Still not sick!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I got a PRESENT from Becky (and John, but not really.) Yay! She made me a set of scarves! I tried to take a picture of myself wearing them, but it didn't work out, so here's a picture of them on a chair. I actually think I might use them as decoration for my room, cuz I have no personal touches in my room. No picture frames or anything.



Thanks, Becky!

Do you want to know why the British drink so much tea? It's because the water here is gross. Maybe not as bad as Southern California water, but nowhere near as tasty (or tasteless?) as Seattle water. That's my theory, anyway.

Well, after doing yoga, I'm am very sore and very tired. But I am not sick! Or I was sick, but with the mildest sickness ever. A bit of swollen glands, a touch of sore throat, nothing worse. It's all sort of fading now, and I hope that doesn't mean it'll suddenly hit me full force tomorrow or the day after.

Today was epidemiology and Health Policy: Process and Power. I'm annoyed with this class. It's the one I'm least interested in, but it requires the most work, particularly reading. We have an hour of lecture, then 1.5 hours of practical groups. Every week, we have required reading for the lecture, usually a chapter or two from the textbook. Then we also have required reading for the practical, and we also have to read and discuss some case studies. There are five case studies for the course, and we basically have to read all of them in the first few weeks. Today's lecture could have been skipped, as the slides are posted online, and the lecturer simply read off the slides. He didn't add any further information or examples. The practical could have been skipped as well, as all we did was discuss in groups how people or groups exert power. One question we discusses was what resources you can use to exert power. Off the top of my head, I'd say money, psychological manipulation, expert knowledge, etc. I could have that discussion with any of you, and you would be able to offer the same insight as people in the class! But I'd still rather take this class than Health Economics (it was a choice between those two).

Everyone is assigned a "tutor." I put that in quotes because they don't "tutor" you in the traditional American sense of the word. They're really advisers. Anyway, I met with my adviser today. He wants me to be deciding now, after three weeks, what classes I'll be taking next term (after Christmas). He also wants me to do an oral presentation, with Powerpoint slides, in two weeks. None of my classmates have had to do these things. I suppose I should consider myself lucky, though, that I have a tutor who's keeping me on track and making sure I have the skills necessary for the future (i.e. presenting information). But now I have to come up with a presentation! And on what? Why, whatever I want, of course! He said I could use a past presentation, but I don't remember enough about my cyanobacteria project to present that. Blech.

Anyway, that's school. Thursday and Friday are Control of Infectious Diseases all day, so are a bit thick, but are actually sort of easy because we don't have to memorize minutae (or mathematical formulas). We just need to absorb broader concepts, which is alright with me. It's just a slow glide into the weekend...