Saturday, December 28, 2013

Week 13 - Giving and Receiving

We had more problems on Monday with the BCI project, but tried to determine the next course of action. I was feeling especially tired that afternoon so I took a nap before dinner. I haven't taken very many naps here this semester compared to the last couple back home. By the time I was making dinner there were actually four or five of my neighbors in the kitchen as well which doesn't happen too often. A couple weeks ago I had ordered a USB adapter for PS2 controllers because I had found some perfectly fine PS2 controllers being thrown out. I intended to use them to play some old video games on my computer. The adapter happened to come in the mail today so I of course had to try them out. One of my favorite games was Mario Kart for Nintendo 64 and I played with a couple of my neighbors once we got my computer hooked up to the TV. That brought back some memories. I submitted a few more job applications this week because I'm trying to secure a position before I return home or soon after. We had a meeting for our BCI project in which we discussed what we could do to track down the sources of our problems and it seemed like a good plan to us. Wednesday I stayed home all morning and afternoon to finish some work and later I prepared dinner for my life group. I made corn cheese chowder and brought some sugar cookies I had made earlier. Thursday my medical imaging group needed to make some headway on our semester long report and we met in the morning and kept working until 5pm. This week we worked efficiently and I made a point of periodically making sure everyone was working on something pertaining to the report. I had to go home though soon after 5pm because tonight was Thanksgiving and I had planned to prepare a dish for a Thanksgiving dinner that one of my friends was hosting. The dinner turned out well and we of course had more than enough food. After the dinner I returned to my building next door and Zlatina, one of my neighbors, had planned a group game called Nordic Circle in which we took turns talking about anything we felt like while everyone else had to just listen. It was a unique opportunity for me to express my gratitude toward my neighbors. Friday evening I had agreed to help out with an event at the Christian Center. The event was called the Afrowood Film Festival and was aimed toward celebrating African movies, their directors, actors and actresses. I enjoyed the volunteering, but frankly the turn out for the event was rather poor. It was mostly due to some last minute changes and these had frustrated the efforts of the primary coordinator within the church. So a lot of things did not go according to plan, but I believe we benefited by overcoming the challenges we were presented with. They decided to cancel the rest of the event that was planned for Saturday so I was relieved of my commitment for then. That provided me the opportunity to work on the BCI project and then my report for signals processing. Zlatina also had a going a away lunch on Saturday. She had made a Bulgarian pastry and she had hidden a coin inside as was the tradition in Bulgaria. The one who found the coin was supposed to have good luck for the next year and I happened to find the coin early on, but kept it a secret until we were nearly done. I pretended to cough it up, but then explained I had found it in the first piece. Later I took a break from my work and watched Wall-E with Jacob, another one of my neighbors. On Sunday after church I tried to get some tools to fix a friend's bed who lives above the church, but without success . So I just planned to do it next weekend. Most of us young adults waited around the church until it was time for a dinner that one of my friends was hosting. It turned out really well and we were able to experience a traditional Danish Christmas dinner. There's a dessert that is something like a rice pudding with almonds and cherry sauce as topping. All the almonds but one are crushed and whoever finds the whole almond wins a prize. I happened to find this too just like the coin in the Bulgarian pastry or perhaps it was because I found the coin...

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