Sunday, December 3, 2006
Procrastination is my life…
After a very busy week, I’ve decided that whether I can afford to or not, I’m going to have a slack-off weekend. Don’t look at me like that…after writing one essay every weekend for the last four consecutive weeks I think I deserve a little break! I was supposed to be researching and writing my final essay for my Christendom in Crisis class. The title is: ‘Was Aberdeen of anything more than local significance in the history of Scotland between 1328 and 1542?’ I thought that it would be a fairly straightforward essay and easy to write, but I was mistaken. You would think that living in Aberdeen and attending a fairly well known Aberdeen University would enable there to be stacks upon stacks of information regarding this topic, wouldn’t you? Well, unfortunately, this is not the case. Oh, there are a lot of books on Aberdeen…after 1800! That’s not the period I need. *sigh* Yes, so in the short term I have simply given up. I’ll eventually have to get around to writing it of course, as it’s due next Monday, but I just can’t be arsed to do anything about it now.
As I’m not writing that essay, I should of course be reading and taking notes on Froissart’s Chronicles…a book that we have to read for my Christendom in Crisis class. We have a documents test next Monday which deals specifically with this book, and I’ve only read about 100 pages to date. Whoops. Yep, so that is what I should be doing, but again, I just can’t be bothered to trudge through the rest of the book. So instead, I’ve been sitting on my butt all weekend watching movies…yeah! I actually haven’t gotten to do that in a long, long time. It felt fantastic. Oh, I did leave the flat on Friday though, so I haven’t been completely lazy. My friend Theresa and I went to lunch at a restaurant called Jimmy Chung’s. It’s a Chinese buffet, and it is absolutely delicious. She had three free meals that she had to use, so she was nice enough to ask me. She also invited Ross, but of course he said no. He always says no to invitations, so I’ve just stopped asking him. He did have a valid reason (this time), as he had to write an essay…the exact same essay that I’m meant to be writing at this moment! Uh oh, I’ve derailed my train of thought. Where was I? Oh yes, so Theresa and I ate until we practically exploded. As neither of us wanted to go back to our respective homes to do work, we decided to go to the cinema. Eventually, we decided to go see Flushed Away, this super cute claymation movie from the makers of Wallace and Gromit. Basically, this posh rat gets flushed down the toilet and he spends the rest of the movie trying to get back to the surface, with hilarious events in the middle. It was a very good movie. Afterwards, it was coming to five o’clock, so we decided that we should probably head home. Oh, just a side note to any of you who might care…it gets pitch black over here now at around 3:30pm! This is about an hour or so earlier than what I’m used to back in Minnesota.
So anyhoo, I finally got back to my flat (what with the whole flatmate-hatred issue, I try to stay away from the flat as long as possible, because as my friend Ross once correctly observed, ‘you can cut the atmosphere with a knife!’). I fully intended to begin working on my essay. I even read half a book on Bishop William Elphinstone (the bloke who founded this university). Unfortunately, the motivation didn’t stick around very long and I soon tossed the book aside and gave up. So from that time until now, all I have been doing is sleeping and watching DVDs. But, like I said before, I think I earned a break. This week was pretty long (or at least it felt really long)…
On Monday (as you’d know if you read my previous post), I finished writing my fourth essay. On Tuesday, I unfortunately was so tired in the morning that I basically slept through my alarm and missed my American Century tutorial (the first one I missed from that subject all semester) and a Vikings class (no big deal there…I’ll admit, I don’t go to very many of these classes…they’re sooooo boring!) I made it to my Christendom in Crisis class though. Then I had my 3 hour geology lab, where in the last hour we had a paleontology test, in which we had to identify several fossils. That night, I was actually motivated enough to write up my presentation for my Christendom tutorial on Thursday. It was all about the Black Death and Europe in the 14th century. I tell you, you just haven’t lived until you’ve written a five minute presentation about death, rats, fleas and infected blood! Then came Wednesday. What a crazy, crazy day that was. I went to my geology class at 10am only to find that nobody was there! I waited outside the room until 5 minutes past the hour and only one person had turned up…the teacher wasn’t even there! I was completely confused, as there had not been any emails about a class cancellation or anything. So, I went to the library instead. That’s when I began to try and find resources for my Aberdeen essay. Just before 11am I was getting ready to go to my Vikings class (which I usually skip, because I have a conflict with my American Century class…they’re both at the same time) for a change, only to read my email and find out that the class was cancelled! *sigh* Nothing was going right that day…so I went to my American Century class instead. After that I went to the Hub (the newly-opened and refurbished student center…like Atwood was for those SCSU graduates out there…only better) to eat my lunch and look up some more resources on the computer. Then, at 2pm I went to my Vikings tutorial. Geeze I hate those tutorials…they’re so boring. Plus, as I never go to classes, I usually have absolutely no idea what is being discussed…whoops. On Thursday I went to my Christendom tutorial and gave my presentation…not too bad, I think, but I could have done better. However, it was the most that I’ve ever participated in that class this semester, so that’s something. Then I made myself go to my Vikings class…only to instantly regret that decision five minutes in…it was so boring! At noon, Ross and I headed home because our Christendom class was cancelled that day (the same teacher that cancelled my Vikings class the day before). After I got home, I needed a nap. When I woke up it was about 5 or 6pm. I watched a movie, then went back to sleep for the night. This takes me to Friday, which I’ve already described.
I suppose I should start getting more focused on classes, seeing as how they end in just two weeks, can you believe that? We have about a month long break, and then our exams are at the end of January. Everything is moving so fast. It feels like I just flew back to Scotland, and now I’m already faced with Christmas, the end of term, finding a new flat, and final exams. Aaah! Okay, let me just take a soothing breath…alright, I’m okay now. Oh, about the flat, there have been some new developments, but I don’t want to jinx myself, so I’m going to keep them to myself for the moment. I’ll tell you more if things pan out like I hope they will. Well, as this has already turned into a fairly long post, I’ll save my amusing/exasperating Amazon.com story for another time. Let me just check one thing quickly…I’ll be right back…noooooo! I just found out the final score of the Vikings/Bears game: 13 to 23. My poor, poor Vikings…what has happened to you! Luckily, there are not a whole lot of American football fans over here, so I don’t have to listen to the taunting. However, Steve is an avid Green Bay Packers fan (ewww!), so my MN/WI rivalry lives on over here! Thank goodness the Packers suck just as much as the Vikings, so I don’t have to hear too much mockery of my beloved Vikings from Steve. Alright, well I’m thoroughly depressed now, so I’ve going to bid you all a good night. Keep warm MN, I see you’re hovering at around 14 degrees F (-10 degrees C)! Ha ha…we’re at a balmy 6 degrees C (43 degrees F) with wind gusts of 31 mph. The most amusing thing is that it’s the middle of the day over there, and night for us…ah, gotta love the temperate climate associated with island/coastline living! Anyhoo, nighty night.