You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2007.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve updated. Sorry about that! But I come bearing pictures, so doesn’t that make up for it? You know it does.This past week marked the first where I felt like a real student again. I was running around all over the place and accomplishing things (that weren’t my readings) and hanging out with people and that? That is student life. I need to have downtime in my life as much as the next person, but this needs to alternate with periods of frenzied activity for me to be really happy. (And there are qualifiers on those activities. I have to have chosen them and I need to have the agency to back out of them if I want to. I’d never be happy if my insanely busy periods were dictated by someone else!)
I also went to London, specifically to the V&A and the Natural History Museum, on a “study visit” (aka class trip) on Tuesday (16 October). That was fun, but 3 1/2 hours on the coach there and 3 hours on the way back for a 5 hour stay in London? Not really something I want to repeat.
On Saturday (20 October…which marks one month in England!) I went to Oxford with my friend Jenna and the ISA (International Student Association). It was so much fun! I took enough pictures to run my camera down from a full battery. I’m not daft enough to try and post all of them here, but these are some highlights.The first thing we did was wander aimlessly while indiscriminately photographing everything from ivy covered buildings to especially picturesque public toilets. That may be a slight exaggeration but, as demonstrated by this gargoyle having a wee, only slight.
Of course we took all the usual tourist shots of the Radcliffe Camera, which was gorgeous.
The first genuine stop we made was at the Botanical Gardens, which Jenna wanted to see because of something His Dark Materials related. I’ve only just started reading the series so I can’t quite say what that is, but there was a bench. We photographed it. Maybe some of you get the connection.
The Botanical Gardens turned out to be gorgeous AND really good fun. First the gorgeous:
As for the fun part, the greenhouses were completely overgrown (in a good way). There were paths for you to walk around but they were entirely over-hung with plants. It was not a manicured North American garden! It made you feel sort of like you were cutting your way through an exotic jungle in the Amazon basin. I tried getting pictures of the path to show how it was all covered, but none of them came out right. Jenna took a picture of me amongst the foliage to demonstrate how ridiculous it all was, but I think it may have proved the ridiculous thing to be me! Or at least my outfit. Sometimes I suspect I might look like I’m in costume, but that’s just how I dress.
When we left the gardens we tried to use our youth and innocent airs to sneak into some of the Colleges. It worked at this one. Of course I can’t remember the name, but it had a fun staircase:
It did not work at Christ Church however. There was a scary man in a bowler hat who made angry faces at us and would have charged us money to enter. I’m a miserly sort so I contented myself with this picture of an outside wall:
We had lunch at the Eagle and Child Pub, which is where ‘the Inklings’ (J.R.R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, yadda yadda) met and chatted. They called it the ‘Bird and Baby.’ Oh the cleverness of them… I had fish & chips, because it is one of my missions for the year to eat fish & chips in as many famous pubs as I can. (I already had them at Ye Olde Trippe to Jerusalem Inn in Nottingham, which claims to be the oldest public house in Britain. Now let’s see if I can’t find an old pilgrim’s pub at Canterbury to go to this weekend!)
The last stop of the day, and the longest, was at the Ashmolean Museum. It was a very pretty, very old fashioned museum.
There were many interesting things to see there, but there was also this one object that I’ve since become a bit obsessed with. I’m going to do my first paper on it so I’ll try to keep the exposition to a minimum as it’s going to kind of be my life for the next two weeks. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a good, glare-free picture of it because of the way the case was laid out. I give you ‘King Powhatan’s Mantle’…
HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!
OK, I don’t actually expect you to be as excited about it as I am. But honestly? Did it really have anything to do with Powhatan? It was in a Cabinet of Curiosities before it arrived at the Ashmolean; did that affect how it was interpreted? How did it enter the Tradescant collection initially? Was it always considered a ‘treasure’? How is it interpreted differently here in England than it would be if it were back in the US? Exactly what sort of stealth operation would Bill Kelso launch if he were planning an international art heist to steal this? And, perhaps most importantly, what the heck were the folks at the Ashmolean thinking when they wrote the wall-text stating that this probably wasn’t really a cloak, but perhaps a temple hanging. You know all those famous Native American temples from the Chesapeake? Yea, one of those. (And I guess that’s one way the interpretation would be different in the US than it would be here…)
Enough of my blathering. The next update will probably be either paper wangst or more photos from my upcoming travels.
I’m going to start off by apologizing to any Leicester people who read this, since I’ve set these entries to upload as Facebook notes when I make them. I know I’ve probably complained to you about the vast majority of this already! Also I’m sorry for my gratuitous use of British cussing in the title. Except that I’m not. How could I resist? The title I wanted to opt for, “The Latest Outrage,” is probably my most-used blogging title of all time. It’s time for a change!
So what’s bothering me today? Much like Andy Rooney, I am quite eager to tell you.
I haven’t slept properly in days.
My bedroom is directly next to the toilet for my flat. This has actually been fine as the toilets themselves aren’t particularly noisy. The fans, however, have been a nightmare. On Monday one of them (because as near as I can tell there are two, and one is much louder than the other!) began running non-stop for hours on end. I put in a maintenance request and included an aside that one of my flatmates had put a sign on one of the toilets saying it didn’t work.
The next morning the nature of the fan problem changed. Instead of whirring constantly, which at least provided white noise, it switched to a pattern of whirring for a few seconds and then going silent, then whirring again and so on. I was in my room when the folks from maintenance came in to look at the toilet and it was doing this on and off whirring when they were there. I assumed they would do something, rejoiced and went on my way to class. Of course, Tuesday night was a night of continuous interruption. I sent an email to the Accommodation Office because I figured my problem hadn’t been attended to yet and I didn’t want to file another request form while one was still outstanding. I let them know that the fan was no longer running continuously and was instead going in spurts.
Wednesday I get a note under the door (because that is the way maintenance communicates with you. Heaven forfend we use email or anything so people have a way to respond) saying that no fault had been found. So Wednesday night = again no sleep. And then some clown decided to pull the fire alarm at 3am, causing everyone in Blocks A&B to have to rush outside in the freezing cold. I had just managed to fall asleep at 2. I was Very Unamused.
I sent in another maintenance request today stating that yes, there is a fault! And could they at least please try to find it? And if they aren’t going to do that at least have the courtesy to tell me as much so I can request a housing transfer? Because they have a policy of “We’ll get to it when we get to it, unless it’s an immediate threat to health and safety” I also mentioned how this was quickly becoming a health issue as I grew more and more sleep deprived.
And lo! Someone responded to me! An actual email, giving the general outline of what they plan to do! It seems that a contractor installed some new fans this summer and they’re faulty. They’ve turned off the fan for the time being because they have to wait until this contractor comes in to replace them. Hey, I’ll take it. I’d rather share my air freshener than listen to that all day and night…
< / pushy American >
Another letter I got under my door last night was the bank letter I’d requested 2 weeks ago from the Graduate Office. They were really backed up because it was the start of term, which is why it took so long. As an international student I need one of these to prove to the bank that I am, in fact, a full-time student and that I really do live where I say I live.
I got to the bank today and the letter was all wrong. It didn’t have the bank name on it, my home (US) address or the dates of my course. I now have to wait for the graduate office to process another letter. Fingers crossed that they put the correct info on it this time!
I promise I’ll try to start doing interesting and blog-worthy (or at least photo-worthy) things very soon! I have a 4-day weekend coming up and I’m trying to recruit people to go someplace fantastic with me.
So, what’s new in your life?
First off, oh University of Leicester, you slay me! Space money? How hysterical. I guess the first structure they’re planning on building on the moon is a hamburger stand. Who wants to bet 5 QUIDs that it’s a McDonald’s? (And can’t we just have a barter system based on Tang?)
That lead-in is my way of telling you that the narrative thing isn’t working for me. I’ve been attending classes, hanging out with people, sleeping and doing other thrill-a-minute things like shopping and reading. Sorry to say mine is not a life that needs to be recounted play by play. If you disagree then I can put your mind at ease by telling you that for dinner tonight I had pasta with garlic, broccoli and sausage. I also wore a black shirt with a red vest (“sleeveless jumper” or “knit waistcoat”… I polled Brits and this was the best we could do.) Tomorrow I don’t have class until 4pm. Satisfying entry, no?
One thing that’s been tough for me is that most of my friends from my program live in a “hall” (dorm) that’s pretty far away from me. I’ve hung out a bit with people from my “hall” (though not my hall aka “flat.” Have I confused you yet?) recently, but we’re not nearly as numerous as those Opal Court people! They’re also closer to silly things like campus and the city center. Fie on them.
We’ll pretend that distance thing is why I couldn’t make it back from the bar on Friday night and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk. In reality I was going back towards Opal Court when I fell, cut my face open, and apparently lay on the ground hysterical laughing until I was picked up and carried on someone’s back. I then played the Yenta, threw up a bit, and passed out on my friend’s bed. So, once again, collapsing, gutters and death have been delayed through the kind intervention of strangers/still near strangers. Wow, that was remarkably play-by-play. Also very typically college student, except for the part where I never did the passing out in the street thing in college!
Hi Mom.
OK. Wow, this entry might be a doozy but I’m going to have to try and condense events as much as possible because I’m unsure that I’m ever going to have time for in-depth entries ever again! My schedule is frightening me that much.
I left off with me taking a taxi to St Pancras to get the train to Nottingham. Luckily for me the hotel called a driver who was a friend of theirs instead of an official taxi driver, so I was allowed to set my own price for the ride. The internet had informed me the usual price for this run was around £26, but I got away with paying £20. This is still a ridiculous price, but there you have it. I was one of the first people on my train so I managed to have a place to store my copious belongings. Late-boarders were not as lucky since there’s barely any storage space on Midland Mainline trains. This later proved to be a huge problem when it was Rebecca and I boarding in the middle of the train’s run from Nottingham to Leicester with 4 huge bags.
I met Rebecca at the Nottingham train station and we took (another) cab to her friend Lonnie’s apartment. Lonnie, who was someone I only knew about previously as Rebecca’s “heavy metal Pony friend,” was absolutely lovely and a really great hostess. While in Nottingham I got to see pretty much all the tourist attractions they’ve got, including Nottingham Castle (with its snazzy new exhibit about the Robin Hood BBC series. Unsurprisingly a terrible exhibit to accompany a terrible show! Although at least the terrible show is more entertaining than the terrible exhibit) and “the oldest pub in Britain,” Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Inn. Later that night I got to meet some of Rebecca’s friends, including Hugh Laurie Part II.
The next day we futzed around until it was time to catch our train to Leicester. Another friend of Rebecca’s picked us up at the station and gave us a place to crash for the night. In the morning we walked all of the luggage several blocks to my dorm. It really wasn’t terribly far, but it seemed pretty far with all that junk in tow!
I’ll post more on aesthetic impressions another time, when I’ve got some accompanying pictures. All-in-all Nixon Court (my dorm) is better than I anticipated. Of course there are very few people on my course who live nearby, so that’s a bummer, but the rooms are nice enough. I don’t have a very social hall (another bummer) but I’m going to do something very revolutionary and attempt not to talk too much about people on this (very unlocked) blog because that always comes back to haunt me.
For the W&M readers amongst you I’ll give you a sense of where I’m living. I’m about as far away from the main campus as I was living at Ludwell, but sadly there’s no bus for the rainy days. My department is located a bit away from the main campus in an old building that probably used to be a private home or, dare I say, apartment? Oh College Apartments… So, basically, this is a very familiar living and campus situation!
I went to International Student Orientation, which was basically a waste of a week. The sessions were boring and only tangentially relevant, simply reiterating the (admittedly scattered) information off the website. I did meet some people from my course though, so that was nice. (And even though I only have good things to say about them I’m still cutting off here, as I endeavor not to talk about them!)
This week we had yet another registration, which consisted of getting our handbook and Study Guide. It contains the information about who is teaching each module, unit, session or tutorial. The timetable for when each of these sessions meet is found on Blackboard (oh, how I didn’t miss Blackboard!) and it’s a truly complex and confusing thing. Each session is marked with initials and group names indicating who has to attend it, so I went through and marked all my sessions. I’m a #, which indicates Museum Studies (as opposed to Art Museum & Gallery Studies), as well as in groups B, 2, Warrington, Lundy and Jupiter. So now we know who’s teaching each session and when they meet, but what do we have to do for each one? To figure that out you need to go into each professor’s folder on Blackboard and find the document that corresponds with the topic they’re teaching on each day. Your readings and assignments are in there! However, each professor does it a bit differently so it’s not really uniform.
So a lot of cross-referencing and information to synthesize even before you get to the information you’re learning! I’m very anal about to-do lists and schedules so I’m not sure how this is going to work out just yet. I think I’m going to try making myself a spreadsheet with meeting times and readings etc all in it. But there’s already reading to be done! Oy vey.
This wasn’t meant to be a complaint-filled entry by any means! I’m enjoying myself and the course looks fascinating. My professors seem brilliant and entertaining and I can’t wait to get started. I just wish I could mentally organize instead of having to do it all visually 
An opportunity as arisen, and though it isn’t part of my course I will have the opportunity to take a language course for £89. That’s pretty darn cheap. I can’t decide between French and German, so I’m looking for feedback. What say you?
