exam times - part i

[post divided retroactively]

wow! the semester is officially over, and my first final is in five days. of course, it's the horrible one - all the rest are take-home papers and i'm rather looking forward to those :D

---wednesday:

i awoke to the sounds of construction, interfering with my dreams even more than the alarm clock could. i was nervous, too - my first poetry reading was fast approaching. as i prepared for the day a storm of ideas broke, and i caught them on my iphone's notepad to the pitter-patter sound of my fast-beating heart.

pg's doppelgänger was waiting for the same bus - what, is she also a neighbour?! that's just ridiculous.

wednesday was wr's birthday, so i called him up to wish him a happy one. as it turned out, he was on his way to say hi... we sat watching robot chicken star wars and chatting, and i was going to walk into class a little late but then all my classmates began to walk out the building; she'd stood us up again, and in her place the TA was taking Q 'n A. a few of us missioned to buy beer and drink it in the park while spinning on a carousel. it was as good a start to the day as could be.

---except for the bit, earlier on, when i spoke to a financial advisor about the money the army took off my salary for my "pension". so i've been screwed twice - no, thrice by them.
part 1: NIS 9000 that i didn't get because i served 2.5 years with an inappropriate rank.
part 2: earning no more than one third of the minimum salary i'd have commanded if i hadn't signed on.
part 3: that pension money going nowhere. after almost four years, my army pension account is now sitting at a whopping NIS 500. that'd sort me out with lunch for... a couple of weeks. maybe.

---after the park we joined the study session in the library. the guy i'd argued with online sat down next to me, and the argument resumed - only much louder than before. at some point a girl behind us couldn't decide whether we were bothering her or if she wanted to take part, so three of us (not including the girl) took the debate outside (after i explained to her that arguments are for arriving at conclusions, and that we're still all friends).
we talked another ten minutes or so before the third guy jumped on my opponent: "ah-HA! you just contradicted yourself!"

it's so nice when others can do that for me :D

eventually we sorted everything out - he understood what i was getting at and agreed that saying things like that outside of one's private circle can be dangerous; in fact, the point the caused the aforementioned contradiction was him saying that he'd think less of any friend that called him "ashkenazi" because he was trying to better himself.

---after deciding that we'd understood shklovsky and motifs we took a break for lunch, joined by eidetic and a discussion about course workloads. then it was time to print out the poetry i was going to read and practice. nerves, you see.

---the reading itself was fun! and there really wasn't any reason to get so excited. it'll definitely be easier next time. i began with dead eye, shared my stream of consciousness and finished off with a compass. the more i read that last one, the happier i become with it :)

lessons learned: if only i'd thought to thank the organizers while on the stage! it seems to be the right thing to do. also, i guess it's always a good idea to put together a presentation so that it's easier to follow the words (i *hope* i read mine clearly enough, but one never can tell) and get the more obscure references (like the description of the petrified forest, or the "blood-sucking missiles", or the "steamy soprano fissures").

i've been informed indirectly by the sponsor that i'll be invited back at some stage ^_^

---pg and i took the bus home, and before going out i crashed for an hour. i don't know how long it's been since i kipped that deeply.

i groggily took the bus and a walk to "arthur's" at the harbour - no indication on the building that that's the place, which is a bit silly in my opinion. i'd brought nerds to share, and we all sat there drinking beers and staring at the victoria's secret fashion show. there were some crazy pieces! and i usually don't care much for that sort of thing, but that was simply smoking hot.

... one of my american co-workers made a decidedly uneducated remark on nixon, and i got stuck into explaining the origins and outcomes of the war on drugs...

i left just in time to catch the nine home, prepare a birthday present, stop by pg's to say goodnight, walk onto the five (two buses with perfect timing? no way!) and arrive in time to join wr for the third song of the evening. the show was absolutely brilliant, so much so that even the band members are a bit concerned about being able to maintain such a high level. we all loved it ^_^

we discussed running a pastafarian bar, where all liquor is considerably cheaper and the rum barely above cost. i think that might work.

---thursday:

epic, long complex dreams disappearing on a puff of sleep dust chased by peaceful alarm clock memories and crushed by adrenaline heart-pounding and failed, desperate clawing to hold on to fragments of their wisdom just long enough to write it down before such heady beauty is lost entirely

virginia woolf - mrs dalloway is growing on me. i'd gotten up super early (6.30am) to catch up on the reading, and after a quarter of the book i decided i quite like it. and it reminded me of bi-planes flying advertising banners. haven't seen those in many years.

i dozed and read on the couch under my warm blanket for a couple of hours, then got ready and left. as i closed the door, my recycling box jumped down onto the floor to remind me that i'd run a load of washing - thank you, cardboard box! that could've been an unpleasant surprise.

on a completely unrelated note: my iphone's camera is fucked. it crashes every time i try to take a photo, and most times without storing the snap :S

our first lecture, with the italian sick, was taken by his teaching assistant. after the class i was compelled to approach her and ask her why she couldn't have taken the whole damned semester. she was a vast improvement.
the study session was difficult to manage without becoming sidetracked. every time the guys got rowdy, i threw another reason at them and we continued. thank you, matthew!

have i asked the following question before? it concerns our italian lecturer: who understands humans and yet chooses to become a cultural anthropologist?
what we need is an anthro-apologist.

i was planning on napping before the last class, but instead found myself meeting new and interesting people instead. one of those people is the child of expatriate south africans, who suggested that i hit the telfed up for a scholarship...

odd that: my iphone corrected the word "telfed" to "gelded".

the last poetry lesson was hardcore: adrienne rich hardcore. that stuff's so potent and heady we didn't have much to say.

---work last night was alright, although my beanie appears to be gone. gone. gone. i loved that beanie :(

-someone came to talk to me towards the end of the evening, and just as we'd agreed on how he needs to proceed he said something that i felt, on my lip. spittle flying is never a nice thing for either party involved, but that was worse than usual :S

---i made my way home, relatively early (about 10pm), and dropped off my bag. then i took a slow walk to pg's listening to awesome psychedelic rock... [this bit censored on the grounds that it might give a bad impression of us pirates, but it does involve surprisingly piratey behaviour (^_^)]

we were going to watch a movie, but i passed out instead. i do that a lot, lately :S
hopefully the next semester will be a little less crazy.

---today:

i walked home via the bookstore, picking up the death of ivan ilyich & other stories, mysteries of celtic britain, great expectations, the great gatsby, heart of darkness, survival of the sickest, fragile things, and, because it seems piratey, pirate latitudes - all paid for using the gift card my employer bought me for my birthday :))

i hurried off to work - i'd agreed to spend an hour there helping out the unhelpful IT guy if and only if nobody else could - and was accosted by the caretaker of a neighbourhood synagogue who needed assistance changing a light-bulb. of course i would help; pity about the bus :/

so i got screwed for breakfast - my hands were cable-tied, as it were. i spent the first hour and a half waiting for him - at least i always have work to do - then the last hour sorting cables.

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