Halloween...

Boys and girls of every age,
Wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see,
This our town of Halloween.

-The Nightmare Before Christmas

Here's the update from Halloween!


So. Tuesday night. The Americans (not me) are planning a party downtown for the exchange students. I ended up not going because wonderful people began arriving at my apartment in after dinner. Emily, Antti, Eduardo, Lee, and Eva all came over and we bought some candy, had some drinks, and watched A Nightmare on Elm Street. Before everyone else arrived, Emily and I had watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown which made me feel so good since it, then, was truly the holiday season. We had a wonderful time hanging out in my decorated apartment and we stayed up very very late.

Now, let me tell you about the most wonderful thing that happened last week.

My wonderful mother sent me an extremely large box filled with goodies from the States. It had decorations for Halloween and Christmas, candy, peanut butter, DVDs for Halloween and Christmas, materials for baking, some stuffing for Thanksgiving, some Christmas music, and other goodies. I was so happy to receive the package as I'd waited for it for over a week, being gone on the arts trip. NOTE: Europeans do not like peanut butter or candy corn.

The complicated part came with actually getting to my package. It required a bus ride downtown, a 20 euro taxi trip to customs, signing, opening and going through my package at customs, and then a bus trip back to campus (on the way back to the bus, I totally busted my ass on the ice).

Once I got to go through the box thoroughly, I realized that it was more than worth the hassle to get downtown.

Kiitoksia, aiti! (Thanks a lot, Mom!)

Reading Rainbow Update:


A Primate's Memoir by Robert M. Sapolsky


This book chronicles the experiences of a neuroscientist in Africa, studying the neurobiology of baboons. He talks about the various people he meets in Africa and the many difficulties he has in returning to his work year after year and maintaining some sort of order and sanity. Surprisingly, he talks much less about the baboons than the African people. It is an interesting read, however quite slow. A definite must for anthropologists and primatologists, but probably not a terribly necessary read for those outside the field.





The ground is still covered with snow. It reached 7 degrees fahrenheit last night! It's sad that we're walking around in 19 degree weather going, "My it's warm!" But God, it's beautiful!






All for now. Check the PhotoBucket for a couple of photo updates.

d