Today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

I just talked to her on the phone, which always makes me feel better with life, but homesick, too...it's funny how that works.

And, today is also my half birthday!

For the rest of yous...a very merry unbirthday to you all.

This semester is starting to rival last Fall, when I was in the health center every other day, but no knee injuries so far (knock on wood.) The best part of the past few days was that I went to my first Pub Quiz last night. Some of my flatmates put together a team. It's a very competitive thing here, especially with the guys on my flat. I only went for about an hour (all that standing wore me out). By the time I got there, they had picked a team name: Don't Call me Shirley. The people doing the questions would read out two rounds at once, then you'd have to swap answers with another team and they'd read the answers off. You then had to have them taken up to the people running it and have your totals entered into the computer. It was all pretty complicated, and there were something like 10 rounds, so it took awhile. Each round was a topic like General Knowledge, Name that Phobia, Current Events, Politics, Pop Culture, etc.

Rugby was on while this was going on, so there would be occasionally shouting from people taking the quiz. I don't know anything about Rugby, but at one point someone got tripped (that much I could tell) and nearly everyone got out of their seats and started yelling at the TV's. It was pretty crazy.

I did get three questions that no one else in my flat knew: Who plays Edie Britt on Desperate Housewives? (good thing I watch cheesy TV), What state was Mitt Romney the governor of?, and Which head of state just learned that there might be a possible assassination attempt on his visit to Iran? (Putin, I fortunately checked the BBCNews right before I left). We ended up coming in third, which resulted in a five pound drink voucher and squishy mini rugby balls. Too bad I missed that being handed out!

Well, I am going to go and take about six medicines and try to sleep. Night! (or good afternoon, for most of you).