Hannah's first solo turkey

Okay, we're discounting the 2.5 kg "fillet of turkey" that I cooked for Thanksgiving dinner in Irkutsk. This was a real, 17 POUND turkey that I volunteered to cook for the McDermott Social Committee's Pre-Thanksgiving Potluck. Remind me not to volunteer for such endeavors in the future. (As tasty as it was, I burnt the shit out of my hand).

Nickel Creek's performance this evening at the Dallas House of Blues was beyond words. One moment in particular caused such elation for this little nerd right here, that I had what might best be described as a "nerdgasm" (noun meaning "the result of the excitement of one's nerdy or geeky tendencies" or "the peak of nerdy pleasure"). During the encore, I was finally able to hear Nickel Creek play "Eveline" in concert. Not only was this exciting for the fact that they NEVER play it and that I actually understand what story it refers too (if you haven't read Joyce's The Dubliners, you need to), but the introduction included the utterance of the following words from the mouth of Chris Thile -
"Less Southpark - More James Joyce."
All I can say is wow. And I'm pretty sure that went right over the heads of 90% of the people in the room.
And on that note,
Adios.

Capitalist Pigs

I don't hate Tom Thumb - I loathe Tom Thumb. Purveyor of fine foods my arse. Not only is their selection far inferior to that of Central Market, they are shockingly overpriced. But as it is the only store I can ride my bike to I often find myself having to shop there. Oh how I miss the good old days of HEB and Albertson's. Now, in order to get food at a reasonable price I have to drive several miles.
Example - Tom Thumb's current price for avocados (a staple of my diet) is 2 for $3 or $1.59 each. Excuse me?! Even at Central Market, upscale grocer that it is, they are only $.79 each. And if I drive down to Fiesta, everyone's favorite Mexican store, they are 2 for $1. And they're higher quality avocados than the ones at Tom Thumb. Throw in all the cool veggies and spices that you can't get at Tom Thumb (not to mentioned the pickled pig lips) and I wonder why I'm still shopping in Richardson, or living in this country for that matter.
Thus ends the pissed off rantings of a poor college student in search of reasonably priced high quality produce.

New website and pictures from Carbondale

I got bored the other night whilst cleaning off my hard drive and ended up completely redoing my website. It was REALLY time for an update.
Therefore, without further ado ... http://web.mac.com/hannahefrank
Also, I posted pictures from Carbondale on the website instead of on flickr. Check them out here - http://homepage.mac.com/hannahefrank/carbondale/

And I think to myself, what a wonderful week...

It's true. I've had the most wonderful week. It started on Saturday, when I awoke to find an email in my inbox from the Peace Corps - "Your application status has been updated. Please log into your account for more information." A sure sign of good news! I logged in to find that I have officially been cleared by the Office of Medical Services. The medical clearance is by far the most difficult part of the application process for the Peace Corps. Lots of forms, lots of poking and prodding and shots, then requests for more forms and more poking and prodding and shots. Even so, it only took me a month and a half - I feel like that's pretty good time. The exciting thing is that the medical clearance is the last major step before placement. Woohoo! When I got up on Monday morning, I had another email, this one from a girl in the Placement Office. Double woohoo! Things are going well. I just submitted my resume updates (since it's been almost four months since I submitted it with my application). Who knows how long this next step will take. The only thing I know is that the person I'm in contact with is from the Africa placement team, so we're heading in the right direction.
So what else has happened this week to warrant such exuberance? Well, on Monday morning, the university posted class listings for the spring semester. While there is only one undergraduate course that I'm interested in taking (and it's a cool one - an entire class devoted to FILM NOIR!), there were a number of graduate courses that caught my eye. Namely, Dr. Redman is teaching a course on James Joyce. Yes, I'm going there - going out with a bang by taking a graduate-level Joyce class my final semester. At first I was bummed because it was at the same time as Dr. Hatfield's Latin American Short Story class, but then I realized that Dr. Hatfield is also teaching a cool graduate class - "Neruda, Vallejo, and Guillen". It should be pretty fantastic - I went to talk to him about it and he was more than happy to give me permission to take it. He also agreed to be my second reader for my honors thesis.
Which leads me to the other good news. Things are going really well for the thesis. I've been reading a lot and watching a lot of movies for it. During my meeting with Dr. Towner this morning to discuss my progress, she suggested that I visit the Center for Faulkner Studies at Southeast Missouri State University - as they have a wonderful archive of scripts and notes. She's even trying to get me a catalog of it from her friend there! Woohoo! And I have enough money left in my McDermott travel fund to pay for the plane ticket.
Over all, things are going fabulously well. I have a lot of paperwork to fill out (surprise, surprise - that seems to be the theme of the semester), as all but one of my classes next semester require special permission. But it's worth it.
I've been walking around all day with a smile on my face. Wonderful weather. Soft grass and bare feet. Things falling into place all over the place. What more do I need right now?

Starting over again

I've been a terrible blogger. A whole summer of adventures and misadventures has gone by without a single entry. I guess that's a result of my having been in the same country the whole time. But wait - that's not true either! My last entry is from the MS150, which means I never wrote on here about the Central America trip. :-(. Oh well. What's done is done. Most of you have heard my endless number of stories from that trip and those that followed anyway. What I want to do now is start fresh.
It's high time I did so too. A major change in my life is in the works and I'm DEFINITELY going to need a blog for this one - provided I will have access to the internet. Curious yet? Here we go - I'm joining the Peace Corps. I've spent the last three and a half months applying and interviewing and getting poked and prodded by even kind of doctor there is. Now I have nothing to do but wait. I've sent off all the results from all of my doctor visits so that I can get my medical clearance, then I just have to wait some more until I get a letter with my invitation and (more exciting) my service location. I've been nominated for the Health Extension programs in Africa but there's no way to know where I'll end up. Could be three months, could be six. Either way, it's a long wait.
So what do I do until then? Well, finish school for one thing. After this semester, I only have to write my thesis to graduate summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas. I'll probably take a few fun classes as well while I'm still on scholarship. I also have a few things up my sleeve to keep me busy...
After this weekend's trip to Big Bend with my old professor and good friend, I've decided to get back into the lab for a spell to help with a project I worked on my freshman year. I spent an entire semester dissecting herbivore coprolites (fossilized poo) and the results are now getting ready to go into a paper. I'm going to work on producing some kick-ass microphotographs of the specimens, then work some on the latest addition to this project - some carnivore coprolites. Yay poop!
I also need some more volunteer work under my belt. Especially something related to health care to get me ready for the Peace Corps. I'm working on my CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) certification, as well as CPR and maybe even first responder training. My other goal - learn to ride a motorcycle. Vroom.
Tada. I finally posted something on the blog. Kathe will be excited, as will others I hope.
I also updated my flickr account with all the pictures I've been working on since the Central America trip (http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannahefrank/sets/).
I don't know when the next post will be. I'll try to keep regular but you know how life is.

2007 MS150 - Done!

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I agree, and am far too tired after this weekend for a long post, so check out the flickr album here.
A lot of the pictures have explanations but here's a few headlines.

• We had a blast!
• I ended up raising a total of $460 - thanks to everyone who donated.
• I crossed the finish line* (I had to sag part of the way on Day 2 due to an eye injury - why did I insist on contacts on such a windy day?)
• The weather was... less than ideal. It rained all day on Saturday and was windy as sin on Sunday. But we're ducks - we can handle it.
• Lots of bruises and sore under parts, but all told, I think we all came out alive. I'm ready to hop on that plane to Mexico in the morning and climb some ruins (I guess I should start packing then, huh?).