(no subject)
Here I am, hanging out and wasting time in the computer lab. I went all weekend without internet access, mostly because I was just too lazy to walk up the big hill to get to the library on a weekend. So now I have the combined benefit of both feeling good about my healthy lack of internet all weekend, AND the guilty pleasure of sitting here for hours when I should be out, i dunno, interacting with Welsh people or something. I got out of lecture at 3, but I'm thinking of sticking around and joining the choral society, which meets at six. It sounds pretty casual - just people hanging out and singing, no auditions - so it might be fun.
Went out to the Student Bar on Saturday, with one of my flatmates and her friend. It was fun, although really smokey. I forget how common smoking is here, especially in bars. I think I'm going to have to designate the sweater I wore as the 'bar' sweater, because I don't think that smokey smell is going to fade any time soon. But anyhow, it was a fun evening just watching all the 18/19 yr olds go nuts. I was sort of glad I was just watching, though. The flatmate who I was drinking with and told me later that the dating scene here is really all about sex, which is about what I had gathered from observing. Margaret Mead would have been so proud. It's ok that the norm here is to start with sex, and then possibly work up to a relationship, but it does mean that I come to the table (the metaphorical dating table) somewhat backwards. It's intimidating, she was telling me, to jump into this scene, and I definitely sense that as well. Of course, though, I'm in a country where I expect cars to be on the other side of the road, so even just crossing the street is intimidating :P.
Finally found a catholic church last Sunday, and enjoyed the familiarity of the service. The sermon was really weird, though: "Hitler turned his back on the beatitudes...and look what he became!" Well, ok, but Hitler turned his back on lots of other Catholic teachings as well - "thou shalt not kill" and "thou shalt not covet (other people's countries)" come to mind. And then to follow that by saying (paraphrased) "Consider Vincent VanGogh; now there's a man who lived by the beatitudes" was pretty weird as well. I mean, what about his relationship with Gaugain, and the eventual insanity? He's an interesting man, VanGogh, but not exactly a great role model. So anyhow, the jury is still out on whether or not I'll be going to a Catholic church or a Church of Wales (Anglican) church this semester.
Had my first Dylan Thomas lecture - did I mention that already? It bears mentioning again, if I haven't. I had my first Dylan Thomas lecture on Thursday. :D:D:D. I'm so excited about that class! The only assessment is a 2,500 word paper in May, and in the mean time we're going on a field trip in March! YAY! The short stories he writes are all set in Swansea, right in the area where I am, actually, and he's really specific about street and place names. It's so neat to not only be able to really believe these stories, because the characters and the settings are so vivid and so immediate, but also to be able to bring them into your own life. I can say to myself, as I'm stuck walking home from uni in the rain, that this is the road that Dylan Thomas once trod. His stories tend to be about transforming the normal, and as entities his stories do just that. It's like a little cycle - but not a vicious one. They wrap up into one happy, tidy little parcel of transformation. Poof! Instant magic, that fits right in your pocket (or backpack, or that corner of your mind that you generally spend wondering about that whole 'drive on the parkway, park on the driveway' enigma).
I got some tea over the weekend (I am in Britain, after all), and I'm really liking it. It's lemon ginger flavored, and it's incredibly pale - it almost looks like you're drinking hot water. But you can't let it steep too long, or even for all its paleness it's quite strong. So, it's not proper tea - you can't drink it with milk, after all - but it makes me warm and happy and reminds me of ginger altoids, which I've never actually been able to find in a single store, US or UK. My only other food news is that SMARTIES RULE (but Cadbury's ok), and that my flatmate has discovered my clementine addiction, and I'm now the butt of several jokes. Not only among my other flatmates, I might add, but loud drunken jokes in the middle of the student bar. It was funny...the first time :P.
Went out to the Student Bar on Saturday, with one of my flatmates and her friend. It was fun, although really smokey. I forget how common smoking is here, especially in bars. I think I'm going to have to designate the sweater I wore as the 'bar' sweater, because I don't think that smokey smell is going to fade any time soon. But anyhow, it was a fun evening just watching all the 18/19 yr olds go nuts. I was sort of glad I was just watching, though. The flatmate who I was drinking with and told me later that the dating scene here is really all about sex, which is about what I had gathered from observing. Margaret Mead would have been so proud. It's ok that the norm here is to start with sex, and then possibly work up to a relationship, but it does mean that I come to the table (the metaphorical dating table) somewhat backwards. It's intimidating, she was telling me, to jump into this scene, and I definitely sense that as well. Of course, though, I'm in a country where I expect cars to be on the other side of the road, so even just crossing the street is intimidating :P.
Finally found a catholic church last Sunday, and enjoyed the familiarity of the service. The sermon was really weird, though: "Hitler turned his back on the beatitudes...and look what he became!" Well, ok, but Hitler turned his back on lots of other Catholic teachings as well - "thou shalt not kill" and "thou shalt not covet (other people's countries)" come to mind. And then to follow that by saying (paraphrased) "Consider Vincent VanGogh; now there's a man who lived by the beatitudes" was pretty weird as well. I mean, what about his relationship with Gaugain, and the eventual insanity? He's an interesting man, VanGogh, but not exactly a great role model. So anyhow, the jury is still out on whether or not I'll be going to a Catholic church or a Church of Wales (Anglican) church this semester.
Had my first Dylan Thomas lecture - did I mention that already? It bears mentioning again, if I haven't. I had my first Dylan Thomas lecture on Thursday. :D:D:D. I'm so excited about that class! The only assessment is a 2,500 word paper in May, and in the mean time we're going on a field trip in March! YAY! The short stories he writes are all set in Swansea, right in the area where I am, actually, and he's really specific about street and place names. It's so neat to not only be able to really believe these stories, because the characters and the settings are so vivid and so immediate, but also to be able to bring them into your own life. I can say to myself, as I'm stuck walking home from uni in the rain, that this is the road that Dylan Thomas once trod. His stories tend to be about transforming the normal, and as entities his stories do just that. It's like a little cycle - but not a vicious one. They wrap up into one happy, tidy little parcel of transformation. Poof! Instant magic, that fits right in your pocket (or backpack, or that corner of your mind that you generally spend wondering about that whole 'drive on the parkway, park on the driveway' enigma).
I got some tea over the weekend (I am in Britain, after all), and I'm really liking it. It's lemon ginger flavored, and it's incredibly pale - it almost looks like you're drinking hot water. But you can't let it steep too long, or even for all its paleness it's quite strong. So, it's not proper tea - you can't drink it with milk, after all - but it makes me warm and happy and reminds me of ginger altoids, which I've never actually been able to find in a single store, US or UK. My only other food news is that SMARTIES RULE (but Cadbury's ok), and that my flatmate has discovered my clementine addiction, and I'm now the butt of several jokes. Not only among my other flatmates, I might add, but loud drunken jokes in the middle of the student bar. It was funny...the first time :P.