Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Hamburg
Current Music: Schelmish - Das Moor

Entry tags:

Random findings II: Emblems

I found that are a variety of really pretty emblem sites out there today. There's a project they're doing in Glasgow. Why, why did I leave? There's also a really pretty educational site hosted by the project they're doing in Utrecht with explanations and quizzes in English and in Dutch, it's really good and worth a visit - it's a kind of introductory course on Dutch love emblems.
One project is hosted by Wolfenbüttel, which I will get to visit in May, then, there's the Munich emblem data base, and a site on the Memorial University of Newfoundland who have digitalised the emblems of Andrea Alciato (1492-1550), who is probably my favourite.

Here are a few examples:

( Silentium (Silence) )

( Reverentiam in matrimonio requiri (Respect is to be sought in marriage) )

Submovendam ignorantiam (Ignorance must be banished)

Quod monstrum id? Sphinx est. Cur candida virginis ora,
Et volucrum pennas, crura leonis habet?
Hanc faciem assumpsit rerum ignorantia: tanti
Scilicet est triplex caussa et origo mali.
Sunt quos ingenium leve, sunt quos blanda voluptas,
Sunt et quos faciunt corda superba rudes.
At quibus est notum, quid Delphica littera possit,
Praecipitis monstri guttura dira secant.
Namque vir ipse bipesque tripesque et quadrupes idem est,
Primaque prudentis laurea, nosse virum.

What monster is that? It is the Sphinx.
Why does it have the bright face of a virgin, the feathers of a bird, and the limbs of a lion?
Ignorance of things has taken on this appearance: which is to say that the root cause of so much evil is threefold. Some men are made ignorant by levity of mind, some by seductive pleasure, and some by arrogance of spirit. But they who know the power of the Delphic message slit the relentless monster's terrible throat. For man himself is also a two-footed, three-footed, four-footed thing, and the first victory of the prudent man is to know what man is.

It's a fascinating genre, and it's a pity it's been banalised so much. What was most interesting for me was reading the Dutch pages - I hardly know anything at all about the period in Netherlands, it was a fascinating read.

Current Mood: enraged
Current Location: Capital of Fools

Entry tags:

uni,
university

I hate hate hate the Universität Hamburg

So they introduced tuition fees this semester: €500.

So there is the additional fee for the ticket, etc. That used to be around €156, in the good old days, does anyone remember those?
A few years ago, those were raised (and we had to pay an additional €50. This was of course greeted with an outcry and a threat that anyone not able to pay would not be readmitted for the next semester.).The reason they gave for the introduction of the raise was that it was an added administrative fee. (To be fair, they could really do with the money. Most of the people working there are complete idiots, maybe more money would attract people who can actually read).

In addition to that, those additional fee has been raised gradually, always for a few euros, and next semester we'll have to pay another ten Euroes, which gives us €242 additional fees PLUS €500 tuition fees = €742.

So, when I started my course it used to be €156, and now it's €742.

Slight difference, no?

That they raised the bloody additional fees the semester we've got to pay tuition fees is absolutely LUDICROUS.

It's obvious that they're going to raise them until we've got to pay €1000 per semester, but even with the €500 there are so many students who have to end their course of studies, and there are no ways of really funding your course of studies. The credits they planned to introduce don't really work for everybody, and our state student support system which never really work that well in the first place doesn't even take the fees into account as far as I know.

In Glasgow, I wouldn't even have MINDED paying the fees because everything was just ... better, and I didn't even have to.
It is also an open secret that close to NOTHING will change after these fees have been paid because they don't go to the department but are used God only knows were.

This place just SUCKS.

Current Mood: hyper
Current Location: Still not Hanover!

Entry tags:

books,
university

Good memories from Lit 1A...

The Skinhead Hamlet

Shakespeare's play translated into modern English.

[Our hope was to achieve something like the effect of the New English Bible. --Eds.]

( The curtain rises, silence falls... )

Two of our professors actually performed this for the benefit of Lit 1A back in Glasgow. I wish our German profs had done this for us over here, it was both very, very disturbing and hilarious in a wrong way. ... Well, still not as hilarious as one of those two Glaswegian professors doing his impression of Mel Gibson as Hamlet. I never quite got why he jumped on the table to get his message across there, but I daresay it had something to do with the physicality of the role. Sigh. I loved that man.

Anyway.

Current Mood: nostalgic
Current Location: Glasgow University, Main Library
Current Music: Crocky typing

Entry tags:

russian,
university

До свидания!

No more Russian!

No more translations to hand in by Friday, 4pm.
No more last-minute printing in the library and running into people up in the Hetherington Building who had been handing in their homework just on time, as well.
No more racking my brain and online dictionaries in search for obscure phrases and words no one apparently ever uses apart from the people writing learner's text books.
No more leafing through the back pages of my coffee-stained Russian book, battered and old-looking as no book in my possession does, in search for a word.
No more sitting in the back row with the three guys and the four guyettes which made this course as great, no more running into Kirsi.
No more hanging around in front of the Hetherington Building for hours on end after the course with my two favourite smokers in this place.
No more stupid assignment which are actually doing the opposite from what they are supposed to do from a didactic point of view.
No more attempts at motivating us from our darling teacher.
No more grammar lessons!
No more lessons with Ms Terijezo.
No more progress tests "with a little help".
No more getting our work back.
No more reading Russian texts in a group.

No more Russian.

I am not quite sure about how I feel about that.

Sad, sure, but after this horrible exam, I am also partly glad.
Well, more than just partly, I can tell you. Our darling teacher (that is no sarcasm, she is really awesome) had told us we would get a sheet with the words we don't know yet in the text. Well, there were plenty of words I for my part had never seen before, so either they were all in that one translation I did not submit (unlikely), or we just hadn't, which sounds far more likely, since the others did not seem to know any of those, either.

It was really sad to see my wonderful Russian class for the last time, I had really come to love these guys. Most of them are going home for summer, sadly, and I didn't think about taking pictures of the guys until after the exam, when everybody was already gone.

Boy, that was hard. The mock exams we had were absolutely nothing compared to this on, they were all fairly easy, this one had had least two constructions in them I was quite convinced we are not even supposed to know yet. Not sure I got them all right... Ah, well, can't be changed, now. I didn't quite finish with writing in ink the answers I had not been quite so sure about. Stupid as I am, I had them in pencil, and I guess that means I will not receive any marks for those answers. Which sucks. But then, maybe it's better, because who knows what kind of nonsense I came up with in those parts?

There was a whole passage which looked somewhat like this in my first version: "Being the son of a _______ (fisherman??), he was not ____________ (with) to (?) hard work and thus ___________ so that he could (?!) ____________ with ________________. He went to Moscow and during that time he was able to __________ with lots of ____________ ."

Terrible, I can tell you. And I know I would have known the words, had we had them. I mean, yes, there were words I keep and keep forgetting, but these were none of those. Ah, well, we'll see.

There is still the remote possibility that we were supposed to get a sheet with extra vocabulary but accidentally just weren't given. Or something. Well, not that likely, I know.

And now?

University over and the gigantic emptiness of two month ahead. Holidays as yet free of any preparations and obligations, except for seeing as much of this lovely island as possible while I still have the chance and time.
And then?
Applications for courses, again, online and offline, facing the uni life at home, again, missing so many of the people and teachers here, missing Crocky, academic half-life in the daze which hangs over our faculty at home... I want to stay heeeeeeeeeeeere.

Current Mood: aggravated
Current Location: Glasgow University, Student Information Desk
Current Music: Crocky typing

Entry tags:

crocky,
university

English Literature Exam

No problem there, I can't even transfer the credit for this one, anyway (grrr) and thus am doing it just for fun, but... Sigh. It's one close reading task and one essay question. Close reading should be fine as last year's exam papers have all been fairly easy.

The only downside is my huge flu, huge headache. I can't concentrate to save my life and my eyes hurt. Well, another downside is the fact that I do not seem to get to grips with any of the set texts better than with darling Donne and Herbert. Ugh.

So... It looks as though I need a custom-tailored question tailored to suit those two authors and their idea about identity and selves. Well, or one about the American self, Roth and Gilman's wallpaper. Everybody would be doing that, it's the easiest question by far, so I'd better stick with Herbert and Donne. Sigh. Head. Aches.

Great.

One huge up is that Crocky's feeling better. Two GPs assured her that cancer was very unlikely. Phew. Not that it was realistic or sounded realistic to any of us, but ... you never know until you know.

Hugs to all!

Current Mood: gloomy
Current Location: Glasgow University, Main Library
Current Music: People typing

Entry tags:

photos,
university

Last Day

This is my final day at this university. That is SUCH an odd feeling! I will never again have lessons here, in these rooms, with these professors.

A week, then four exams, and then I will never be a student again at this university.

And then back to Germany.

I do not know whether it is good or bad. The University at home is absolutely terrible. They are unorganised, they are going to instate study fees, but the quality of teaching at this university does not merit these fees at all. It is strange, but with the possibly sole exception of our very own rather excellent cafeteria at home, everything at this university is better than at home. Everything.

I am definitely planning to go back for a Post Grad course to one of the British Unis if it's possible.... Maybe I should do a Bachelor's degree after all? Nahhh. Whatever I do in Hamburg internationally counts as a Bachelor, even though the level equals a Master.

Even first year students at this uni know much more about English literature than we learn at home - but then, is that true? Our system is just so different from this here.

At home, you can chose what you want to learn something about, here, you have to attend lectures with a preset syllabus. But then, neither here nor at home you are forced to familiarise yourself with everything there is on the syllabus, you can choose and write your essay on texts of your choice. Of course, if I see courses like the one we did at home on Postmodern Literature and Gothic novels, they worked much better than any lecture might, but then, the person teaching them is the best Professor we have. The others are very rambling and full of idiots, on both sides of the desk. Seriously!

Most people in those courses have no intention of reading the pre-set texts for the course, because they can choose what to answer on in their paper. Bad. On the other hand, the same happens here, but this phenomenon is not as wide-spread. You have more lessons here in one course, but you only take a maximum of four courses here.

At home, most people have 20 hours of lessons per semester - the same amount you have here if you take four courses - but these courses at home only have two hours per lesson. This means that the amount of reading is FAR higher at home. I found it quite easy here, to be honest, to read everything on the lists. At home? Last semester, I had amounts of a thousand pages per week. Manageable, but it also meant I could not really prepare them as thoroughly. Here, it is down to… maybe a couple of hundred and a poem.

Wow, obscene masses. It does not really seem to get more for the higher levels, and this means you have plenty of time to really immerse yourself in the texts you are reading when at home, in the GoNo course, we very often had to speed read the texts because we learnt it was going to be the first five hundred pages of the Mysteries of Udolpho next week or something.

And at home? Magister paper. Finding a topic, that is. Terrible. But then, there are bright sides to everything. Friends, Family, Home internet connection, TV, my books and, most important of all, my cat. Still... No Crocky, no beautiful uni, no great professors, no seminars with about ten people in them, max. Sigh.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: Glasgow University, Main Library

Entry tags:

university

Literature Ramblings

The talk in my literature course went fine, I really shouldn't have worried about it at all.

Due to the crammed reading list, the topic for today's session was "Modernity and the Irish". Crammed, I tell you... anyway. I was told I should "compare two poems or something". Hm. Well, alright. Since I did not want to make the same mistakes the girl whose talk was on "Goblin Market" and "Kubla Khan" and didn't get through because, obviously, it is absolutly impossible to cram both poems into 45 minutes, I wanted to go for something shorter, but I also was also dying to do "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".

Well... Wednesday came, the Eliot session... and which poem did we discuss...? Thanks, professor. New poem, since what's the use of discussing a poem with them they already have talked about at length?

So I went for "Musee des Beaux Arts" by W.H. Auden because he is not on the syllabus (crime!!!) and "The Second Coming". I thought maybe we could compare the whole thing to Prufrock after my talk. I did feel they might be a bit too simple for this kind of discussion, but went for it, anyway.

What did my darling tutor have in mind?
'I thought that since our session is on the Irish self and Modernity, we could compare "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" to "The Second Coming".' Great minds... Since we were so in sync, all went exceptionally well. Since only four people were there out of our 10 people seminar, I have tons of hand outs left. Grrr. I took the opportunity to further Gerard's and Mirko's education in Russian Media.

Tehe. I love presentations.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: University of Glasgow, Boyd Orr Building
Current Music: Crocky on the other side of the table, typing

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Easter!

Thank you so much for the card, Rocky!

Wow, I did not even realise it was so late already. There were the holidays, and then there was this Essay, and then, suddenly, there was this huge parcel my parents sent us.

I really ought to move out or go abroad for a year more often. Especially my father is much nicer since I left. They put in Easter bunnies, some Easter decoration, some Cheese, some Cappuccino (yummm...), some bread, some chocolate eggs - so lovely!

And a picture of my cat - I miss him terribly. Once I'm home, he will become the most documentated cat in the world. He is so sweet I just HAVE to take pictures of him.

Handed in the worst Essay ever written - well, by me, at any rate - for Literature today. A comparison of the Role of the Poet and Poetic Identity in Coleridge's, Wordsworth's and Shelley's writing - as though it was possible to do that in 1,500 words...! It was so much fun reading their texts I somehow had difficulties with writing the actual essay and found myself sitting there lost in one or the other lecture by Coleridge (or other things quite often instead of going quote-hunting for my essay. I guess it's good when things have that effect, but somehow, I would have preferred being able to compile a reasonable amount of good examples, pick out the things I need, then sleep over it and then write a well-structured essay instead of trying to crush in all I find interesting on the spur of the moment. I guess they will tell me it lacks structure. Soddit, it was so much fun writing it that doesn't even matter.

Apart from that, the AUT are on strike here, which means that some of our examiners will be banned from doing any correction. In some departments, that is. I am not sure whether the Literature people are part of that, but I have definitely had enough of industrial actions. In Russian, our teacher is banned from giving back or correcting our work until the end of a period whose end nobody has agreed on yet. Great.

I guess I'll toddle off home now and read that article I have found in my search for secondary literature - although it had nothing to do with them (it's on Heidegger). Well, and then I have to find something yummy to put into the salad and something else to go with the salad.

Then, I guess I take some time off to do some work on a short story I have started around eight years ago and which has turned out a novel rather than a short story, is terrible but has too much of myself in it to throw it away, too many characters I love and too many places I love. Story? Plot? Pshaw.

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: Glasgow University, Student Information Desk
Current Music: Library sounds

Entry tags:

university

Busy bee...

... on a break.

We all love JRK, but

agatha_s's journal reminded me once more why we do today. On Thinness

Apart from that, we're paying a visit to the Uni today to have a look at the Hunterian Art Gallery. Can't wait to see it, although I might stay here to work on my uni stuff for a while. Well, and to eat something. I'm starving. I really should be working on my Essay for Literature, but... It doesn't count. That sure is a killer for my currently already limited ambitions. Long live happy mediocricy!

I have started already, but I did not get past the stage of hunting down and evaluating secondary literature. Which virtually does not exist, strangely. Sigh. Not that I care.

I can remember the good old days in which I cared for the stuff I was doing, before I lost interest. Well, the good old days in which I maybe wasn't foolish enough to go to those professors who never give As and then fail to work hard enough to get one, anyway, like I used to at school, because somehow, my priorities have shifted. But still... Who cares if I am among the best in somebody's class if I get a friggin' B in the end because that is all the professor ever gives a student who does not range somewhere between himself and god? I want my good marks back.

And I want the desire back which filled me back in my last year at school, the desire to actually give everything to achieve a goal. Goals? Yes, I must have had them once. And now....?

Sigh.

And I really ought to work on my stuff for the Creative Writing Society, I guess we'll have a meeting on Monday and I missed the last one already, don't want to miss another one.

On a happier note - spring's upon us! The weather is great, the cherries start blooming, everything looks pretty.

What isn't so good - hayfever season is, too, which means that Crocky is not so happy. Ah, well.

Off to the Art Gallery now. :)

Current Mood: hungry
Current Music: Squeeing to my right

Entry tags:

crocky,
university

Holidays

Last day of the second term. The only lesson I had today is Russian. Apart from me, there were eleven people there. Eleven! Out of thirty!! Well, now I at least know who the most responsible people in this course are.
Did I mention we really have semesters? The university does not seem to know that, so everybody is still talking of the third term. Which is only three weeks long, after that, there's a break, then, there are the exams, and then, we're off.

The thing about that is that after these three weeks, in which everybody seems to be home, growl, we're already nearly home again. And we are nearly here one year... one year! I know it's the most clichéd of all questions under the circumstances, but where has the time gone?

Somehow, I want to go back home, I am looking forward to doing something again that is related to my studies, that brings me closer to my degree although this year has been a lot of fun.
At the same time, however, I am desperate to stay here, because the university is so much better organised, because the people in the courses are so nice, because it means living together with the person I love in a city I love in a country I love.

Tomorrow, we'll get visitors.
Two of my best friends form Germany are coming over! I am so exited! Well, and scared that everything will go horribly wrong. I doubt that'll happen.
The visit of Crocky's dear sister had us two in holiday spirits for two weeks now, and now, they're finally there.
Holidays! Well deserved, I might add. We've both managed to hand in our three essays last week. Far from perfect, but in this case, that doesn't matter since I cannot transfer any credit from here to Germany anyway. Well, at least I tell myself it does not matter. I'll be very upset if they turn out badly, I know myself.

Curiously, nobody around here seems to be in holiday spirits. Well, except for Crocky, my busy bee, who is busily typing a FOUR PAGE application for various roles for an RPG site. Good luck. Mine's only about half a page. Should I be worried? Well, but then, mine's also getting longer already.

I want to stay heeeeeeeeeere! Well, better make the best of it. There are still some corners of Glasgow I don't know, like Necropolis and Strathclyde Loch.
For the holidays, we- well, at least I have - planned a visit to Glencoe and maybe some other highlights further up north. I want to see Inverness, but maybe I ought to save such plans and money for the summer... . I'd love to see the beautiful Shin Falls

count_tygath shows in his bugbitten account, but I guess they are hard to visit for someone without a car and no intention to try out the Scottish roads.

What the-?
Ah.
Crocky has discovered that her e-pet can make noises. This has not been possible before because naturally, the computers in the library do not have earphones, but today, she brought hers and is now rejoicing at the sound of online purring. You ought to see her!
She can be so incredibly cute... it is so sad that she is allergic to everything that has feathers or hair. She loves animals. Well, at least she is not that allergic to Dax, our doggie, anymore. Dax absolutely loves her and she loves him, as well...

... I don't want to go back. Dax or no Dax, and even the thought of my poor kitten and my friends in Hamburg do not make me want to leave. I love Glasgow and our flat and our teachers and this university just too much. Where was I? Ah, yes, plans. Sigh. I want a car with a never-ending supply of petrol and a map. Well, and a tent.

And more time. But everybody, always, wants more time.

Current Mood: annoyed

Entry tags:

crocky,
university

This week and next week...

...are just going to be two of those weeks.

Yesterday is a prime example of that. Getting up, I found that the thing sticking to my palate was actually my tongue - our electrical heaters had become so hot over night that the climate in our room was desert-like. So, got up bright and early, off to Uni with Crocky, nice Psy tutorial - all fine so far.

Rushed off to check mails, found that my application for a deadline extension had been refused because it's department policy to be mean, not care for overlapping deadlines with other departments and just refuse anything. Fine, three things on the same day.
Not a problem for me, the deadline master.

So, the next ten days looks like this:

11.3. Concert: Mozart's Mass in C Minor, featuring the Kelvin Ensemble (Squee!! Best third trombone in the world!), the Chapel Choir (aka the important choir) and the Choral society (aka us. The unimportant, underappreciated masses who just like singing).
13.3. Deadline for a Psychology Essay
16.3. Apparently deadline for some dumb tutorial assignment in ELit - my thoughts about a poem by Sylvia Plath in 1,500 words. I hate these.
16.3. Deadline for an English Language Essay. Easy, only about Sapir-Whorf.
16.3. Deadline for the Russian Writing Project No.2 - 800 words about Putin. AHHH!!!
16.3. Progress Test No.3 in Russian about all the Grammer we've covered this year. AHHHHHHH!!!

Does anyone else notice a certain tendency there?
I am not going to survive this week. But then - these still don't count for me at all, which is good because it takes away a lot of pressure (and motiviation... oh, heck) - and they're only essays, the Psy one mustn't be longer than 1,500 words - which is hard for me, the rambler, the Linguistic one is only laughable 800 words long. But Russian! Ahhh!! And I am not supposed to plagiarise - a short biography... What was I thinking?

After taking Crocky's sister back to Glasgow Central (managing to buy the wrong tickets for Crocky and me on the way...) and seeing her off we had to run after a bus to be on time for the rehearsal session with Choirs and Ensemble - and I fell FLAT ON MY FACE.

I even slid along a couple of inches. Must have been a funny sight. This hasn't happened to me in YEARS and of course had to happen now in front of a thousand people waiting for the bus.
It didn't hurt much, but it did leave ugly marks on my brand new trousers. ARGH!

The rehearsal in the evening went reasonably well, but it didn't help that even though she DOES, in contrast to James, remember that Altos exist, because Marjorie has done something which made me positively furious her in spite of her good conducting skills.
It shouldn't bother me too much because it is not really about me... but it's about Crocky and that makes me even angrier. Crocky did not get an e-mail about a rehearsal which had been organised at really short notice and therefore wasn't there. Not her fault, apparently the secretary of the Kelvin Ensemble messed something up. Now that doesn't even sound like that much of a big deal, but Marjorie completely overreacted - and to such an extend that even James said it was way over the top. She likes singling people out and putting them down - and Crocky! When Michael's the one who has missed most rehearsals last term and was even late for the final rehearsal! Grrrrrrrrr!

I am going to kill her.

But only after finishing and handing in the final draft of my Russian Writing thing. GAH!

Current Mood: bitchy

Entry tags:

crocky,
university

Killing Spree

Today, I am being good. I am trying very hard NOT to kill everybody...

Who walks slower than I do. Which, in Glasgow, is pretty much everyone.

Who bumps into me.

Who cannot make their own decisions. GRRR! Stop pestering ME!!

Who bothers me with stuff I have no interest in, like some friggin' election at the Uni. I am going to vote for the person whose ugly face has NOT been thrust into my face five hundred times in a row.

Whose face I see next to the message "Vote for NAME!"

Who thrusts some useless flyer in my face.

Who pesters me with stuff I have no interest in.

Who tries to teach me stuff I already know.

Who uses "already" in that weird new usage. BWAH! Just use "endlich", which is German and means what you want to express! Alright, alright, not my decision. It just sounds so... Sigh.

Who is under 18. That should be outlawed in general.

Who keeps me from being at home in bed with a book, a hot tea, some painkiller and a warm blanket. Being a student sucks. Having a cold sucks.

... off to Russian now. Garrr.

On a happier note: Rebecca's choir has pictures online!! SQUEEE!!! Crocky in robes!!!

Current Mood: moodiest

Entry tags:

university

This thing is killing me.

The Lab Report. I am absolutely fed up with writing this useless stuff about an experiment which thousands of people have been doing, it just does not make any sense.

MOTHWING
05.06.1983 - 21.2.2006
Killed by a Lab Report
RIP

Well, back to playing "How many secondary references and quotes can I squeeze into an introduction?", because that is the only thing they are apparently looking for.

Whiny? Sigh. I know I am.

Current Mood: moody

Entry tags:

Concert Reminiscence and Lab Reports

The concert on Saturday was really a highlight!
It was also sold out, so I had been a little anxious about getting a seat at all. Well, that was no problem, I was the first one there. I got a great seat, but somehow I was too shy to take pictures, I wasn't too sure whether it was inappropriate or not, so in the end I only took three pictures. Shame, orchestras are so pretty! I felt so much like a proud Mum at a school concert I somehow didn't want to act it, too. It was all I could do not to give Crocky a little wave when I saw her.

The Kelvin Ensamble are very good, as I said, and the pieces they had selected were awesome.
Well, Tchaikovsky generally is. They played his fifth, which is, in want of impressive technical jargon, absolutely beautiful (although I felt somehow around the middle that yes, thank you, Tchaik, we know your favourite theme. You can stop repeating it over and over again now).

The other piece they did was the Grieg piano concerto... Hm. It's embarrassing to admit it and speaks volumes about my musical understanding, but somehow, the piano part annoyed me. Sometimes, I couldn't help feeling that I would have liked some parts more without the piano.
And I love pianos! Ignore me. I am ignorant. Why am I rambling on about the pieces? I have nothing intelligent to say about them, anyway. So.
The pianist was really perfect, though, and it was one of the few instances where the soloist actually played WITH the orchestra and listened to what they were doing. That was really impressive and I wouldn't have expeted it of such an orchestra. But then, they are just sooo good.

Somehow, such occasions always make me sad for not having learnt to play an instrument. Even my hated recorder would be at least something, and the Cellos made me especially wistful (say what? What is that word doing there? Bah, thanks, Charlotte Bronte. Assimilation can suck, too). I want to learn how to play Cello!
... Well, no. Actually, I want to wake up one morning, spontaneously being able to play Cello, without the painstaking process involving all thsoe wrong notes and strange, catty sounds.

I guess anything would be better than being condemned to be in the brass section.
Tehehe. Not that I don't love and adore trombones (better had), but the sight of the three of them sitting there was really funny at times. All the orchestra busy, fiddlesticks flourishing, the conductor ready to take off, his arms flailing, face contorted in the extasy of conducting great music... and three trombones sitting at the back, immobile, all dressed up with nowhere to go, looking supremely bored.
Well, actually, they were counting.
45 bars later, what a surprise! The first and third trombone, the only ones who are actually reliable at counting, lift up their instruments, waking up the second trombone - suddenly they all actually seem to be getting ready to play something - AND - one note. How exciting.
The second trombone, by the way, is only second trombone because he does not have a plug, apparently. He never comes to rehearsals, when he comes, he's drunk - and even at the concert he looked ready to slide of the chair and fall asleep there and then.
Pause. 80 bars. Three notes.
90 bars. Thrilling. Poor Crocky. But she was really good. Well, she always is, so no news.

On Sunday I've just been doing some severe spring cleaning, but that was fun. It meant that I could put off doing some actual work, like this sodding lab report. And now, it's editing. Revising. Lab Reports suck. The Working Memory sucks. Things entitled "The retention of three randomised consonants over 5 different periods of time with a diversionary subtraction task" suck.

It's absolutely great weather outside. Absolutely beautiful. The sky is blue, I have even seen a finch around, the flowers are opening, I bet the countryside is absolutely beautiful... and I have to be here until four. I want a train ticket, free time, Crocky, my camera, my trainers, and some lonely, rolling hills. Sigh. Back to retention.

Current Mood: bitchy

Entry tags:

russian,
university

Mood Swinging

Caution, rant ahead, indicated by tags.
Caution, dangerous mood swing to frightfully good mood just below that.
Subject may be in an emotionally unstable mood today, probably due to too much Psy labs and dangerous levels of caffeine intake. And due to exposal to the Russian language.

[rant]
I am used to such things. If I come up with something, some idea which is halfway decent, there is always, always, ALWAYS someone who has researched the exact thing two years ago. Some even got prizes.
Yes, I am so uncreative I can only come up with thoughts someone else has had before. That is good in some cases, when I can be absolutely certain about finding confirmation of an idea I had because someone, somewhere, certainly has done something on the very topic, but sometimes it just DRIVES ME NUTS.
For example when my Professor holds a lecture about - well, what used to be my essay plan. Until today. That was MY. ESSAY.
Great. Now I can look for a new topic. Wonderful. Thanks Professor Cronin. Did you even have to use ALL the material I planned to use?
[/rant]

Sigh. I'll have to take a deep breath and just find something new. It's not as though there wasn't anything else to discuss. Still... Grrrr.

And then, there is the upcoming Lab Report for a Lab on short term memory. Boring, ghastly stuff.

Apart from these issues, everything is just lovely. Lovely, lovely Crocky. Lovely new haircut of said spouse. Lovely, lovely weather. Lovely university. Lovely courses. Lovely family. Lovely books.
Wow, I am beginning to sound like a child in the two word stage.
Where was I?
Books. Apart from Jane Eyre, the Horror. Lovely subscription to Blockbuster - I love movies. Lovely Russian course.
Well, not really.

Russian has become more and more difficult, but not really due to the course content, but due to the frequent changes of location and the increasing confusion of our Professor as to what we have covered already and what we have not.
She really ought to think about something as revolutionary as - dun dun DUN - a plan of the course content, possibly even with a timetable.
She is really lovely, but somehow, she is a wee bit disorganised at the moment. And she has been tempted to the Dark Side of the force by Dr. Dunn, meaning that she also has started making us chorus out the vocabulary.
We have not covered all the cases yet, but already we are learning useful phrases after which we have to insert said cases.
Not that cases are anything to be scared of, but for most people in the course, these seem to be quite hard and an explanation might be nice. She could just cover them before she teaches us how to say "This question was triggered by...", "In our time..." or "I order to answer this question...".
Not that these expressions are not very useful, but they will probably seem rather pasted in in an essay of someone who has to look up most of the endings for the cases and has a vocabulary of about 500 words. Max.

Alright, I guess I ought to move away from this pointless display of the content of my head - which is confused - and go back to my wonderful Lab Report. Working memory. Blegh.

Current Mood: happy

Entry tags:

photos,
university

Via Veritas Vita

Since we arrived in Glasgow, I wanted to show off my University. So, here are some pictures. Some of those suck a wee bit because the light did not what I wanted it to, but here you are, anyway. Oh, and here you find these and other pics of the uni, just a bit smaller. I hope you like them!

The Eastern Quadrangle in it's full glory. The tower, from the Eastern Quadrangle.

( More slightly touristy picture of my gorgeous uni! )

So much for the touristy goodness. I should be working, since I am in that Library (points up to picture behind cut) anyway, so - off to find something on "the role of the poet" until Crocky returns from her trombone practice in the concert hall.

*hugs* to all!

Current Mood: happy

Entry tags:

Well... that's settled, then.

Stolen from a lot of people:

ENFJ- The Teacher
You scored 63% I to E, 42% N to S, 42% F to T, and 42% J to P!

Your type is known as the teacher, or the educating mentor. You also belong to the larger group, called idealists. You tend to bring out the best in other people. You lead without seeming to do so. People are naturally drawn to you. You expect the very best from people which takes the form of enthusiastic encouragement which is so charming that people try their best not to disappoint you. You share your personality type with 3% of the population.
You need to feel a deep and meaningful connection to your romantic partners, and go to great lengths to understand and please your mate. Harmony is vitally important to you, and you often put others' needs before your own. You have a pretty thin skin and are easily hurt. Although you strive for harmony, when your values or ethics are violated, you can be very emotional, confrontational, and even punishing. However, you are very insightful about the underlying cause of conflicts, and an excellent communicator, so you have the tools to bring about a quick and peaceful resolution as long as you can keep control of your facilities. You want to be appreciated for your thoughtfulness and compassion. You need your partner to make a real effort to get to know you. Above all, you need to be able to express your feelings and have them taken seriously.
Your group summary: idealists (NF)
Your type summary: ENFJ

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 75% on I to E

You scored higher than 51% on N to S

You scored higher than 41% on F to T

You scored higher than 35% on J to P

Link: The LONG Scientific Personality Test written by unpretentious2 on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

I used to be an INTP! What happened to me? Well, but some of those decisions are hard to make, they depend largely on mood, maybe?

Well, I'm in a good mood. We have just had the first progress test in Russian of the year and instead of getting the promised 15 sentences with gaps for words in the right case we got last year's end of year exam... which consists of a translation of a short text ONLY. Whee!! There will be another grammar exam and another oral exam at the end of the year.

Funnily enough our darling teacher Margaret Tejerizo gave us lots of help, we went through the text together, reading it out loud and got plenty of help with the words we didn't know... in the end we practically translated the whole text together. Not hard, it was actually fun.

So, another quiet weekend. There is a concert on Sunday with the Chapel Choir (with one of the best second sopranos in the whole wide world *hearts*) and the University Chapel's shiny new organ, I'm looking forward a lot to that.

Special wishes to Count_Tygath who's doing his Essay Test today!

Lots of hugs to all of you. Enjoy your well-deserved weekend!

Current Mood: happy

Entry tags:

photos,
university

Happy Days

I love Crocky. I love this university. I love this accent. I love my subject. I love authors. I love books. I love life. I love thinking. I love reading. I love writing. I love breathing. I love being. I love everyone and everything on the face of earth.

Let's hope this enthusiasm lasts as long as it takes to finish my work for the semester.

Thanks for the questions, Frankie, I'll answer them as soon as possible!

I have been on the tower of the main building of the university today!! Wow, what an experience! The view!! Woooow. There just isn't a more coherent comment I can make. Woooow. That really was worth climbing those 252 steps in that narrowest of all narrow staircases which fits into a tower which is maybe 1,5 m in diameter and is ALL staircase. My poor knees! My legs were shaking when I finally reached the top. But the view... Woooow. You can see the mountains from up there. Well, what I, coming from the northern German lowlands call "mountains". You'd probably call them "wee hills", but they were just awesome. So was the city in spite of it's rather uniform architecture, and the university and the Clyde and Kelvinside and the clouds and the parks and and and. Wooow. It made even me forget my fear of heights.

This is the tower, by the way. Pretty, no? I wish we'd had had that kind of weather today. I hope the picture is not too big for anyone!

Ah, well. Off to Middle English, and then choir in the afternoon. Mozart's Mass in C Minor. Promising title, no? Crocky told me that it was harder than the Dohnányi, but was also more fun. Great. I still suck at reading sheet music and the concert is already on the eleventh of March! Ah, well. I am good at guessing and also good at just pretending to sing when I don't know what I'm doing. James, our conductor, on the other hand, is good at putting the poor altos somewhere where they are surrounded by dangerous other voices.

Off to meet Crocky at the French Department now!

Lots of hugs!

Current Mood: anxious

Entry tags:

university

Last Exam

Just about to write the last exam this year. Have already received my ELang results. 34/40. Not too good, but also not bad with the amount of guesswork going on there!

Seriously, I hate exams in which you just have to understand NOTHING at all and just have to regurgitate either slides or what the professors said. And it was just about that. Only MCQs. Gah. Ah, well, but then, it was at least easy. And probably much better than the Psy one. Or than the ELit one is going to be if I fail to remember the interpretation of the texts fed to us by our professors. :)

I am not sure whether I want Germany to have exams the same way they are here. In some ways, it can only get better. Writing exams in rooms which are so full that you are unable NOT to read what the six people around you are writing is hell, but I am not sure if this is better:

That, my friends, is Hunter Hall East, the hall in which we are sitting our exams. Looks friendly, no? And between those rows, the lecturers and janitors patrol. Maybe that's the reason why no one is trying to copy things here. There is always a chance for the tons of people who are patrolling to see it... but somehow, apart from the guy who copied my essay, there is just no one who tries... Hmm.

So... off to two hours spent with Much Ado, The Homecoming or The Turn of the Screw, and a random poet.

Hugs to all, especially to lukalew and lordhellebore !

Current Mood: accomplished

Entry tags:

university

Psychology Exam Rant

Crocky is sitting her French Exam at the moment, so keep your fingers crossed!!

For me, there's only one exam to go, then the lectures start again on Monday. Phew, I'm glad that psy is over! MCQ papers suck! My reward centre is in my medulla, and not in my medial forebrain bundle, for me, being rewarded is an autonomic function! Sigh. Teh stoopid.

Well, for most people, it was worse, I guess. At least the beginning.

After having been shooed to our seats by the less-than-friendly janitor (who approaches the waiting students standing in front of the Hunter Halls, takes a deep breath, and keeps yelling: "QUIET please if you have a mobile phone please switch 'i orf and hurry along ter yer seats as queckley as ye can!!!" as he marches in. Friendly, no?), we were told to start.
There were two parts, one essay, and a section of 80 nasty MCQs. The essay questions were nice enough, though. I was still reading the essay questions, gasps and laments arose all around me.
I took a look at the MCQs and behold -

Questions on behaviour. Fine. We have covered behaviour, so at first I didn't notice what caused the dismay, but... reading on... there were just fewer and fewer things I knew - and what I knew I knew from my classes in Germany. We did cover behaviour. But not group behaviour. Nor social learning. Nor... any of the other things.
There was just nothing on Biology and Experiments, which was our topic, but there were loads of questions on theories of Rogers, Piaget, Ellis, Beck, or on mood disorders...
In short, things which we officially had never heard before, at least not in the lectures. I have never seen so many white faces.

After a while, luckily, Prof. O'Donnel noticed what was wrong.
"Uh, may I have your attention, please, it seems that we have the wrong MCQ paper... this is the one for semester two."

I thought that only ever happened in daydreams of ill-prepared students! What a good start!
Well, it could only get better, and it did. I have never had so many questions in a test in which I simply didn't know. Well, the fact that I won't need the mark and that the credit I get for this course is more or less just for fun did not help my work ethos... but seriously! There were questions in there dealing with things I have not ever heard of even once! Ah, well.

Apart from that, British students never fail to amaze me. After the debacle with the papers, our examiners left the room for a few minutes.
I know how German students react to that. They engage in team work and group-based problem solving.

Here?

Not a word. The guy next to Crocky behind me kept busily copying my essay plan, but there was just. no. talk.

Nobody ever even tried to ask the others what they were doing there. Maybe I have been spoilt by my school, but still... weird.

Well, only Friday to go. Pinter, Shakespeare, James and random poet, here I come.