gliding - part ii

[... continued]

thursday:

eating grapefruit near a netbook is a mistake.

the day began chilling with wr and reading an informative introduction to beowulf; icg's back on campus and we happened to be sitting in her building. yay for awkwardness! wr was asked about music by some girl who ended up with a short list from me of must-listen-to's. one of the items on the list is lihi sagi. she's gonna be good ;)

i arrived at the conclusion, during our first class, that the introduction wasn't actually necessary - although there's no such thing as a waste. the first reading was performed by an american girl... beowulf with an american accent is unkind. i took the second, and felt far more comfortable than i had three days before. soon i should be breathing comfortably :P

i had a couple of questions after class, and bore witness to stg being unkind to the kindess of lecturers by asking trivialities that he didn't know what to do with. i tried to help out, then took her aside and told her to annoy me with the silly stuff and save the big ones for the instructors. i hope she wasn't offended, but i'm uncomfortable with her making herself look foolish even though i know it's her first week in academia.

i had lunch with one of the guys from the rollerblading group (canadian munchkin - cm) and then parked myself on the grass to read hiawatha. it's the same meter as cream - the tale of brave ulysses and so i cannot read it without (in my head) singing it to that tune...

pg surprised me and sat down with me for a few minutes - she was in a weird way. we ran into her brother on the way to class, but whatever that weirdness was still manifesting and the whole encounter was awkward.

---i've been made fun of for carrying around the metal cup i bought in india.
"what, are you still backpacking?"
the reason i replaced it on my bag is that wr gave me a heads-up at the beginning of the week: it has now proved to be an invaluable addition to my gear! i can now obtain decent coffee for one shekel, *and* i'm not damaging the environment by discarding disposables.

---the discussion on portraits and exprasis was most enlightening. in particular, i have discovered that i'm spot on for the course although i'd been feeling as confused as everyone else. i *like* knowing what's going on, i *like* seeing my questions causing other people to go "hmmmm...." :)

our last class for the week was a lot of fun! i had our lecturer laughing out loud when i described the american attitude to the native americans as akin to having confused the order of "rape, plunder, pillage" - you don't want to set fire to the house with the loot still inside it (he says, tactfully).

one of the girls i'd been speaking to on monday didn't seem too impressed with the class, and i asked what was up... she claimed to have thoroughly enjoyed it, and i claimed to lack a sense of irony. i wonder if she was offended?

the kit kat catastrophe: on my way out, desperate for chocolate, and the sneaky machine pushed the bar *just* onto the edge. there's a sliding mechanism to ensure that one can't tip the machine. this happened outside of the company's telephone support hours.

the pile-on for the bus reminded me of my favourite army line... although at least there were no fists involved. i squatted in a corner and read my magazine until getting to my stop, bought wine gums (wine gums! in israel! w00t!!!) and walked to the clinic.

it took a while to get in to see the ophthalmologist, but she was very efficient. apparently all my eye trouble can be blamed on allergies. we shall see.

a quick pre-wall nap turned into a little death; i was hopelessly bombed. around midnight i was visited by an angel, who had vanished by the time i woke up this morning. maybe i'd only dreamed that.

now to meet with a potential employer.

i'm REALLY happy with how this first week went! here's to a weekend of preparing for the next one ^_^