Walking on Air

Well, there really is nothing quite like having your basketball team knock off the top team in the country. Especially when it's your arch-rival. Last night my Vanderbilt Commodores knocked off #1 Tennessee in one heck of a game. That's the second year in a row that we've beaten a #1. But as I said, it makes it about a hundred times sweeter that it's UT. It's enough to take my mind off the fact that our baseball team's star third baseman is out for six weeks with a wrist injury...

OK, before I turn this into a sports blog, let's move on to other matters. Wow, yesterday was bizarre. I was sitting in my French class and suddenly the power goes out. Now, this would not be such a crazy event normally, but as I left I found out that the whole campus had no power, and then as I continued home I found that the whole city had no power. It came back on after about an hour, but it was just kind of bizarre. I found out later that, at least according to CNN.com, the outage ranged from Orlando south to Miami.

Other than that, things have been pretty much going on as normal around here; I don't have anything life-changing to report. We watched a really interesting documentary in one of my English courses over the last two sessions. It's called Hothouse and it is about the life of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Really a very, very striking film. The amazing thing is that apparently prison often has a politicizing effect on the inmates. While in prison they join up with one party or the other (the more moderate Fatah or the more radical Hamas). During their sentences, many study political science, even obtaining college degrees in it. Once out, bolstered by the status given to former inmates, they become political leaders...If you get a chance to check out this doc, you really should, at least if you have any interest in the conflict.

I'm also really enjoying the book I'm reading in my other English course. It's called Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih. I would describe it for you, but it's really one of those books that defies description, at least without giving up the whole plot. I think it's rather brilliant though, so once again, if you get a chance, check it out. Come on, it's not even 200 pages long, it's not like I'm telling you to read War and Peace.

OK, I guess that's all for today. If I think of anything else going on I'll let you know.