Monday, November 17, 2008

An Update Long Overdue, part 4

Sunday, Nov. 9- I was so knackered from the previous week, all the late nights, excitement, and traveling, that I didn't do much of anything. I think I might have worked on my Shakespeare paper, which was due the following Wednesday. In the evening I went to Circus, but it was just me, Matthieu, and Alex. Alex left early to go to his Sunday pub quiz, so Matt and I went back to my flat for a cup of tea. We drank our tea and talked for a while, then I we both got tired, he went home, and I went to bed.

Monday, Nov. 10- I woke up early, did some homework and speed-read through Antony and Cleopatra, which I was supposed to have read for my Shakespeare seminar. Then I went to class from 11 to 1. Our 3PM session was cancelled, but since I was in a group that was presenting for the next week's class, I had to meet with my group and Prof. Womack to discuss what exactly we were going to say. Alan and I went to the Hive for lunch, but he had a lot of work to do, too, so we decided that we'd keep this lunch conversation short. For some reason, Alan and I can talk forever. Well, we tried, but by the time I decided to check the time it was 3 exactly, so we scrambled out of the Hive and went to our respective engagements. I met with my group and Womack and then the four group members went off to the library to grab relevent books. Then I headed back to the Village to do more work on my Shakespeare paper.

Tuesday, Nov. 11- I woke up early and worked all day on my Shakespeare paper. Around 1 I decided I needed a break, so Chad and I went down to the Hive, where LitSoc was selling society sweatshirts and advance tickets to the best LCR of the year, Skool Daze. There was a Christmas craft fair going on in the LCR (which is used for that sort of thing during the day), so Chad and I looked around for a while. One table was selling Indian food, so I got lunch, Chad got a snack, and we sat on the stage and talked while we ate. Then we went back to the Village, back to my paper. I skipped my Medieval Writing lecture, which has been really useless and boring ever since we started reading Hoccleve, so I didn't feel so bad about it. I hadn't even done the reading, and I figured I could just do it for the Thursday seminar and be just as well off. I was going to go to Circus around 8, but just as I was getting ready to leave, I got a text from Matt saying that it had been cancelled, so I invited him over to watch a movie instead. We never actually got to watch a movie, but we did talk for a long time. Then to bed, once again.

Wednesday, Nov. 12- I woke up early once again in order to polish my paper, print it, and turn it in before I had to head out to Norwich Cathedral for a tour with the Dickinson folk. It's a very nice cathedral, interesting because the majority of it is in the original Norman romanesque style and not the later gothic, but it's not as nice as Ely. Anyway, we had a tour and then a question-and-answer session with one of the Canons, which mostly consisted of him talking and us trying not to nod off or look too bored. Not that he was boring. I think most of us were just tired. A bunch of people opted to go to the Adam and Eve pub afterward, but I was tired, so I walked back to the bus stop with Abby and Sarah, stopping for some chips along the way.
In the evening, Chad and I went down to The Wild Man pub for LitSoc Games Night. I brought along Jungle Speed and Apples to Apples. Chad, Siobhan, and I played Jungle Speed until Alan and Max showed up. I felt like Matt must have felt when he taught me Jungle Speed, always accused of making up rules. After a while people got bored, so we played a "guess who I am" game where you each have the name of a historical or fictional figure on your head and you ask questions to try and find out who you are. Chad made me some character from Far From the Madding Crowd, which I've never read and know nothing about other than it was written by Thomas Hardy and it's Chad's favorite book. Chad was the Gruffalo, who is apparently some sort of British children's book character that we would have never known. Siobhan was Al Gore, Alan was Barack Obama, and Max was Mephistopheles (curse you, Marlowe, and your influence!) , which, after much toil, he actually guessed. Sam and his friend Will showed up eventually and watched.
We had gone to The Wild Man because, normally on Wednesday nights, it hosts a game night, but for some reason it wasn't on, so we decided to move to the Bell Hotel, which was cheeper. We got a booth in the back. I went to the loo, and when I got back there was a game of Apples to Apples in full swing. To all Apples to Apples fans, we've successfully converted UEA LitSoc. Everyone loved it, and it was a great game.
It was getting late, so Chad, Alan, and I bid our adieus and walked out to the bus stop. Alan was kind enough to wait with us until the bus showed up, even though it was freezing cold, but Chad was standing kind of far off, acting a bit moody. So the bus came, and Chad and I talked out his moodiness all the way back to the Village.

Thursday, Nov. 13- At 10:30 I met with my Shakespeare group to write up our notes for our presentation, which was fun since we'd broken the group into pairs arguing two sides of our issue, so we had a bit of a debate going on. Then I'm pretty sure I went to the Village to do some reading before my 4PM Medieval seminar. I finished the reading and went back to campus, where I ran into Pawel and Stephen, whom I hadn't seen in ages. We talked for a little while, but then I left to go to class...which was cancelled. So much for that. I went back to the Village.
Around 8 my flatmates and I (except for Corie, who was at home) took Adam down to the Queen of Iceni for his birthday, since it was Wetherspoon's Curry Night. It was really nice to be out as a flat again, and I had a really good time. Also, £5.50 for a decent-sized curry meal and a pint? Not bad at all. We wasted about 4 quid on the quiz machine game, but it was a lot of fun. Around 10:30 we headed back to campus, but I said I'd meet Matt later that night, so I left them at campus while they walked back home, and Matt and I went back to his house to watch a movie.

Friday, Nov. 14- I woke up later than normal, which was nice. Around 12:30 I met Chad at The Blend and we had a long, very long talk. Around 5 I realized that I hadn't eaten anything but a small thing of potato wedges, so we parted ways and I went to make dinner. Then I took it easy the rest of the night. I found out late that, via text message from Chad, that our friend Chris Eiswerth's brother had been in a serious car accident, and that Chris was, obviously, distraught.

Saturday, Nov. 15- Chris had asked Chad to go down to the cathedral to light a candle for his brother, so Chad and I spent the afternoon in town. We first went to Norwich Cathedral to light a candle and say a prayer, then looked around some of the places we hadn't been able to see on our tour. It hit us only after we'd gotten there that Chris is Catholic, and maybe we should have gone to the Catholic cathedral, not the Anglican one. Oh well. It all goes to the same God.
We made our way back up to St. Stephen's Street. I had told Chad that I had to do a bit of clothes shopping, and that I might take a brief stop in a few shops while we were in town. I'm sure he regrets agreeing to it now, since I must have stopped in four shoe stores looking for boots. The ones I bought from Primark a while ago are falling apart. That's what you get for £15. And I've lost so much weight here that none of my jeans fit anymore, not even the ones I bought when I first got to Norwich. So I'll have to get new jeans, too.
Anyway, after shopping, we went back home. I talked to my parents on Skype for three hours, and then went over to Alex's flat to hang out and play video games with him and Matt. We eventually went back to his room and watched a couple episodes of Bottom, which is this hillarious and very odd, very British, 80s comedy. It got to be around 4AM when we were finally too tired to stay, so we said goodbye to Alex, and Matt walked me back to the Village.

Sunday, Nov. 16- I slept in very late yesterday. And then, for some reason I continued to be tired all day. In the afternoon I made myself some Ramen-type noodles and tried to do my reading, but I kept dozing off. Around 7 I was supposed to head out to Circus, but I was so tired that I decided not to go. I miss it, though. It's been so long since my four boys and I have been at Circus together, then gone out to the pub like we used to. Hopefully we'll be able to do that come Tuesday, but I was just too tired to be bothered. I made myself some tea, ate a bunch of chocolate cookies, and eventually finished reading Triolus and Cressida for Shakespeare. I talked online to Chad about Chris for a while, and we both expressed our frustration that there's nothing we can do to help. Then I went to bed around 11.

Monday, Nov. 17- I woke up this morning around 8:30, but I had to pry myself out of bed. Maybe I should stop the late nights. I did some work, checked my email, and then headed out for Shakespeare. I had lunch with Samantha, which was nice because we haven't talked in a while, and then went back for another hour of Shakespeare, where I managed to get Prof. Womack off topic (only slightly off topic) for a good ten minutes. After class I stopped by the Lit Office to see Rebecca (my Medieval Writing seminar instructor) and get back my paper. I got a 68, which equates roughly to an A- and, judging by the wink she gave me as she handed it back, was one of the highest grades in the class. So, I went home rather "chuffed," as the Brits say. It's not a good paper by Dickinson or personal standards, and I know I can do better, but, still, it was nice. I'll just work harder on the next one. I've spent the last couple of hours catching up on this blog, and now, finally, I'm all set.

Tomorrow there's a LitSoc Discussion meeting, which may or may not go well, depending on what we read. Then there's Circus where, hopefully, I'll see all my boys reunited. We're also starting Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in my Medieval Writing lecture, so that will be a welcome change from boring Hoccleve.

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