Ercassesanwi - October 2nd, 2003
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07:22 pm
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Nolyomenier ar Minyar Niernya, Classes and my first tears
So I've been to all of my classes now. My history classes, Medieval Scotland and Medieval British Isles, are at 2 and 3. They are huge, over 100 students each. The lecturers haven't been that engaging, but the subject matter and the fact that so much of it is based on languages and people and place names makes the classes interesting for me.
My Scottish Verse class is taught by a man with what I have dubbed "arresting aqua eyes." He also has a great Scottish accent, almost making up for the fact that more than half of the class -- my only small class -- is American.
In addition to our lecture hours, we are supposed to attend smaller tutorial groups in which we will discuss and submit individual work. To find out when and where our tutorials are scheduled to be, we have to -- you guessed it -- walk all the way into town to the main building for that subject and look around for postings on a bulletin board. That is what I spent all morning trying and not succeeding to do.
I walked into town just after 9 AM (my first class was at 12), and wrote the following at 11:
"I will not cry. I will instead write out my frustration.
"I have twice walked the 30 min from DRH to the Scottish history office to find the posting for my tutorial. I have not found it either time.
"I have twice then walked across town to the medieval history office to see the posting for my tutorial. It is there, but the time listed for the preliminary meeting is unclear: 'the normal class hour' -- does it mean the 10 AM tutorial hour of the hour the class meets? And the place, 'the Old Class Library' is not mentioned on any map. No one in the medieval history department is available for me to ask the location of this mysterious place. The student information building (again, across town) opens only from 12-2, so I must wait until after my 12 class, when it will be too late to make the 10 AM tutoring hour, if that is what the mysterious posting means.
"Oh, and my St. Andrews email address is not receiving any mail. I am on mailing lists for societies that should have contacted me by now. My friend Laura sent me a test email that I have not received. I went to the IT services building to ask about it and was again unable to find anyone to help me. So if a tutorial leader emails me, I will not receive the email.
"Now, I want to go back to my room and cry, but I cannot because by the time I get there it will be time to walk back to town for my 12 class. I have stopped halfway through the walk back to DRH to write this."
The real tragedy, at the time, seemed the fact that I needed to cry but couldn't find a place to do it.
I did miss the 10 AM tutorial. But I managed to sit in on one taught by the same lady at 4. I had found out that my other tutorial was also scheduled for 10 on Thurs, so I asked the lady if I could switch to the 4:00 session and gave her my Meredith email by which to respond to me. Maybe it's all ok after all.
I haven't managed to meet many people in the huge history classes. I know Laura in my verse class. I could more easily get to know the rest of the class, but most of them are American. Grrr.
The other night there was a "party" for people who live in the Fraser and Donaldson blocks of DRH. I took Laura, who is even shyer than I. We sat quietly and looked scared, something we're good at. Finally a guy friend of my new friend Stephanie started talking to us. He invited us to go with him and a friend to the student union to watch a band. We went. It was a loud, scary punk band, but the guys were nice. He asked me for my St. Andrews extension, and I gave it to him. But he hasn't called (when I was in) or left me a message. Should I be insulted?
Tomorrow starts our "family visit" weekend. I'm going to stay with a lady named Mrs. Clarke in Stirling. I bought a jar of muscadine jelly to give her as a thank you gift. I hope she likes it. Apparently British people don't eat peanut butter and jelly. We've told Fima about it, and she said, "I'll have to try this American peanut butter and jelly." She makes it sound so exotic!
My mom is upset that I haven't called her. I can't! I have an evil phone that hates me. I'll try to call her from a pay phone. If that doesn't work, I can email her.
AM "[shopping] cart" = BR "trolley"
AM "hyper/excited" = BR "high spirits"
AM "cookies" = BR "biscuits"
Current Mood:  depressed
Current Music: Rich Mullins "Here in America"
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