Sonnet Movements

From now until May 14^th – it’s Shakespeare study study study time, and dammit, by the end of it I will poop a sonnet!

Other than the work I've done reading the plays I needed to throughout the semester (key word being needed), I’ve basically started preparing today. I’ve also been informed by Sam that finals don’t really work the same way here as they do in the states. This is how I described finals in the states – and if the ENTIRE country is an over generalization, at least the departments of humanities and journalism at the UofA.

It’s like a drivers test. You get in the car, you drive, don’t hit any pedestrians and keep the car on all 4 wheels the entire time – you pass. Finals basically require you to prove that you read the assigned reading and understood it. Multiple-choice tests are common, as are essay tests. You will score highly on both of them if you can repeat as much information from lectures and text as possible. Secondary reading lists are sometimes issued in classes, under the pretenses that if you actually do secondary reading you’re a huge dork – even by English major standards.

Over here – apparently – they don’t want you to repeat anything you learned in the class – and you’re even encouraged not to. Instead, going back to the drivers test analogy, you get into the car and show the person proctoring the test the different types of fabric that can be found making up the seat he’s sitting on. Discussing the history of the windshield wiper is a plus, as is jump-starting the car with nothing but a Swiss army knife. Do that – you pass on the assumption that if you learned all of that, you probably took the time to learn to drive as well. You’re suppose to go out and do a whole lot of secondary reading – and on your essay final (multiple-choice tests do not exist here) you’re suppose to talk in great length about all of the things you DIDN’T learn in the class – that you later taught yourself… If you can do that, you pass – and they just assume you did your homework too.

Faaaaaantastic…

Sam asked how many books I take out of the library a semester. I thought for a minute and told him that I could only remember taking roughly five books out of the library in my entire college career – a few for that damn archeology class I dragged myself through freshmen year, one for my British poetry class, and one for research I was independently doing for a short story I’ve been working on.

Sam started laughing. In fact, he might still be.

I tried to defend our education system by saying “Yeah but we have to buy a ton of books…” which flew like a chicken. Apparently they do too – though I only ended up buying 2 this semester.

Anyway, with all of that said – I’ve been diligently preparing for this foreign style of exam that I have on Wednesday by fine tuning the roster of my first-place fantasy baseball team, and reading articles on Wikipedia about how to cool my God damn room down without going out and buying an air conditioner… as much as I love the view I have I’m facing east-north, so, the sun starts shining directly on my window at around 10 and doesn’t relent until about 6 or 7.

The interior decorator UEA hired to paint my door purple and put in pink and black curtains (I wish I were kidding) in front of my window had the brilliant idea of putting up the heaviest pink and black fabric possible. You could fry an egg on these monstrosities. I’ve had my windows and door open all day, fan blowing full blast – but thanks to Wikipedia I’m also wearing my “Jesus Hates the Yankees” shirt soaked in ice water. “When you can’t cool the room – cool yourself,” Wikipedia says. To hell with dripping all over the purple carpet, it’s hot in here! And, it makes my feet feel nice and refreshed whenever I walk through one of the many puddles that are everywhere!

I actually have been studying – too… in fact writing a blog post is the study break I promised myself when I started working this morning – but writing about studying is just about as exciting as doing it, so I’m sparing all of us.

I’ve spent the past week in Italy with Mom, her childhood friend Karen, and her husband, John. It was wonderful. I will put up pictures at a later time but it was really gorgeous. Karen and John are renting a house in a town called Montisi, population 300, outside the city of Sienna. It was the least touristy place I’ve seen since coming to Europe – less so even than Norwich. It was literally in the Tuscan country side, the house was surrounded by sheep farms, vineyards and mountains. We went on a hike of some different part every day, exploring Montisi, Sienna, Sinalunga and Trequanda. We ate gelato, drank wine and did all of those Italian things that we silly Americans (correctly) associate with Italy. It was great.

Unfortunately, hiking and eating gelato doesn’t lead to great blog post stories… so I’ll leave the Italy story at that for now, but maybe I’ll think of more to add when I start working on my backpacking adventure stories. On that note, Dave's backpacking adventure will start being written/posted on May 24^th. I have from the May 24^th-June 8^th with no classes, no finals, and no visitors so I’ll have plenty of time to work on those… AND stay up until 4am every morning watching major league baseball online. (What the hell else am I going to do? Explore Norwich? Well, actually... yes that'd be a better use of my time abroad...)

You will not believe how many pictures there are to come… it’s an intimating task and the intimidation is the entire reason I haven’t started yet. Thanks for reading – I’ll post again soon.