Alright, in the end there wasn't any skating. Someone used their puppy eyes to get out of it and we went to the Tate Modern, instead. Not a bad place, really. Half of the galleries were being rehung and closed and the new, rehung surrealist areas were bothering me. See, they've scattered art all over the walls. It's neatly hung, but I'm so ANAL! This came after the realization that I don't like prime numbers because they aren't orderly enough. But, then, who can't love a squared number? Ah, 25! My favorite of all time.

Today's not been the best ever. I'm sick enough that I skipped the LIMUN get together, which sucked, because I really miss seeing everyone from the conference every week. It didn't suck in that I got to talk to Jules in Niger, which was great. She had posted a really, really long entry in her LiveJournal about being injured and in some really, really serious pain. It was a massive gravel burn, sustained by playing football with another NGO. If you know Jules, it's so her. Anyway, it was make-the-lifelong-Baha'i-talk-about-needing-a-drink pain. But, she's in Niamey now and doing much better, which is such a relief.

I hate feeling like I'm just recapping my life again, which I know can be rather dull for everyone at home. Do you really care that I went to IKEA when no one was in the Brent Lib Dem office and bought a new bookcase? I've rearranged my room a bit and I really like the new look. There are a few other new touches, too. I bought a new skirt last week that is officially two inches smaller than the ones I brought with me and several inches shorter! I KNOW! And, there's a new season of The Amazing Race, which utterly and completely rocks. Oh, that and the fact that Television Without Pity (TWOP) will be recapping the 2005 Doctor Who series when it airs in the US in a couple of weeks. This really is a fantastic show and the snark will make it even cooler!

Finally, I think I may have the answer. No, it isn't 42. Although, really, it is. No, I think the reason that Americans don't want to learn other languages may have something to do with the fact that they're never put in a situation where it would be awesome to know one. More travel! Americans of all ages need to travel more! I suspect that's not a surprise to anyone, but still! I'm still pumped about my new language attempts, even if I haven't gotten past the first lesson in German. I'm reading a young adult mystery thing in Spanish and I'm still surprised at how well I manage. Now, I just need to study my grammer book. Who woulda thought? Me! I hated Spanish for the most part in high school and now I wish I'd worked harder. Although, as my friend Megan pointed out (she's the one I met up with in Spain), we would have exploded if we'd put an equally intense amount of work into every subject. I don't know what we were smoking in high school (well, nothing, which might have been the problem) to think that the amount of work we put on ourselves was normal.

Finally, I've uploaded some of the more recent photos from the trips to Ireland, Stonehenge and Spain. Here's a new favorite. It's me with Francisco de Vitoria, who was one of the early "human rights" advocates (see comments on my assessed essay for a badly explained theory of historical colonialism), who was writing to advocate decent treatment for the indigenous peoples in the new world that Spain was conquering. Vitoria was the last stop on the Spain trip (about which I will write at some point) and I didn't realize it was his hometown until reading it in a book, upon which I hit my head and said "duh!" The plaque calls him the "creator of international rights." Others have called him the father of international law (hello? Grotius!), but I'm going to dispute both of those. Either way, his humanism is cool. Observe:



I do look a bit out of it, don't I?