This week my Modern Standard professor announced that we'll be having our midterm exam on Monday. A few days later my colloquial professor announced that our midterm will be the week after next. How is it time for midterms already? I feel like I just got here but apparently we just ended the third week of classes. Time is flying.

Unfortunately, nothing very exciting is going on in my life. I go to school and after I finish my homework I try to catch up on the television shows I watch in America (CSI, House and Glee). This afternoon I watched the season finale of Glee so now I don't have anymore tv shows.

Oh wait, something mildly exciting did happen this week. I went to the butcher for the first time. Let's just say that proper sanitation isn't really something important here. When I arrived, the butcher was chopping up some beef for a couple. He wasn't wearing any gloves and when he finished, he put the meat in a bag and then took the money from them. When it was my turn, using the same (uncleaned) knife, cutting space and dirty hands, he cut my chicken for me. I guess cross contamination isn't a problem here. The hypochondriac and the American inside of me instantly thought of all the things I could get sick and die from. The carnivore in me that was excited about getting meat at home for the first time since I've been here, didn't pay attention and happily took the sack of meat. I'd like to point out that the entire exchange was in Arabic.

I was told by a friend that you should eat meat on the same day you buy it here. I wasn't about to eat an entire kilo of chicken in one day, so I made it last over the week. I'll admit, with every passing day the smell became less pleasant but maybe that's because it's so fresh and lacks preservatives. I mean it is a dead animal, it shouldn't smell delicious until it's cooked. Maybe I risked my health and life by eating it but currently I feel fine. I've got a stomach of steel (I ate street food in India and drank the water and never got sick) so I'm not worried. Although if I do get sick, I'm sticking with the motto of "whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." Also, if I get sick, it will make for an awesome story! Assuming I don't die of course . . .

In other news, I've been catching up with friends. I talked to my friend Nikoo for the first time since early April. She was worried that I might be dead since she hasn't heard from me in a while. Ironically, I was thinking the same thing about her. She's in her first year of med school and we never hear from her so when more than 6 weeks have passed we often worried if she's dead or not. Med school is intense and people don't take care of themselves, you never know.

Prior to catching up with Nikoo, I talked to my best friend on g chat. With the exception of a few text message conversations (sorry mom, that's why I had so many texts this month) we also haven't talked since April. In addition to that, I talked to my friend Mia. It was great to talk to everyone, but one of the highlights was skyping with my friend Yorda who is in the Peace Corps in Morocco. She's almost as crazy about KU as I am so it's always nice to discuss the team I love with someone else who understands. She's also been a great resource for the times when getting abroad gets to me, as well as someone who can simply relate to what I'm going through. We haven't talked since KU lost in the second round, so that was definitely a much needed catching up session.

I recently uploaded my pictures from Oman and Varanasi so my next post will be pictures.

Continuing to engage in adventures . . .