My alarm rang at a cringe-worthy early hour this morning, and I forced my tired body out of my bed, my two kittens curling themselves around my feet. I live off campus, in an apartment tucked away on a quiet corner near Eastern Market. Dolphin and Noir (my two Bengal-mix kittens) demanded food, so I fed them, grabbed my green tea, and headed to class.

What class, you ask? The History and Psychology of Food, taught by Drs. Kinner and Williams, who add their unique brand of enthusiasm and humor to every class. The first session of the class's highlight was the visitor to class: IKJ, and he came bearing gifts in the form of doughnuts. If you don't know who IKJ is- he is Irving King Jordan, the esteemed president of the University. This class is an interdisclipinary effort, and is an honors seminar. It is definitely one of the cooler classes I've taken at Gallaudet. So far, we've sampled jalapeno pistachio brittle, kola nuts, and habanero peppers, among other goodies.

We will write a paper on a specific food item, then prepare it and bring it to class for our very own version of a moveable feast. Hemingway it's not, but still! Anyway, back to today's class. I sipped my green tea and tried to wake up, as we started to move into our day's discussion, on hot sauces. Our esteemed professors gifted us a bottle of hot sauce each and told us to google the ingredients for homework. Unconventional assignment, but I'm from Berkeley, so I guess it's fitting. It was too early in the morning for me to really be able to recall what we talked about in class, unfortunately. That is, until Dr. Kinner passed around some pistachio brittle with jalapeno mixed into it.

Now, that woke me up. Freshly awakened (it worked better than the green tea!) we discussed the impact of sugar on the New World and Old World (think rum, anyone?) and about how babies actually prefer sugar water over regular water even from the womb. Other topics touched upon were Dr. Kinner's age (when he was a kid, candy bars were the size of your arm, way before electricity), and questions we might want to ask Luigi. Who is Luigi? Not a character from a Nintendo game- no brother named Mario- but a chef who owns an Italian restaurant in DC. Our professors plan to have either a field trip to his restaurant or have him come to class to give a presentation. A fellow classmate, Jesse Thomas had the idea of asking where to buy fresh pasta (that doesn't include refrigerated Buitoni, okay?), and did his homework in class, saving a precious ten minutes of his weekend. Props to him.

After class, I was done for the day, and took my car (which is having problems as usual) to the shop. For once, it was relatively cheap. Highlight of my day, besides the green tea and oh, the pistachio brittle.