Day 42-44

A few more days to add to the tally! and I wish I had pictures of monday nights adventures...

Sunday started off after coming out of a long coma from the highlands trip. I met up with Amy and we headed to a local bookstore that afternoon. We ended up staying for a few hours, and I ended up picking up a plethora of books (I know, cool word). Including; Albert Einstein - Essays in Science, Carl Sagan - Broca's Brain, Rita Carter - Mapping the Mind, and NewScientist - Why Don't Penguins Feet Freeze (kind of like the bathroom reader, if you have ever read that). I dove into them that night, and got about halfway through Einstein, I feel smarter already, or dumber - theoretical physics is not my expertise!

Sunday night was USA vs Canada hockey, and I must admit, I wasn't planning on watching it after I figured out it would last until 3 in the morning. But, when your room gets raided by a group of confident Canadians, you just have to go see how the game plays out. It was about 8 of us in Benny's room, all Canadians except Katie and I. And seeing as USA scored the first goal ini 42 seconds, that is about how long it took for the trash talking to begin ;). By the end of it, I felt kind of bad for laying it on them, as they hung their heads in dismay... oh to have lost, to team U.S.A.

Monday I had class, we talked a little more about reading routes, I learned in depth about dyslexia and the causes to it - quite interesting actually... afterwards I headed back home. Tonight was the night of a Ceilidh, a traditional Scottish gathering consisting of food, drinks and endless dancing. I was pretty excited to go to this, and not only got Jordan and Marc to stop writing their essays to come out with us. But also pulled Malcom out of a semi-conscious sleep to join us in some pre-Ceilidh festivities. A few others came over, and needless to say, we started the night off right. When we made it to the Ceilidh we were greeted by all our other friends who got there before us, and I immediately went into the next dance which was taking place in the middle of the pub. Now that I look back on it, I danced the entire event. Just get me a kilt and call me "Elllric" So, the first dance, I was holding my own, learning the ropes, you know how it goes... and then I believe Malcom bet Jordan "5 points" if he could get me a drink during the middle of the dance. He did, and then that was followed by 5 or 6 other hands with drinks extending out to me. I felt like I was at a carnival game, and now that I have successfully tested every drink in the pub, the dance goes on. After the first dance, everyone was extremely jealous of my dancing skills so they joined in (or some other reason like that). It was great, definitely one of the best Scottish traditions I have partaken in thus far. At a point, Jordan Kerri Natalie and I were used as an example group for a dance! They ended the Ceilidh with some classical Scottish tunes, such as the soundtrack to Rocky... followed by some Journey, which 20 of us sang in harmony in a giant circle... complete with air mics and guitars. A music video in the making if you ask me.

The Ceilidh might have been over, but the night sure was not! And the stampede coming up the stairs to our flat proved it. Our flat was wall to wall packed, with a bouncer at the door and a line around the corner. Minus the bouncer. What a fun way to end the night. Everyone had a great time and we celebrated until the early morning.

Therefore, Tuesday was deemed the day of recovery. We woke up, cleaned up a little bit, then Jordan came over looking as confused as ever. As if he had woken up from a 3 year slumber. We all ordered pizza. I got the sizzler, which was absolutely delicious (and very hot). Afterwards Jordan got me to watch a show called "the unit" , about some special forces guys who do some intense missions. It was a pretty good show so I borrowed the first DVD and watched it for the rest of the day! I also finished up my research proposal for a student grant here, pitched it to a few professors beforehand as well, they all think it is a solid idea! So I am very excited about that. Lastly, I got 100+ songs from a girl downstairs who I always hear playing music from our window. Some good stuff in there! And last lastly, I looked into something called binaural beats, I read about them in a health magazine and thought I would do some more in depth investigating. These only work in headphones, and they send a slightly different frequency beat to each ear - you can't tell - but your brain can, it takes the difference in hz of these frequencies and makes it into a pulse... which gradually sets your brain waves to this pulse... you can tune yourself for studying via high level thinking, or set yourself into a meditative presleep drowsiness, or even into sleep itself! Basically, >40hz are gamma waves, which are for higher mental activity and problem solving... 13-40hz are beta waves, for active/busy/anxious thinking and concentration... 7-13hz are alpha waves, for relaxation while awake and also presleep/dream drowsiness... and less then 4hz are delta waves, for deep dreamless sleeps and loss of body awareness. When I experimented with these, I did a delta wave beat... I was listening to it for a while until I felt my head tilt back and my eyes begin to become heavy. I damn near fell asleep! Pretty interesting stuff eh? If you think so, here is a site that has some samples of them. http://healingbeats.com/play.html

Cheers