Hielten Sich Fuer Captain Kirk
Professor Freccero spent the entirety of Lit 101 this morning pronouncing "axolotl" incorrectly. It was driving me nuts. Although, now that I look around, all online dictionaries I can find claim that a "ks" sound is appropriate, rather than the "sh" sound I was sure is correct. Which is it, "ak-suh-lot-l" or "ash-uh-lot-l"? Isn't the "x" used in Nahuatl as a "sh" sound? Then again, "x" has four different sounds in Portuguese, so maybe it is "ks". I don't know, it bothers me. My perception of the world may depend on this.
Today's beautiful, and I get to spend it indoors reading approximately two hundred pages of The Brothers Karamazov into which I am about eighty pages and which so far has been irretrievably dull. Bill claims it picks up, though, which would be nice. I guess one can only expect so much when most of the action so far has taken place in a monastery. I'm enjoying the class a lot, anyway, so at least there's that. I want to learn more about Russian culture and the history of Russian novels. I'm hoping that I might be able to take my senior seminar with Bill when it comes to that, because I've seen from the tentative '08-'09 literature class roster that he does do senior seminars sometimes. That would kind of rock. (It's really better that I stay indoors, anyway, because I've run out of pants and have no quarters for laundry so I'm forced to wear shorter-than-floor-length skirts, which remind me that I have the Ugliest Calves In The World. Which is no fun for anybody involved.)
International Playhouse is tonight, which ought to be fun. Anybody else want to go with me? They're doing five short plays in French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. It was awesome last year and ought to be just as much so this year. Ana says that if we write a page review of it in Portuguese we'll get extra-credit, but we'll see about that. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the regular assigned work as it is.
Speaking of Ana, there was a weird debacle in Portuguese that is thankfully now mostly resolved. We had a composition on religion in Brazil (the falling popularity of Catholicism, specifically) and I did the first draft beautifully, turned it in, got it back, fixed the couple errors therein, and stapled both drafts together and turned them in on the assigned day, just as usual. When Ana went to hand them back a couple days later, though, she didn't have mine and asked me why I didn't turn it in. I insisted I did, but she told me to just bring it to next class. Not sure of what else to do, I printed out a second copy of the final draft and turned that in...class following that, of course, she gave it back to me and asked where the first draft was. I explained that I'd turned it in before and it was still stapled to the missing original final draft. She told me she doesn't lose students' work, and I wanted dearly to throttle her. Fortunately, yesterday she came to me and told me that it must've gotten mixed in with some other student's work and that she has a record of me turning in the first draft, so I just need to give her back the second copy of the final draft that she gave back to me without a grade. Of course, I now have no idea where THAT copy went, but I'll find it if it kills me. I just want my derned points, carioca louca!
Okay, reading time. And then off to the dining hall at around noon to appropriate some fresh spinach for to make a warm spinach and bacon salad. Hooray for stealing food from the Man. (Well, "stealing" since I've already paid for the privilege of consuming what they have to offer, but whatever. I feel like a rebel.)
Today's beautiful, and I get to spend it indoors reading approximately two hundred pages of The Brothers Karamazov into which I am about eighty pages and which so far has been irretrievably dull. Bill claims it picks up, though, which would be nice. I guess one can only expect so much when most of the action so far has taken place in a monastery. I'm enjoying the class a lot, anyway, so at least there's that. I want to learn more about Russian culture and the history of Russian novels. I'm hoping that I might be able to take my senior seminar with Bill when it comes to that, because I've seen from the tentative '08-'09 literature class roster that he does do senior seminars sometimes. That would kind of rock. (It's really better that I stay indoors, anyway, because I've run out of pants and have no quarters for laundry so I'm forced to wear shorter-than-floor-length skirts, which remind me that I have the Ugliest Calves In The World. Which is no fun for anybody involved.)
International Playhouse is tonight, which ought to be fun. Anybody else want to go with me? They're doing five short plays in French, German, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish. It was awesome last year and ought to be just as much so this year. Ana says that if we write a page review of it in Portuguese we'll get extra-credit, but we'll see about that. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the regular assigned work as it is.
Speaking of Ana, there was a weird debacle in Portuguese that is thankfully now mostly resolved. We had a composition on religion in Brazil (the falling popularity of Catholicism, specifically) and I did the first draft beautifully, turned it in, got it back, fixed the couple errors therein, and stapled both drafts together and turned them in on the assigned day, just as usual. When Ana went to hand them back a couple days later, though, she didn't have mine and asked me why I didn't turn it in. I insisted I did, but she told me to just bring it to next class. Not sure of what else to do, I printed out a second copy of the final draft and turned that in...class following that, of course, she gave it back to me and asked where the first draft was. I explained that I'd turned it in before and it was still stapled to the missing original final draft. She told me she doesn't lose students' work, and I wanted dearly to throttle her. Fortunately, yesterday she came to me and told me that it must've gotten mixed in with some other student's work and that she has a record of me turning in the first draft, so I just need to give her back the second copy of the final draft that she gave back to me without a grade. Of course, I now have no idea where THAT copy went, but I'll find it if it kills me. I just want my derned points, carioca louca!
Okay, reading time. And then off to the dining hall at around noon to appropriate some fresh spinach for to make a warm spinach and bacon salad. Hooray for stealing food from the Man. (Well, "stealing" since I've already paid for the privilege of consuming what they have to offer, but whatever. I feel like a rebel.)