McGill, week... three?
I could give you a long rant about the failings of the McGill teaching style, but I'll spare you for the time being. Also, I'm hoping it will improve. Oh, it's not so bad, really. It just bothers me. Anyway.
It seems like for the first few weeks I was here I didn't know anyone and didn't meet anyone, aside from my two hostel-friends and my roommates. But now I'm getting to know people in my classes (well, in three of them), and outside classes too. It's good.
I've been to three Montreal Knits meetings now, which is fun. Montreal Knits is an email group, and they have three sets of meetings - Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday - each meeting every other week. Only one person other than me was at them all. In fact, I think only one person other than me was at more than one of them. I like knitting groups. People are friendly, and there's lots of knitting and lots of talking, not necessarily in that order (in fact, usually in the opposite order).
Tonight I went to the McGill Gamers' Guild - a small group (there were no more than seven there tonight) who play board and card games in a room of the student union building. Also good fun. Being in a group of geeks playing board games is a tremendously fun experience. We played some games I knew - Mamma Mia and Acquire, and some I didn't - only name I can remember is Medici. But then I got sleepy and had to come home, which is the trouble with me and evening meetings. There was another exchange student from Australia (a Sydney boy) in the group, which was amusing. There are Australian exchange students everywhere, it seems. Have I told you that one of the other eight UQ people is in one of my classes? So random.
Speaking of classes, I'm enjoying mine for the most part. Aside from that afore-hinted-at annoyance, which is largely a structural matter. Old English is progressing a bit slow for my taste, but then again I've come into it straight from three semesters of Latin. Today we finally learned our first noun declension.
Want to see what Old English looks like? I'll show you what I learned today.
Weak nouns: guma (masculine) - man; eage (neuter) - eye; eorthe (feminine) - earth (I didn't look it up, but I think that's a safe guess).
Masc.Neut.Fem.
Cases.pl.s.pl.s.pl.
Nom.gumagumaneageeaganeortheeorthan
Acc.gumangumaneageeaganeorthaneorthan
Gen.gumangumenaeaganeagenaeorthaneorthena
Dat.gumangumumeaganeagumeorthaneorthum
Note that I haven't shown macrons, even though our text always does as vowel length can distinguish words in Old English, and that in 'eorthe' I've changed the thorn/eth to 'th' as I can't be bothered trying to get the symbols on the web nicely right now.
Nouns in Old English are either weak or strong. Weak nouns have fewer distinctive inflections than strong. There are only two weak neuter nouns: eage - eye; eare - ear.
Old English has four cases only. Well, there is a slight trace of an instrumental remaining, but only in a couple of pronouns. Aside from that, four cases. Farewell, ablative, you shall be missed.
Studiers of Latin - looks a bit different, doesn't it?
Nearly forgot to mention. get_medieval has been taking up far too much of my time. It is a comic. It is funny. It's about a group of aliens on the run from the mob, who end up essentially marooned on Earth in the fourteenth century. Quite possibly one of the geekiest things I've ever read - primarily history geekery, but dabbles in all sorts of things. Comment discussion can range from cats to period costumes to physics to zoology to obscure historical figures without batting an eyelash. If comment discussion could be said to bat an eyelash. Did I mention the funny part? I'm up to July this year. Only two and a half months more to read!
It seems like for the first few weeks I was here I didn't know anyone and didn't meet anyone, aside from my two hostel-friends and my roommates. But now I'm getting to know people in my classes (well, in three of them), and outside classes too. It's good.
I've been to three Montreal Knits meetings now, which is fun. Montreal Knits is an email group, and they have three sets of meetings - Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday - each meeting every other week. Only one person other than me was at them all. In fact, I think only one person other than me was at more than one of them. I like knitting groups. People are friendly, and there's lots of knitting and lots of talking, not necessarily in that order (in fact, usually in the opposite order).
Tonight I went to the McGill Gamers' Guild - a small group (there were no more than seven there tonight) who play board and card games in a room of the student union building. Also good fun. Being in a group of geeks playing board games is a tremendously fun experience. We played some games I knew - Mamma Mia and Acquire, and some I didn't - only name I can remember is Medici. But then I got sleepy and had to come home, which is the trouble with me and evening meetings. There was another exchange student from Australia (a Sydney boy) in the group, which was amusing. There are Australian exchange students everywhere, it seems. Have I told you that one of the other eight UQ people is in one of my classes? So random.
Speaking of classes, I'm enjoying mine for the most part. Aside from that afore-hinted-at annoyance, which is largely a structural matter. Old English is progressing a bit slow for my taste, but then again I've come into it straight from three semesters of Latin. Today we finally learned our first noun declension.
Want to see what Old English looks like? I'll show you what I learned today.
Weak nouns: guma (masculine) - man; eage (neuter) - eye; eorthe (feminine) - earth (I didn't look it up, but I think that's a safe guess).
Masc.Neut.Fem.
Cases.pl.s.pl.s.pl.
Nom.gumagumaneageeaganeortheeorthan
Acc.gumangumaneageeaganeorthaneorthan
Gen.gumangumenaeaganeagenaeorthaneorthena
Dat.gumangumumeaganeagumeorthaneorthum
Note that I haven't shown macrons, even though our text always does as vowel length can distinguish words in Old English, and that in 'eorthe' I've changed the thorn/eth to 'th' as I can't be bothered trying to get the symbols on the web nicely right now.
Nouns in Old English are either weak or strong. Weak nouns have fewer distinctive inflections than strong. There are only two weak neuter nouns: eage - eye; eare - ear.
Old English has four cases only. Well, there is a slight trace of an instrumental remaining, but only in a couple of pronouns. Aside from that, four cases. Farewell, ablative, you shall be missed.
Studiers of Latin - looks a bit different, doesn't it?
Nearly forgot to mention. get_medieval has been taking up far too much of my time. It is a comic. It is funny. It's about a group of aliens on the run from the mob, who end up essentially marooned on Earth in the fourteenth century. Quite possibly one of the geekiest things I've ever read - primarily history geekery, but dabbles in all sorts of things. Comment discussion can range from cats to period costumes to physics to zoology to obscure historical figures without batting an eyelash. If comment discussion could be said to bat an eyelash. Did I mention the funny part? I'm up to July this year. Only two and a half months more to read!