A neat idea

My friend Anna had a neat idea on her blog [http://www.livejournal.com/users/fluzie/]. Name ten things that you have done that most people probably haven't. In no particular order, here is my list:

1. Chatted with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark about school theme songs while drinking wine [and being just a little drunk] in Napier.

2. Was convinced that when I was a kid I saw a headless ghost in my grandmothers house. She lived in a house that was once an old houseboat and it was dark and scary for a kid. It had a set of long narrow stairs leading up to the second floor and I remember looking up and seeing this thing coming out of a room and walking down the stairs towards me. Mom said I ran home and wouldn't visit grandma for awhile. I don't know if I believe it today but it is a pretty clear image.

3. Been propositioned by a French man outside of the Louvre in Paris while reading a 3-day old English newspaper and writing post cards to family and friends back in Canada [okay, maybe this happens a lot but you never know]. Got away from said man by agreeing to meet for coffee after I collected my parents from a nearby hotel because I was sure that they would also want to spend the afternoon with him. He suddenly remembered he had a pressing engagement elsewhere.

4. Made obsidian and bone projectile points for archaeology class using only stones to sharpen and shape them. In same vein, conducted an archaeological experiment on the effects of trampling on different types of ceramic materials by setting up a plot in parents garden and walking back and forth over the site for hours at a time [yes, I felt pretty silly].

5. Had boyfriend [yes I do mean Don] fly from Canada to New Zealand to propose to me. Have said proposal made at the top of Skytower in Auckland [after Don's repeated attempts to ensure we were facing west before he asked the question] and days later have an entire roomful of Maori sing us a song of congratulations on the engagement.

6. Had a close encounter with a cougar while riding bike around small community conducting a survey on community visits to a small museum for a math project. The cougar was not harmed due to this encounter.

7. Had roommates from Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey, Japan, Eritrea, London, Germany, Sri Lanka and almost every province in Canada. You'll be happy to hear I also learned a great deal from these roommates, including how to swear in over a half dozen languages.

8. Spent an entire morning looking for [and waving at] webcams around Glasgow in Scotland just so I could see the places I had seen on the web.

9. While snowed in at college, helped save the day by skiing out to collect mail, wine and sushi for anthropology class party. I had to do it because several people had threatened to turn my pet sea cucumber into a meal if we didn't have snacks for the party. Also while at college, spent numerous days listening to Les Miserables with a friend while cleaning whale bones for a Grey Whale reconstruction project. It will forever be associated with that distinct whale smell!

10. After graduating from university, averaged 4 hours or less of sleep per night for 6 months while working as researcher by day and bookseller by night just to pay off student loan before the government would start to collect interest. During this time I also had several instances of working just under 72 hours straight because I couldn't say no to extra shifts. Ah, the powers of youth!

That's it. I've done a few more interesting things but as this is a family-oriented blog I really can't share. What would you put on your list?