(no subject)
Alas, I have no more exciting stories of ancient sites and crazy pounce games; life's a lot quieter in western Mass.
Most exciting thing that happened this week: I ran over a chicken. And before you all go 'aww' and mourn the poor chicken, let me elaborate. I ran over a chicken by myself, while jogging down the road. I was coming around a corner with my ipod cranked and all of a sudden there was a white ball of feathers underneath my feet. I sort of hopped over it, kicked it in the process and it pecked me on the ankle. Nearly gave me a freakin' heart attack!
Silliest thing that happened this week: Blinky, Blinky, Blinky. Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits. He's a fabulous pony and I never thought I could ride a first level test without feeling crazy out my depth, but he's such a nut sometimes. I don't know what goes on in his little pony brain, but the list of scary scary things goes as follows: sky, outdoors, crossties, wash racks, dressage rings, doors, paper, plastic boxes, mirrors, cars, rain, other horses, shadows, sparrows and butterflies. BUTTERFLIES, I ask you. He only outweighs them by about 2100 lbs! He never does anything, just sort of jumps to the side and looks sheepish while I stretch out my whiplash and laugh at him and then we go right back to work. Silly pony. But also, shallow loop serpentine at the canter, without lead changes! Yay!!
Most annoying thing this week: Umass. So, I signed up for this french cycle, paid insane amounts of money for these courses and moved out here to take them. Now the registrar's decided that 7 students isn't enough for the advanced set of classes even though, hello, advanced languages during the summer? That's a pretty big number. So if they don't get one more student enrolled by the time my 120 class ends, they're going to cancel them. And if they do, well there goes my entire summer and any hope of learning french by grad school. I'm mostly really really annoyed at the continuing ed office, since they keep telling me that they don't have any control over it and don't have any say and the prof makes the decision (they don't--when I emailed them they said the registrar tells them what to do) and they can't afford to run the class ($300 dollars a credit? Hello? Highway robbery?). I'm so mad they didn't set a minimum enrollment to begin with and that no one will take responsibility for the program so instead they're just giving me the run-around. GRRR. Anyone know any jobs still open for the summer?
Most awesome thing that happened this week: My former pony Reggie is being totally awesome and amazing with his new owner at the ApHC youth world show, placing 6th in showmanship and 10th in halter so far. If anyone is really looking for some procrastination, the ApHC runs a live webcam of the show here: http://www.appaloosa.com/national-show/2008nationalshow/webcam.htm It'll run through next Sunday.
French is pretty boring so far and I'm spending most of my time translating stuff for the guy next to me. He's cute, so it's ok. The people are nice though, and it's good to be around people again.
Most exciting thing that happened this week: I ran over a chicken. And before you all go 'aww' and mourn the poor chicken, let me elaborate. I ran over a chicken by myself, while jogging down the road. I was coming around a corner with my ipod cranked and all of a sudden there was a white ball of feathers underneath my feet. I sort of hopped over it, kicked it in the process and it pecked me on the ankle. Nearly gave me a freakin' heart attack!
Silliest thing that happened this week: Blinky, Blinky, Blinky. Don't get me wrong, I love him to bits. He's a fabulous pony and I never thought I could ride a first level test without feeling crazy out my depth, but he's such a nut sometimes. I don't know what goes on in his little pony brain, but the list of scary scary things goes as follows: sky, outdoors, crossties, wash racks, dressage rings, doors, paper, plastic boxes, mirrors, cars, rain, other horses, shadows, sparrows and butterflies. BUTTERFLIES, I ask you. He only outweighs them by about 2100 lbs! He never does anything, just sort of jumps to the side and looks sheepish while I stretch out my whiplash and laugh at him and then we go right back to work. Silly pony. But also, shallow loop serpentine at the canter, without lead changes! Yay!!
Most annoying thing this week: Umass. So, I signed up for this french cycle, paid insane amounts of money for these courses and moved out here to take them. Now the registrar's decided that 7 students isn't enough for the advanced set of classes even though, hello, advanced languages during the summer? That's a pretty big number. So if they don't get one more student enrolled by the time my 120 class ends, they're going to cancel them. And if they do, well there goes my entire summer and any hope of learning french by grad school. I'm mostly really really annoyed at the continuing ed office, since they keep telling me that they don't have any control over it and don't have any say and the prof makes the decision (they don't--when I emailed them they said the registrar tells them what to do) and they can't afford to run the class ($300 dollars a credit? Hello? Highway robbery?). I'm so mad they didn't set a minimum enrollment to begin with and that no one will take responsibility for the program so instead they're just giving me the run-around. GRRR. Anyone know any jobs still open for the summer?
Most awesome thing that happened this week: My former pony Reggie is being totally awesome and amazing with his new owner at the ApHC youth world show, placing 6th in showmanship and 10th in halter so far. If anyone is really looking for some procrastination, the ApHC runs a live webcam of the show here: http://www.appaloosa.com/national-show/2008nationalshow/webcam.htm It'll run through next Sunday.
French is pretty boring so far and I'm spending most of my time translating stuff for the guy next to me. He's cute, so it's ok. The people are nice though, and it's good to be around people again.