Tuesday, February 06, 2007

I twitch and I salivate like with myxomatosis

between the thumperupstairs and the dripping tap and the fridge buzzing and occasional building works outside i think i might be going insane. i twitch and mutter at the ceiling.

all the french grammar suddenly exploded on monday - what *is* an auxillary? or a radical? and why am i being tested on past tense verbs when we haven't learnt them yet? - plus we were translating bits of foucault, which was, obviously, impossible. so bah to all that.

reading an entirely untelligible medieval grammatica (having a shot at the latin, and getting slightly less out of it than from the english translations) and marking a lot. but we're doing the transgender studies reader in my feminist theory class tomorrow, which i'm looking forward to. my exhuasting wednesday last week was particularly good. we had a very lively discussion in the morning on veiling, FGM and trafficking in women, all nice straightforward topics, you know, then in the medieval class we ended up having this intensely abstract discussion about writing, reading, oral and literate culture, memory and authorship. it was a a level of abstract that i'm sure is banned in several states of america. it was *great*.

masses of work coming up. i have a medieval assignment due, another french test and have volunteered to give a lecture to the first years about poetry. mostly good exciting things. the prof gave a lecture today called "fun with puncuation!" it was too.

met up with a couple of academics to get advice on existential crisis. i think i might go live in a cardboard box somewhere and eat rice. it's the best solution.

winifred gave me a packet of timtams today (she found them in a local supermarket! caloo calay!) and i taught her how to do a timtamslam. a very agreeable exchange. she says it is perfectly normal to have a second-semester-of-your-MA crisis and this time last year they were taking it in turns to stop each other jumping off the balcony. but last winter it rained for sixty days and sixty nights. i am just whining a lot. and swimming. both productive in their own ways.

i think that's all i have to whine about.

i have a pretty skirt.

it is pretty.

7 comments:

Nimmersatt said...

Oooh, a lecture! What about?

Gretta said...

radiohead, you ninny!

Gretta said...

thom

gumtreefid farmer said...

tuchfrau,

oooh! i know, exciting! also a bit scary, but whatever.

it is on the theme "austre and lonely offices" and is on two poems, one by haydn and one by thesen, which i will post some time this weekend. i intend to talk about creativity and domesticity, and hte prof says i must talk about love, which is fair enough cos the course is about love and death poetry.

gumtreefid farmer said...

i am so special. *blushes*

i DON'T WANNA wear earplugs! though i had a very disturbing vision at 2am of myself snapping and bashing at the ceiling with a frying pan.

the other option is, of course, to up there and talk to them like a normal grownup human. i blame you for being such a conflict avoider.

i actually got a plumber in last time the tap was dripping and he said they can't find the right equipment to fix the taps or, indeed, anything else in these rutting rooms cos they're such obscure shapes or whatever. he said "that's what happens when you give the contract to the lowest bidder." did i mention there's no ceiling lights in the main room?

doooooom

gumtreefid farmer said...

ha ha! pedants! pedants!

lalala

Gretta said...

so interseting what the different commenters comment on

mostly we seem to go off on our own little tangents, which is fun