l'universite

my apologies for my journalling negligence - school has made its preoccupying arrival at last. i am writing on three hours sleep, feeling like i am a real-live university student who has stayed up all night to finish reading her 900-page assignment for class. of course, hardly anyone else in the seminar actually finished it, but i shall have my proud feat, and the next two days free from classes to recover from it.

so yes, to catch up, reading this victorian novel was pretty much all that i did and had to do this weekend, which was just as well - all of my flatmates were out of town, and the same for several of my other friends, leaving me with only my brick of a book and this here portal to my american world for an occasional social distraction. i also took some time out on saturday to give myself a little cultural test. you see, i have been feeling happily anxious at the abundance of culture in all of its venues in the city - cinema, theatre, music, art - and less happily anxious that there is no one who quite shares my tastes enough to have their own interest in accompanying me to most of these edinburgh offerings. same old story, really. so, on saturday afternoon i went traveling light to a matinee showing of howl's moving castle, which i had been very much wanting to see. the movie was lovely and full of an escapism that can easily inspire a solo viewer, and the experience of the european cinema was interesting in itself. the cinema itself was a very futuristic building, full of blue neon glow and spare, boxy-shaped leather furniture, and, perhaps due to the time of day, there was hardly anyone else around - a child here, a grandma there - which gave the feeling that it was some sort of abandoned or forbidden place. the advertisements lasted for over a half an hour: many of them would be different ads for the same companies, and all of them had some kind of happy techno-y song playing in the background, because of course the products are oh-so-cosmopolitan and sooo is the consumer.
but yes, i enjoyed it and wasn't feeling lame for being there alone, which is promising. also, i'm terribly excited because i'm going to the symphony on friday with my luxembourgian friend pit and another old-timer from the international student centre named mari to see one of my favorite pieces ever, beethoven's ninth symphony, with the royal scottish national orchestra playing and some extremely revered conductor presiding. what more can one ask for, really?

as for other types of enrichment, i have officially attended all of my classes this semester now. my english lit professor, dr lee spinks, is very intense, eloquent, engaging/engaged, and quite encouraging to his students in discussion where he could easily be intimidating. he has so much to say about these books, and says it all so well - i can imagine somewhat more easily what i now mean when i say i want to master the study of english literature and the literature itself. needless to say, this class seems to have much in store for me. i've also met some friendly older english lit students, and perhaps there i can worm my way into other social circles aside from my flat building and its sometimes-silly first-year students. but, no complaints. i enjoy their company a lot, and if necessary can always just go to the cinema by myself, right? : )

i attended my newest class, sociology of education, for the first time today. it seems like it will be interesting and will occasionally spark a good deal of personal interest, but ultimately not the most captivating thing i've ever studied. there is an interesting mix of people there, lots of older students who are beginning to write their dissertations, and i think discussions will probably provoke me more than i presently know how to expect. i am going to lead a discussion later on in the semester about vocational vs academic tracks in education, and the possible dying out of vocational study, and i've thought about this before, especially in virginia beach, so i am happy to think more on it.

lastly (i have all of my classes on monday) i went for the second time to intro to social anthropology today. turns out we have a few lecturers floating in and out, and the first one is a handsome middle-aged italian anthropologist who speaks simply but very captivatingly about dreamcatchers and where witchcraft overrules all notions of science and the puppets in bali that are truly considered to be as alive as human beings. i think half of the audience was swooning. not a bad way to go to class, i suppose.

my course schedule for next semester is still getting away from me a little, but more on that later after i rearrange it a bit tomorrow. meanwhile i have lots of little businessy things to take care of, like taking my rubbish out, going to the grocery store, laundry, lamenting the pisspoor job market for students here, etc.
right now i'm going to watch one flew over the cuckoo's nest, a movie i've been meaning to see for just about forever, and then go to sleep with no alarm set for the morning. pleasantly, goodnight.