Fall has... fallen?

It is sooo foggy today! And cold…

But it means that fall has arrived. With fall comes crisp air, beautiful trees, and cozy days spent indoors. The fall is my favourite season, the season of sweater and scarves.

That being said, all of my scarves are in Nanaimo, as I forgot to pack them down with me when I moved. So is my winter coat. It isn’t quite time for that yet, the peacoat is doing just fine, but I best plan ahead. I am off to Nanaimo this weekend to visit Liz and Chris, we’re going to go for a walk by Piper’s Lagoon, relax, watch some classic movies, drink an excellent bottle of wine (courtesy of Matthew, for my birthday) and have a damn good steak too. Oh, and I’ll bring my scarves, coat, and kitchen knives back with me. (Look out Liz, I’m relatively sure I won’t forget this time!!)

I wrote my first vocabulary quiz in German today. It took me 5 minutes. 20 words. That’s what studying 115 words for will do for you! I think that the teacher was a little astonished, but I know that the other half of the class had some early departures as well.

Anyways, I gotta run, Greek and Roman studies is coming up soon, and I should start to drift that way.

Cheers!

ha HA!

J.D. won Rockstar INXS!

Sweet!

I’ve already added INXS to my Artist Alerts in iTunes. The new album will be out soon!

And now, to bed.

Quiet moments between classes

Here I sit, in the lobby of the Human & Social Development Building, waiting for class to begin. Greek and Roman Studies is not one of the most exciting courses, however I just discovered something today that makes it a little more interesting.

As I have mentioned, we have been reading The Iliad by Homer, and I have been finding it to be a bit of a snore, and difficult to get into. Well, on a whim today I went to the Library after my German class, and took out a copy that had not been translated into prose. It is so much easier to read! Call me weird, but trying to read the prose translation is really tough, but the regular translation just seems to make more sense to me. And since this is one of the epic poems, I can get away with using any version of the text that I like.

So anyways, the class is getting a little better. After GRS today, I have more Heart of Darkness to read for English before my next class. At least Heart of Darkness will be over with after today’s class. Yay!

I might be going to Nanaimo this weekend. I’m really looking forward to it, I haven’t seen Liz or Chris in a little while, and it would be nice to get away before midterms roll around (in three weeks!) and I am just plain tired. The Gelateria at work closed on Sunday, and so I have been busy cleaning up and shutting down, and starting to think about next year.

But I gotta go; people are looking at me strangely as I sit here on my laptop. I dunno what the problem is, the keyboard is almost silent! I’m probably just reading too much into it.

Cheers!

Randomness in the morning...

I just downloaded Blogger for Word. It lets you manage your blog and post by just using Word, instead of logging in to blogger all the time. ‘Cause let’s face it, the blogger website isn’t always easy to navigate.

But enough screwing around. I have to go and start reading the book we are studying in English today. Heart of Darkness.

Gag.

Me after too much birthday cake...

This is how I feel some days...

Homer

When most of us think of Homer, we think “D’OH!” or something similar. Well, not in Greek and Roman Studies. We’ve all heard of The Iliad, and the Odyssey, and read simplified excerpts from them, but trying to read the translated text, is bloody painful. Don’t get me wrong, The Iliad is an interesting story, but it is so full of superfluous text. I guess it isn’t really superfluous, as all words carry some form of meaning, I just find that it makes it very difficult to read. I give you an example:

But he could not repay his parents for the care of his rearing, but his life was cut short, brought down by the spear at the hands of great-hearted Aias. As he came through the front line Aias struck him in the chest, by the right nipple, and the bronze spear pushed straight on through his shoulder. He fell to the ground in the dust like a poplar, which grows in the grassy flat of a great water-meadow, smooth-trunked, with branches springing at its very top: then a wainwright fells it with the gleaming iron, to bend its wood into a fellow for a chariot of finest make, and it lies there seasoning along the banks of the river. Such was Anthemion’s son Simoeisios, killed by royal Aias.

Holy cow! It must’ve taken homer a couple of days to write that one paragraph! Maybe I should try and read this book early in the day when I am fresh, instead of late at night, when I am not.

AGH!

Life goes on…

School has begun!

What a crazy week.

The first week of school is always exhausting, I’ve found. It is stressful finding your way, learning the rules, buying books, and other such things. Especially for me, with a new campus and a new school this year. I am still amazed at the sheer size of UVic, and the number of student running around. It’s crazy!

One thing I am not used to is the lecture concept. At Mal-U, we had classrooms with desks or large tables in them. You could spread out, have your notebook AND two texts out to work with. At UVic, there are only those stupid little chairs with an oversized armrest that is trying to pass itself off as a table, that isn’t even large enough for one notebook. There is nothing better than almost spilling 7-Up all over yourself while trying to use your German text and take notes at the same time. Also, it is impossible to get comfy in those chairs. It just doesn’t happen!

I am taking four courses this term. We are only in the second class of German, but so far, it is my favourite. Greek and Roman Studies is a huge class (150 people!) and a lot of reading and note taking. But it’s gonna be an easy course. English 207 is pretty cool, as it is all about popular culture and how it influences us, our decisions, our perceptions, and the like. English 201 is a traditional English course. We are reading a lot of novels, and doing panel discussions of them. But the really good news? In the four courses I am taking, I don’t have a single research paper this term! YAY!

Anyways, I gotta go, clean my room and clear space to study. Oh, and I have to play with my new iPod.

Later!