In which two of the mysteries of Essex are revealed.

I meant to post this a few hours ago. Seriously. I keep forgetting what I'm doing.

Today was my two-lectures-in-a-row day. Myth class was entertaining as usual. At the end of class we watched scenes from an Italian opera, Le Orfeo I believe, or possibly La. It was interesting because the producers found the stage directions and machinery from the original production, way back in the 1500s or something, and they reproduced it exactly. Even the orchestra was wearing period dress (if you just thought "Even the orchestra... is beautiful", props to you. Hee. Props. And I'm talking about theatre. Ok, sorry, back to your regularly scheduled blog.). Anyway, they really do pick the actors based on voice. My goodness. Orpheus was... pudgy. Not overweight, just... soft. Ah well. It was pretty neat anyway. And in the first scene, they are celebrating the marriage of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the two actors walk on stage, and they're holding hands, but they just look... wooden. And miserable. Yeah, good voices though.

Anyway, the next lecture was the one for which I had stayed up reading Mrs. Dalloway last night. The lecturer though, simply gave us a biography of Virginia Woolf and did not talk about Mrs. Dalloway at all. At the end of lecture we watched the beginning of the movie Mrs Dalloway, which I felt utterly failed to capture the essence of the book, but then, it was only the first ten minutes.

After lecture, I was very tired, so I grabbed a stuffed croissant on the way back to the room and ate it on the way so that I could nap immediately upon returning. I also didn't want to face the kitchen just yet. After a rather ambiguous nap, I got up, did some reading, some writing, and then remembered that I probably had actual school work to do. I picked up Life: A User's Manual and began wading through it. It's quite an entertaining book, in fact, but very very long and the rest of the class read it last semester. I am just trying to catch up.

After, and meanwhile, I had a rather amusing chat with Emily about D&D, among other things, and this is where I stand now.

Oh, also, I have discovered, I believe, why everyone calls Chris "Manbeast". His last name is Manby. That explains so much. I don't think there was ever a guy who the word "manbeast" described less. Chris is a very polite, softspoken, stuttering politics major who writes fantasy on the side... manbeast indeed.

Also cleared up is the mysterious "Ents" sign, reproduced here for those of you who do not recall:


It is apparantly short for "Entertainment". A little anticlimactic, I thought, and certainly depressing for there are no advertisements for entertainment adorning this wall, though the sign itself certainly entertained me for a while...

Anyway, I shall now continue reading my user's manual. Tomorrow is fat Tuesday! eat a donut for me : )

Ah, late

Well this post is a bit late... technically this is February 4th. But oh well, I am still awake.

Started the day off with church, only Father Martin was called suddenly away to Ireland to attend upon his dying uncle. Before he left, he consecrated the hosts and left them for the congregation, so we had a "Eucharistic Service" instead. Sister something (I can't remember her name... but she is basically the altar and rosary society hereabouts) asked me to read the Gospel, which was awesome because I've always wanted to read the Gospel (seriously, the Gospel readings are generally much more interesting than the first and second readings). The service was considerably shorter than Mass. And there was a cellist who played beautifully.

I stopped at the campus shop after mass, hoping to find some fruit based candy to aid my essay writing, but alas, I was unsuccessful (ie, no jellybeans). I bought bananas instead. Probably better than fruit candy.

I went back to the dorm for lunch. The kitchen was a mess. Actually, it's still a mess. The cleaning crew doesn't come in on weekends, so the Heathens just leave everything for two days. The floors, counters, sinks, and dishes are encrusted with old food. The garbage is overflowing (anyone could take it out... I did not because it smells suspicious and looks moist and at this point removing it with anything but the utmost caution would probably do more harm than good). I couldn't wash a dish if I used one because the sinks are so full, and the dishes in them are too disgusting for me to want to touch to move them. I threw together a quick sandwich and ate it in my room.

Then I sat down to work on my essay. This one is really not coming together as easily as the last one. It's still not finished. I will do that Tuesday. I worked on the essay until it was time for archery.

Chris went with me, and we're both thinking of joining. There were a lot of people at this session, so there was a lot of standing around waiting for your turn. But the company was good. I met Mohammed from Pakistan and a Syrian whose name I cannot now recall.

The bows the club uses are definitely heavier and longer than what I'm used to, but I shot well enough with them. I hit the target every time, though only two bull's eyes. After the session I came back fully intending to finish my essay, but glancing at the lecture program for tomorrow, realized I was supposed to read Mrs Dalloway.

So I did that.

All in one sitting.

So basically, I'm awesome.

And now I'm going to bed. Good night.

Nothing to talk about today...

But I'm gonna post anyway.

Grocery shopping. I've been getting really lucky with the weather, and that luck held today. It was a little chillier than usual, but the hike warmed me up. I found pretzels! I bought the last two bags : P

I meant to sit down and get my research done when I got back, but that... just didn't happen. I did a little. I wasn't feeling very well though and was having trouble focusing. That's right, Yeat's poetry literally makes me sick. I read a novel instead and spent hours on end just thinking. It was really nice. Of course that means tomorrow I must do the research between church and archery, but hopefully I will be feeling more focused then. I'm pretty excited about the archery. I think the chances of meeting lots of poeple who are into fantasy are high. What does one wear to go arching, anyway? All I've got are jeans, so it'll have to be that... glad I bought a pair of extra big ones.

Annnd now I'm writing, but for fun, not my essay. Shame on me. Also, what the heck is Kerial's last name? Curses.

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.

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

80,000 different folds... take my word for it

Today I went to a computer lab and printed out my first essay so that Martyn Waites, Essay Specialist, could review it. British paper is weird, and the default is double-sided printing, which is good because it saves me money... but the paper itself is loooong. In my American version of Word, the paper was about nine pages. It is six in the British version, on British paper : P

The essay meeting went really well. Martyn is a pretty young guy (I was expecting an old dude), and he showed me how to do things more Britishly. I'll be rewriting that essay probably tomorrow, and then writing my Yeats one on Friday. Argh.

I grabbed a quick lunch from the convenience store on my way back to the dorm, because my next class was in about an hour. It was this croissant stuffed with sausage and carrots and potatoes, and it was yummy : ) I did some school reading and then went to the art gallery where the writing class was meeting.

We were looking at words as art.

I think artists must get very bored to come up with some of these things. One guy took twelve Oxford English Dictionaries and folded each page a different way, coming up with some 80,000 folds total.... that's what the sign said anyway, i didn't count. We decided to take the artist's word for it. Another artist took the periods from two different computer fonts - Bodoni and New York - and blew them up til they were the size of... hmm. something really big. Bigger than your head. Like, a foot and a half across. And that was it. Two periods. Turns out the Bodoni is pretty lopsided.

After class I went back to the room and did my reading and chatted a bit. Dinner was tomato rice soup that, despite being campbells, was not as good as what you get at home. Phil announced that her hockey team was coming over for "drinking sessions" (and loud rap music apparantly) so I took a quick shower and locked myself in my room... That is where things stand now.

The music seems to have quietened... maybe things will get done around here : P

and maybe the hallway won't smell like vomit when I wake up. It's important to stay optimistic....

So apparantly Monday nights around here are when all the partying happens. I woke up this morning to the smell of vomit and air freshener. Someone had thrown up just outside my door - like, a foot away from the bathroom. Phil said that at least Chris had made it to the toilet but apparantly this other guy, whoever it was, was not so considerate. I really dislike my flatmates.

I packed up some books and went to get lunch somewhere that didn't smell disgusting, and did some reading in the library. Then I went to Tesco to by some disinfectant spray and air freshener to get the smell out of my room. I spent the rest of the day falling asleep over class reading and planning my next essay.

Also, I had my first encounter with British peanut butter today.... it's not as good as American peanut butter, but bearable when eaten with pretzels. The best way to describe it is as a vaguely peanut-flavored paste. I bought the one that had mostly the same ingredients as American peanut butter, but... fail. Ah well, now i know.

All in all, a rather uneventful day. Tomorrow I've got an essay meeting and one class.

The end.