February roundup

Even after my trip to Boston, there were several activities in February that would warrant a full blog post if only I had more time!

I went to the Catholic Students Association winter social: ice skating on the Plaisance (another item from Lisa's list ticked off), followed by Chipotle for dinner and a viewing of Calvary.

I cooked for the fortnightly grad students' dinner. NaYoung was my co-chef (and Guillermina an overqualified sous chef): we decided on a menu of jobchae (a Korean noodle dish), a brown rice salad I traditionally make for Christmas, and pavlova (an Australian meringue dessert). I cooked a pavlova for myself earlier in the week to practise: it turned out surprisingly well (I am more of a cook than a baker), and people appreciated it on the evening as well. There has been a feeling that this quarter's grad dinners have raise the standard of food preparation.

I went to NaYoung's Valentine's Day potluck dinner. Very pleasant conversation about everything from motives of volunteers in non-profit organisations to modern Indian matchmaking.

I went to the Calvert House Mardi Gras (Pancake Day, for Australians - the tradition of eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday seems to be almost unknown in the US) party. I had been sick the previous couple of days, so I barely indulged in the food, but it was nice to chat with a few people there. I was mostly talking with undergrads about the place of quantum mechanics in modern physics. You can't assume the same level of physics knowledge here as at MIT, but people are still interested and keen to learn.

I sang in the choir at Ash Wednesday Mass, celebrated by the archbishop of Chicago in Rockefeller Chapel. Sarita was rather nervous and stressed, but I think we did a good job. After Mass, about 30 of us had supper with the archbishop, who certainly seemed interested in learning about the community.

Tom, Patrick and I finally got to our game of Age of Empires 2. Patrick and I won when we teamed up, but Tom beat us when we had a free for all game (we knew he is the best player of the three, which is why we chose 2 vs 1 for the first game).

I went to an ecumenical retreat hosted by the UC Episcopalian community and led by Sarita, looking at the role of truth in our faith and academic lives.

Strictly it was on 1 March, but I'll throw it in: I went to another faith and science discussion session, this time focusing on the book The Mind of God by Paul Davies. This time I had actually read the book (Jacqui gave it to me a few years ago), and felt more able to contribute to the discussion. We did seem to get rather sidetracked: I think we really only made it through the first two chapters, which I had reread earlier that afternoon to remind myself what the book was about. I do agree that the world contains questions that science doesn't even seem to have the potential to answer.

Let me know if you want more details on any of these. I'll try to keep a bit better up to date!