hot cold

As the temperature begins to drop here in Edinburgh, I've noticed more things bothering me. First, the radiator in the room has a dial, but when you turn the dial for heat nothing happens. Rumor is that there is a master switch that turns on everyone's heat and the dial on the radiator only works when that switch is on. This is probably true, but it is never on when I want it. For example, I realized the truth in this rumor when I felt the radiator this morning. It was nice and toasty standing next to it, but that was when I woke up this morning at 7:30am for my 9am class. When I got back from class it was cold again. Second, I learned that it is very common to have two separate taps on the sink, one for hot and one for cold. I can't actually get warm water when I turn on the tap. When I wash my hands I either get freezing cold water or burning hot water. When I wash my face in the morning, I can't stand the cold water anymore so I have resorted to putting the stopper in the sink and filling the basin with cold and hot water to make a warmer mixture.

On another note, today was my first practical session in my biochemistry class. I was a bit worried that it was going to be intense, but it was really easy. We had five girls on one bench to purify a protein. Because of new time restraints in the class we only had to run the affinity column. We didn't even have to transfect the yeast, culture it, or lyse the cells. That was all done for us. By the time I go back for the next portion, the assistants will have eluted our protein for us as well. I guess my expectations were a bit high, but it made me feel really smart.

At this point I should be reading the essays I was supposed to have read for my philosophy class, but I got really bored last night and kept zoning out. I had to keep pinching myself in my proteins class this morning to keep myself conscious. Good thing I read some of the material last night in the text, or I would be in a lot of trouble. I don't know what is wrong with me, I got plenty of sleep last night.

Jeff, the hair stylist from The Factory gave me an amazing haircut that I loved in Pasadena before I left, but it is starting to grow out and I was getting bored. I wanted to dye the tips of my hair blue, but all I could find at the drugstore was purple. That seemed to be a pretty good color on my hair so I bought the hair dye. Normally I would have thought about bleaching the area that I wanted to dye, but the box showed the results I was supposed to get with the product and the color was really purple, even on black hair, so I thought it would be fine. With Aimee's help, the dye was applied for almost an hour and a half. When I washed it out the color ended up being a more reddish color, instead of the purple it was supposed to be. I was a bit disappointed, but most people that have noted the color change have complimented it so I suppose it looks OK. Kudos to Aimee who did an awesome job with the color application. When I get a chance to find someone to take a photo I'll post it.

For all of you that have been inquiring, I have been to the pubs and bars multiple times since I have been here and have consumed alcoholic beverages. Don't worry, I am not being totally antisocial. There are just too many things for me to do here! I wish I had more time.