First Real Lecture

I gave my first real, official lecture on Wednesday. I've done art history type lectures and spoken in front of people before, but this was the first 60 min long one I've even tried to give. The topic was Coffeehouse cultures in the Early Modern Period, and covered the Ottoman Empire, Europe, and the European Colonies of the Americas. Overall, it went well and no one fell asleep, so I consider that to be an accomplishment.

On Wednesday I also learned that 2 people dropped the class and 3 people were considering dropping b/c I came off. It's actually some good feedback to get b/c I do tend to bring out the tough on my first day of class (things like you have to be here, you have to turn in typo free papers to get an A, the reading is your homework and you have to complete it and we will talk about it, and so on) and I know that I intimidate students b/c of my expectations. It probably isn't a bad thing to be a little more sensitive to the hand holding that comes with a lower division history class, and it is possible to establish your expectations w/o scaring students. At the same time, I feel more inclined to wear this as a badge of honor. Maybe I can design a little person stamp and stamp my backpack every time a kid drops, like the fighter pilots in WWI and WWII. I understand it's summer school and no one wants to do any real work, but come on people - if you're still getting college credit, and you're already doing about 1/2 the work of a regular quarter class, STFU, stop your bitching, open the book and spell check your damn papers. Or drop, and then I don't have to worry about you.

On the cooking front, my friend Hamster lent me his rice cooker for the summer. I made curry last night and decided to whip it out for some rice cooking. Unfortunately, I completely forgot all of the instructions he gave me, it's a Japanese machine, and I read Japanese about as well as I can read cuneiform. After pushing buttons and only succeeding in warming the water the rice was sitting in, I turned to the internet and found another person who inherited a Japanese rice cooker and pleaded desperately for translation help. Working between the input got on his model (different from mine), and the characters on the one I have, I finally figured it out. the internet, is there anything it can't do?

I'm also working on a recipe for a Switzerland's Birthday Party at a friend's house. It's called a Zuger Kirschtorte and is probably the most complicated cake I've ever tried to make and I'm actually on my 3rd attempt of the meringue layer (the first cooked too long, the second deflated, hopefully this one will be good. I'll try to grab some pics of the finished product at the fiesta and let you know how it all turns out.