Yesterday I turned in my final assignment from last term! I finally got my self-organizing map to organize itself and went on to complete all the bonus items too! So hopefully I will get a good grade, although since The Great Plagiarism Crackdown of 2012, I have been paranoid. I probably wrote a citation for every single line of code in my program, which is a bit over the top but I'm a Paranoid Parrot. Meanwhile, we had to write a "glossary" of terms in our databases class, and the citation guidelines given to us went something like this: "Oh, citations? Uh...I guess you can just write down the websites you used at the bottom of your glossary or whatever. Citation format? ...why would you need the author name or date? Just the link to wikipedia is fine, guys." I fought hard, but I couldn't bring myself to just use a link. I put my sources in Turabian and after an hour or so I finally had to go back and provide footnotes because the lack of proper citation was preventing me from sleeping!
Anyway, now I am free! Last night we made homemade pizza and goofed around in the dorms, nothing too exciting. I just helped Mariana and her friend Carola make several salsas which was really interesting! We made a mild, onion / tomato based salsa, a tomatillo one (yum), and a arbol pepper concentrate. The concentrate was too hot to eat on its own, but they gave me some to try using to marinate meat in. For lunch, while we were watching some of the salsas simmer, we ate a typical Mexican "comfort food," which was bread with refried beans and cheese that had been toasted in the oven, along with a bit of the salsa that we had already created. It was pretty good, even though I normally don't like refried beans! I thought I was going to die while we were boiling chili peppers -- the capsicum or whatever the eff it was in the vapor hurt my eyes and throat. We were all coughing and spluttering even though we had all the windows and doors propped open and two fans on! I'm glad we made a lot of stuff, because there's no way I would do that every time I wanted salsa! In a few hours, Serene is going to start cooking some traditional Chinese recipes and I am going to be her sous chef, so I should learn plenty there too! I am going to write everything from this afternoon down before I watch Serene cooking or else I won't be able to remember all of the ingredients and steps! Tonight, Pep and I might go to the comedy show we were at a few weeks ago for another round. Tomorrow we are all are going to Chinatown to watch acrobats, eat from food stalls, and enjoy the day-long New Year party!
The two stolen books haven't shown up yet, and I am starting to get worried about my final book as well! 1 out of 4 is a pretty abysmal percentage. I think the mail man believes I am stealing mail, because each time he rings the bell I am the first one down the stairs and I take everybody else's packages to my room to keep them safe, haha. Meanwhile, more dorm strife! This Chinese couple on the first floor decided to move in together, and gave up one room. They probably did it to save money, but it is definitely against the rules, and everyone is very upset because there is only one kitchen which those two habitually wreck anyway by leaving their dishes and raw meat everywhere. So now the ground floor kitchen is a bit above capacity. I'm not sure our Vice Warden knows and nobody wants to be mean enough to go tell him. It's not my floor so I am not going to get involved! Sanjiv is the only one who is happy, because a new guy moved into the empty room and he speaks Tamil, so now he and Sanjiv happily chat away, best friends forever. Maia also has a doppelganger! A girl from Iceland moved in upstairs who has the same chillingly bombastic laughter and exuberant personality as Maia, and they have been tearing around the dorm disrupting innocent victim's study habits, leaving destruction in their wake. The rest of us are starting to wonder when OUR twin is going to show up in the dorm! I hope mine brings a violin so we can jam! haha.
Now now our little house has almost enough people to start a village: a police officer, a dentist, a doctor, a forensic anthropologist (for when the police office fails), a chef, several public policy planners, some architects, an artist, a banker, a lawyer (the broken 'Engrish' would add humour to the tv show UCL Heights) a government corruption specialist, and a digital humanist to make the town website.
I'm afraid I don't have much interesting news about doing exciting things in London at the moment, just because I have been locked in my room typing lately. I am going to try to get tickets to an Olympic practice event, because they are allowing the athletes to use the equipment, etc, to make sure everything is peachy before this summer, and there are tickets available for £5 - 10. I know there's no way to go to an actual Olympic event (although knowing my luck I will stumble across the opportunity), but I wouldn't mind going to see one of those events. I might try to go to the Paralympics too, but I think those tickets are going to be very expensive as well.
I have to go now, Serene is beginning to cook, so I will add more later!
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