Cheap like borscht

I just made some seriously rockin' borscht. This recipe is pretty confusing to follow, but the end result is YUM (and a lovely shade of red). The beets, carrot, potatoes and dill are all out of the garden!

Unfortunately, I am home making borscht on a Saturday night instead of at Nuit Blanche in TO like I should be because I am ill. I'm not as ill as yesterday, so was tempted to go, but it struck me as possibly a bad idea to stay up till 6am in the rain (first Greyhound back is at that time - I have no crash space in TO) while still recovering. I find it odd that no matter what I catch, the main symptom is a massive fever. It's usually one to two days of no ability to thermoregulate whatsoever, and then another day or two of feeling really burnt out and exhausted. I guess it must kill the germs, though - or something.

So, as expected, it's an incredibly busy semester. I am taking a Neuroscience course that is pretty full-on - lots to learn and lots of work. I am TAing two courses, one of which requires the kids to update Wikipedia on a cognitive neuroscience topic as one of their assignments (so I am responsible for first learning to do this, then teaching them to do it!) I managed to end up joining both the TA Administrative Council and the executive of the WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) club, both of which have millions of meetings. And of course I'm writing a review paper and attempting to get some research done. And maybe exercise once in a while (joined an intramural soccer team!)

I think it could be quite a fun semester, as long as I can figure out some way to get everything done. There's always extra stuff too - scholarship applications, helping out the honours students, going to lectures and seminars. It's mostly all stuff I like, but when the pressure is on nothing is fun. Need to figure out how to fit everything in such that the pressure is hardly ever on.

Not being sick would be a good start. Oh well.

Had an excellent trip out to Killarney Park right before the semester started. I went with Mark the neighbour and Reggie, who is German (and therefore did all hiking and portaging in a bikini - and wore less than that the rest of the time). The lakes were amazing. I forget sometimes that Ontario is not all cities... There are only a few campsites per lake, so most of the time there was no one else around at all.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are some pictures.















So beautiful. The portaging was hard-core but enjoyable, and it was so nice to be outside for four days straight. Well worth missing the first week of class, I would say! I am definitely going back.

up and down, up and down

Today I get to learn how to make a wiki to manage a project. Our postdoc made one to write a grant, and I was pretty impressed with it. Everyone can contribute drafts, and you can see the old version too if you're so inclined. I've been told to write a review article on attentional effects in substance dependence with a colleague, and am nerdily excited about this new (to me) use of technology to collaborate. Grad school is fun!

I actually had a really good meeting with my supervisor yesterday that was quite motivating. He cleared up some of the mysteries (like "what exactly am I expected to know by the end of this?") and put forth a pretty good argument for having me switch into the new PSYC + NEURO designation they've just come up with. It's a collaborative program between a whole bunch of faculties and would basically make this into a full-on proper neuroscience degree, as far as I can tell. It will also involve a class that I will probably find pretty challenging given my background (hint: lacks biochemistry), but I think it will be worth it.

He also explicitly said that he's planning to ensure I learn management skills. This appears to translate into Convincing Undergraduate RAs That They Would LOVE To Run My Subjects For Free, so that sounds good to me.

On the minus side, I've been constantly tired for the last week and seem to be fighting something off. I have a bit of a cold, but lately I've been totally wiped and ready for bed by about 3pm. Mysterious. Trying to get sleep, drink fluids and be as supportive as I can to my poor embattled immune system...

Of course I did NOT do this last weekend, when I saw the Weakerthans (finally!!!) and also a great opening act called Bahamas. I was actually motivated to buy this guy's CD, despite the fact that I'm broke. Mark my words, this guy will be worth listening to... I went to the gig by myself, which I hate, but afterwards the neighbours invited me out, so that stopped me from completely feeling like a friendless loser. Er, but possibly contributed a smidgen to any germs I was incubating, as we stayed up till 3am drawing pictures with mustard on the arms of passed-out people.