Ok, seriously... foreign professors... please learn English

I'm sitting in Molecular Methods, and I'm trying to follow what's going on. But I can't. Why?

Because the professor, just like every professor at my Alma Mater, UMBC, is foreign, and can't speak English for shit. 

I'm literally getting every third word, maybe. The only way I can tell what he's talking about at all is by following his laser pointer as he highlights words on the Powerpoint presentation. Worse yet, he's talking about yeast genetics, which is boring and stupid in its own right.

Seriously, if you're gonna teach in the US, you've gotta learn how to speak. Please. PLEASE!!!!

Houston + Ike = OMG CRAZY

For anyone who would read my blog and has not yet talked to me, yes I'm alive.

Ike was definitely the scariest and most exciting storm I've ever been through. Here's how my weekend went:

Thursday, Sept. 11th - Classes were cancelled starting at 3pm, despite the fact that the storm wasn't supposed to hit us until Friday night. I thought this was odd.

Friday, Sept. 12th - Stayed at home with my friend Amanda and the cats that I am currently cat-sitting, just hanging out and enjoying a day off. My other friend Brandi also ended up coming over at around 4pm, and we all planned to weather the storm together. We had constant hurricane coverage on the TV for basically the entire day. We watched as Galveston was destroyed by Ike's fury. 

At around 9pm, we started to get some wind and rain. Not a big deal really. We were still watching TV on my futon. I had blown up air matresses for both girls to sleep on for the night, and they were probably lounging on them at that point.

Around 10:30, we started to see some heavy winds. The rain got seriously hard. Luckily, we were realizing that my windows are parallel to the direction the wind was blowing. This is probably the only thing that saved my apartment from serious damage.

Saturday, Sept. 13 - At 1:30, we were still watching storm coverage as the storm raged around us. We had been watching teal-colored lightning flashes for several hours, and the wind was very VERY loud. The power went out at this point, after we saw a huge, green flash that lasted about 10 seconds, obviously a transformer being destroyed.

By 3:30 am, we were each laying on our little makeshift beds, staring out my sliding glass doors, trying to sleep but finding that it was impossible with the howling wind outside. We got to see things like parts of roofs and pieces of metal fly past the window, sometimes we even got to see them hit cars outside my windows. Luckily my car ended up ok.

At some point I must've fallen asleep, cuz it was eventually morning and the storm hadn't completely let up. Once we were sure the storm was over, we went outside to see the damage. I'm not going to repost the pictures, because I'm sure all of you can look at my facebook to see them. If not, let me know and I'll send them to you. Suffice it to say there was plenty of damage to EVERYTHING in Houston. My apartment complex was pretty lucky compared to some others that I saw in subsequent days. Trees uprooted, roofs destroyed, cars completely smashed by debris, etc. It was scary to see what we had just sat through and emerged unscathed.

We opened all the windows because it was starting to get stuffy in my apartment without A/C. The three of us hung out in my apartment until about 5pm, when Brandi decided to go back to her place. She called us later to let us know that she had power, so Amanda and I went over to her apartment where we stayed for several nights. We drank ourselves to a fun state, calling it our Post-Ike party. Again, pictures on Facebook of me and the girls.

Tuesday, Sept. 16th - We decided we'd try to go to a movie. Unfortunately we got to the theater and found that they were closed still, surprisingly. On our drive home, Amanda's car almost fell into a sinkhole 3 feet deep, which would probably have destroyed her car. We saw half of the city black, with homeless people on every corner who looked like they should be sitting in their living rooms enjoying their TV, except for the signs that said "Homeless and hungry". Scary stuff.

Wednesday, Sept. 17th - It was announced the night before that school would start back up for us Grad students, even though the Med school students don't have class again until Monday the 22nd. I went to class, etc, and went back to Brandi's apartment. I had been checking my apartment each day, checking on the cats and the electricity. The electricity had finally come back on, and I started to get things back to a reasonable living arrangement. 

Today, Thurs. Sept. 18th - I still don't have TV or internet at home, so I'm still spending most of my time over at Brandi's apartment. Amanda will apparently not have power for at least another week, so she's living with Brandi until then. All in all, we actually were extremely lucky. Next time there's a "category 2" or higher hurricane, i'm getting the fuck out, if not for safety's sake then for convenience. 

Worst beer ever

Ok, so I'm doing the beer club at this awesome bar called Flying Saucer here in Houston. This bar is so amazing, they actually have Chimay on tap. If you don't know what Chimay is, you don't understand beer. It's that simple.

So we went there tonight, and the first beer I got was delicious, especially with the cheese combination that was suggested by the menu.

That's right... not cheese and wine.... cheese and beer. Amazing.

So I had my smoked Gouda with a delicious Kolsch called St. Arnold Lawnmower. Good stuff.

Then my best Houston friend, Amanda, told me that she was picking my next beer. Apparently she had had this beer with a few of her girlfriends a few years back, and it was awful. It tastes, as she described it, like Fruity Pebbles mixed with rubbing alcohol.

Now, most of you are saying to yourselves, "He would never drink this shit, right?"

Wrong.

See, I have to drink 200 beers at this bar to get my name put on the wall. That's my goal. So, on 2.75 pint night (Monday nights), I've decided to have at least one beer that I would never try on my own.

Tonight, it was this monstrosity:



















This horrible excuse for a beer is called the "Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat".

*SHUDDER*

It was probably the second worst beer I've ever had (right behind La Chapeau Pineapple Lambic, which almost made me puke.)

This beer really does taste like fruity pebbles. It's horrible. And the worst part is, the waitress was like "Oh, that one's good."

Yeah. Good. If you love to lick shit off the bottom of your foot after walking through a dog park. That kind of deliciousness. Ugh.