"Crouch. Touch. Pause ... ENGAGE!"

I heard the referee say that about a million times yesterday each time we set up a new scrum in the rugby game. I played my first FULL 80-minute game of rugby yesterday as hooker ... on the 1st team! No joke, my first actually full rugby game I started on the varsity squad. Yeah, this came as quite a shock to me, too. I was supposed to be the starting hooker for the 2nd team, but when I arrived at the field yesterday the captains and coach bombarded me and told me that the 1st team starting hooker was sick, I was next in line for the position, and I had better get upstairs and put on a 1st team jersey. I'm sure it took about 5 minutes for the look of fright/disbelief to leave my face. Plus, the 1st team was playing Leeds University ... the best team in the country last year! Believe me, I was scared out of my mind, but the coach and captains told me I was ready for it.
But anyway, I totally dominated and won almost every ball in the scrums, and had perfect line-out throws. Their front line engaged and hit really hard though, so between the scrums and tackling my entire body is completely battered and bruised. I seriously look like I've been hit by a truck or something. It didn't really register with me how dangerous the sport is until the scrum collapsed on me, or maybe it was when I was caught on the bottom of a 6-person pile up and I couldn't breathe that I realized I must be out of my mind. But it was all in good fun, and I really love my teammates. Newcastle won, too! Final score was 17-15. Close game, and very exciting. Apparently I did a really good job again. Who knew?
The best part of all was that I had my own cheering section! My flatmates Sarah and Fran came to watch me play with my friends Matt and Mark. They brought along my camera so I now have evidence for the folks at home who can't quite believe that I play at the front and center of the scrums. The whole rugby team went out again last night for our usual Wednesday night socials. Theme of the week ... Cavegirls! I've never seen so many short, fuzzy leopard-print skirts in my life, but we all looked amazing. Going out with teammates is half the fun of being on a sports team. It looks like I'll be flip-flopping between the 1st and 2nd teams a lot, which is completely fun since I get to know all the girls equally well.

As for the academic side of things, I finally had my first Biochemistry lab practical on Tuesday morning. We did an experiment determining the concentration of unknown proteins by using spectrophotometry and setting up a standard curve with known concentrations of protein. I got to work with a friend from Loyola as a lab partner, too. It was so nice to be back in the science lab doing stuff that actually interests me, and that I'm good at. I have another practical tomorrow, this time on Ion-Exchange Chromatography. Should be interesting. I have an Archeology project due tomorrow, too. And somehow I've twisted it around to be a science project. We had to pick any topic relating to Archeology and research it ... so naturally I chose radiocarbon dating. Hey, at least I understand what I'm reading about!

Tomorrow I fly off to Paris with the single-semester Loyola group. There will only be 10 of us in this trip, which will be less hectic I'm sure. We arrive late on Friday night and leave early Sunday evening, so we don't really have much time there. I plan on touring with the group on Saturday afternoon, but then branching off after the tours are over to have dinner and hang out with Clarice and Mary in their Paris apartment. SO excited!