Current verdict (so hardly final): still sick of German nationalism, but I'm beginning to feel like I rather understanding, so it's boring in a different way, now. More of an "old hat," sort of "this-is-the-same-thing-I-wrote-last-week" thing. So I'm going to assume that's a step in the right direction (because I'm currently in a good mood and would rather not ruin it). Minus library (so far--but I really should go before SkolVo), I'm right on schedule for my Wednesday in town...but I'm thinking I'll just try to find another book (maybe two) at the library, hit the lecture, and call it a day (town-wise). I just really hate being in town allll day and having to bike back in what feels like the dead of night (even if it's barely 7). That being said then, I had my last secondary tutorial this morning, and it feels really good to be done (not because I despised it, but just because it's now one less thing to worry about!). I had a sandwich with my mocha here at Caffe Nero, but I'm hungry again already (after less than an hour), and so I may grab a snack before I run to the library and then lecture.
I find myself looking desperately forward to little things: especially Friday, now. Christmas shopping in Oxford sounds absolutely divine after the weeks I've had, and anticipating the next week of frantic essay-ing. (Not essay-writing, which I know you're thinking, but rather the entire process--mental and tangible--of putting together a 4,000+ word essay, and its ensuing insanity.)
On a more amusing note, I'm sitting in the cozy alcove bit of the cafe, and since I've been here since noon, and it's in a centrally-located bookshop, and it serves legitimate food in addition to tasty steaming beverages, it's been quite the busy place. Here's the funny: people keep coming in and awkwardly looking around for somewhere to sit. It's definitely a more traditional cozy-coffee alcove--clusters of leather chairs around tiny round tables, and one couch surrounded by the same. When I walked in, I'm afraid I did that same awkward bit, except I made it rather less awkward by just walking over to an apparently empty chair and asking the fellow sitting across if it was taken. He said no, so I took a seat and awkwardly balanced my coffee in my lap, shrugged off my coat, and got reading. I might have been slightly less uncomfortable if I'd chosen the seating cluster opposite this particular guy, except for the incredibly awkward hand-holding not coffee-drinking couple cuddling on the couch. There was a table and two empty chairs across from them...but be honest, who the heck would want to sit there?? I'd rather stand. I understand the awkward couple dynamic, I really do. But at the busiest time of day in a cafe when you haven't even got drinks? Taking up not only a couch and table, but an entire seating area because everyone else in the entire world is uncomfortably and immensely put off by your unbelievable aura of awkwardness? I eventually managed to claim my own chair in the corner next to a table when the couple that had been there for the last 10 minutes vacated, and a few people have come and gone. The vibe is currently much less awkward (except people still peer in periodically): there's two guys on a couch (okay, could be awkward for them?), two girls sitting catty-corned to a table in one corner, an older gentleman reading the newspaper opposite the table from me, but not awkwardly at all, since I'm no longer using the table and my headphones are in (amazing the problems that solves!), and one other fellow across the room, all alone in a cluster of three chairs, also reading the paper. I've really become a much more avid people-watcher since being in Oxford, and I'm afraid it may have wreaked havoc on my productivity (which used to be top-notch and unfazeable, of course).
Next up: my desire to have the ability to channel my spotty written humour into Cracked-style articles, or even blog posts. I have good moments, certainly, and a casual style that lends itself to humourous writing, but so far I've been rather unable to come up with anything that is on par with what I wish it was. The closest I think I've come recently was my facetious note-taking in our lecture a week or two ago, in which I paid as little attention as possible, but still typed notes just in case someone noticed I was just scrolling through the Cracked archive instead of typing notes on my laptop like I should've been. This resulted in random sentences that basically consisted of what I thought I'd heard the lecturer say. I hadn't intended to write anything of value, but it ended up being rather amusing, so I sent it to Ginger and she insisted that I share it on facebook. It wasn't just the biggest hit ever, but considering I wasn't really trying for humour of wide appeal, I'm rather proud of it.
Snippets:
fake notes are pointless but they're a fair sight more interesting than, um, preserving grass in English towns? or cows or whatever.
something about white men with beards and "effing" forest (???)
land is being stolen by........probably not Robin Hood. or Christian communists, although the latter is certainly possible.
there was a crisis, but we're not sure why a park in the middle of an English town is quite so crisis-inducing. you can still call it Effing Forest, people!
nature may have won in court on a technicality, or just taken over the towns. it's unclear.
The Beatles are definitely here. Or playing through my computer. Also unclear and rather unlikely.
[In question time, I learn that poor people are involved.]
Okay, so that was that. Ginger found it hilarious (or so she said), and I'm honestly not sure if it's funnier if you were at the lecture or if you're just reading what I got out of the lecture. My mother should know that the lecture was not relevant to anything ever, except possibly research methods for writing on English societies like 100 years ago without the use of secondary sources if you're forming a thesis or something, and geography. (If that sentence made no sense, you get where I'm going with this.) I think I'll make more of an effort in the future...the idea of writing funny things kind of appeals to me. Topic suggestions welcome, I suppose, since that's usually my toughest time. :)
Much love to all, and I'm not the least bit offended if you didn't actually read all the way through this one. ~Hayley
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