(no subject)
Thank you, Sammy, for giving me the letter P (even if it wasn’t a very random choice)
Pasha - of course this is a rather predictable first choice ;-) How could I not place my wonderful boyfriend at the top? He is always the first thing I think of… good Ali won’t bore you all with pages of all the things I love about him ;-)
Русский язык - technically, this is probably cheating, since I am making use of another alphabet (for those who don’t know, the letter ‘r’ in Russian looks like a ‘p’ in English - actually my brain is so programmed into thinking Russian right now that the letter ‘p’ outside of context in an English word automatically gets read as an ‘r’.).
This is probably the second most important thing in my life right now - the Russian language. I am pretty much submerged in the language at the moment - five full days of classes followed by homework and preparation for exams… I am also being ‘persuaded’ to speak almost entirely in Russian at home, too. But I love it - it’s a beautiful language.
Punctuality - not a very me thing. This year I have managed to do almost all homework within the deadline, but in terms of getting to class, I have suffered horribly ever since the clocks changed - for the previous week I had been getting to class on time or even early, but ever since I have been struggling to get out of bed before I should have already left the flat (its already a little late to continue blaming the clock change for that, really - I’m simply lazy and especially hate to get up when Pasha doesn’t have to…). On the other hand, whenever I have to meet someone in the metro, I am usually really early as I over-judge the time it will take me to get there. This was a bad thing last January (when Pasha and I were first dating) since punctuality is also a problem for him and I would get there up to 20mins early then have to wait while he was 20mins late…
Paranoia - something that I get quite a lot, helped, I expect, by my vivid imagination. I do not suffer as much as Pasha, though, who asked me for about the trillionth time earlier whether I was actually going to come back in September - as if I haven’t already bought the return ticket…
Pies - specifically of the cabbage variety. This is the one, very Russian thing that I am always having to prepare for parties/guests/general desire. They are actually very tasty and make a good lunch, though cutting a third of a cabbage into tiny pieces takes *ages*. It is one of the ‘dishes’ that I am, apparently, rather good at cooking. Another one is Pizzas which I am cheekily slipping in here. I make the base, too - I wouldn’t brag about being able to successfully *decorate* a pizza base (not that I’m actually bragging ;-)).
Phonetics classes - the most fun I have ever had since Dr Jones’ chemistry… lol. We cover phonetics and pronunciation (obviously) which seem to get harder the better you know the language (at least, the teacher is more demanding). I have big problems with the letter ‘a’ (being very slightly further back in the throat than in English) and ‘soft’ consonants, especially ‘l’. We also cover specific vocabulary through means of thrilling texts on things like the evolution of society (in almost no actual detail, so as to make it really un-interesting) as well as the constitution of Russia and economy - the earlier lessons were more interesting in content but had so many new words that you couldn’t follow the text, and the later ones are perfectly readable but really dry. This is the lesson that I am most likely to sleep in, especially as its last thing on a Friday…
Potter, Harry - a major character in one of my (probably unhealthy, shouldn’t really be encouraged) obsessions - fanfic. Actually, I tend to prefer the less Harry-centered fics, but he is usually present in some way. I tend to read fanfic when I’m stressed - so that basically occupied all of my spare time (and lots of study time) during my A-level years. This year I have cut back to four fics - one with a monthly update and the others with sporadic minimum of 2-3 months between updates (I include in this MoM) so I have practically not really read any all year, which is good as I need to study. But now that exams are looming and I am stressed and tired of over 8 months continuous studies I am getting fanfic-cravings…
Perfect and imperfect verb aspects - one of the most horrible things in the Russian language (barring the 6 cases and all their endings for nouns and adjective agreement and all that jazz). I believe the same horror exists in Latin (I vaguely remember Miss Madams using one of her blue-fish stories to explain it to us, plus there are the imperfect sheep…) and it is remarkably difficult for me to use them properly, especially when speaking.
Pre-history - a literary device frequently employed by Turgenev (about whom I am currently failing to write an essay).
Premature old age - I don’t think I mentioned before that in February I suffered horribly from rheumatism in my hip. Go ahead, laugh! Not even 20 and I’m showing signs of old age…
Pasha - of course this is a rather predictable first choice ;-) How could I not place my wonderful boyfriend at the top? He is always the first thing I think of… good Ali won’t bore you all with pages of all the things I love about him ;-)
Русский язык - technically, this is probably cheating, since I am making use of another alphabet (for those who don’t know, the letter ‘r’ in Russian looks like a ‘p’ in English - actually my brain is so programmed into thinking Russian right now that the letter ‘p’ outside of context in an English word automatically gets read as an ‘r’.).
This is probably the second most important thing in my life right now - the Russian language. I am pretty much submerged in the language at the moment - five full days of classes followed by homework and preparation for exams… I am also being ‘persuaded’ to speak almost entirely in Russian at home, too. But I love it - it’s a beautiful language.
Punctuality - not a very me thing. This year I have managed to do almost all homework within the deadline, but in terms of getting to class, I have suffered horribly ever since the clocks changed - for the previous week I had been getting to class on time or even early, but ever since I have been struggling to get out of bed before I should have already left the flat (its already a little late to continue blaming the clock change for that, really - I’m simply lazy and especially hate to get up when Pasha doesn’t have to…). On the other hand, whenever I have to meet someone in the metro, I am usually really early as I over-judge the time it will take me to get there. This was a bad thing last January (when Pasha and I were first dating) since punctuality is also a problem for him and I would get there up to 20mins early then have to wait while he was 20mins late…
Paranoia - something that I get quite a lot, helped, I expect, by my vivid imagination. I do not suffer as much as Pasha, though, who asked me for about the trillionth time earlier whether I was actually going to come back in September - as if I haven’t already bought the return ticket…
Pies - specifically of the cabbage variety. This is the one, very Russian thing that I am always having to prepare for parties/guests/general desire. They are actually very tasty and make a good lunch, though cutting a third of a cabbage into tiny pieces takes *ages*. It is one of the ‘dishes’ that I am, apparently, rather good at cooking. Another one is Pizzas which I am cheekily slipping in here. I make the base, too - I wouldn’t brag about being able to successfully *decorate* a pizza base (not that I’m actually bragging ;-)).
Phonetics classes - the most fun I have ever had since Dr Jones’ chemistry… lol. We cover phonetics and pronunciation (obviously) which seem to get harder the better you know the language (at least, the teacher is more demanding). I have big problems with the letter ‘a’ (being very slightly further back in the throat than in English) and ‘soft’ consonants, especially ‘l’. We also cover specific vocabulary through means of thrilling texts on things like the evolution of society (in almost no actual detail, so as to make it really un-interesting) as well as the constitution of Russia and economy - the earlier lessons were more interesting in content but had so many new words that you couldn’t follow the text, and the later ones are perfectly readable but really dry. This is the lesson that I am most likely to sleep in, especially as its last thing on a Friday…
Potter, Harry - a major character in one of my (probably unhealthy, shouldn’t really be encouraged) obsessions - fanfic. Actually, I tend to prefer the less Harry-centered fics, but he is usually present in some way. I tend to read fanfic when I’m stressed - so that basically occupied all of my spare time (and lots of study time) during my A-level years. This year I have cut back to four fics - one with a monthly update and the others with sporadic minimum of 2-3 months between updates (I include in this MoM) so I have practically not really read any all year, which is good as I need to study. But now that exams are looming and I am stressed and tired of over 8 months continuous studies I am getting fanfic-cravings…
Perfect and imperfect verb aspects - one of the most horrible things in the Russian language (barring the 6 cases and all their endings for nouns and adjective agreement and all that jazz). I believe the same horror exists in Latin (I vaguely remember Miss Madams using one of her blue-fish stories to explain it to us, plus there are the imperfect sheep…) and it is remarkably difficult for me to use them properly, especially when speaking.
Pre-history - a literary device frequently employed by Turgenev (about whom I am currently failing to write an essay).
Premature old age - I don’t think I mentioned before that in February I suffered horribly from rheumatism in my hip. Go ahead, laugh! Not even 20 and I’m showing signs of old age…