A Wine and Cheese Christmas

First off- FIVE DAYS LEFT?! how the heck did that happen. I mean, I know I've had a countdown for a while but all of a sudden I feel like the concept of being home is terrifying. Well, maybe terrifying isn't the word, but I just feel like there's so much left to do and see. It's also getting really sad as different friends of mine leave every day as they finish their final classes and papers. I know this isn't the end of anything, of course I'll be back and of course I'll see those who I'm really close to again but still. One week from yesterday I will be sitting in a dentist's chair in Nashua instead of looking out my window at the hills surrounding Belfast.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to be home, and the short answer is absolutely. I miss certain people more and more every day, and traveling really does take a toll on you. I'm especially excited to be back for the holidays because my family does them really well. I feel like I'd rather bring those certain people from home back here with me though so they can see everything I've been doing for the past 3+ months. This happened when I came back from China too. No matter how many pictures I show or stories I tell, no one can ever relive the experiences, eat the food, meet the people that I did. Even though this is the longest I've been away, I'm glad that I'm prepared for this when I get home. Coming back from China last summer was really tough.

BUT ENOUGH OF THAT! time to highlight some FUN. Last night was the Queen's University Wine and Cheese Society Holiday Gala in the Great Hall. The Great Hall looks like something out of Harry Potter and is in Lanyon building (aka this bad boy on our campus) :

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6626870474334535785

It was brilliant. Free wine reception, 3 course meal, great convos, and then lots of dancing. It was a black tie event, all girls in dresses and men in suits or tuxedos. hot damn.

but OF COURSE, something had to go awry in my attempts to get ready just because I am me. My initial plan to curl my hair was an EPIC fail. I brought my american curling iron over in September but I hadn't tried using it yet. I knew the voltage would be off but I figured worst case scenario would be that I broke the electricity in my building (no big deal.. haha). But NO, it was much much worse. I plugged in the curling iron and it immediately smelled like intense burning in my room. I forget how my curling iron smelled in the US, so I didn't think much of it. I proceeded to curl a bottom strand of hair (THANK GOD BOTTOM). I knew something wasn't right as my room started smelling like burnt hair and the curling iron was making a loud hissing sound. THEN when I tried pulling away the devil beauty appliance, IT TOOK MY HAIR WITH IT, burnt to a crisp. and then the hair continued on to catch FIRE. Sorry for the disgusting picture to follow, but I don't think anyone's charred hair would look any more attractive.


BARF. SO yes. now I have a hot little bald patch/a lifelong fear of curling irons. I had bought a pretty good bottle of wine the other night to celebrate with friends on Thursday when we were all finished with the semester, but this traumatizing experience required a glass (or two) ahead of time.


wahh :( all i can say is, at least i didn't start with say..my bangs. oof. Not to mention, my entire floor smells like burnt hair, which is probably one of the worst smells in the world. I couldn't even eat breakfast this morning because the smell of burnt hair made me nauseous. So..sorry everybody.

BUT, the show must go on. I continued to get ready but with a plan B hair style. Anna Anna Dominika Florant and I met at the Scholars Bar for a quick drink on the way and then arrived at the reception at 7. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Girls wearing floor length gowns and guys in tuxedos. We were also happy that they assigned our group of friends to the same table. :)


Checking out portraits of past university presidents in the Great Hall
anna (france), dominika (germany), anna (sweden), florant (france). smokin.

a haw haw haw. woody banter with wine.time to take seats and await delicious things
cheers! being thankful for the hair that i have on my head that could fit into that ponytail.
course one: bomb split pea soup

they had those goofy Christmas party popper things. mine had a plastic spider in it. sweet.oh yea. and it had a crown.

course TWO: the main meal. turey with cranberries, brussel sprouts, SWEET POTATO mashd potatoes, carrotscheers, prost, salut, skal

course THREE! cheese sampler plate with grapes, celery, and chutney. incredible (oh yes, bottle of Riesling with all)WINE AND CHEESE!

after dinner chit chat. i'm gonna miss these ladiesMerry Christmas

Oh yes, and they hired the DJ from the Stiff Kitten (one of Belfast's best club) for some after dinner dancing. We were definitely the rowdiest ones there, can't always keep it too classy

SO that's that! It was a really fun night. Northeastern really needs to get its act together and allow a wine and cheese club. Such an educational experience.


Soooo yes. this morning i wake up to a room smelling of burnt hair and a minor wine headache. I was assigned to do my final presentation for genetics this morning on the "future challenges facing metagenomics". I had not prepared for it AT ALL. Yes, it was part of the topic of my final paper, but I had no visuals or organized talk ready in the least. I was stressin. I tried to pull together last minute notes this morning and arrived in class just hoping that my ability to public speak would get me through it. Not to mention, all the kids in my class are overachievers and had awesome things prepared. Anyways, the minutes tick away as people give their talks and I just feel terrible about how poorly prepared I am. Everyone in the class knows that I'm the American girl who had a 6 month internship at the Harvard center of genetics so I knew they were looking forward to hearing me talk (maybe also just because my accent is cool). AND THEN, before I know it, the class time is up. The last presentation to go was the person ahead of me in line. The professor lets me off the hook and says he believes that I had something great prepared so I'll get full credit anyway.

There is a god.