10/18, 10.15pm cairncross
Oct. 19th, 2000 02:05 pmi'm getting really behind on my journal writing, and my pen is running out of ink. and i keep getting distracted by my biscuits and nutella. (mmmm....)
i get to go grocery shopping tomorrow! yay! oh, and clayton forgot that i borrowed 10£ from him... i'll have to pay him back soon. but yeah, i'm getting more pasta, more soup, burrito fixin's, and salad fixin's. (and no one better rag on me for my use of the word 'fixin's.')
i can't remember if i've talked aobut all my classes... theatre i think will be good. the 2 hour lectures once a week get a bit long, but they're usually interesting. we've learned about the romanticization of scotland in theatre in a general sort of way, and the history of the citizen's theatre - one of the most successful scottish theatres, situated in the gorbals, which is basically the working-class ghetto of glasgow. and we see plays and video presentations every week or so.
has tj ever tried to perform semi-monde, by noel coward? professional theatres rarely do it cause it's got a cast of 30. but that could be a good thing, in a high school.
social policy is pretty boring so far - it's one hour, so it's not unbearable to sit through, but it's one of those huge lecture classes (of several hundred, or something insane like that) that i'd hoped to avoid by going to a small college. the subject matter isn't very interesting either, along with being about things that i think i know, but don't because the welfare state isn't exactly the same in the uk.
history's pretty interesting - 2 hours once a week (social policy is the only one more than once a week - t/w/th, and tutorials which haven't started yet) with a break for tea in the middle. and while the lectureers have their annoying points, they've still got interesting stuff to say.
philosophy, on the other hand, is taught by a professor who is a fairly well known published philosopher named broadie who someone referred to as 'completely batty.' i always have problems etting my head around philosophy anyway, and not only is it first thing in the morning, but when i get all the thinking sorted out, i generally disagree with broadie. but i don't have to write a paper for this class so it shouldn't be too bad. (philosophy teachers tend to mark down if you disagree with them in a paper, cause of *course* you don't have a valid argument because they've already thought of all of them.)
haven't had a lit class yet, and my first service learning tutorial is tomorrow. working at the women's library is going to be a blast, though - they have a 'safe space' policy, so no men are allowed in during normal hours; it's all women. there's the main library which is books, magazine, articles, and groups involving women in general, divided into all sorts of specialized categories, and the lesbian resource center upstairs with things dealing with non-straightness and women. today i was loking for books and magazines that someone requested on women's sexuality in china. i *might* get to help out with the peer group thing that they have; i'm not sure exactly what that entails, but it should be fun.
i went to the college fencing club last night. i's olympic style fencing, so i'm not sure how much just getting out there and fencing (with no off hand, different target areas, different valid hits, and an electric scorer) woudl help me, but it's all good: i'm going to spend almost all my time doing drills, which i haven't been getting at *all* in sca fencing. so i did footwork, including those really deep lunges characteristic of olympic style fencing .... for two hours straight. my legs don't quite work the way they're supposed to today. i'm going to see if i can switch off being a righty and a lefty without the people in charge yelling at me too much.
and afterwards i went to the pub in the guu with them. ian, one of the guys in charge, bought me a pint of cider, so the only thing i had to pay for all night was a 68p plate of chips (fries, that is). i was social! i talked to the locals and absorbed scottish culture (along with a fair amount of secondhand smoke)! of course the evening did end with me talking to the canadian fencer about obscure canadian bands... he was apparently a friend of one of the arrogant worms, and was very impressed that i'd heard of them. and that jeremy had, too - he'd been fencing as well. actually, he's the one who told me when practices were. i think jeremy'd done olympic style fencing before, but i'm not sure.
epelle - stamping your front foot. fleche - falling/running at your opponent in a surprise attack. balestra - jumping really loudly.
and i got a lift home, which was very cool - 2 minutes of sitting vs. 15 minutes of walking, by myself, next to the park where several murders have occurred.
i saw blithe spirit for theatre class last thursday. it was pretty good, but not outstanding. the play itself doesn't have much depth to it, and the lead actore was really annoying. it wasn't so much his mannerisms - the character was supposed to be annoying - as his voice. he kept speaking quickly and highpitchedly to indicate agitation or something, but it just made him hard to understand. and the ghost of his first wife had, um.... well, dark aureoles. at one point (because she was shivering, maybe) he said, 'are you cold?' and the entire 20something and younger part of the audience snickered.
i need to figure out what to do with the shelley's store credit - bought my docs there (after being told i could get a refund if i didn't like them), bought better ones (ie the style i preferred, better fitting), and had shelley's tell me when i returned the first pair that they didn't give cash refunds. i pmsed at them and felt better, but now i have 45£ of store credit. i keep thinking that i should have pulled out some of the stitching or something - only if the item is defective will they give cash back. initially, people in the group said of course they'd by a pair of shoes and pay me back for my store credit, but everyone has since changed their minds. so i'm either going to have to blow off 45£, or fork over 5-10 more and get another pair of shoes. (all the other shoes that i would consider buying are more expensice. go figure.) ::sigh:: if they'd told me they wouldn't give cash back, i wouldn't have bought the shoes in the first place.
i got my first hot shower last night! i was so excited! and i soaked in the bath, and now my legs feel more like legs. :)
mm, philosophy again tomorrow morning. yay.
i get to go grocery shopping tomorrow! yay! oh, and clayton forgot that i borrowed 10£ from him... i'll have to pay him back soon. but yeah, i'm getting more pasta, more soup, burrito fixin's, and salad fixin's. (and no one better rag on me for my use of the word 'fixin's.')
i can't remember if i've talked aobut all my classes... theatre i think will be good. the 2 hour lectures once a week get a bit long, but they're usually interesting. we've learned about the romanticization of scotland in theatre in a general sort of way, and the history of the citizen's theatre - one of the most successful scottish theatres, situated in the gorbals, which is basically the working-class ghetto of glasgow. and we see plays and video presentations every week or so.
has tj ever tried to perform semi-monde, by noel coward? professional theatres rarely do it cause it's got a cast of 30. but that could be a good thing, in a high school.
social policy is pretty boring so far - it's one hour, so it's not unbearable to sit through, but it's one of those huge lecture classes (of several hundred, or something insane like that) that i'd hoped to avoid by going to a small college. the subject matter isn't very interesting either, along with being about things that i think i know, but don't because the welfare state isn't exactly the same in the uk.
history's pretty interesting - 2 hours once a week (social policy is the only one more than once a week - t/w/th, and tutorials which haven't started yet) with a break for tea in the middle. and while the lectureers have their annoying points, they've still got interesting stuff to say.
philosophy, on the other hand, is taught by a professor who is a fairly well known published philosopher named broadie who someone referred to as 'completely batty.' i always have problems etting my head around philosophy anyway, and not only is it first thing in the morning, but when i get all the thinking sorted out, i generally disagree with broadie. but i don't have to write a paper for this class so it shouldn't be too bad. (philosophy teachers tend to mark down if you disagree with them in a paper, cause of *course* you don't have a valid argument because they've already thought of all of them.)
haven't had a lit class yet, and my first service learning tutorial is tomorrow. working at the women's library is going to be a blast, though - they have a 'safe space' policy, so no men are allowed in during normal hours; it's all women. there's the main library which is books, magazine, articles, and groups involving women in general, divided into all sorts of specialized categories, and the lesbian resource center upstairs with things dealing with non-straightness and women. today i was loking for books and magazines that someone requested on women's sexuality in china. i *might* get to help out with the peer group thing that they have; i'm not sure exactly what that entails, but it should be fun.
i went to the college fencing club last night. i's olympic style fencing, so i'm not sure how much just getting out there and fencing (with no off hand, different target areas, different valid hits, and an electric scorer) woudl help me, but it's all good: i'm going to spend almost all my time doing drills, which i haven't been getting at *all* in sca fencing. so i did footwork, including those really deep lunges characteristic of olympic style fencing .... for two hours straight. my legs don't quite work the way they're supposed to today. i'm going to see if i can switch off being a righty and a lefty without the people in charge yelling at me too much.
and afterwards i went to the pub in the guu with them. ian, one of the guys in charge, bought me a pint of cider, so the only thing i had to pay for all night was a 68p plate of chips (fries, that is). i was social! i talked to the locals and absorbed scottish culture (along with a fair amount of secondhand smoke)! of course the evening did end with me talking to the canadian fencer about obscure canadian bands... he was apparently a friend of one of the arrogant worms, and was very impressed that i'd heard of them. and that jeremy had, too - he'd been fencing as well. actually, he's the one who told me when practices were. i think jeremy'd done olympic style fencing before, but i'm not sure.
epelle - stamping your front foot. fleche - falling/running at your opponent in a surprise attack. balestra - jumping really loudly.
and i got a lift home, which was very cool - 2 minutes of sitting vs. 15 minutes of walking, by myself, next to the park where several murders have occurred.
i saw blithe spirit for theatre class last thursday. it was pretty good, but not outstanding. the play itself doesn't have much depth to it, and the lead actore was really annoying. it wasn't so much his mannerisms - the character was supposed to be annoying - as his voice. he kept speaking quickly and highpitchedly to indicate agitation or something, but it just made him hard to understand. and the ghost of his first wife had, um.... well, dark aureoles. at one point (because she was shivering, maybe) he said, 'are you cold?' and the entire 20something and younger part of the audience snickered.
i need to figure out what to do with the shelley's store credit - bought my docs there (after being told i could get a refund if i didn't like them), bought better ones (ie the style i preferred, better fitting), and had shelley's tell me when i returned the first pair that they didn't give cash refunds. i pmsed at them and felt better, but now i have 45£ of store credit. i keep thinking that i should have pulled out some of the stitching or something - only if the item is defective will they give cash back. initially, people in the group said of course they'd by a pair of shoes and pay me back for my store credit, but everyone has since changed their minds. so i'm either going to have to blow off 45£, or fork over 5-10 more and get another pair of shoes. (all the other shoes that i would consider buying are more expensice. go figure.) ::sigh:: if they'd told me they wouldn't give cash back, i wouldn't have bought the shoes in the first place.
i got my first hot shower last night! i was so excited! and i soaked in the bath, and now my legs feel more like legs. :)
mm, philosophy again tomorrow morning. yay.