so class number four is: Language, Literature and culture. It's basically a linguistic's class but it will count towards my degree at home- which is helpful.

and class number five (i know- five classes) is Dimensions of the sacred: basically a class examining religious symbols, myths and cultural influences. I don't know if this will count for anything but it deals with literature of specific religions and also the social issues that are prompted by religions- or spiritualities. I think it'll make me a better person.

as for my project- my group -ecluding lovely aubrey- is dumb. and I don't mean that as just a figurative insult. they really don't get our project, it's intentions or the desired outcome. i don't know how to explain to them that trying to format a project (which is supposed to be very personal) in order to impress the teacher - or to give what they suppose the teacher wants. I can't handle that kind of pandering. It's annoying and contrary to the whole spirit of the assignment. which I know you all don't know much about. Anyway we're taking a text that "speaks to us" and reinterpreting it through a different medium. we chose a section from a book called The DARK ROOM, where a man (micha) finds out that his grandfather was in the SS in belarus and partook of the massacre's that occured there. He goes to bellarus some 50 years after world war II and meets a man named joseph- who was jewish but helped to assassinate (sp?) people in order to save himself. Anyway - joseph dies and micha comes back to belarus for the funeral. After the funeral elena (josephs wife) leads micha to the field where much of the murdering took place. the scene is very vivid and harsh and poignant. it's a beautiful summer day and yet micha is standing on what may as well be a hundred corpses. etc etc etc

so these girls keep wanting to do things that they think our teachers will like- they have put no thought into the text themselves- they insist on regurgitating (once again spelling?) what the teacher has said. it's frustrating. I wish i'd done the project alone or with a smaller group of people I knew better.

i'm done complaining for now. i had the strangest dream about being back in reno- it was a happy dream, but I was so very disconnected from it. I was in reno- but i felt far away from everything and everyone i was seeing. interesting. I'm gonna miss my best friend, my brothers and my nephew's birthday within the next four weeks. then my dad's soon thereafter. thats another thing. missing birthdays.

oy. hope everyone is doing well. until next rant

i am tremendously afraid of trying new things- studies at least. I'm terrified that I will fall in love and in turn have to throw away my previous work at university.
I'm thinking of taking a film class this coming semester- but I'm afraid that if I take it and enjoy it that I will want to change my major to art (film studies) and become a cinematographer. which wouldn't be horrible...

but it wouldn't be picking the music for films or designing the soundtrack - which I still believe has got to be the best job in the world.

and I've been in school long enough to know that the juxtaposition of classes usually causes a very unique and very specific atmosphere from which I pull both academic and "life" knowledge.

thus far I've chosen these classes....but need a fourth

Contemporary British Fiction - which will include Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange (with the original ending included - as it was cut from the american version), Salmon Rushdie's Midnights Children and others- which I'm excited to explore.

Modern English Novel (I know you're asking yourself what is the difference) - which includes Conrad's heart of darkness, Woolf's Orlando and Joyce's Portrait of an artist as a young man. I use to abhor the first selection but since I have learned more about Joseph Conrad's relationship with richard casement [ask me about casement later] I've become fascinated by him. Woolf is always brilliant and Joyce I'm already half obsessed with. My only qualm with reading Portrait is that I fully believe that Joyce should be read chronologically ie: Dubliners, then portrait, then finegan's wake and finishing with Ulysses. Half of you don't know what I'm talking about. ha

and last but not least...

Borders and Boundaries : a study of geography and globalization (which the english spell globalisation) both the impact of nationalism and the effects and consequences of an increasingly globalised [i know...but when in rome..] world. I'm extremely excited about this class. I need to talk to people.

and I need spelling lessons. I've resolved to buy a dictionary because I find more often than not that I have no idea how to spell words....I always thought that spelling was my brothers pitfall- not mine. Sorry matty.

heather [with her chipmunk laughs] and I are growing impatiant of the arrival of our new roomates, which much to our dismay, we discovered were all female. Girls are wonderful and i have nothing against living with them- however both of us have found that we fair better when living with boys...or at least some boys...and our neighboring flat has taught us many lessons this year about how sometimes living with a house full of girls can be intolerable- for all parties involved.

I feel terribly misogynistic [dictionary time] saying that. I shall have to think about it longer.

oh and love in the time of cholera- is...is....so many things, and of all genre's of literature I think I enjoy latin american literature the most.

and I'm doing a half-assed job of developing my thesis (which I'm not confident enough to share with all of you- yet) which I will have to present within the school year of 2004-2005. but everywhere I go i find that there is so much more to know before I make some assumption, so much more to learn, to see and I shall never be sated.

this is the end for all you folks without reading stamina. ha I hope this finds you all well. next time I will talk about my final project for my explorations in literature class. it's going to be brilliant. until then.

shavawn

ah ha! another post and so soon after the last one.

well since joel told me that many people weren't reading my posts because they tended to be long winded- i promise this will be another short one.

saw lost in translation today. sofia coppola- francis fords daughter- her second flick. it was good- charming in fact.

I have discovered a new friendship in my flatmate heather. She makes me giggle. she, herself, laughs like a chipmonk. brilliant little chirps.

I feel a bit like nothing I have to say right now means anything at all- so Ill just say that I'm in good health. I have lectures thursday, work on friday and saturday and I hope to finish Love in the time of cholera (a great book) before work on friday. So I'm off.

oh and today- it rained huge drops- the kind that splash up from the earth back into your face. I felt like Gene autry (I think that's his name) sans umbrella this morning on my way to work. I splashed about in all the puddles and spent the next 6 hours drying off.

hope the weather is entertaining you wherever you are.

so I have returned safely from my trip with my parents. I think we had a good time. I'm being shuffled out of the library as we speak. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing well. The weather today was like spring- warm and gentle. The sky gets bigger here every day. clouds rip it open or cover it completely sometimes- but when they are gone i can see the curve of the earth in any direction. it's beautiful. I have so much to talk about- but nothing really to say. So until the next time I'm at the lab or until monday (when I get internet access in my room)- adieu.