A fabulicious day

No, I haven't found my Handy, but today has brought other wonderful things!

The second Mozart concert was great, and I already miss choir now that it's over for the semester. Believe it or not, someone did grab my bike helmet for me, so at least I don't have to spring for a new one. We can count that as wonderful thing number one, even though it happened yesterday.

I spent the day in lab taking more samples, which was fine. After lunch, though, Dr. Hüther brought a colleague down to speak to me. It looks like I have a new project lined up for next semester! The details will have to be hammered out later, but Dr. Wedekind just had a student quit his lab and needs extra hands. The project is something completely different, once again, from any of my previous lab experience. It's more traditional "psych" than I ever would seek out on my own, comparing the emotional response (physiologically as well as subjectively) to a range of photographs, between control subjects and patients with somatic disturbances. Half the data has been gathered already by the student who left, so they need someone to finish this pilot study... unfortunately I won't be around for the next phase, adding an fMRI component!

After lab I had German class. It's the last week of the winter semester already, and things are slowing down. In my vocab class we watched a movie: Good-bye, Lenin!, auf Deutsch und ohne Untertitel. This marks the third time I've seen the film, so it was an interesting opportunity to compare my language comprehension. The first time was at the end of my second year of German at Kenyon, and I had only the vaguest understanding of the plot by the time all was said and done. The second time was the night before I left last August, with Mike. We watched with English subtitles, and I actually caught more of the vocab mentally re-translating it (kind of like how I suddenly "remember" high school French while watching Amélie.) This time, I had the luxury of familiarity with the story, but I'm still rather shocked by just how far my listening comprehension has come in the last few months. I barely thought about the actual words, but I knew what people were saying 90% of the time. Wahnsinn!

Then Grammatik. I wrote my one and apparently only official final for the semester. We meet again on Wednesday, so I'll have to see if this one also falls into the "wonderful happenings" category or if I just get to be grateful that I finished the semester with fairly low stress. My gut feeling is that it went decently well.

I got home a little early, and checked my mail... and there was something there!! No, not my Northwestern packet, although that's what I was looking for... I got a card from Jen and Marc! It is now taped to my wall. I have plenty of space left, though. Hint, hint!

I also discovered a message from Kola on my computer. There's a distinct possibility that she'll be coming to visit this weekend, and I can't stop grinning! Honestly, when I was in my darker days this semester and seriously considered the consequences of calling it quits and going home, the thought that I'd miss out on potential High Adventure Overseas with a fabulous Kenyon/Chamber Singers/Cornerstones/Hospice friend actually bothered me more than ditching Fulbright prestige. It's important to have "Connections" in life, to be sure... but it's a million times moreso to connect.

I am so overjoyed with my life at the moment, I'm going to have a dance party in my room. Feel free to join in, wherever you are!