Almost like living on your own, but not.
Okay, now that I've gotten the Dulaan stuff up, just a quick update about life. As I mentioned, I made it back to school! I'm sharing a quad with my friend Aud. It's a really sweet arrangement, because it means that we each get our own room, plus a large common room to store things. We delayed starting our research today in order to go shopping for groceries to get our kitchen set up. We'll just work Saturday to make up for it. The shopping needed to be done, because the dining hall isn't open in the summer, so we're cooking for ourselves! We're both actually really excited about it.

So, we went to Wal-mart and picked up cooking supplies (pots and pans and the like), and a bunch of staples, like eggs and cheese and refried beans (which are definitely a staple in my diet, anyway). I was rather proud of myself, because I managed to avoid buying a lot of unnecessary things. The only buys I'm not quite proud of are bacon bits (for a dish I make), and a bag of sugar cereal. I'm sure I'll use both, though. Even so, I managed to spend quite a bit of money. My goal was to stay under $100. I think that at least I managed to get a realistic expectation of how much groceries cost, from shopping with my mom. And I stayed under that pretty easily. I'm hoping that I really won't have to spend so much now that we've got a lot of staples stored up--we'll see!

And, Aud and I cooked a very nice dinner tonight. She made chicken breast, and I used my new rice maker to make rice. I also steamed zucchini in the microwave, and I am inordinately proud of myself for eating vegetables with my dinner even though I didn't have to. I guess it helps, though, that I like zucchini. Anyway, it was our first truly cooked up meal on our own, and we're proud of ourselves. And it was good, too--simple and satisfying. Probably we'll get sick of cooking eventually, but I'm glad to say that our first meal was a success.

Basically, this summer research gig is like a combination of getting your first apartment and summer camp. It's a safe environment, and all the utilities and everything are taken care of, and for any number of other reasons, it's not like we're out on our own. But it's not like college either--we're cooking for ourselves, and paying (admittedly low) rent, and there won't be anyone on campus trying to entertain us.

Anyway, I really need to get over the 'living' part of this, because I am here to do work. But, I'm all settled in and unpacked, and tomorrow morning I will get to work. w00t. Later, I will post more about my project. And also about knitting, because now I have time to do it!