Everything's right in the world
Summer has inevitably turned to early Autumn, and it did so with a bang. Literally, in that week on which university resumed was heralded by a series of magnificent, dramatic thunderstorms that I frequently spent half the night watching, and if that was not enough, the Finnish Fireworks Championship happened to take place at this very time - amusingly, you can tell if a fireworks performance has been timed to Also Sprach Zarathustra or Ennio Morricone, respectively. More to the point, figuratively - in that these last two weeks, I've been extremely busy, running all over the place in a variety of activities. There are two excuses I have for not updating - that nothing interesting has happened to me worth writing about, or that these things crop up so much that I have no time to do so. The latter is the case here, and so it seems that a full chronicling is in order.
And what two weeks has it been! I've played music in a Unicef welfare event, watched fireworks at point blank range, reared the freshmen of two seperate institutions, sung karaoke, written clay tablets, invented drinking games, schemed, micromanaged, and possibly compelled attractive young females to share chocolate treats in very close proximity. Um... maybe that's enough about that last bit.
I might have mentioned earlier at one point or another that I was elected as one of two student tutors for the Archaeology freshmen, and thus I've been charged with a great deal of things involving acquainting them with the university, archaeology and the fabled "student life" in general. That's been my major concern these last two weeks, which have been very pleasant, in the sense that I feel like I've been actually helpful to these people, maybe even inspiring in some respect. Compared to how my tutors weren't actually particularily dedicated to their jobs, I wanted to do better from the start. It helps, certainly, that it's a very nice group that we managed to get this year, and most of them have been very good about appearing in all the prescribed meetings, aside of the two older men who look and act like John Locke from Lost. =O
It's actually kind of funny being in this position, because really, after a year, it's not like I really know all that much about university - except, of course, it turned out that I did know quite a bit that actually was interesting and relevant to them, even beyond the usual stuff about libraries and buildings and stuff. This is pretty amusing to me - I've never really found myself in the literary archetype of "upperclassman" before! I seem to be doing well, considering, and I'm actually kind of glad that I got the first opportunity to get to know all of my new juniors right off the bat like this. Aww, it makes me feel pretty good how excited they're about everything and how they actually take part in our frivolous, long-planned activities!
Indeed, beyond the official stuff, I've also been busy arranging a variety of other events, including the oddly successful karaoke night and Thursday's game day for cultural studies freshmen. Both of those nights went on long past two in the morning. No wonder I'm exhausted! The game that me and my comrade provided involved the five-man teams of participants having to claim a precious cultural artifact - maybe a bottle of beer - by crossing a lava field - maybe just a grass field - on bottle crates, of which we eventually granted them a total of three, making for a rather grueling and precarious advance. Ironically, judging by last year's education excavation, this is actually pretty relevant to archaeology, certainly more so than creating postmodern fertility statues to comparative religions. =3
University itself, of course, has started. This is what my courseload seems to be for this period:
*Intermediate Akkadian: Enuma Elish
*Ishtar's Descent to the Nether World
*The Concept and History of the Museum
*Archaeological postwork
Assyriology, ironically, seems to be providing much more in the way of courses right now, mainly since this year, the professor resumed his office after a year of leave - so now, I've finally actually met the illustrous and controversial Simo Parpola, who appears to be a very pleasant old gentleman. "Appears" might yet turn out to be the operative word, as I'm to study Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth, in his class, a veritable task which seems likely to leave me up to my eyeballs in homework. But this week in particular there's more - my exposé on my recent educational exploits would hardly be complete without a mention of the fabled cuneiform clay tablet study group!
You know, I have to wonder why no one had elected to make something as cool as cuneiform clay writing part of an actual class. As it is, we had eight hours in two days to get a hang of it, which was just enough time for the advantages of the concept to come to light. For one thing, it really supports all other cuneiform learning - I, for my part, finally got a hang of the neo-Assyrian script. On top of that, it really makes one appreciate why people ever wrote in cuneiform, and something as simple as why cuneiform script looks the way it does. Mostly, though, the interesting thing about writing cuneiform on clay with a stylus was that it actually highlights how it's actually a surprisingly fast and efficient way of writing. And to think I never knew!
Other than that, it was simply a pleasant situation. Other than comparing and discussing the stuff we were writing - for some reason particularily bloodthirsty laws from the Code of Hammurabi were pretty popular - the subject matter inevitably reeled toward pen and paper roleplaying, something the teacher observed with great bemusement. As it turned out after an instant gallup, actually... there was only like one person on the whole classroom who had never roleplayed, which I think leads to an interesting point on what kind of people would actually go for something as odd as Assyriology. =D
So what did I write, then? Part of the concept of the study group was that we were meant to have prepared texts in advance, preferably an original text in Akkadian. This turned out to be both damnedly difficult and quite hilarious after a fashion. It's like that, because I'm obviously barely capable of writing anything at all in Akkadian; I've only been taught to read, using the sophisticated old Akkadian of Hammurabi at that! So in effect, I was describing my home island with phrases like, "Upon the Mountain of Eagles there stands a water tank in the fashion of a tower. The tower climbs to the height of six GAR." The pompous juxtaposition of the language and the subject matter did not escape the rest of the class, who were giggling throughout my recital of this epic! It helps that there are a number of rather flaky location names where I live, which I gleefully reinterpreted to Akkadian best I could.
The other text was a more "serious" one, arguably; I inscriped a favourite segment of mine from the Akkadian version of the Descent of Ishtar. Since I inscribed it last, it turned out quite a bit better, so here's a picture of the clay tablet. Heck, I'll throw in a transcription and reasonably word-by-word translation too.
IŠTAR a-na KA KUR.NU.GI.A / ina ka-šá-di-šá
a-na lú-I.DU ba-a-bi / a-ma-tum iz-zak-kar
Ishtar, to the Gate of Kurnugi / in her coming
to the keeper of the gates / spoke the word:
lú-I.DU me-e / pi-ta-a ba-ab-ka
pi-ta-a ba-ab-ka-ma / lu-ru-ba a-na-ku
Gatekeeper, hey / open your gate for me
open your gate for me / and let me enter
šum-ma la ta-pat-ta-a ba-a-bu / la er-ru-ba a-na-ku
a-mah-ha-aṣ dal-tum / sik-ku-ru a-ša-ab-bir
a-mah-ha-aṣ si-ip-pu-ma / u-ša-bala-kat giš-IG.MEŠ
If you do not open the gate / do not let me enter
I will smash the door / the bolt I will break
I will smash the doorpost / and overturn the doors!
u-še-el-la-a mi-tu-ti / KU.MEŠ bal-ṭu-ti
UGU bal-ṭu-ti / i-ma'i-du mi-tu-ti
I will raise up the dead / to eat the living
Over of the living / the dead will increase
I do not believe it's a question anymore why exactly I like that phrase a lot. =D
I could use more classes like that. It's not that often that the whole room is giggling over sophisticated grammatic problems, but that happened here; it was also heartening for me to notice that the teacher herself was quite confused over many of the finer points of Akkadian grammar while forced to actually utilize the rules as opposed to just reverse-engineering them from an existing text.
Whew... I've just been running from one place to another all week, haven't I? That's not even all that happened, and I still need to translate and analyse sixty lines of Akkadian epics by tomorrow. But to be honest, everything's been so worth all the effort; not simply thanks to overall geek humour or the sudden and odd power vested in me to run party games which result in girls hugging one another. More than anything I feel like I've been able to do a really good job with everything I've tried to do lately, and I love to see weeks of planning and arranging come together like this. Still, it's good that the crunch part is over now, in a sense, since sleep is something I haven't had quite enough of in ages now.
And would you believe that I somehow managed to play a little Suikoden III here and there? There's a game that's going to get another full-scope analysis once I'm done, but I can say this much - I'm liking it a great deal now.
And what two weeks has it been! I've played music in a Unicef welfare event, watched fireworks at point blank range, reared the freshmen of two seperate institutions, sung karaoke, written clay tablets, invented drinking games, schemed, micromanaged, and possibly compelled attractive young females to share chocolate treats in very close proximity. Um... maybe that's enough about that last bit.
I might have mentioned earlier at one point or another that I was elected as one of two student tutors for the Archaeology freshmen, and thus I've been charged with a great deal of things involving acquainting them with the university, archaeology and the fabled "student life" in general. That's been my major concern these last two weeks, which have been very pleasant, in the sense that I feel like I've been actually helpful to these people, maybe even inspiring in some respect. Compared to how my tutors weren't actually particularily dedicated to their jobs, I wanted to do better from the start. It helps, certainly, that it's a very nice group that we managed to get this year, and most of them have been very good about appearing in all the prescribed meetings, aside of the two older men who look and act like John Locke from Lost. =O
It's actually kind of funny being in this position, because really, after a year, it's not like I really know all that much about university - except, of course, it turned out that I did know quite a bit that actually was interesting and relevant to them, even beyond the usual stuff about libraries and buildings and stuff. This is pretty amusing to me - I've never really found myself in the literary archetype of "upperclassman" before! I seem to be doing well, considering, and I'm actually kind of glad that I got the first opportunity to get to know all of my new juniors right off the bat like this. Aww, it makes me feel pretty good how excited they're about everything and how they actually take part in our frivolous, long-planned activities!
Indeed, beyond the official stuff, I've also been busy arranging a variety of other events, including the oddly successful karaoke night and Thursday's game day for cultural studies freshmen. Both of those nights went on long past two in the morning. No wonder I'm exhausted! The game that me and my comrade provided involved the five-man teams of participants having to claim a precious cultural artifact - maybe a bottle of beer - by crossing a lava field - maybe just a grass field - on bottle crates, of which we eventually granted them a total of three, making for a rather grueling and precarious advance. Ironically, judging by last year's education excavation, this is actually pretty relevant to archaeology, certainly more so than creating postmodern fertility statues to comparative religions. =3
University itself, of course, has started. This is what my courseload seems to be for this period:
*Intermediate Akkadian: Enuma Elish
*Ishtar's Descent to the Nether World
*The Concept and History of the Museum
*Archaeological postwork
Assyriology, ironically, seems to be providing much more in the way of courses right now, mainly since this year, the professor resumed his office after a year of leave - so now, I've finally actually met the illustrous and controversial Simo Parpola, who appears to be a very pleasant old gentleman. "Appears" might yet turn out to be the operative word, as I'm to study Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth, in his class, a veritable task which seems likely to leave me up to my eyeballs in homework. But this week in particular there's more - my exposé on my recent educational exploits would hardly be complete without a mention of the fabled cuneiform clay tablet study group!
You know, I have to wonder why no one had elected to make something as cool as cuneiform clay writing part of an actual class. As it is, we had eight hours in two days to get a hang of it, which was just enough time for the advantages of the concept to come to light. For one thing, it really supports all other cuneiform learning - I, for my part, finally got a hang of the neo-Assyrian script. On top of that, it really makes one appreciate why people ever wrote in cuneiform, and something as simple as why cuneiform script looks the way it does. Mostly, though, the interesting thing about writing cuneiform on clay with a stylus was that it actually highlights how it's actually a surprisingly fast and efficient way of writing. And to think I never knew!
Other than that, it was simply a pleasant situation. Other than comparing and discussing the stuff we were writing - for some reason particularily bloodthirsty laws from the Code of Hammurabi were pretty popular - the subject matter inevitably reeled toward pen and paper roleplaying, something the teacher observed with great bemusement. As it turned out after an instant gallup, actually... there was only like one person on the whole classroom who had never roleplayed, which I think leads to an interesting point on what kind of people would actually go for something as odd as Assyriology. =D
So what did I write, then? Part of the concept of the study group was that we were meant to have prepared texts in advance, preferably an original text in Akkadian. This turned out to be both damnedly difficult and quite hilarious after a fashion. It's like that, because I'm obviously barely capable of writing anything at all in Akkadian; I've only been taught to read, using the sophisticated old Akkadian of Hammurabi at that! So in effect, I was describing my home island with phrases like, "Upon the Mountain of Eagles there stands a water tank in the fashion of a tower. The tower climbs to the height of six GAR." The pompous juxtaposition of the language and the subject matter did not escape the rest of the class, who were giggling throughout my recital of this epic! It helps that there are a number of rather flaky location names where I live, which I gleefully reinterpreted to Akkadian best I could.
The other text was a more "serious" one, arguably; I inscriped a favourite segment of mine from the Akkadian version of the Descent of Ishtar. Since I inscribed it last, it turned out quite a bit better, so here's a picture of the clay tablet. Heck, I'll throw in a transcription and reasonably word-by-word translation too.
IŠTAR a-na KA KUR.NU.GI.A / ina ka-šá-di-šá
a-na lú-I.DU ba-a-bi / a-ma-tum iz-zak-kar
Ishtar, to the Gate of Kurnugi / in her coming
to the keeper of the gates / spoke the word:
lú-I.DU me-e / pi-ta-a ba-ab-ka
pi-ta-a ba-ab-ka-ma / lu-ru-ba a-na-ku
Gatekeeper, hey / open your gate for me
open your gate for me / and let me enter
šum-ma la ta-pat-ta-a ba-a-bu / la er-ru-ba a-na-ku
a-mah-ha-aṣ dal-tum / sik-ku-ru a-ša-ab-bir
a-mah-ha-aṣ si-ip-pu-ma / u-ša-bala-kat giš-IG.MEŠ
If you do not open the gate / do not let me enter
I will smash the door / the bolt I will break
I will smash the doorpost / and overturn the doors!
u-še-el-la-a mi-tu-ti / KU.MEŠ bal-ṭu-ti
UGU bal-ṭu-ti / i-ma'i-du mi-tu-ti
I will raise up the dead / to eat the living
Over of the living / the dead will increase
I do not believe it's a question anymore why exactly I like that phrase a lot. =D
I could use more classes like that. It's not that often that the whole room is giggling over sophisticated grammatic problems, but that happened here; it was also heartening for me to notice that the teacher herself was quite confused over many of the finer points of Akkadian grammar while forced to actually utilize the rules as opposed to just reverse-engineering them from an existing text.
Whew... I've just been running from one place to another all week, haven't I? That's not even all that happened, and I still need to translate and analyse sixty lines of Akkadian epics by tomorrow. But to be honest, everything's been so worth all the effort; not simply thanks to overall geek humour or the sudden and odd power vested in me to run party games which result in girls hugging one another. More than anything I feel like I've been able to do a really good job with everything I've tried to do lately, and I love to see weeks of planning and arranging come together like this. Still, it's good that the crunch part is over now, in a sense, since sleep is something I haven't had quite enough of in ages now.
And would you believe that I somehow managed to play a little Suikoden III here and there? There's a game that's going to get another full-scope analysis once I'm done, but I can say this much - I'm liking it a great deal now.