State of the Uni & Sundry Miscellany
O HAI INTERNETS, I'VE MISSED YOU, HAS SOME LIFE UPDATES WHYNOT:
Doodlethings Friday to be re-instated commencing this week. Don't worry, whirling-woman, I haven't forgotten you or Fat Pijjin!
Since I last wrote I have commenced to Tribal Fusion belly-dancing, sampled capoeira, rocked out three straight hours of medieval folk dancing, and joined the Salsa Society at school for those occasional Tuesdays when I feel predisposed to a little gyrating. Also Sunday nights are now RP nights, and my group of erstwhile Discworld adventurers holds its sessions of hiLOLity and derring-do IN A PUB in Camden. Because we are that shameless about talking in-character as female wizards and Transylvanian-accented werewolves. I heart the Sci-Fi Society so goddamn much.
Losing the webbertubes for two weeks actually made me get better at managing my class readings, and I've found a manageable rhythm to coursework now. Just in time to get WiFi back at home, spend Halloween weekend reveling as only us heathens can, and add a hojillion more oscillating time commitments to my life than there were in the middle of October. Oh sweet delirium of sleep deprivation, I sense thy imminent return and welcome thee back with both joy and dread.
RE: CLASSES, we have on the table -
Core Course, thus far a whirlwind race through the annals of Western European feminist thought. Retreading lots of old ground for me, but the baker's dozen or so people in my program come from a lot of different backgrounds, so there is always fresh discussion during lecture. And we've decided to start lunching together afterwards and carrying on points that maybe didn't get enough attention in class, or whatever's on our minds that week. I have bonded with the most unlikely people over mutual love for Norse mythology or vegetarian recipes, and also, randomly, there is another American Midwesterner here who actually graduated from my undergrad uni's sister school, right across the road from where I studied. Indiana just keeps following me abroad (o__o)a
Anthropology elective, focused on population studies in the developing world (and I totes owe ginnyseta my lecture notes on AIDs, poverty, and social demographics! Will get those to you eventually, hun, I promise!) One of the course requirements is that everyone take a turn at providing the class with chocolate treats. Our lecturer is a fantastic lady.
Geography elective, the surprise!gendered course of the bunch. Run by the woman who is my personal tutor for this term and also on the review board for post-grad dissertations and also-also teaching a metric ass-ton of other courses this term so constantly careening to and fro and possibly forgetting that she maybe-maybe-not assigned us Gender people a practice essay due in two weeks... (<.<) Yeah, we're all kinda hoping she's too swamped now to make us hand it in, but we should probably e-mail her about it soon. -ish.
AWESOME SAUCE French lit. elective /o/ There was sum drama between my programme and the Anthropology Department that resulted in a number of us getting booted from our first choice of spring electives, so I found a full-year course to replace that and give me some breathing room schedule-wise. This is one of those classes whose title alone makes one immediately go "YES. THIS." and despite the fact that I am really lamenting the loss of my French-speaking ability (I am the odd man out, doing all the readings in English translation, but discussion is in the commoners' tongue so it's all good), I am in paroxysms of spiderbrainy connectivity-glee over the material & this term's convener has just the sweetest brogue and the purest joy for close-reading analysis I have ever known. I really wish we could keep her for the whole year instead of swapping in two other lecturers for the remaining two terms.
Also, as random as my module selection ended up being, from the very start the class topics have tended to bleed together during any given week (with the frequent, but not total, exception of the anthropology stuff.) We went over Lacan in Core Course the same week that French prof brought Lacan into her theme for the day. Aristotle generally insinuated his way into everything, as is the inclination of those classical Greeks. Most recently, I think I've managed to introduce Hélène Cixous into at least four different contexts within five days. And this week it's Derrida in Geography lecture and geography in the Core Course, I mean good lord...my tutor expressed some surprise at the degree to which I enjoy the mindmelding of course materials. I choose to take it as a compliment.
Oh, and Tube strike means I won't be getting home tomorrow. Thanks, London Underground. I'll only be really cheesed off if I'm late for my belly dance class, tho. Otherwise it's just a good excuse for a sleepover.
Doodlethings Friday to be re-instated commencing this week. Don't worry, whirling-woman, I haven't forgotten you or Fat Pijjin!
Since I last wrote I have commenced to Tribal Fusion belly-dancing, sampled capoeira, rocked out three straight hours of medieval folk dancing, and joined the Salsa Society at school for those occasional Tuesdays when I feel predisposed to a little gyrating. Also Sunday nights are now RP nights, and my group of erstwhile Discworld adventurers holds its sessions of hiLOLity and derring-do IN A PUB in Camden. Because we are that shameless about talking in-character as female wizards and Transylvanian-accented werewolves. I heart the Sci-Fi Society so goddamn much.
Losing the webbertubes for two weeks actually made me get better at managing my class readings, and I've found a manageable rhythm to coursework now. Just in time to get WiFi back at home, spend Halloween weekend reveling as only us heathens can, and add a hojillion more oscillating time commitments to my life than there were in the middle of October. Oh sweet delirium of sleep deprivation, I sense thy imminent return and welcome thee back with both joy and dread.
RE: CLASSES, we have on the table -
Core Course, thus far a whirlwind race through the annals of Western European feminist thought. Retreading lots of old ground for me, but the baker's dozen or so people in my program come from a lot of different backgrounds, so there is always fresh discussion during lecture. And we've decided to start lunching together afterwards and carrying on points that maybe didn't get enough attention in class, or whatever's on our minds that week. I have bonded with the most unlikely people over mutual love for Norse mythology or vegetarian recipes, and also, randomly, there is another American Midwesterner here who actually graduated from my undergrad uni's sister school, right across the road from where I studied. Indiana just keeps following me abroad (o__o)a
Anthropology elective, focused on population studies in the developing world (and I totes owe ginnyseta my lecture notes on AIDs, poverty, and social demographics! Will get those to you eventually, hun, I promise!) One of the course requirements is that everyone take a turn at providing the class with chocolate treats. Our lecturer is a fantastic lady.
Geography elective, the surprise!gendered course of the bunch. Run by the woman who is my personal tutor for this term and also on the review board for post-grad dissertations and also-also teaching a metric ass-ton of other courses this term so constantly careening to and fro and possibly forgetting that she maybe-maybe-not assigned us Gender people a practice essay due in two weeks... (<.<) Yeah, we're all kinda hoping she's too swamped now to make us hand it in, but we should probably e-mail her about it soon. -ish.
AWESOME SAUCE French lit. elective /o/ There was sum drama between my programme and the Anthropology Department that resulted in a number of us getting booted from our first choice of spring electives, so I found a full-year course to replace that and give me some breathing room schedule-wise. This is one of those classes whose title alone makes one immediately go "YES. THIS." and despite the fact that I am really lamenting the loss of my French-speaking ability (I am the odd man out, doing all the readings in English translation, but discussion is in the commoners' tongue so it's all good), I am in paroxysms of spiderbrainy connectivity-glee over the material & this term's convener has just the sweetest brogue and the purest joy for close-reading analysis I have ever known. I really wish we could keep her for the whole year instead of swapping in two other lecturers for the remaining two terms.
Also, as random as my module selection ended up being, from the very start the class topics have tended to bleed together during any given week (with the frequent, but not total, exception of the anthropology stuff.) We went over Lacan in Core Course the same week that French prof brought Lacan into her theme for the day. Aristotle generally insinuated his way into everything, as is the inclination of those classical Greeks. Most recently, I think I've managed to introduce Hélène Cixous into at least four different contexts within five days. And this week it's Derrida in Geography lecture and geography in the Core Course, I mean good lord...my tutor expressed some surprise at the degree to which I enjoy the mindmelding of course materials. I choose to take it as a compliment.
Oh, and Tube strike means I won't be getting home tomorrow. Thanks, London Underground. I'll only be really cheesed off if I'm late for my belly dance class, tho. Otherwise it's just a good excuse for a sleepover.