some observations on academics

I am seriously burnt out from all this studying--I can't take it anymore! I have been spending almost every day in the library for the past 3 weeks. Going to the library involves a lot of walking (about a mile each way, I'd say) a lot of money spent on food (I am not too keen on walking a mile back for dinner), a lot of quiet, a lot of headaches, not a lot of socializing. And that's just at Maughn, which is one of the King's libraries where they keep all the humanities books. I also occasionally go to Senate House, which is the library that the entire University of London shares, and the British Library, which is the one that the entire United Kingdom shares. Basically the thing that is both glorious and terrible about studying in London is that pretty much every single book in the english language is somewhere in the city, usually in one of the three libraries I just named. This means that you have absolutely no excuse for not reading any given book that may be helpful for your essay. If you complain to the professor that you can't find it, instead of suggesting something else, all they say is, "join the British Library!" Then you have to pretend like you aren't already a member of the British Library.

The thing with these exams is, you don't really study for them as much as you prepare for them. It's not like an American exam where you have a set amount of information and your task is to understand it and remember it long enough to scribble it down in a blue book. Instead, they give you the topic ahead of time which is really vague, and you do whatever you want with it. Usually the questions are along the lines of: "feminism in at least two modernist texts" or "the relationship between remembering and forgetting in WWI literature." like i said, really vague. so you decide which books you want to write on, and you do all kinds of research, and read the primary texts multiple times, until you come up with some sort of argument that is, if not actually original, at least presented in an original way. If this all sounds really familiar to you, it's probably because IT'S THE EXACT SAME PROCESS AS WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER. Only you can't write it down as you go, you have to remember it all and write it down in a timed exam. What I'm trying to say is, it's not a one-day process, and it requires your brain to actually be functioning the entire time, which I think is a lot to ask, even if it is worth 100% of the grade. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it's worth 100% of the grade.

Although I think it's a pretty absurd system in a lot of ways, the one aspect I definitely like a lot is that you only have to read about what you're interested in. And I have to admit I have learned a whole crapload of really interesting stuff in the past few days. That said, this has been a horrendous week, and I am ready to give up completely on this nonsense and get on a train to Paris.

Also, tonight I ate chocolate hobnobs for dinner.

Um, I don't know if I ever mentioned it but my pictures from my trip with Matt are up on Picasa now. However, Matt is a way better photographer so you might just want to look at his flickr page.

taking the day off

come join the youth and beauty brigade

So I woke up in my bed just now thinking to myself, man that was a nice long nap...wait a minute, why is it still light out, I figured it would be dark by now, hmm let me just look at my phone to see what time it is HOLY CRAP I JUST SLEPT FOR 13 HOURS STRAIGHT AND IT IS NOW THE MORNING. No joke, guys. I slept from 6 PM until 7 AM without waking up once.

What I'm trying to say is, I turned in my two essays yesterday. I managed, as usual, to be working on them at the last minute, and therefore made a bit of a mess of things, but they are gone, turned in, both literally and figuratively out of my hands. Which also means I am completely done with those two classes. relief!!!!!!!

Now I have to start studying for my exams, but I think I will probably take the day off. One can only spend so much of one's life in a library, before it starts to seem normal.

In fact, I think I might just go back to bed.

For some sick reason I just agreed to go to the British Library tomorrow at 9 AM. what have I done?!?!

I'm losing my mind.

If you are for some reason on a quest to find the worst movie ever made, I highly suggest you watch the 1955 Australian film Jedda. I can't be sure, of course, but it might just be the very worst. And lucky me; I get to write half of my term paper on it! To give you an idea of it's horribleness, I am writing this blog while it plays on the screen next to me... there has been nothing to take notes on or transcribe for the past 15 minutes because NOTHING HAS HAPPENED. Some aboriginal dude is dragging Jedda through the jungle and some other dudes are trying to find them. That's basically it. Oh man, I think someone just died. Hm.

I know racism in general is no laughing matter, but in this movie it so is. Let me just say that one of the main characters is in blackface, and every once in a while when he sweats it starts to come off. Also, there is this part where a white dude shows up at the ranch, and sees that everyone is crying. He asks one of the aboriginal field hands what's going on. The aboriginal guy says, "Missus lost the baby."

The white guy goes, "You mean the white baby?"

"Yes."

"Oh. That's bad!"

Like, seriously?!


Also, I learned form one of the several scholarly articles I had to read about this mess that they actually spray painted the dirt red in one of the scenes, so it would look like they were in the Northern Territory when really they were like in somebody's backyard in Sydney. Spray paint.

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I love when it's grey in LA, cause there's way too much sunshine round here
I don't know about you, I get so sick of blue skies wherever they always appear

where do they keep the fat germans?

we are now in florence. it's gorgeous here, or at least it was for about an hour before it started pouring. since it seems like a city that is better enjoyed outdoors, this is quite a shame. hopefully tomorrow will be better. we did go see michaelangelo's david, the big huge church (duomo or whatever) and some other stuff, and have eaten some good food. tomorrow we plan to go to some gardens and a piazza with a good view of the city. I am being vague because I don't actually know... I am letting matt do most of the planning in this city because I am happy enough just eating gelato and wandering around.

salzburg was very nice but a little on the boring side. we didn't have anything to do at night so we just went to the irish pub both nights and ended up meeting a lot of nice people there. we dropped thirty euros on the sound of music tour which was a little bit disappointing as far as kitsch value is concerned but we got to see a lot of cool places and go out into the countryside. And salzburg is absolutely gorgeous, but that goes without saying.