I don't think the 30-something graduate student managed to travel back in time, but it is possible that Purse isn't the exact surname of the professor (I find it amusing that half of the linguistics graduate students can't even speak English).
I'm doing well, I suppose. Chicago is dreary and unpredictable in the winter, but thankfully, there is less bone-chilling cold than last year. I'm completely disillusioned with academic institutions, especially this one, for it seems all professors are politically motivared and can't just grade you on the quality of your work, but I'm plodding through. All other elements of my life are constant enough, and my New Year's resolution is to drink more tea. I can handle that.
I know you're interested in what I'm reading and it's not very exciting. I've been optimistically carrying around Lenz with me and recently bought Gorky. I found Goethe's first play and the first line is promising: "Pour me some brandy and be a Christian about it". Apparently, it caused a really big stir as Goethe was only 24 when he wrote it, and it influenced Schiller?
How are you? I hope you are well. You can never tell these sorts of things from LJs.
Well for some reason I did not want to go out of my dorm today. So i've mostly spent all day of today in my pijamas. Still am, typing on my laptop. The weather here in Germany is warm. I was at home for christmas, and only managed to get sick and eat while I was there. I don't know how exactly i've been doing these days. I've managed to screw up my first test, because well I forgot I had a test, and I took an unholy ammount of time to write it and never actually finished the simple exercises in the two hour class. But it's only a germany course, and they don't even count for my degree, still felt badly however, and then I started worrying inanely about my GPAs and started looking for grad schools that I would like to study at. Germany..is friendly. My lack of abilities led my conversation to a more comfortable an nice casual day to day tone, so I can't express the self-imagined complexities of my soul and life, actually bettering this way my relations with other people. It's either that or the fact that I live in a dorm, and am apparently a somewhat likeable fellow, so I'm more or less more prone to be somewhat of a social ..thing. I no longer do week-long drinking binges, the not so exessive kinds, wherein you get drunk, but wake up without hangover the next day. I've managed to make young cute french sociology masters angry at me for a few days, but eventually won them over again, to all appearances, but of course, broken contact, because well, I'm a sensitive pusilanimous soul. But really well I'm just not gone out of my way to reestablish contact, that is anything at all, if we meet, we might do other stuff. I've lived a few soap operas that still continue, but somehow managed to do so little academic work that i'm starting to feel bad by MY standards. I like it here. Things are less complicated than home, things arent as inately fucked up, in every little detail, forcing you to bare with a despicable state of things in every little outing. It's strange but I find the people here more friendly. I guess I also am more friendly here. I feel like I have more opportunities here to experience and get to know different kinds of people. The only problem is that I'm not entirely sure where I stand before all of this, how I feel about it. When I came back from home again, I noticed I never talked with anyone about the matters that concern me, I was mostly on "auto-drive". I've started to know a young lady a bit better, but I still don't know what to make of it, especially from my side. I've been feeling acutely the need for company here. I just don't want to (somewhat metaphorically) spend the nights alone. I don't want to always return alone. But precisely because of this I left my arms open to just about everything. There are things that do call to me in her, but I think that because i've more or less wound myself up so tight, I can't really let myself feel much other than that sort of pathetic bourgeois malaise that could be termed melancholy or suffering. Oh well, we'll see. In any case it's not my decision alone to advance in this, so I shouldnt make myself, so moral and uptight about everything. My inborn christian feeling of guilt getting to me once again. The beer here is actually healthy. And the climate while here warm for german standards I like much more than the heat. I've still to travel much, but will try to find a suitable travel partner and utilize my semester break for such enterprises. I need to find something to eat but maybe we can talk later. I'm sure I might exeeded the comment length already.
Oh. Also. It would be easy to keep your resolution here. The heathens here seem to drink tea often. Quite often. I still can't get accustomed to the habbit of drinking heated flavoured water. I, say what you will, am a full-blooded, born-and-raised american, and I want my coca-cola damnit. Coffee is also good. The people here also sometimes eat too little. It is weirdly strange. I lost my airplane. And three trains. On academic institutions, well, I guess it takes an avarage of 5 semester to get disillusioned about them, fully. The first two years the novelty hasnt completely worn off, and there is still hope for good classes. Of course they do exist, but then I am not a good student. I don't get as much of them as I should. Anyway.
Can you also please please tell me why, when I start looking for schools, can almost not find somewhere I would like to study in, other than Oxford..? Are all of the philosophy programs in the US, that icky, and all of the ones in germany chock-full of weird ethic classes..?
I've almost not been reading at all. I have the second part of The man without qualities there, and kafka's complete work, and some russian novels, but I've mostly only read Hume and a little little bit of Cassirer and about chinese thought/philosophy.
Germany sounds amazing. I find traveling exhilarating and that I completely immerse myself in my surroundings to the point of shutting out what, in a more mundane environment, would have certainly been provocative. The new cultures, environments, experiments, traditions all make me feel more alive, perhaps because my mind is constantly comparing, absorbing, analyzing etc. Maybe it's just me--I feel like I am a born wanderer. I assume you have plans for many excursions to other countries since it's all so close and cheap?
Dorms are inherently more social than the real world, and you should embrace that aspect of yourself. Don't forgot that you are in a situation where you can be completely uninhibited. I tend to believe that as we get older, those opportunies emerge less and less (am I pontificating? sorry). As for the lady? Your method seems to be the most intelligent--you are in Germany, you have no reason to worry about matters of the heart.
I made the tea-drinking resolution because the caffeine in coffee and tea are equal and good tea really does taste lovely so why should I subject myself to artificially concocted cola or bitter espresso and yes, I'm a hypocrite and drinking Diet Coke right now). Still, tea has the potential to be memorable.
I am not familar with US philosophy programs. They are all probably full of postmodernists like it is here, but I do know that Columbia is supposed to be good and Harvard as well, but I think that goes without saying. US programs tend to be longer, I think. What's wrong with ethics courses? I suppose they would be the sort of thing that's completely dependent on the professor, but it seems that we now live in a world where ethics are more important to consider than morals. I think I'm going to go to graduate school as well, but it will be for something pragmatic. Ideally, I see myself doing administrative work in a country NOT America, hopefully easing linguistic entry into the future without infringing on cultural identity (talk about ethics!). We shall see.
Allow me to emphasize how envious I am that you are in Germany! I have only passed through by train and it looked so lovely...
Well I am sitting in an old convent. It is now a student residence. There is a tree in the inner courtyard that is about 800 years old.
Break. Sorry for the late reply. A drunken german just knocked heartily on my door, looked around all corners of my room for women in hiding, then convinced me to join him an other in the kitchen where they where drinking wine. I partaked in some cola, then some bier. Talked with a mexican neighbor who came by, apparently the french do reek, and with the others, among them a cute taiwanese whom the same guy convince to come over to drink some tea, a german from the former DDR, and then our lovable friendly tipsy german. We talked some nonsense, then when the numbers thinned we then delved into women, and eventually ended up talking politics. Now then. So the tree is about 800 years old, and around the corner there was an irish pub but it has been eventually integrated back into the property when it went bankrupt, half of the building was destroyed in a bomb run during the war, but we still have half somewhat intact, where I live the Altbau (vs. the Neubau ;)), and amazingly the tree. When the french where here it was a porcelain fabric, during the nazis, apparently some sort of offices, before that a convent, many times apparently, demolished and rebuilt, the fundations are still roman, and apparently the inquisition might have been here. It's a historic town. We get lots of chinese tourists. Karl Marx. It feels kinda tourist-trappy to me. But I'm probably overly exagerating. It's a small town and I can walk to the center on foot, in only a few minutes. It's an area with a history of wine cultivation, but I don't seem to have catched on to the fad, but I do drink a good deal of wine. Mostly cheap wine however. We are students. I've been thinking however of having a wine reserve. Mostly for 'entertaining'. And then having mein alltägliches Bier. I appreciate the beer here. It does not make me sick, and the climate is better apparently for my complexion and health. And I appreciate the people I have gotten to know and spend some time with, a young woman out of south africa, one from Finnland, quite a few good guys from the USA, and the polish are very friendly. French, japanese..etc, etc, we seem to have everything, and it seems to be nice. It's strange to know more about some japanese literature/authors than someone out of japan.
Now about ethics, I like ethics, I guess I'm just strict about the way it's handled and seem to dislike courses with names like: Theories of global justice, Personal and collective responsibility, Coherence and ..eh how to translate, überlegungsgleichgewichte, Equivalencies/equilibriums of consideration..equal-value consideration/deliberation..., oh well, in Ethics. And so and so. Guess I just don't like some approaches to ethics. Probably a silly prejudice. I have interest in ethics, just not in some of it's recent encarnations, when I see all these ethic courses I think to myself, why don't they have more history of philosophy, and theoretical courses, and then sigh. Only posmodernism and ethics... and a few 'regular' good old courses. Actually I did look into Columbia and it did actually seem somewhat attractive, unless my memory is failing me. And it is lovely with the toy houses, and renaissance facade convent-dorms with Bier and Cola dispensers, and bars in the basement, as well as other things. But yes, I still have to travel a lot, only visited a few cities, a castle, and not much else, mostly been in my small town. But I would like to go as far as Spain, maybe even england if it's not too expensive, and I'm quite close to france among other things, that I can't really pass out the oportunity, so really the decision between books and travelling is not that much of a problem, it's finding a good travel partner that I need to work on, if not i'd have to settle for my consolation books and a few trips here and there, but I don't think I'll have too much trouble finding a travel partner. And in any case wish you the best, I need to head to sleep, it's almost 4 am, and I need to wake up early tomorrow, have my history of chinese thought class. Ta-ta, and nice to talk with you again.
I'm doing well, I suppose. Chicago is dreary and unpredictable in the winter, but thankfully, there is less bone-chilling cold than last year. I'm completely disillusioned with academic institutions, especially this one, for it seems all professors are politically motivared and can't just grade you on the quality of your work, but I'm plodding through. All other elements of my life are constant enough, and my New Year's resolution is to drink more tea. I can handle that.
I know you're interested in what I'm reading and it's not very exciting. I've been optimistically carrying around Lenz with me and recently bought Gorky. I found Goethe's first play and the first line is promising: "Pour me some brandy and be a Christian about it". Apparently, it caused a really big stir as Goethe was only 24 when he wrote it, and it influenced Schiller?
How are you? I hope you are well. You can never tell these sorts of things from LJs.
Reply
Afterlife - To surmise.
Reply
I'm doing fine.
Afterlife - Whine you bitch!
Reply
Can you also please please tell me why, when I start looking for schools, can almost not find somewhere I would like to study in, other than Oxford..? Are all of the philosophy programs in the US, that icky, and all of the ones in germany chock-full of weird ethic classes..?
I've almost not been reading at all. I have the second part of The man without qualities there, and kafka's complete work, and some russian novels, but I've mostly only read Hume and a little little bit of Cassirer and about chinese thought/philosophy.
Afterlife - Hoi hoi hoi.
Reply
Dorms are inherently more social than the real world, and you should embrace that aspect of yourself. Don't forgot that you are in a situation where you can be completely uninhibited. I tend to believe that as we get older, those opportunies emerge less and less (am I pontificating? sorry). As for the lady? Your method seems to be the most intelligent--you are in Germany, you have no reason to worry about matters of the heart.
I made the tea-drinking resolution because the caffeine in coffee and tea are equal and good tea really does taste lovely so why should I subject myself to artificially concocted cola or bitter espresso and yes, I'm a hypocrite and drinking Diet Coke right now). Still, tea has the potential to be memorable.
I am not familar with US philosophy programs. They are all probably full of postmodernists like it is here, but I do know that Columbia is supposed to be good and Harvard as well, but I think that goes without saying. US programs tend to be longer, I think. What's wrong with ethics courses? I suppose they would be the sort of thing that's completely dependent on the professor, but it seems that we now live in a world where ethics are more important to consider than morals. I think I'm going to go to graduate school as well, but it will be for something pragmatic. Ideally, I see myself doing administrative work in a country NOT America, hopefully easing linguistic entry into the future without infringing on cultural identity (talk about ethics!). We shall see.
Allow me to emphasize how envious I am that you are in Germany! I have only passed through by train and it looked so lovely...
Reply
Break. Sorry for the late reply. A drunken german just knocked heartily on my door, looked around all corners of my room for women in hiding, then convinced me to join him an other in the kitchen where they where drinking wine. I partaked in some cola, then some bier. Talked with a mexican neighbor who came by, apparently the french do reek, and with the others, among them a cute taiwanese whom the same guy convince to come over to drink some tea, a german from the former DDR, and then our lovable friendly tipsy german. We talked some nonsense, then when the numbers thinned we then delved into women, and eventually ended up talking politics. Now then. So the tree is about 800 years old, and around the corner there was an irish pub but it has been eventually integrated back into the property when it went bankrupt, half of the building was destroyed in a bomb run during the war, but we still have half somewhat intact, where I live the Altbau (vs. the Neubau ;)), and amazingly the tree. When the french where here it was a porcelain fabric, during the nazis, apparently some sort of offices, before that a convent, many times apparently, demolished and rebuilt, the fundations are still roman, and apparently the inquisition might have been here. It's a historic town. We get lots of chinese tourists. Karl Marx. It feels kinda tourist-trappy to me. But I'm probably overly exagerating. It's a small town and I can walk to the center on foot, in only a few minutes. It's an area with a history of wine cultivation, but I don't seem to have catched on to the fad, but I do drink a good deal of wine. Mostly cheap wine however. We are students. I've been thinking however of having a wine reserve. Mostly for 'entertaining'. And then having mein alltägliches Bier. I appreciate the beer here. It does not make me sick, and the climate is better apparently for my complexion and health. And I appreciate the people I have gotten to know and spend some time with, a young woman out of south africa, one from Finnland, quite a few good guys from the USA, and the polish are very friendly. French, japanese..etc, etc, we seem to have everything, and it seems to be nice. It's strange to know more about some japanese literature/authors than someone out of japan.
Now about ethics, I like ethics, I guess I'm just strict about the way it's handled and seem to dislike courses with names like: Theories of global justice, Personal and collective responsibility, Coherence and ..eh how to translate, überlegungsgleichgewichte, Equivalencies/equilibriums of consideration..equal-value consideration/deliberation..., oh well, in Ethics. And so and so. Guess I just don't like some approaches to ethics. Probably a silly prejudice. I have interest in ethics, just not in some of it's recent encarnations, when I see all these ethic courses I think to myself, why don't they have more history of philosophy, and theoretical courses, and then sigh. Only posmodernism and ethics... and a few 'regular' good old courses. Actually I did look into Columbia and it did actually seem somewhat attractive, unless my memory is failing me. And it is lovely with the toy houses, and renaissance facade convent-dorms with Bier and Cola dispensers, and bars in the basement, as well as other things. But yes, I still have to travel a lot, only visited a few cities, a castle, and not much else, mostly been in my small town. But I would like to go as far as Spain, maybe even england if it's not too expensive, and I'm quite close to france among other things, that I can't really pass out the oportunity, so really the decision between books and travelling is not that much of a problem, it's finding a good travel partner that I need to work on, if not i'd have to settle for my consolation books and a few trips here and there, but I don't think I'll have too much trouble finding a travel partner. And in any case wish you the best, I need to head to sleep, it's almost 4 am, and I need to wake up early tomorrow, have my history of chinese thought class. Ta-ta, and nice to talk with you again.
Afterlife - When you are just tired.
Reply
Leave a comment