School: papers and people

[brigdh]

I had to go to my department's holiday party this evening; it was much less terrible than I expected! Not that I hate parties or holidays, but I know approximately three people in the department, and I was dreading the thought of either following them around continually or attempting small talk with strangers. It was fine, though. I followed my three for a little while, and then one of them handed me off to another group, which I appreciated. I'm perfectly comfortable talking to people I don't know as long as I don't have to start the conversation. I talked to them until they dissipated away, and then wandered over to sit on the edge of a group with some people I knew distantly.

Have I complained already on LJ about how I don't know any of the other first-year students? Because I don't, and it's terrible. When I was deciding what classes to take this semester, there were a few ones that are intended for all the first-years to take together. "Oh, whatever," my advisor said. "You can take those next year. There are these cool archaeology classes available instead which are so much more important and offered less often; take those!" Which sounded alright to me, so I did. But now I don't know any of the other first-years, because I might run into one of them once a month, and thanks people, this schedule was totally a genius idea. Except not.

Anyway, I wandered over to sit by them, and felt awkward for a few minutes, until a girl who'd had her back to me turned and noticed me and Oh! How had I been and it'd been so long since she'd seen me and what was up? I would swear I'd never met this girl before in my life, but she knew my name, so she must be better informed than me. I'm fairly accustomed to this happening, actually, because I have a terrible memory for faces, but you would think even I could remember a tall, very animated, blonde with a heavy South African accent. Not that I minded; I never mind people adopting me for their social circle.

It is sort of strange to be playing the "how the hell do I know this person" game when they're pratically sitting in your lap, though. But it made sense in context! We were all sitting on the stairs to a sort of stage/upper level of the room and were crowded fairly close together anyway, so when as part of something she was saying, she put her feet up on my thighs, it was not as weird as it sounds. Either that or she (I still have no idea what her name is) remembers me way, way better than I remember her, from wherever it was we know each other.

I still have that paper to finish it tonight. It started going much faster when I decided to look over the handouts other people had made for their presentations, and I realized that I did not actually need to invent a new theory of life, the universe and everything, but could just summarize the research I'd done. Thank you, brain, for that one; I'm not certain why I was so convinced that it needed to be incredibly complicated. I'd prefer to go somewhere, work straight through until I finish it, and then sleep all day tomorrow, but I'm having trouble finding 24-hour coffee places. My favorite, which would be open at least till midnight, is closed for its own holiday party tonight. I've googled up one that I'll try, but whether or not I'll have internet access there is uncertain. Not that I really need it for the paper, but it'd be nice.

I really need a school icon.

Comments

[kessie.livejournal.com]

I was starting to get the impression that you don't know the people on your course as well as you'd like. On the other hand, I'd sort of formed a half-assed idea that it was because they didn't want to get to know you, and I was secretly indignant on your behalf because you wouldn't want to get to know you?

I'm glad I was sort of proven wrong. :D

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ha! Thank you. But no, it's not my fault at all (which means it must be true if I'm saying it, because usually anything going wrong socially leads to me proclaiming "It is obviously because I WAS BORN DEFICIENT IN THE SKILLS OF NORMAL HUMANS") because every time I see any of them it's very nice and we have things to talk about. It's hard to make friends when I do see them, literally, for maybe fifteen minutes a month, though. And the people who are in my courses have all been here for longer, so they already have their social circles.

But! I'm hoping to get some of them in one of the courses I'm taking next semester.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

Heh. I know where you are coming from with people. I can never remember names/faces and everyone knows who I am. It can actually be a little frustrating at times. Oh, sorry what class am I in with you again?

Is your work due tomorrow? I am reading your LJ instead of writing a paper on Jonathon Swift myself. Unfortunatly my computer died, taking MSWord with it, so I have to go early and print it at the library.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I tend to feel bad for them, because it does kind of suck to be forgotten. But it's not like I mean to do it, and there's not much I can do to change things, so I just pretend that I do know who they are.

Yep. Or, well, it was due Friday, which was tomorrow when I wrote this post but is now yesterday. That sucks that your computer died! Did you lose any of your work?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

No. I think I'll be okay as I try to back things up every month or so. School is over so I don't need the papers, and every assignment I posted to myself on LJ, in case I needed it again. The only things I'll really lose are my programs like MSword and photoshop. Did your paper come out okay at least? Mine digressed into talking about the movie Borat.

[redshoeson.livejournal.com]

Congrats on making it through your holiday party OK, and on making friends. ^^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It was alright. Not the most insightful thing I've ever written, but it wasn't terrible. And hee, I didn't get to talk about Borat. Did that have something to do with your topic, or did you just go off on a tangent?

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

No I just digressed. My teacher likes to assign 2 papers at a time and I'll wait until the night before to do them, and by the second paper I am just burnt out. We were supposed to talk about how Swift viewed society using Modest Proposal and Description of a City Shower. I try to end my papers by connecting it with something more modern and In my footnotes it had a blurb about George Psalmanazar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Psalmanazar), a famous imposter who went round visiting the English nobility.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's pretty awesome, and does actually tie in pretty well. I haven't seen Borat yet, though I want to. It looks very funny.

[rayechu.livejournal.com]

If you aren't bugged by random male nudity, you'll be fine. I had never heard of it and enjoyed it, and I am usually not one to take to comedies as I miss/ don't find funny at least half of the jokes.