i made it down the coast in seventeen hours...

good music. turned in my fellowship application. handed in rough draft of my final History essay. working on bio lab assignment.

all thats left:
1 20 pg anthropology paper on memory, activism, and Love Canal
1 8-10 pg History final on early germ theory and infection theories in 17th century London
several biology lab reports (2-3 pgs with figures)
1 biology final exam
1 GIS final take home exam
3-4 more short writing pieces

to be honest, it doesn't look too bad. next week we get monday and tuesday off. the following week is boards week so im sure most of my classes (maybe not biology) will be canceled. some of the history paper is already written. i have all (95%) of my anthropology research done, now i just need to organize it and start writing. come tomorrow im going to force myself to start it. but really, finals might not be as terrible as it usually is this semester. right now my priorities are biology and this anthropology paper. im pretty sure i can pull off an A in History, and if I do this paper right ill secure an A in Anthropology too. Im going to try hard to keep a B+ in biology, and then im sure ill keep the A for GIS and boost the B+ in writing to at least an A-.

not too bad. got into my ecology of infectious disease seminar. my independent study proposal is finished. i went out to the bar last night with some friends and got a free tab. not too bad. i give my friends (the 21 year old ones) a lot of credit for coming out with me last night-its not easy when you need to finish senior projects in a week. overall my birthday was good. i was a little suprised at some people who didnt say anything, but in general i had a relaxing day. sushi with maisha and katelyn was good-i got hot sake. hung out with julia and logan and rachel and patrick. played video games with doug today. this thursday my old residents and i might throw a party. this weekend the only work ill have is anthro paper and biology, really. and picking out courses.

but so far seems like
Biology of Infectious Disease
Ecology of Infectious Disease (2)
Contamporary Cultural Theory
Photography, History, and News
Senior Project
maybe ill audit Plague

looks good. although im tempted to take Research Methods for Social Scientists or Writing Science.

im a dork. ive come to accept it. today Peter Fry, this famous Brazilian anthropologist, gave a lecture on Brazil, race, sickle-cell anemia, and affirmitive action. i liked his approach to advocacy a lot. "strategic essentialism", yeah, that was the term he used. a lot of anthropology is about critique, such as critiquing essentialism, attributing certain characteristics to groups of people, which happens in biomedical research a lot. but in the Brazil case, black NGOs and activists have taken up this whole racial-there is only black/white race in Brazil-as a mobilizing tool, in which genetics takes a role. after all, you can't have a "black population" to mobilize without some construction of there being one singular "black population". interesting stuff.

i feel like to be honest ive gotten a lot more anti-social lately. or maybe i just dont mind being alone anymore. its a trade off. if you take more time to be alone, and dont have one key group of friends or a click or something, then you find yourself lonely at times, not always having a reliable close crowd. but if you only have one real group, you end up depending on each other all the time, getting sick of each other, etc, etc etc. sometimes i feel like i have a balance. ive never had one group of friends, its always just kind of the way ive been. one of my buddies in Brazil commented it about me. it makes sense. i dont love being alone, but i like the pravacy and independence. or even just space to breathe. should probably start going to the gym.

back to work.