10/25/08

My PLE

In the Ecohouse program, one of the ways to earn course credit is to have a "Personal Learning Experience."

I had mine today: NEVER bite into a raw green chili pepper. Seriously. Not even a tiny, baby ant-sized bite. I barely took half a nibble off the tip of it, in a strange burst of frat boy-like experimental curiosity. At first it tasted like a green bell pepper. Then my salivary glands started working overtime and I ran to the sink just in time for a tidal wave of spit to come out. I then poured myself a glass of water from the fridge, and had trouble taking a first sip because I was hiccupping uncontrollably. But desperation lent me the will to gulp some water, then pour another glass, then put a few breath mints in my mouth because it was still burning, then pour another glass of water, which I am slowly sipping now while chewing more breath mints.

I really am a bright person. I won't suffer any sinus congestion for the next year, at least. It kind of reminds me of the sort of hijinks my 10-year-old cousin would get into, except he would do it to be funny and me, I just end up being funny.

I got the offending pepper at the local farmer's market, where Natalie, Elena, Phil, and I found good deals on vegetables, fruits, and baked goods. Elena found her beloved Lima beans and I replenished my sweet potato supply, among other things. Yes Mom, I am eating my vegetables here at school. I also relieved some of the lavender bushes outside the apartments of a few sprigs. The flowers are hanging in the living room now, drying so that I can use them for tea. Meanwhile the clover and rye we planted are starting to grow, helped along by the rain:



In Elena & Co.'s apartment, they've carved jack o' lanterns, which I've pictured next to the bicycles to give it some Ecohouse flavor:



Before going to the farmer's market, we watched a guy dig up this tree stump. A perk of living at Ecohouse is you can stop and touch the types of soil, analyzing the content, and you're not considered weird. Or at least you're not alone.

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