"Beggar's Opera"!

I have renounced all scheduled commitments and migrated to London!

(Okay. It was a well thought out and planned trip. I moved my two office days around and rescheduled other meetings. I'm going back on Thursday in time for class.)

But, in the meantime: Let's have a midweek mini break!!

Garrett (fellow Marshall) is starring in a student production of "Beggar's Opera" this week. Limited run of 11-13 February with no weekend dates, but I have yet to see him properly perform. Long past due, so down I came!

I'm in Oxford tonight and tomorrow morning, catching up with mates. And then I'll head to London with a group of Oxford-based Garrett Turner fans for the show and a late dinner tomorrow. Thursday is a 7am train back north.

But! I did see some snow (by which I mean a light frost over a single field on mountain) on the ride down. It was very exciting. Perhaps I'll go back home to a snow storm. But I doubt it. 

Sigh. Michigan, do feel free to send some of that lovely white stuff my way. 

I'm not sure how a post on London mini break for theatre turned into angsty snow missing, but there you have it. 

Have a lovely and warm day, wherever you are, my dearies. 

Jenny visits Edinburgh!!

The first-year Marshall Scholars are now considering their applications for second year programme. This weekend, I got to host Jenny, who is looking at Edinburgh's various energy and climate programmes. My grand city pulled out all the stops, with sunshine in February, frolicking at the Children's Museum, and a flat-full of classmates having a laugh over a Valentine's gift exchange.

(Photo credit to Heather Carson on this last one as well!)

Newsletter Time!

I have released a newsletter covering October 2013 to present. It's now available online, thanks to my delightful little website. Check out a few updates here. I think you've seen most of the photos included, but there are a few new ones. :)

Markinch!

I was off to the Kingdom of Fife today, for lunch and a fantastic afternoon of conversational musings at a mate's house. Marjon is another student in the LLM International Law programme, originally from Iran. She and her husband live in a gorgeous house...that used to be a church. Absolutely glorious. And Persian food for lunch!! Happy Becca

"Who"!?!

I am, for the [insert shameful number here] time, restarting "Doctor Who". A few of my besties from the LLM haven't seen any of it and have expressed interest...a dangerous thing to do near me. We finally got ourselves organised and now having Tuesday telly nights lined up for the rest of the year. 2-3 episodes a week is going to take a while...but it will be nice to get a regular dose of The Doctor and watch folks who have never seen it engage.

Yesterday was our first round, to high review - even though we only watched the first two episodes of Chris, hardly the greatest few hours in BBC history. I am excited for next week's "Aliens of London"...though we have to make it through "Unquiet Dead" first and then see if the girls decide to push through a two-parter or leave themselves in suspense!

DRD Article on "Beyond the Bombs"

Bringing together various sectors of my life, I wrote an article about Dorm Room Diplomacy for my AMENDS mate Ashley Lohmann, who runs a journalism website highlighting stuff in the Middle East other than the ugly military-political trends so dominant in Western mainstream media. Check out: http://www.btbombs.com/2014/01/imagining-a-better-world-through-virtual-connection/#blog.

Birthday and Bowling

Not my birthday.
Julia's birthday!
One of my best mates from the LLM programme turned 24 on Saturday. Since Saturday was Burns Night and there were many, many activities going on in the grand ol' Scottish city, we all met up on Friday at Julia and Sean's flat for birthday festivities.
Saturday afternoon, Sean came over and made cake. This included a fudgy chocolate cake that took FOREVER (seriously, forever. It was in the blasted oven three times longer than the recipe said it would need) to bake - but Sean decorated it adorably and it was super cute. It also included my first go at a flourless chocolate cake, which turned out brilliantly! (Though it *also* took way longer to bake. I think my oven may not actually get up to the claimed heat. Note for future.)
This evening, weekend festivities continue via tenpin bowling. America is being called on once again to trump England (i.e., I am hoping to once again kick Will's butt). Here we go!!