I'm going to stop apologizing when it takes me forever to post. Just a fact of life we must accept. Last week was the last week of classes for phase 1 of my program. Now I'm at the beginning of a week off and then I'll start and internship for the last 6 weeks. I can't believe we're already this far through the semester! Unreal.
Last week was kind of crazy. I had a globo essay due on Friday, and I tried to get started on it early, but the week was instead a rather stunning example of my procrastination skills including several sudoku and an hour and a half long IM chat with Ben. Needless to say I didn't get to the paper until Thursday night, when I stayed up until 4 to get it done. Don't worry, I slept in the next day. I think the paper actually turned out rather well, but we'll have to see what someone who actually knows politics thinks about it :). Thursday during the day was also the inclass essay tests for my other two classes, so it was a really busy day. My lexicon was a quivering mass by the end of the night.
Now mom's here and it's just great. She got in yesterday and we explored around Covent Garden (which is a big market that is in fact largely devoid of plants) and around the West End theatre district. Today we went back to the West End to buy tickets for the Lion King (yay!) and then went to the Pakistani restaurant for lunch. It was totally delicious again and I'm really glad I got to take mom because I knew she'd like it. After lunch we went up to Camden Market, which was a huge mass of crowded stalls, but pretty fun. I got a cool hoodie that I'm excited about. We've come home just exhausted both nights and we really just chill all evening. Last night we went to a risotto restaurant that was absolutely delicious, but tonight I just cooked for us at home. I'm so glad she's here! Tomorrow we head off to Wales for another grand adventure.
Hope all is well in the States. Just over a week until the elections and Obama's up and climbing. Come on America!
Sleep Tight!
Sunday 26 October 2008
Saturday 18 October 2008
Quite the Week
I'm sorry I've been so erratic about posting. I assure you, you aren't missing anything - as my life becomes more busy it also becomes more homogenous, just filled with school. I've had the craziest week of frantic work. When last you heard of my life, it was Sunday I think and I was just about to jump off the diving board into the week. Monday I had globo, in which I made a couple of comments that I don't think were too stupid, a nice feeling in a class where I am often way over my head. We went to a play called A Disappearing Number, which was good, less than fabulous acting balanced by a psychologically stimulating script and a vistually interesting presentation. I was in a squirrely goofy mood afterwards, which is always fun, even if I don't get much done.
I've been feeling rather spiritually cloudy lately, and whatever you think, that's an important part of my happiness and stability, so I decided to listen to podcasts of old conference talks instead of music when I'm walking to class or on the tube. It appears to have the desired effect; I feel less isolated and weird. Tuesday we started talking about Macbeth. I was mostly just sad to be finished with Hamlet; I think I could talk about that play forever. I'm just not connecting with M. the same way I did with H. Tuesday night we went to another play, called the White Devil, written by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Webster. It was pretty good, although distinctly lacking in both acting and directing talent, and also further illuminated the genius of Shakespeare.
Wednesday was an odd day. We had a walking tour for globo, which was pretty much our prof leading us around the Brick Lane area and showing us the evidence that this area had seen many different cultures and races over the years. The best part was that the tour ended with the most delicious Pakistani restaurant-- mmm, so good. Wednesday afternoon I learned a particularly interesting lesson that I think Dad will particularly appreciate: I had a Shakespeare paper to write that I hadn't started yet because my weekend had been full of reading and the week full of school and plays. Well, I was rather bewitched by the paper, and completely zoned out a meeting I had at school about my internship. It wasn't a super big deal, I got the information later and everything, but it was still a pretty dumb things to do. Well, when I went into my prof's office to talk about what I missed, the first thing she did after I apologized profusely was tell me that she knew I wasn't the type to just blow stuff off and that she didn't hold it against me because I am normally so responsible. I really appreciated that, I value her opinion and I'm glad that good things that I strive to be are visible.
The paper: I spent Wednesday evening in its thrall, which was postively delightful. Sometimes a paper comes along that is just so fun to write. It was great to explore the text and make connections and use my vocabulary to express what I see. I don't know if the paper was any good, but my affection for it plays a close second to The Poe Paper. What I argued was that the famous "to be or not to be" speech was not just a debate of suicide, but also Hamlet trying to decide if he was going to fulfill his promise to his father's ghost and kill his uncle. I think the paper was rather scattered, but I ended up making some points about the end of the play and the overall meaning of the character of Hamlet that were kind of gutsy and fun.
I turned the paper in Thursday morning and later that afternoon we had our last walking tour for History of London, which we've done every week. I hate when classes end; I'm going to miss all of my classes (even globo- I don't mind being informed). I'm going to miss my profs and it's sad that I won't have another opportunity to take more classes from them because, well, they live in London. Institute Thrusday evening, pretty cool. Normally Thusday is like Friday because we don't have classes on actual Friday, but this week two extra things = a normal day of school. In the morning we went to the British Film Institute to watch a filming of a production of Macbeth. It was a little boring, but some of the actors were really good. After that we visited Anti-Slavery International for globo. That evening I looked at train tickets for mom and I as we figure out our fall break plans. I'm so glad she's coming!
Today Molly and I went to a production of Ivanov by Chekov, which was pretty amazing. Kenneth Branagh was Ivanov and Kevin McNally (Mr. Gibbs in Pirates) was in it too and did an amazing job with a well written character. Tonight I rediscovered Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That movie is really amazing. Thank you Ben for making sure I took it with me. I love watching movies that I haven't seen for a while and seeing how they've shaped the way I think. The movie is about erasing memories and how even bad memories are worth having because they are part of life. One bit that has always stuck with me is a shot of a woman who wants to erase all memories of her dog from her memory; as much as I miss Skye and as much as that still hurts, I wouldn't trade the wonderful memories I have of her for anything. The movie is rated R, a few too many f-bombs, but really, it's so good.
I've been watching the election like a hawk - they do a really good job of covering it over here. Just over two weeks! Come on America, make the right choice (the right choice is Obama). COME ON!
Off to bed on some freshly washed sheets. Miss you guys.
I've been feeling rather spiritually cloudy lately, and whatever you think, that's an important part of my happiness and stability, so I decided to listen to podcasts of old conference talks instead of music when I'm walking to class or on the tube. It appears to have the desired effect; I feel less isolated and weird. Tuesday we started talking about Macbeth. I was mostly just sad to be finished with Hamlet; I think I could talk about that play forever. I'm just not connecting with M. the same way I did with H. Tuesday night we went to another play, called the White Devil, written by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries, Webster. It was pretty good, although distinctly lacking in both acting and directing talent, and also further illuminated the genius of Shakespeare.
Wednesday was an odd day. We had a walking tour for globo, which was pretty much our prof leading us around the Brick Lane area and showing us the evidence that this area had seen many different cultures and races over the years. The best part was that the tour ended with the most delicious Pakistani restaurant-- mmm, so good. Wednesday afternoon I learned a particularly interesting lesson that I think Dad will particularly appreciate: I had a Shakespeare paper to write that I hadn't started yet because my weekend had been full of reading and the week full of school and plays. Well, I was rather bewitched by the paper, and completely zoned out a meeting I had at school about my internship. It wasn't a super big deal, I got the information later and everything, but it was still a pretty dumb things to do. Well, when I went into my prof's office to talk about what I missed, the first thing she did after I apologized profusely was tell me that she knew I wasn't the type to just blow stuff off and that she didn't hold it against me because I am normally so responsible. I really appreciated that, I value her opinion and I'm glad that good things that I strive to be are visible.
The paper: I spent Wednesday evening in its thrall, which was postively delightful. Sometimes a paper comes along that is just so fun to write. It was great to explore the text and make connections and use my vocabulary to express what I see. I don't know if the paper was any good, but my affection for it plays a close second to The Poe Paper. What I argued was that the famous "to be or not to be" speech was not just a debate of suicide, but also Hamlet trying to decide if he was going to fulfill his promise to his father's ghost and kill his uncle. I think the paper was rather scattered, but I ended up making some points about the end of the play and the overall meaning of the character of Hamlet that were kind of gutsy and fun.
I turned the paper in Thursday morning and later that afternoon we had our last walking tour for History of London, which we've done every week. I hate when classes end; I'm going to miss all of my classes (even globo- I don't mind being informed). I'm going to miss my profs and it's sad that I won't have another opportunity to take more classes from them because, well, they live in London. Institute Thrusday evening, pretty cool. Normally Thusday is like Friday because we don't have classes on actual Friday, but this week two extra things = a normal day of school. In the morning we went to the British Film Institute to watch a filming of a production of Macbeth. It was a little boring, but some of the actors were really good. After that we visited Anti-Slavery International for globo. That evening I looked at train tickets for mom and I as we figure out our fall break plans. I'm so glad she's coming!
Today Molly and I went to a production of Ivanov by Chekov, which was pretty amazing. Kenneth Branagh was Ivanov and Kevin McNally (Mr. Gibbs in Pirates) was in it too and did an amazing job with a well written character. Tonight I rediscovered Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. That movie is really amazing. Thank you Ben for making sure I took it with me. I love watching movies that I haven't seen for a while and seeing how they've shaped the way I think. The movie is about erasing memories and how even bad memories are worth having because they are part of life. One bit that has always stuck with me is a shot of a woman who wants to erase all memories of her dog from her memory; as much as I miss Skye and as much as that still hurts, I wouldn't trade the wonderful memories I have of her for anything. The movie is rated R, a few too many f-bombs, but really, it's so good.
I've been watching the election like a hawk - they do a really good job of covering it over here. Just over two weeks! Come on America, make the right choice (the right choice is Obama). COME ON!
Off to bed on some freshly washed sheets. Miss you guys.
Sunday 12 October 2008
Perfect Weather, Paper Writing and Tasty Dinners
Hamlet is such an amazing play. From what we've read in Shakespeare, I knew he was a master wordsmith, but Hamlet is above and beyond that to a scale that I'm not sure can be found anywhere else.
Tuesday was a very full day, two hours of Shakespeare, three hours of homework in the library and then another two hours of History of London. It's odd when the day doesn't end until 6:30, and then I still had a paper to write. I didn't really get much done on it Tuesday night, I was much more amenable to being distracted by my flatmates. I didn't have globo on Wednesday, so the whole of the day was given over to my History of London paper. For this, the only paper in the class, we had to explore a certain section of London, the actual 1-square-mile City rather than the rest, and compare it to a very complete survey of what that area, or ward, was like before the Great Fire, so early 1600's. The research itself was very interesting, wandering around my ward and noticing the little marks left by the guilds to show that they own the land on which the buildings rest. The paper, though, was hard to write and it amounted, for me at least, into pretty much a narrative catalogue of the characteristics of my ward and how they differed from what the older document described, both physically and in the general ethos of the area. But it's done and turned in - yea.
Thursday I was really tired, but I am a lot lately. I'm at that point in the semester (I probably said this before) that I just wake up tired. But fall break is coming, faster than I'd like to think, for all that it brings mom. Institute that night, a cool lesson, but an exhausting tube ride. I've discovered that I'm a pretty fair cook when it comes to making tasty things that will keep for a few days. Last week I made a huge amount of what was basically Chipotle filling - taco meat, black beans, sauted onions, and rice. It's good, but the shear volume of food I made has ensured that I'm rather sick of eating it at this point. Yesterday I bought some premade Indian Korma sause and combined it with shredded chicken and rice. Also quite tasty. So in case anyone was worried, I can feed myself :).
Friday my goal was to get started with the staggering level of reading I had to do, but also to enjoy the most beautiful weather we've had in a long time. I spent a lot of time outside, walking around the park and rediscovering places I ended up when I was lost last weekend. Fun movie watching with the flatmates, Sahara, with lots of laughing and expert commentary by yours truely. Saturday I was a little less productive on the homework scene. We visited a huge old cemetary (not really my cup of tea, but a couple flatmates really wanted to go) where Marx was buried. It wasn't a normal cemetary of rows of headstones, but a really old one so it had been largely given over to woods. Beth's word was meloncholoy to describe the crumbling headstones covered in ivy, which is very apt, and it turned out to be a nice afternoon wandering around in the woods. I miss the cabin. Last night I watched Garden State, which is just such a great movie. So many parts of it are so poignantly real and touching. Really a well done film.
Church today, like normal. Church sandwiched with the frantic reading of a novel for globo that I don't think I'll be able to finish be 10:30 tomorrow. Oh well, I tried and I read like 200 pages in 3 days. Sorry peeps, it's London. All told, a good weekend. I got a respectable amount of work done, but more importantly, I enjoyed the absolutely beautious weather. I hope all is well at home and I miss you guys loads!
Cheers!
Tuesday was a very full day, two hours of Shakespeare, three hours of homework in the library and then another two hours of History of London. It's odd when the day doesn't end until 6:30, and then I still had a paper to write. I didn't really get much done on it Tuesday night, I was much more amenable to being distracted by my flatmates. I didn't have globo on Wednesday, so the whole of the day was given over to my History of London paper. For this, the only paper in the class, we had to explore a certain section of London, the actual 1-square-mile City rather than the rest, and compare it to a very complete survey of what that area, or ward, was like before the Great Fire, so early 1600's. The research itself was very interesting, wandering around my ward and noticing the little marks left by the guilds to show that they own the land on which the buildings rest. The paper, though, was hard to write and it amounted, for me at least, into pretty much a narrative catalogue of the characteristics of my ward and how they differed from what the older document described, both physically and in the general ethos of the area. But it's done and turned in - yea.
Thursday I was really tired, but I am a lot lately. I'm at that point in the semester (I probably said this before) that I just wake up tired. But fall break is coming, faster than I'd like to think, for all that it brings mom. Institute that night, a cool lesson, but an exhausting tube ride. I've discovered that I'm a pretty fair cook when it comes to making tasty things that will keep for a few days. Last week I made a huge amount of what was basically Chipotle filling - taco meat, black beans, sauted onions, and rice. It's good, but the shear volume of food I made has ensured that I'm rather sick of eating it at this point. Yesterday I bought some premade Indian Korma sause and combined it with shredded chicken and rice. Also quite tasty. So in case anyone was worried, I can feed myself :).
Friday my goal was to get started with the staggering level of reading I had to do, but also to enjoy the most beautiful weather we've had in a long time. I spent a lot of time outside, walking around the park and rediscovering places I ended up when I was lost last weekend. Fun movie watching with the flatmates, Sahara, with lots of laughing and expert commentary by yours truely. Saturday I was a little less productive on the homework scene. We visited a huge old cemetary (not really my cup of tea, but a couple flatmates really wanted to go) where Marx was buried. It wasn't a normal cemetary of rows of headstones, but a really old one so it had been largely given over to woods. Beth's word was meloncholoy to describe the crumbling headstones covered in ivy, which is very apt, and it turned out to be a nice afternoon wandering around in the woods. I miss the cabin. Last night I watched Garden State, which is just such a great movie. So many parts of it are so poignantly real and touching. Really a well done film.
Church today, like normal. Church sandwiched with the frantic reading of a novel for globo that I don't think I'll be able to finish be 10:30 tomorrow. Oh well, I tried and I read like 200 pages in 3 days. Sorry peeps, it's London. All told, a good weekend. I got a respectable amount of work done, but more importantly, I enjoyed the absolutely beautious weather. I hope all is well at home and I miss you guys loads!
Cheers!
Monday 6 October 2008
Catching Up
It has been a really long time since I blogged! Busy life, but also the fact that I usually blog at night and lately, I've just wanted to go to bed. So this'll be an epic blog.
Institute started on Thursday, I'm taking the New Testament class, which looks to be interesting, although I'll be leaving before we hardly even get started. On Friday I explored an area of London after sleeping late. I have to write a paper for my History of London class comparing an old text describing London in the Tudor period and what I can see today. It's an interesting assignment and I enjoyed exploring around, but I don't know how I'm going to write 3-5 pages about it. We'll see. That night I went to my first ever church dance. It was pretty fun, dancing and stuff. I met some new people, which is always nice. It took a lot of courage for me to go, not my normal kind of thing, but I'm glad I did it.
Saturday was the rebroadcast of the General Relief Society meeting, but I realized that I would spend more time in transit than I would at the actual church building, so I just watched on my computer from my couch. After that I went for a really long walk; I got lost in Regent's Park and ended up on the top of a very high hill that I didn't even know was there. I saw two Leonbergers and they were just beautiful. Two hours later I finally get home, but it was quite lovely briskly wandering nowhere. Sunday was General Conference, but I didn't get to go watch it because we had a field trip for Globo. In retrospect, I probably would go to Conference next time, because the field trip was a football game that was a ways out of central London, but it was still fun. I can always watch Conference online anyway - I'm so glad. Today we went to another play, another absurdist piece that in my opinion didn't have a point. At least is wasn't as offensive and corrosive as the last one.
Classes have been going well lately - I feel very engaged in Shakespeare (I LOVE Hamlet) and I made a couple of what I thought were valid points in Globo. It's so weird that we have less than 3 weeks of classes left. Where is the semester going?
I've yet to finish reading Hamlet - I've been savoring it like I do Jane Austen, not reading it too fast.
Sleep well!
Institute started on Thursday, I'm taking the New Testament class, which looks to be interesting, although I'll be leaving before we hardly even get started. On Friday I explored an area of London after sleeping late. I have to write a paper for my History of London class comparing an old text describing London in the Tudor period and what I can see today. It's an interesting assignment and I enjoyed exploring around, but I don't know how I'm going to write 3-5 pages about it. We'll see. That night I went to my first ever church dance. It was pretty fun, dancing and stuff. I met some new people, which is always nice. It took a lot of courage for me to go, not my normal kind of thing, but I'm glad I did it.
Saturday was the rebroadcast of the General Relief Society meeting, but I realized that I would spend more time in transit than I would at the actual church building, so I just watched on my computer from my couch. After that I went for a really long walk; I got lost in Regent's Park and ended up on the top of a very high hill that I didn't even know was there. I saw two Leonbergers and they were just beautiful. Two hours later I finally get home, but it was quite lovely briskly wandering nowhere. Sunday was General Conference, but I didn't get to go watch it because we had a field trip for Globo. In retrospect, I probably would go to Conference next time, because the field trip was a football game that was a ways out of central London, but it was still fun. I can always watch Conference online anyway - I'm so glad. Today we went to another play, another absurdist piece that in my opinion didn't have a point. At least is wasn't as offensive and corrosive as the last one.
Classes have been going well lately - I feel very engaged in Shakespeare (I LOVE Hamlet) and I made a couple of what I thought were valid points in Globo. It's so weird that we have less than 3 weeks of classes left. Where is the semester going?
I've yet to finish reading Hamlet - I've been savoring it like I do Jane Austen, not reading it too fast.
Sleep well!
Wednesday 1 October 2008
Contemplations on Joy
The last couple days have been interesting. We had areally excellent discussion in Shakespeare yesterday, all about the two productions we saw this weekend. I loved Hamlet so much and I wish they filmed it like they do some theatre productions, but I don't think they're doing that for this one. Sometimes that class gets a little boring (two hours is a really long time) but it was great yesterday. In globo right now we're talking about climate change and sustainable development, which is pretty depressing sometimes. I don't know what I can do about it, other than the stuff I already try to do like recycling and trying to not produce lots of waste. It's all so doomsday and it makes me so sad that people don't see what they're doing to the planet.
This is related to a discussion I had with Dad tonight. I'm feeling increasingly like Plato and his general fear and hatred of the masses. I feel it acutely as we prepare for this election; I live in terror that people will elect another republican president. Our country, our environment, our economy, our military, can't take another 4 years of idiocy. I fear the stupid herd of the masses and what their decisions are doing to our world and our country.
We went to a play on Monday and it was just awful. It was very existential and basically culminated with the idea that none of us really exist. It was horrible. Whatever your personal belief system, please believe me that we are all someone and we all matter and there is a part of us that is eternal. It makes me so sad that people watch plays like this one that makes them question everything and their own existence. Should we not seek after things that encourage good things? And please don't just smile and nod and pat me on the head. How much better would we all be if we truly chased after joy, not just happiness, or satisfaction, but true joy. Why contemplate these depressing and generally worthless ideas when it is so clear that YES we do exist and what we are and what we do does matter.
Choose joy and hope, not despair.
Take all the wonderful things in the world, because they are innumberable, and use each one as a brick to build a wall around yourself to protect against all the darkness that also exists.
Y'all are some of my bricks, I hope I'm one of yours.
This is related to a discussion I had with Dad tonight. I'm feeling increasingly like Plato and his general fear and hatred of the masses. I feel it acutely as we prepare for this election; I live in terror that people will elect another republican president. Our country, our environment, our economy, our military, can't take another 4 years of idiocy. I fear the stupid herd of the masses and what their decisions are doing to our world and our country.
We went to a play on Monday and it was just awful. It was very existential and basically culminated with the idea that none of us really exist. It was horrible. Whatever your personal belief system, please believe me that we are all someone and we all matter and there is a part of us that is eternal. It makes me so sad that people watch plays like this one that makes them question everything and their own existence. Should we not seek after things that encourage good things? And please don't just smile and nod and pat me on the head. How much better would we all be if we truly chased after joy, not just happiness, or satisfaction, but true joy. Why contemplate these depressing and generally worthless ideas when it is so clear that YES we do exist and what we are and what we do does matter.
Choose joy and hope, not despair.
Take all the wonderful things in the world, because they are innumberable, and use each one as a brick to build a wall around yourself to protect against all the darkness that also exists.
Y'all are some of my bricks, I hope I'm one of yours.
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