Mouses and Classes and Utilities Oh My!

Hey all!

I'm here at the U A (not the U of A, according to the sweatshirts in the student bookstore) and taking advantage of free internet instead of doing my homework, so unfortunately no pictures today.

On the home-front, moved in over the weekend and started a deep-cleaning process that is still basically stymied by what we discovered in the kitchen. In addition to odd, old "cooling" vents to the outside in 2 of the cabinets, there was also a significant lack of cleaning between applications of contact paper in one of the drawers, and a strange odor issuing from the cabinet above the water heater. Scott had to "borrow" one of the painting crew ladders to reach the top shelf of that particular cabinet and low and behold, the odor seemed to be due to an old rib? bone and a large amount of mouse feces. Yay :( Fortunately, some of it appears quite dessicated, so there is a faint glimmer of hope that there is not still an ongoing rodent issue. We shall see, but we did take that opportunity to break in our new Bissel Bagless vacuum which is awesome!

The bed is still a bit firm despite our purchasing a wool under cushy-thingy and both of us had a bit of trouble sleeping last night. We may need to get another mattress. We also had quite a time purchasing all of our bedding needs as the department store, called Farmers, in our new favorite mall (the New Lynn Mall) was having a very confusing dual sale with some items 2 for 30% off and some items buy one get one free!

Since we moved in on the weekend, we still are lacking in utilities and Scott had to work from the hostel today, and perhaps an internet cafe tomorrow.

Now on the school-front. I just had my first course today and so far I am NOT completely confused. Huzzah! I met 4 people in my class and two had an undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science (both from NZ), and two were chemists here on scholarship from Malaysia that had been working in forensic-type labs for several years! They don't have any specific forensic undergraduate courses here, so at least I'm not behind the 8 ball in that respect. My professor in Environmental Forensic Science is nice and it turns out the course is about 50% environmental law (for all of you lawyers and law professors out there). Law, chemistry, and statistics...what have I gotten myself into?

Well, time for dinner here, then back to the house for some more deep cleansing.

Cheers,
Jen (and Scott)