Been thinking so much I can't even think of a title

Friday: early class then noon class. I couldn't get to sleep last night for some odd reason. When I finally did fall asleep, I slept really well, and was decidedly unappreciative of my alarm clock this morning.

For the first half hour of my nine oclock class it was just me, one other student, and Antonella. I was hoping she wouldn't even bother having class, but Antonella has way too much energy for that, and we proceeded. She mentioned that next week we would be doing Kafka (she mentioned this largely because I had accidentally brought the Kafka instead of the Beckett to class. Oops) and the following week The Wide Sargasso Sea. I pointed out that there wouldn't be a following week - not a Friday of it anyway, because that's the first day of break. It was the first she'd heard of it! The other girl in the class backed me up though, and we both invoked the name of Hazel, which seemed to convince Antonella. She was distressed that we wouldn't be covering The Wide Sargasso Sea but really, I think we'll survive.

After class I asked Antonella about the prompts which are still not posted. She assured me that they would be posted today. "Really?" I said.

"Well, by Monday at the latest." she replied. Argh. This paper will never get written.

Next I went to get Frye's Theory of Symbols from the office. It was thicker than I had been anticipating (The text, not the office. The office was precisely the expected thickness). I tossed it (again, the text. Come on, try to keep up) on my nightstand thing when I got back to the room and took a nap. It wasn't a very thorough nap though, as for some reason I have difficulty sleeping between classes here, and I went to Myth seminar feeling unrefreshed.

At the end of Myth seminar, just because I had a sneaking suspicion, I said "So, next week is the last time we're meeting, right?" The prof said no, we have another class after that. I said, but it is March 21, no classes that day.

She said "It is Good Friday?" pause... "No..." pause... "Already?" So it looks like we won't be discussing Frye's Theory of Symbols in my myth class, which, I later found, is unfortunate.

After myth I ate lunch before doing laundry because I was oddly hungry. I had no issues with driers this time - I've got the good ones staked out, all two of em. When laundry was finally over, I tried the napping thing again. It went really really well. The dings from two IMs did not wake me up. I slept over an hour, hard, and woke up with a headache but I'm really awake now so I'm glad I did it. I sat down to read Theory of Symbols so I could write my essay tomorrow.

Theory of Symbols is hard. I don't understand most of what this Frye guy (hee) is saying, but I think I know just enough to be able to write an essay. You can bet there will be frequent emails to the prof and a meeting when the essay is finished just to make sure, though. I bet this is gonna be tricky to write. We shall see.

Then I had a fun little discussion with Emily. As it turns out, the CLA honors program has different requirements from the UHP for getting an honors degree, and Emily and I have to fulfill them both. Both require 24 honors credit hours, but the CLA wants you to have 12 of them in honors classes outside your major, 3 of them in a 300 level honors class, and 6 of them in 400 level honors courses or just plain old 500 level courses. By sheer luck, I am still on track because I am taking two 500 level courses next semester, and that will fulfill my CLA requirements. However, I still need 4 more credits for the UHP because I don't think they accept plain old 500 level courses. I'm not gonna complain about the 2 extra honors classes I have to do because Emily is in a way worse boat than I am. The thing is though, why didn't either of us know about these requirements? I'm pretty sure they aren't posted online anywhere. If Emily hadn't told me, I would never have known. (edit: I just found it. It's something called the Gold Sheet. It took quite a bit of searching on the CLA website, and certainly looks like the sort of document our freshman councilors should have handed to us with the core sheet and the major/minor sheets. sigh.)

Anyway. Then I went back to reading and did that for a really really long time. I was interrupted a few times though, by a mysterious Thing thumping in the night... It was very odd. I was reading along and thump -it sounded like a sock full of sand had struck (stricken?) my window. I was considerably startled, but went back to my reading. Then another thump thumped and I got up because my desk is very close to the window. I waited a while. No more thumps. I looked out the window. No one was standing on the ground below... and if they were I'd have commended their arm, because I'm on the eighth floor... Phil was not leaning mischievously out her window - indeed her window was not even open, and I heard her come in later, so she wasn't even in her room. I sat back down to continue reading. Then two more thumps thumped! I did not want to look out the window because that last thump sounded worse than the others. I walked out to the kitchen to see if anyone was around, but they were not. I knocked on Phil's door, but as I later learned, she was out. So I went back in to sit down and read and no more thumps thumped. Eventually I checked my window to make sure it was secure - it was, and undamaged. I can't figure out what the thumps were. I think maybe the person above me left his window open and the wind was wreaking havok with it? or maybe he was repeatedly dropping a bowling ball on the ceiling right above my window so it sounded like something was hitting my window... stranger things have happened! Anyway hopefully that's the last I'll hear of the mysterious thump...

And now, I do mindless things! yay!

fun new ways to put off school work...

Only one lecture today. I woke up got ready, and left. Lecture was all right, not bad, nothing special. Afterward, I bought a stapler.

Then I went to see Hazel to hand in my essays, and she answered all of my questions before I even asked them! She had apparantly been trying to call me to let me know that my online submission was all right, too. Basically, she's amazing and should be in charge of the whole university.

I went back to the room and did a little reading for Thursday, which resulted in a lovely nap. There were still a few hours of daylight left when I woke up, and it was a nice day, so I thought I'd go for a walk and get some pictures I've been meaning to get for quite a while.



This is a sign on the door at Tesco. Poor door.



At the Library, though these can also be found near most of the computers in the labs. Every time I walk by the library computers, though, there are less mouse mats...

Anyway, I also paid off the rest of my accomodation fees. My goodness it's a lot of money... I then went back to the room and proceeded to waste time reading comics and not doing any writing or "productive" reading at all.

Oh, another interesting tidbit. In the computer labs, there are diskette dispensers. You put in coins and get diskettes. I sort of chuckled in a "how cute" sort of way. Then I looked at the computer I was using. Yes, it has a diskette drive, and a cd drive... but I couldn't find USB ports anywhere O.O It MUST have them. They can't be that old. I must go back and preform a more comprehensive check.

Now: frivolous reading.

Later: video chat

Tomorrow: who knows!

today is monday...

I woke up today feeling much sicker than yesterday. Bad sore throat... I went to class anyway. In Myth lecture we watched a French version of Orpheus that was actually really interesting... Orpheus falls in love with Death and Charon falls for Eurydice... all around good times. You know what's a great idea? Classics fan fiction. Oh yes.

Versions of Modernity was not nearly as entertaining. The lecturer called off so we had a sub. It really gets to me how teachers can be sick whenever they want but students aren't allowed. whatever.

After class I went to see Hazel about my shiny new course conflict. I am now enrolled in a different V of M seminar, with a different teacher, different students, and, knowing my luck, a different set of books to buy. Great.

Then I went home and slept til three. Woke up feeling not much better and spent the rest of the day doing things that did not involve leaving the bed - except that i did go out to buy some instant soup that turned out to be half decent, and some tea. Don't have any honey though - tomorrow I want to go grocery shopping, but we'll see how I feel in the morning.

Yeah, that's it for today. Absolutely nothing productive... meh, I'm ok with that.

bumpy day

This morning the garbage trucks did not wake me up. But the cigarette smoke smell did. Normally Ben limits himself to one a day, but when he starts this early I know I'm going to be spending a lot of time outside.

Since I was up, I had enough time before class to check my email. I found out that applying for 390B instead of 390A gets me a better chance at an actual tutoring position next Spring, so it looks like that is what I am going to do. Also, I had an email about an internship from a New York based company. I'm applying even though I am in England, so we'll see how that turns out.
I needed to rework my resume for both of these, though, and just in general anyway...

Then Myth class, where I found out that the lecture is moving from Monday morning to Thursday morning. Thursday morning is when I have my Versions of Modernity seminar. Can they do this? Well, probably. By the time I got out of class, though, the office was closed til Monday (they close at 1 on Fridays. Most places do around here. How does anyone get anything done?). I emailed Hazel, so we shall see what she has to say about that, though I have no idea what they could do about it just for me... really it shouldn't be possible for me to have conflicting classes. Maybe if the scheduled classes by computer instead of just having students look up the times and write them down this wouldn't happen? I got really lucky that all the classes I chose when I got here didn't conflict. Most students had to reschedule everything. The administration here needs to go to Purdue and figure out how to do things more efficiently. I think it's probably because they are such a small campus here... they can deal with each student individually (that's how I got my schedule: I went in to Hazel and said which classes I was in and she told me the times and I wrote them down. When I dropped one and added a different one, she tried to enroll me in a seminar that clashed with another class - which wouldn't be possible at Purdue. Luckily, I am on top of things.)

Anyway, after myth I did laundry and then I ate an ambiguous meal somewhere between lunch and dinner. Then I sat down and reworked my resume. I thought it turned out pretty well, but when I emailed it to dad the formatting got wonky. Not good. Probably I should use a more common font.

Now, I am in for the night puttering about finishing odds and ends.

My Hat!!!

Ok this morning I left for my nine oclock class and was struck with a very large and insubstantial train more commonly known as wind. A horizontal tornado, if you will. It was very difficult to make any forward progress at all, and it switched directions frequently. Luckily, my playing of SNES Donkey Kong games had prepared me for this.

Yeah.

You know how in DK Country Two you can play as Dixie? And you know how she's got that hat? And you know how it never falls off?? Pure fiction, my friends.

The lovely Colchester wind, which is apparantly stronger and more devious than the wind of the Donkey Kong jungles, snatched my hat away. I chased after it, but it was too high for me to reach, and when the wind died for a moment, it deposited my hat on the roof of the Accomodations Office.

The office didn't open til ten and I had to get to class, so I left it. In class (Modernity), we talked about Yeats. After class I asked Clare about exams, and if I was expected to know everything from Autumn term as well. She got this horrified look on her face and said "Oh no, I hope not... but I don't see how you could take the exam and not know..." But she didn't really know and told me to go ask Hazel, which I did right after class.

Hazel said that no, I was not expected to know the Autumn things, and the the Exams Office was well aware of my status as an international student, and I would get a different exam than the others in my class. Well good. I hope it actually works out that way...

I went to the Accomodations Office next and asked them if there was any way I could get my hat down. They said to ask at the information desk about finding someone with a ladder. So I left the office and circled it, looking to see if the hat had blown down. It had not, or if it had, it had also blown away. So I went back up to my flat, knowing I could see the office roof from the kitchen.

The hat was no longer on the roof. I mourned it as lost and went to take a nap.

I left for Early Modern Culture early so that I could sign up for the Stonehenge trip this Saturday, but when I got to the table, the line was long. Really long. I stood in it for about half an hour and realized I was late for class. So I left it. I'm glad I did - this class takes attendance and counts participation. And we talked about cannibalism and the zombification of Irish people in British media in the 15th century.

After class, the Stonehenge table was gone, so I suppose that's that. I went to the bookstore to pick up the last of the textbooks I need: George Perec's Life: A User's Manual, which sounds pretty promising. I went back to the dorm very sadly hung up my scarf, thinking that it looked rather lonely on its hook, and really, a hat is needed to jusitfy having a whole separate hook for wintery accessories.

I sat down to check my email and received one from the Accomodations Office saying that my hat had been recovered!!! What??? How?? Oh well!

I went back out and picked it up with many thanks. It had been found by the employee entrance around 2:00. We are happily reunited... and I still have no idea how the Accomodations Office knew who to email. Ah, life's mysteries.

I sat down to read some webcomics and eat some Skittles.

Ok Britain. Seriously. What's up with the purple candy? Why does it all taste terrible? I thought Skittles was an American brand! Man. Maybe it's me. When I get back to America I need to eat some purple candy.

Some webcomics, some chatting, and then dinner. Leftover tomatoe soup was helped along considerably by the presence of a grilled cheese sandwich, which the Brits called a fried cheese sandwich, which is actually more accurate.

Tonight I booked flights. It was very frustrating, but Lisa and I now have flights to Rome! We are working on getting a hostel next, and then Phantom of the Opera tickets for when I go visit her in London.

That is all I have to report today. Tomorrow: Laundry and research

Class

Today was the first day of classes. It began... poorly.

It began with my flatmates waking me up at 1 in the morning with an absurd amount of noise. That is all I will say about that.

I woke up tired, feeling not at all ready to face my Myth class. I left super early to look for the room, still feeling slightly ill but determined to ignore it until AFTER class. I found the room with a bit of difficulty, because i don't think it is acutally room 4.01. There is a piece of printer paper with the number printed on it, taped to the window, and the room is not by any of the other rooms. Luckily, I found it.

And what we are doing for the first half of myth class (until March) is the Myth of Orpheus. Hehehehehe. Easy. I've an essay due April 21st in that class, which means I should try to finish it before March 21st so I don't have to do it at home.

After class I went to see Julie Andrews and Hazel in the Literature Department to buy another course packet and find out some details of the class that the professor didn't seem to know. Hazel knows everything about literature classes. I also bought notebooks. Then I went back to the room to make up the sleep I missed.

After a really really long nap, I went to go look for a class to substitute for my Film Studies class, since I decided I didn't want to have to worry about citing films in my essays as well as books. Plus I wanted another 200 level course, because they are easier. I ended up picking something called Versions of Modernity, wherein we will read classics that most people in America have read their Freshman year of high school. Much easier.

I went to go put the transfer in with Hazel, and it turned out that i'd missed the first lecture: it had been that morning. But Julie Andrews said it didn't matter at all about the first lecture, and I shouldn't worry. Then I went to the first screening for the Film class I dropped, just because I had nothing better to do.

We watched Three Kings, a bloody, slightly depressing war movie. Blah. but it killed time. I went back to the dorm, had a word with Phil about noise, and made dinner. Lots of people were in the kitchen tonight, including another girl named Sophie. She was very friendly, and it was generally a good time. People actually, really cook around here. It's surprising. Most college kids I know would rather just boil something, which is what I've been doing: less effort, less time. But dinner here appears to be a whole big production. Maybe when I run out of noodles and rice, I'll actually buy some meat or something. We'll see how busy I get.

And that is it for today. I'm already sleepy, but I'm going to try to stay up as long as I can since I don't have any classes tomorrow : )