I've decided that handing in papers feels just as good on this side of the Atlantic as it did on the other side . . . everything was completed early and when I handed in my papers for Methods I was told that I was actually the first one to do so - go me! Actually that just made me feel like a huge nerd, but I always like to have everything handed in a couple days early just in case technology suddenly decides to become my mortal enemy and won't let me print or something. At least in that case I'd have time to fix it, but everything went without a hitch and now it's just waiting on the results. I'm very grateful that I didn't have hardcore exams like the rest of my flatmates who seem to have spent all of vacation stressing and studying. Ada and Lavinya spent several evenings studying and working in the kitchen; Ada had some of the questions up on her laptop screen and I was really impressed by what they were studying - I know it was a math thing but it looked like a whole other language, like Klingon or something else I had no clue how to read. Needless to say, I was hugely impressed that they not only could make sense of that stuff but actually understand it. But exams are now completed and everybody's happy that the nightmare is over, although we're in two camps as to whether we actually want our grades or not.
As a nice sort of celebration of everybody finishing up, after Ada and Lavinya's last exam, they, Carlos, and I went to lunch at a Chinese place called Red Chili, which is just down the road from the dorm. I've passed it multiple times going to the post office but hadn't ever been inside; it has these bizarre red statues just inside the door that are really creepy. But Carlos said it was good, and they had a lunch special that they were advertising, so we figured we'd give it a shot. It looked really fancy on the inside but isn't really as upscale as you might thing (not to say that in a bad way; it just looks very classy without being expensive). We got several different entrees and did a little bit of trying everyone else's stuff and it was pretty good. I got shrimp fried rice (original, I know) but it wasn't really fried rice - I think it was boiled, but the added peas and pieces of egg to it. It was pretty good. Ada and Lavinya had chicken with different sauces, and Carlos got a different kind of chicken with some pork ribs and corn soup. All in all, it was a good meal for the price, and there was plenty of food. We chatted and stuff over lunch and got to talking about museums and stuff and Ada suggested we go over to the Manchester Museum that's right across from the dorm. I pass it every day and always tell myself that I'm gonna go in one day but never seem to get around it; I haven't been in there since the first day when I begged them to let me use their phone to call Ian to rescue me. So after we finished we wandered over. To my surprise, they actually have an awful lot of really cool stuff in there. They have an Egyptian exhibit, one on weaponry, multiple displays of African carvings, some Native American pieces, some live reptiles in little habitats, insects and birds, geology and minerals, and a fossil/dinosaur area at the very bottom. There's also a third floor that we didn't get to; we were kicked out at five because they were going to close. I had no idea they had so many exhibits though; it was a really nice way to spend an afternoon.
You know those people who paint/dress themselves up to look like statues and then stand perfectly still for a long time and then suddenly move a little and scare the people walking nearby? Usually I stay away from them because I think they're a little bit creepy and unnerving, but the other day when I was running errands near City Center I saw the most impressive one I've ever seen. He was painted goldish with some black, and his tie was stiffined at an upward angle. His pose was of a guy slipping and falling backwards, and I have to say, I didn't think it was humanly possible to hold the position he was in. He was positioned so far back that I honestly don't know how he managed to do it without some other kind of support, but it was just him. He must have calves of steel or something. I was really impressed; I don't normally find those people very intriguing, but he really was excellent.
As you may or may not know, it was Chinese New Year this past week, and the George Kenyon RAs held a CNY party for the hall residents to celebrate the occasion. Carlos, Ada, Avi, and I planned to go and meet up in the kitchen to go down together, and when I got there Ada had some friends over. She knew them from church - Maria from Germany (but with Polish parents) and Asia (pronounced "Ah-shah") from Poland. They turned out to be the sweetest girls - Ada meets the nicest people in church. We talked for quite a while because I'm a huge fan of both countries, and they were kind of surprised to find out how much I liked Poland. Asia put it, "Well I love it, and it's a beautiful place, but it's kind of rare to get someone who isn't Polish saying it too." They decided to come down to the party with us where, after waiting for a while, we got to sample some Chinese food prepared by the students. It was running out by the time we got to it but it was quite good - they had some chicken, a vegetable soup, rice tortillas (in all fairness, I won't be hunting those down anytime soon), and duck. This was much better duck than they had on the Alaska cruise, and I'm really glad I was willing to try it again. We were sort of herded into into the common room to eat and congregate, and we found Valerie there was well which was nice. After a while of munching and chatting they had some games set up, so we figured we'd stick around for that. They had a quiz about Chinese culture and the Chinese New Year in general but they split up our awesome team because we didn't have enough native Chinese on it. Half the quiz was geared toward the Chinese students and half toward us non-Chinese people, and we didn't do too fabulously on either one, but at least I remembered enough from high school to know that traditionally China is known as the Middle Kingdom. Ada's team came in second, actually - they did quite well. We didn't even win when we cheated, haha. We played pictionary next and tied for a win which was neat. Once we finished that we went outside to set off lanterns to fully ring in the New Year - they're large square-ish tissue paper constructions with a metal cross on the bottom that you light on fire and the heat lifts them like hot air balloons. We set off about six or eight of them, but the next morning found out that the Manchester police and airport officials did not really appreciate that, as apparently they can interfere with airplanes. Personally I was just glad we didn't set anything on fire and cause a major conflagration. It was a good time though, and afterwards when we went back to the flat we spent several more hours hanging out with Maria and Asia. Maria was on a one-term stay so she was leaving the next week, and she said that when she was studying in England the first time, a couple years ago, she lived in a hall and had a really bad experience with it, as did a lot of other people she knew; consequently she opted not to live in one this time, but said she wished she could have lived in one like ours. She was amazed that we actually do hang out and do stuff together, and that we all like each other. Apparently we really do seem to be the exception instead of the rule; I feel like I got incredibly lucky to have landed where I did. I think we really do enjoy each others' company. The girls left at about midnight or so but Maria came back again the next day so she and Ada could cook; Carlos and I joined them at one point and we had some lovely conversation about a multitude of subjects ranging from Valentine's Day and laws against naming your kids stupid things to sustainability and whether we will ever run out of fresh water (there were strong opinions expressed on both sides). It really was a nice time, and it's a shame Maria had to return to Germany, but hopefully we will be seeing more of Asia sometime.
In an effort to do something a little more social outside of classes, I decided to join the dorm book club; I'm glad I read fast, as I only decided this on Monday and the first meeting was yesterday. The book for this month was "Brooklyn" by Colm Toibin, apparently a well-known Irish author. The club was started by a girl named Claire who is doing her PhD (I think) in Creative Writing. It ended up being just the two of us and one other guy (who was American) but it was a pretty neat discussion and it was cool to do something a little different. It will certainly be nice to read something that doesn't pertain to my classes, assuming I have time this term to do anything other than read and breathe. I got the syllabus for The Holocaust in Cultural Discourse today, and all I could say was "Ye gods in Heaven; my professor is trying to kill me." As it stands now, I have approximately 1,400 pages of reading due for next Thursday (yes, I added them up) and one of the books is in French. I sent an email asking just how much of those books we were supposed to be reading and whether the French book was truly a requirement. If it is, I'll be spending an awful lot of time with Google Translate this weekend. This is the first week of the second semester, and I don't think I'm as excited about it as I was about the first one. I've always been more interested in the historical aspect of the Holocaust rather than the cultural facets, and a lot of this is going to be theory based, especially Cultural Memory and the Holocaust. I think it will still be interesting, but my one professor in particular seems kind of standoffish. We were waiting for Craig (the part-time Holocaust student who I include as the .5 in the number of students in the program being 1.5) to arrive and it seemed like she was having a very difficult time engaging in any sort of conversation; she just sort of sat there for quite a while before I could elicit much of anything out of her (by the way, it turns out that she did her graduate work at Cornell and knows exactly where Elmira is - thank God she didn't mention Mark Twain; if she had, I probably would have turned around and left) . . . she seems to be under the impression that most of upstate NY is run by people resembling the members of the Westboro Baptist Church. At the end of the session she was so dismissive - she literally just stopped talking, set her stuff down, and just sat there staring at us; that was our cue to leave. Because of the way the course is structured I only have three sessions with her, but I get the feeling they could be really painful. We'll see how it goes I guess . . . I'm missing Dr. Dreyfus already; I feel like he's the Manchester version of Dr. Imai.
Ada came to my door earlier this evening and asked if I wanted to go with her to the Burlington Society - it's sort of like a postgraduate and mature student lounge that's just for us (with a membership) but tonight they were having a free function for all postgrads so I said sure (might as well do one last fun thing before I start trying desperately to read French). We walked over together and just outside the building we met one of her classmates, Ebuka from Nigeria. He went in with us and we got tickets for free drinks. There was another classmate of theirs there too - to my untrained ear his name sounded like Ephraim but it's not that; it starts and ends with "i" but I have to ask Ada to spell it again. Anyway, he's from Nigeria too, and when Ada introduced me to him he said, "Oh, are you the one with the blog?" Apparently Ada has been good with PR, haha. She didn't even remember telling him that. Eventually we moved upstairs where they had set out food. We're all used to "food" meaning little sausages and celery sticks, but this was a good spread - they had bread and cheese, and various chicken and pork dishes and even some vegetarian salad/pasta options. For a British buffet thing, it was excellent. We ate and chatted; it was hugely crowded and Ada and I ended up in a different corner than Ephraim and when we tried to get back over to him I got separated and blocked out by the crowd, but ended up having a very nice discussion with Ebuka. He was asking all sorts of questions about American politics and Bush and Obama, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, etc. and seemed very interested in it. He was a really nice guy and we had a lovely chat. Eventually I did make it back over to Ada and Ephraim where they had been joined by two people Ada knows from church - Bernice from Spain and Roberto from Italy. We all hung out and talked for a while until the crowd started to thin out and we decided to take our leave around 10. It was a really nice evening though and I'm glad I went down.
I have to say that I really am starting to miss snow, although I do love this rain. There is green grass outside my window right this minute, while NY is apparently digging out from under yet another snowstorm. I don't need constant snowstorms, but I walk outside and can hardly believe that it's February. It doesn't seem possible. We really only had that one bit of snow in December, and that's been it; I feel pretty stupid for buying those snowboots now; I honestly doubt whether I'm ever going to need them for the rest of my stay here.
Stay tuned for more fascinating updates soon to come . . .
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