New New

Dear Friend(s),

I have intriguing news and developments to share with you and I have done a bunch of exciting things in the past few days! First off, I totally went monogamous. Crazy right? So you must be thinking "who the hell is this guy?" yeah, well he's alright! (or pretty awesome -- he is with me after all...) Trust me on this one, I know a thing or two about it. So, he (Eric, aforementioned boyfriend) is totally into camping and is on board for wilderness adventures, and we've been sketching out a rough plan for the success of this recent ambition of mine. So far we've got the idea of building up to the actual trip with a succession of weekend trips and mini workshop type deals building skills and useful wilderness possessions.

Here is the list:

-Turtle catching and practice dressing in my apartment

-basket making from natural materials

-knot tying

-bunny hunting (and dressing?)

-hide tanning

-bunny moccasins

-fire building (mini-trip)

So that is what we've got so far, and we're mostly still in the research phase, but I think the more practical applications we throw in the more interesting it'll be. So in hopes of improving familiarity with dead animals, Eric and I helped my mother's boyfriend (Norm) skin a dear he hunted down. We then proceeded to remove the meat from the bone, and store in the freezer (I have to admit I really had only minimal involvement in the actual handling of the animal). Then Eric and I made chili out of it, which was DELICIOUS. So yumz (except the part where I got jalapeno in both eyes...) -- I've been considering making a new blog specifically to chronicle my wilderness adventure progression, sheerly for my own amusement, but I'll let you know if it happens.

I also got to see my brother's future house this weekend, which is really nice!! I am very excited for them, and I'm working on a house warming present for them (suggestions welcome). Additionally I got to hang out with my grandparents and we ate my absolute favorite meal ever (turkey, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade noodles, homemade stuffing, green beans, cranberries) and she even sent some home with me! So now I have massive quantities of amazing food in my apartment.

Today classes started. I had four today and they're all upper level classes with a colossal magnitude of reading "imperative" to the proper working of each. I really like three of them, and the other one, I sort of want to take, just as a personal challenge. Tomorrow I have two more lower level courses.

I think professors can be judged based on what they choose to do with the first day of class. Today I discussed sexual stereotypes of Scandinavia, the purported existence of King Arthur of Medieval England, and something best described by THIS. We didn't discuss anything in my fourth class. [what I wrote initially: My fourth class wasted an hour of my time, and managed to fail at any form of actual discussion, in which I seemingly impressed the professor anyway.] So from this I shall base all future judgements, and I hope they're content with their first impressions.

Miss you tons!!

Love Claire