Have some more idle observations.
Nobody in England uses a laptop to take notes. It’s all very old school, and I sort of like it. Also, I have noticed that I take a lot more notes in class than the average English student. I haven’t figured out if this is a good or bad thing yet.
Also, it sounds like there isn’t a set professor for lecture. I’ve had two different lecturers thus far, and both of them talked about things that were decidedly not the reading. I guess that makes sense; each seminar (basically a two-hour discussion section, I think. I haven’t had mine yet.) has a different tutor who sets the curriculum, so the lectures are more of an overview of different facets of Renaissance literature. It’s very bizarre, but I sort of like it.
Oh, and the lecturing professor today was an American. It was actually weird, but he was a pretty awesome professor. He was talking about setting Renaissance poetry to music and how it was probably supposed to be like that, and how music and poetry are so closely tied, and how Shakespeare is pretty much the best dude ever, and he had all these music clips and none of you care because none of you are huge English nerds like I am.
Ahem. Anyway. It’s also very strange for everyone to be walking everywhere. I’m really used to being on a campus full of bikes. Sure, there is the odd person cycling to class, but it’s actually kind of rare. Maybe that’s just because I’ve been on the main campus — Heslington East is a pretty good distance from the main campus — but it’s still very strange. And there are no skateboards whatsoever.
There were some truly strange hats out there today. One guy had a bear hat and some girl was wearing a cowboy hat. And, for some reason, I found the cowboy hat weirder. Go figure.
Ooh, there was frost all over the ground this morning! It was so cold! Part of the lake even iced over! I HAVE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE IN MY LIFE! Now it just needs to snow and I will be a very happy, if cold, camper.
I’m starting to get used to waking up really early to get breakfast now, since I tend not to eat much in the way of lunch. Besides, scrambled eggs and sausage is awesome. So is toast. I could get used to this, even though waking up at 9am every morning is going to get old pretty quickly. Also, I haven’t worked up the courage to ask for fried bread again since I’m still a bit self-conscious about my accent.
Oh, who am I kidding. I am, on occasion, very self-conscious about my accent. Even though last time I met a bunch of people they seemed surprised that I was Californian. Yes, I say I’m Californian rather than American, because Californian stereotypes >>> American stereotypes. Anyway, I’m not sure where they thought I was from but they pretty much went “Californian? o_O” and then asked if I was from the UC system. Or, as one girl put it, “those eight colleges that are all linked.” Which impressed me, because what English person knows any UCs aside from Cal and UCLA? I mean, those are the two big ones.
And then when I said “Yeah, UC Santa Barbara,” the girl from Hong Kong said something along the lines of “oh, the party school?” and I felt this huge rush of admiration for my school. Our reputation reaches Hong Kong, guys. I’m absurdly proud of us.
On an unrelated note, I have been doing a lot of writing since I got here. And I don’t mean just biographical blog posts about my idle observations. None of my writing has been particularly substantial — mostly just a series of short bits based on two characters from one of my NaNoWriMo novels — but it’s more than I’ve been doing in the past. Maybe I’ll actually finish one of my projects while I’m here?
Oh, one more idle observation. Geese are evil. They seem to know right when I’m about to fall asleep, then they start their infernal honking. They’re also huge. And don’t even get me started on those cute, smaller birds that have MASSIVE DINOSAUR FEET. My first encounter with them went thus:
Me: Oh, those are so cute! They kind of look flightless with their wings tucked in like that, like a kiwi. I am going to make inarticulate squeaking sounds due to Cuteness Proximity.
Bird: Hi, I’m going to freak you out with my MASSIVE DINOSAUR FEET.
Me: OH YE GODS YOUR MASSIVE DINOSAUR FEET ARE TERRIFYING.
I recently discovered they are called the Eurasian Coot. Look them up to see their MASSIVE DINOSAUR FEET for yourself. Prepare to be slightly perturbed. All I can say is that it’s a good job they didn’t end up with those velociraptorian (yes, that is an adjective now) toe claws, or else we’d all be doomed.
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