Saturday 15 October 2011

rock climbing and matriculation

Sorry, this blog won’t have much energy. That’s because I don’t have much energy. There are pictures below if you don’t feel like reading about what I’ve done in the last four days. :)
I’m tired because I’ve not been getting a lot of sleep and yet I have an essay to write which has to be in in two and a half days, and was set four days ago. I hate that because normally I try to do my work within 20 per cent of the time set, at the very most 50 per cent. The reason I’m taking a little longer with this is because I’m not very confident at essay writing, especially about literature. All of my other work I did very quickly though!
Since Tuesday, I went to a German creative writing group, I went indoor rock climbing, I went on a pub crawl with the Scandinavian Society, and I was matriculated.
The German creative writing group was quite uneventful, but stimulating enough that I’ll probably go again next time. I had to write a story using the prompts “someone breaks into a house”, “a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”, “while cooking dinner”, “a box of sleeping pills” and “at Granddads house”… so it was a strange illogical story to say the least!
Rock Climbing was quite enjoyable, but very hard. It’s not the best thing I’ve done so far, but I think that’s because I can’t yet appreciate working my body to its limit since I’m a bit of a soft egg. I’ve bought year-long membership though, so I’ll go along for at least two terms (which is how long I have to go for it to not be a waste of money). Don’t get the wrong idea, I did enjoy the challenge, and the two guys I was with were very friendly and helpful, but when I struggled they pushed me which I’m frankly not used to on a physical level so I honestly just flopped off the wall, giving up! That was only once or twice though when my arms literally couldn’t hold on any more. I have to be a bit more careful the next time that I go because I don't want to get tendonitis, and it still hurts two days later! I have to go again on Monday because next Saturday I’m going on a group trip to the Peak District where we’ll be rock climbing on real rocks!
The pub crawl with the Scandinavian Society was just what I needed on Friday night after an intense, though not stressful, first week. The society is young and not as organised as the German society (who’s surprised?), so it’s all very relaxed and easy-going, and nobody was drinking very much anyway so I got to talk to a lot of people. At the end of the night I was very happy to be able to speak Norwegian for the first time ever to a PhD student from the University of Oslo, who was so patient and corrected me when I needed correcting and praised me when I did something well. I think I talked mainly rubbish but it's really given my confidence a boost!
Finally, matriculation this morning was at 7.45, which is another reason on top of the late nights and aching body that I’m exhausted. Matriculation is when you are officially accepted into the University of Oxford. You have to wear a costume/uniform, have your photo taken and then sit in a hall and listen to a guy speak Latin. It’s that easy, guys! :D It was really fun actually because we all sort of laughed about it and then had breakfast, and that was it. That is, however, where I parted ways with the other 95 people in my year. They did something called ‘Matriculash’, which is basically where you try to get hammered as fast as possible before midday, and they performed admirably. I know because I heard them all day! I on the other hand ice cream with a girl from secondary school and then hung out in my room, chatting to friends from secondary school on the phone, and pootling around sort of doing some background reading for that essay I mentioned.
I can’t believe it’s not even nine yet, but I also can’t believe it’s already Saturday! Today felt like one of those surreal days where time doesn’t pass like normal. In the coming week I’ll be kayaking in the river, rock climbing and going to the Peak District with the rock climbing society, attending the first meeting of the exploration society (who basically send people to crazy far off places like China or the Arctic so they can camp and walk around and do stuff), writing this essay and doing other Uni work, going to two Stammtisch meets (which is all the Germans going to a pub and speaking German), and going to some Anthropology and Old Norse lectures for ‘fun’, in addition to about eleven hours of German lectures, seminars, grammar classes, tutorials, film showings and language classes. I’ll also hopefully be finding out if I got into the Spanish or Portuguese courses I signed up for.
Really though, I want to spend every day in the pub talking to people, strangers, old friends and family. People are amazing. There are some in the picture below. I’m on the second row from the top, six people from the left. I’m leaving forward or something.
293564_10150354844576683_731816682_8188682_792453548_nI hope you can tell who I am in the second one. The other girl is a friendly chemist and germophile (lover of Germany, not germs, duh) called Laura. I know a little stoned but I honestly think that look kind of suits me. Can you tell how tired I am? My sarcasm muscle is just not working today. Goodnight xxx318598_10150330701544107_621764106_8067374_1470380924_n

1 comment:

  1. Ceci c'est un comment: je t'aime bien.Et ton blog. German creative writing (or any) sounds great. So many offers and things to do sound great too. And the Spanish thing. May your days continue to be exciting.
    Mamandrea

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