for your safety - please hold on

going to uni is becoming an increasingly dangerous proposition. i have taken to bringing my big down coat in case i have to sleep in the office. (not an idle fantasy - 1500 kids slept in the gym last wednesday, cos the buses were cancelled due to blizzard. google it if you're interested.) here's a shot on the bus driving up the mountain. the little sign on the window says "For your safety - please hold on."


this is what it looks like once you get up there:
see those chairs embedded in the ice? that's why i can't seat all my students!

actually, i kicked up a fuss and now have enough chairs for everyone. teaching is going okay. i can remember most of their names now, and we have a bit of a friendly classroom rapport going on. i'd enjoy teaching so much more if it weren't for the marking.

anyway. i'm not up to whining about marking yet. i wanted to show you how cool my office this semster is. i'm sharing with two other girls with quirky senses of humour, and we have decorated in style. thus, virg can cuddle with charles dickens on a dead cat:
oh, 0kay, it's not dead. it's one of those creepy rabbit-fur stuffed-cat things that just *looks* like a dead cat, okay?

this is freud being devoured by a hideous monster:

the penguin of death:

and a sort of nerdy assemblage of kitsch kitten, blake print and the longman anthology of medieval literature:

we also have a picture of jesus, but i suspect it's non-ironic for at least one of my roommates, and therefore suss. as a pro pomo person i instinctively distrust sincerity.

so our office is a fine and pleasant place to be, especially on those snowy mornings i spend there reading alone in my office hours. providing you can get *away* from there again. . .

it's not snowy down where i live anymore, except for the odd patch of ice on people's lawns. but getting away from my house wasn't a problem anyway, because of this bag of no brand ice melter which appeared by the front steps:

living above the 49th parallel is entertaining!

i do leave the house occasionally, and go mark at a coffee shop. otherwise i'm spending my time like this:

marking in a pirate hat is the shit. and i got new riding gloves on special for when the ice melts and i can ride again. the wine bottles are from last week's potluck. it was ace fun.

marking should be over later this week. i picked up a bunch of external marking, which is great for the bank balance, but time (and soul) consuming. i did sneak out and play with the twins (the didn't remember me til i got out some picturebooks - v. cute) and last night i saw the vagina monologues, which was sweet.

anyway, the B-s and Cs are crying to be handed out. best get back to it . . .