Foam fights, haircuts, and drowning

So this week has been a little crazy. Our school has something called "Raisin Monday" where the first years get adopted by 3rd or 4th year students into an academic family. It involves pretty much partying the whole day Sunday and finishes with a big foam fight (with shaving foam) in the quad on the Monday. As a postgraduate, we do not technically have to get involved although I did have some friends who decided that this would be fun. I got to follow a couple of them to their academic family party. It was a little crazy and definitely not my scene. It's weird partying with a bunch of first years again. Made me feel old.

On monday, I ended up being a "model" at one of the hair salons in town. On mondays, they book appointments for some of the students to learn new, challenging techniques and need hair to practice on. I signed up for one of these and ended up with a really excellent hair cut (it pretty much looks exactly the same as it did when I first chopped off all my hair in June, except more shaped). The woman who runs the salon, comes over and asks what you are thinking about getting done to your hair, and then suggests a style that the student needs to practice. She then goes through it step by step showing the student what to do and then having the student finish the section. It's a pretty good deal because the woman who owns the salon is pretty much doing the hair cut (and fixing any mistakes the student makes) and if you were to get an appointment with her it would cost you 80 pounds. However, because I was a teaching tool, my haircut was free. Can't argue with that.

Today, I had a meeting with my supervisor and had another small mental breakdown. My new analogy is that I feel like I've been put in a boat and taken to the middle of the ocean. Then I'm thrown overboard and told to swim. (and then my supervisor comes by and offers me a little rowboat with a small hole in the middle). So that's how I feel. Kind of lost but I figure if I already knew everything I wouldn't need to do the PhD. I have a paper to work on for the next 2 weeks which will hopefully give me some direction. I'm really looking forward to it. Should be really interesting.

Well, better stop procrastinating and finish my reading.