Electrical Problems

Hanane came into my room last night, pointed at my plug, and said that the power keeps going out and that the sink keeps dripping because I plug in my computer. I did not really know how to react to such information. Rebecca had been telling us over the past week how her family was telling her the same thing. Thing is, when the power did go out in my house, and when the sink did drip, my computer was not plugged in, nor was anything else. Sooo.... yea. It was really awkward for a few minutes while Hanane stood there staring at me.

Yesterday was Susanna's birthday, and Saturday will be Kim's birthday. The group always buys a cake for the birthday individual, and I swear, I have eaten more cake this semester than I have in any other three-month period in my life.

Monica has been having back problems lately. Her bed is the lumpiest thing I have ever seen. Rebecca walked on her back to relieve some of the pressure points and worked out some knots, but poor Monica seems in pain most of the time.

Our culture class yesterday was the last normal one of the semester. We had a guest speaker, the "foremost speaker and expert on Maghribi film." The man spoke more in French than he did in English, but it was his first ever presentation given in English before, so he did well. People turned in their papers, and Mekouar told us that the final on Monday would be mostly identifying quotes and "not a trick." Thing is, we read almost thirty short stories, watched four films, and read three lengthy novels for this class. I feel that justifying the chosen quotes as "not tricks" really doesn't do much good to us at all. I have no idea how I will prepare for this.

Arabic class yesterday consisted of talking about news, Algerian history, important people, and a question-and-answer game. The first point was awarded to the question "how many world wars have their been?” Other questions included “who was the fourth caliphate? Who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year? What color do people in mourning wear in China (which Anna, the resident Chinese girl, got wrong)?" We were informed that our final will only go through chapter five, which we have not yet started, but next week we're going into it, I guess.

BU has made national news not because we won the national hockey championship but because a second-year medical school student killed a woman he solicited on the classifieds website Craigslist in addition to robbing a prostitute, all while having a fiancée on the side. Yay for great media representation.