Very cold weather of late. I slipped twice on icy ground today, getting a pair of jeans very, very dirty... not to mentioning falling hard enough to scratch my cell phone and bend (yes, bend) my room key. No permanent damage.

Today was the 'lunch meeting' -- a Butler representative took us all to lunch at a pretty good pizza place in town. Exciting, I know.

Being surrounded by first-year students is a little frustrating. They're all on a pass-fail system for all their classes (modules), and only have to get 40% to pass. The result is that the academic pressure on them is, shall we say, minimal. This means that they drink and party... a lot. Unlike in the US, where such things occur mainly on weekends, they do it during the school week -- Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the big nights, respectively, at three of the most popular local clubs. Even if I were inclined to engage in heavy clubbing, though, I don't think my wallet could quite take it.

Overall, I think I'm settling in better. Coming this weekend -- a mandatory family stay somewhere to the north of here (can't remember exactly where). Hopefully it goes smoothly; it can apparently vary tremendously depending on how enthusiastic the family in question is about the whole thing.

(Mom, Dad -- your envelope came. I don't know when it came, though, because it turns out I'd been looking in the wrong mailbox for the past few days.)