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!

Definitely did not want to wake up for class this morning. There were five students (including me) in the modernity seminar this time - an improvement of last week's three. However, two of those students hadn't done the reading, so it was still on the shoulders of the three of us who were there last week to carry the entire conversation. Antonella said that the paper prompt should be up Sunday, so I should have no problem remaining on schedule.

After class I bought a doughnut that tasted like it had been sitting out for three days, and ate it on the way back to the tower, where I fell into bed and went back to sleep. My alarm almost gave me a heart attack when it went off, and I seriously considered not going to Myth. I went anyway. Teacher is still annoying.

I had been planning to run down to Tesco after class, but I forgot I had laundry, so I did that instead. Good thing, or I would have been caught in the rain on the long walk back from Tesco. The driers tried to thwart me again. The one I picked ate 20p and wouldn't give it back, so I didn't have exact change and had to put a pound into the next drier - which worked admirably, but I was out a pound twenty. On my way out, however, I was struck with a sudden burst of genius and stuck my key into the coin slot, which caused the stuck coins to roll out the coin return. I got my twenty p back, and a pound rolled out too... instant karma! Or something.

Next I headed over to the library. There are not all that many books on the topic I've chosen for my paper, but I took out what was there. Hopefully there will be some relevent quotes because, despite that this school is so concerned with plagiarism, they really want you to just repeat someone else's research. So that was pretty boring.

It's really, really windy outside. Actually, it's pretty windy inside too. The hallway is like a wind tunnel... my coat definitely billowed of its own accord while I was standing in it. Shoddy European construction...

Anyway, off to try some suspicious looking macaroni and cheese...

Another Friday

So normally I have two classes today, but 202 cancelled seminar : ) So, I just had the myth seminar. The prof somewhat redeemed herself by managing to include Harry Potter in her discussion of creation myths. Even so, I somewhat suspect that she is not in fact a classics prof, but rather some evil imitation sent to infiltrate the department... in an hour and a half seminar, and an hour lecture, she didn't give us one Greek term. Highly suspect, if you ask me.

After seminar, I printed out the forms that students have to fill out before submitting their essays. Essay submission here is absolutely nuts. There's no reason for it to be as complicated as it is, especially not for undergraduates, but there you have it. I also bought my train pass for tomorrow so I am ready to go!

Of course, got to get through the rest of the day first.

Did laundry today as well, as is my custom. Unfortunately, the drier decided that spinning my clothes around would be sufficient, and that they did not need any heat. A wasted 60p later, I've got clothesline strung all over my room, bearing soggy clothing. This is somewhat amusing, but also somewhat frustrating as there really isn't anywhere to tie off a clothes line, so I had to get creative with the wardrobe, with the result that I am now cut off from my bed. I'd take a picture if there weren't so many undergarments involved : P

Anyway, the rest of the night shall be spent in frivolity instead of refining my essays and preparing for the next one.

Tomorrow: London!

No one ever mentioned wind!

Everyone warns you about the rain. No one mentions the wind. It was another extremely blustery day today. I did not wear my hat because I literally don't know where it's been... so I walked to class hatless.

Class was... class. Eight people showed up for myth seminar this time. The professor said "Ah, class is almost worth having now." He lectured for an hour and a half anyway, and I got to talk about Heart of Darkness, which none of the Brits had read, and I was also exempted from knowing the significance of Britain's national anthem. Good for me. Go America.

I ate the last of the bread for lunch as part of a turkey sandwich. I really need to go grocery shopping. I did laundry too, even though I really really really didn't want to lug my laundry all the way down to the laundry room in this wind. But I wanted to wash my hat. So I did it anyway. After laundry I revised my Early Modern Culture Essay, then went to the library to check out some books for my next essay on Yeats, which I will start tomorrow because thinking is making me tired. Just looking at essays'll do that to you I guess.

Today I realized to my chagrin that I had only brought one movie with me - Constantine. A decent movie, but I watched it not too long ago. I don't know if my computer can play Region 2 DVDs but if it can, it might be worth checking one out from the library (these are my Feb. 14th plans by the way - a movie and probably some ice cream. It's traditional.) despite their weird dvd check out policies. You're only alllowed to check out a dvd for four hours at a time, but if you check it out within four hours of the library closing you can keep it over night, but you have to return it by ten AM the next morning. But you can also renew it so... whatever? Anyway I've got this sudden urge to watch Star Wars. Weird.

Lisa and I have booked our flights to Rome! We have also picked out a hostel, so we are pretty much ready to go : P

Ok that's all I've got.

MAIL!

Woke up this morning and saw a letter from Grandma slid under my door. Yay! Also, I have no idea how they work the mail system here. Sometimes things are left on the kitchen table, sometimes slid under doors... ah well.

Of note in Grandma's letter: Spaghetti. Oh yes. We must plan a day in March/April!

Anyway, went to my one class today - Myth seminar. Today we talked about the myth of Er... exciting stuff... heh. Anyway, last seminar there were only seven people there. Same this seminar, but 5 of them were different people... The professor was a bit exasperated : P it was rather amusing. So I guess there's about 12 people actually in the class.

After class I wanted to have a look around at the clubs and societies fair, but I was really hungry. A sign outside Essex Express (the spicy chicken place) said that they had just introduced paninis to the menu, so I went there, and had an awesome cheese and tomatoe panini. I will be going there again. Then I wandered about looking for archery club. I found it! They do exist! I put myself on their mailing list, so I'll get an email when they start doing things again... only... it costs 30 pounds to join. Hmmm. I dunno. Clubs are not this expensive in the States >.<

After that I did laundry. It went considerably faster this time. I guess Friday will be my new day to do laundry! I didn't have to wait for a machine at all. After laundry, I went to put money on my print quota. Then I went to the library to pick up some books for the paper I have to write this weekend.

And that is how I shall spend this evening... researching witchcraft in England : )

Today I got to go to church. I'm very grateful to have found a place that has Mass on campus every Sunday. The Mass isn't exactly St Tom's... it's not even Bosco, really, but it's church. It's a very small congregation. They do a lot though. They have seminars and talks and things. And trips to London Theatres. In December, the went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Sadly, I was too late to sign up for this semester's theatre trip, and Father Martin said he did not think there would be another one while I'm here. I'm kinda sad about that. How often do you get the chance to go into London and see a show with other people?

After Mass, we had lunch. Really. I think this is an every Sunday thing... they bring out sandwiches and chips and cupcakes and everyone has lunch. It was really nice, especially since I didn't know what I was going to do for lunch anyway.

Oh, and I can see Central Stores from the chapel window... I get my package tomorrow!

Next was laundry. It took forever. The machines are really tiny and it costs 2 pounds a load, plus 60p for drying. The machines only take exact change and certain denominations of coins, though, so I was forced to go out and purchase a muffin with a ten pound note in order to get some coins. Rats.

While there are many machines - about twenty washers and twenty driers - people tend to leave their clothes in forever. And many of the machines were broken. Laundry is not going to be something I look forward to doing.

I did my reading for Monday and then read for fun. The End.

Also, if my entries are going to be this uneventful, I may switch to updating once a week instead of every day.