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ravenAh, Oxford. I've finally got around to looking at my lecture lists - three of them, why oh god why am I a PPEist? - and various tutes and classes. I think I shall see the light of day again in, um, March. Waaah. It's all getting in the way of all the things I like about Oxford, because it is probably the (second) nicest city in the world. Work gets in the way of fun stuff, like the societies and wandering through the streets and parks and taking in the beautiful winter weather and everything else. And what Claire calls "the bells, the bells, the fucking bells!", but I like them. Actually, the bells are what make me think I'm back. From here I reckon I can hear the Balliol chapel bells, Trinity's bells, probably Lincoln's and Exeter's, and the University Church bells.
Actually, first week isn't that bad for me. Second week will be shit, third week shittier, fourth week even worse than that, and fifth to eighth, I'm not sure, because that's when I go from General Philosophy to macroeconomics. Sky says the latter is far better than micro was, but I'm not sure I trust him; he loathes philosophy essays and they're the one thing I really like, so I think our tastes differ. That said, he's my tute partner for philosophy, which is good, because I have decided that barring a few exceptions, myself not included, PPEists are not nice people.
I went out to Iffley Road tonight to check out the University's badminton club. It's a half-hour walk, so I was hoping it was worth it, and surprisingly, it was. Once I'd got over the natural reluctance - I was the sort of person who skived every single PE lesson at school - I actually had a good time. I'm a decent badminton player - not competition level or anything, but above-average - and there were lots of people at just that level whom I could pair up with. I took Liya, who'd never played before, and I was feeling a bit churlish to start with because I didn't have a proper partner, but it all worked out in the end. Lots of fun, and I think I'll go again next week. I hate to even say it, but I'm on a bit of a healthy living kick. None of that 300-sit-ups-and-nothing-but-carrots crap, but, you know, more walking about in the sunshine with my iPod, more badminton and maybe the gym once in a while, and more water and fruit. I hope it lasts.
In short, I am in a good mood now; come the end of first week I will not be. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, and take the chance to go shopping on Saturday.
And as I have a lot of new friends (hello, again), and my LJ is, um, not so coherent, so this is the meme that I wanted to do.
Ten things I assume you know about me:
1. I am a student. More specifically, I am a first-year PPEist at Balliol College, Oxford. PPE stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and getting in here to read it is probably the peak of my academic achievement (it's all downhill from here). My speciality is Philosophy, and I loathe Economics because I am trés crap at maths. Better now than I was, but still crap.
2. I'm a polymath. Name any academic subject, with the exceptions of economics and botany, and I'm probably very interested in it. My first love is English language and literarure, but I thought PPE was more useful. I'm also very, very interested in the sciences, particularly chemistry, and I applied through UCAS for four medicine places and PPE. I picked PPE, but I think I'll always feel a bit of regret that I never did medicine. My mother was very keen for me to do it, leading to much angst and histrionics when I refused, but we're on better terms now.
3. I am a British NRI. That is, non-resident Indian, and it causes me angst. I was born and brought up in Britain, but I'm quasi-bilingual (my first language is Hindi, but I forgot it as I learned English and I've always wanted to go back to India to get my Hindi back up to scratch) and a Hindu. I'm half-Bengali, half-UP, but I look classically north Indian. I mention this because I'd had my LJ a couple of years before I realised that my being Asian is something you couldn't miss in real life, but you could feasibly read my LJ for months without knowing it.
4. I'm a fangirl. Okay, you must know that by now. I haven't been one since the heady days of print 'zines or anything, but I have an excuse in that I wasn't born then. I got into fandom in early 2001, and it was Stargate fandom back when it was small and funky, and oh, my, such fun. I was thirteen-nearly-fourteen then, and Pedar said it was just a phase. I'm nineteen next week and showing no signs of growing out of it.
5. Pedar, yes. He is my father, and in some ways he's my best friend. He and I are very much alike, with the same sense of humour, the same tendency to be anti-social, and we get excited about the same things and have a disconcerting habit of saying the same thing at the same time even when it's not obvious. (My favourite example of this is a few months ago, my mother asked what we thought of some movie or other and we both said, simultaneously, "It was a humdinger!" My mind boggles.)
6. I like books and I read a lot, but I'm not remotely literary. I read books I like, and what I like can be something that's a classic but is usually total fluff.
7. I've travelled a lot. When I was younger, my parents took me with them on conferences all over the world, so at last count I'd visited fourteen countries across five continents and accumulated half a million air miles. I'm hoping to push this total up quite a lot before I die.
8. I'm a heavy sleeper. People in comas have been more responsive than me asleep. I am not exaggerating, here; I am quite capable of sleeping through an earthquake and a brass band combined (I did both during my last holiday). Getting up before ten am in college is always a struggle for me, as is going to bed before two or three. I'm always meant to get myself to a GP and find out if there's anything physically wrong with me, but I've never got around to it.
9. At home, I work in an indie bookshop called Pritchard's. It's a small business slowly being sent under by the influx of supermarkets, is run by Tony, my manically wonderful boss, and a small handful of other people. I know everyone, everyone knows me, I love the work, and it's really the best job anyone has ever had for minimum wage. I entertain secret fantasies of getting my degree and just buying a small bookshop to run, rather than any of that pesky career stuff.
10. I'm terribly, terribly ambitious, and in my heart I'm a real Slytherin. Not ruthless, really, and not inclined to ride roughshod over other people's feelings, but not someone who'll ever sit back and be satisfied.
In other news, Doctor Who is being shown in the USA. I can't muster up as much excitement as the rest of the flist, for obvious reasons, but the Beeb's new take on the website is fantastic. (And bizarre. But mostly fantastic.
And now, to bed.
Actually, first week isn't that bad for me. Second week will be shit, third week shittier, fourth week even worse than that, and fifth to eighth, I'm not sure, because that's when I go from General Philosophy to macroeconomics. Sky says the latter is far better than micro was, but I'm not sure I trust him; he loathes philosophy essays and they're the one thing I really like, so I think our tastes differ. That said, he's my tute partner for philosophy, which is good, because I have decided that barring a few exceptions, myself not included, PPEists are not nice people.
I went out to Iffley Road tonight to check out the University's badminton club. It's a half-hour walk, so I was hoping it was worth it, and surprisingly, it was. Once I'd got over the natural reluctance - I was the sort of person who skived every single PE lesson at school - I actually had a good time. I'm a decent badminton player - not competition level or anything, but above-average - and there were lots of people at just that level whom I could pair up with. I took Liya, who'd never played before, and I was feeling a bit churlish to start with because I didn't have a proper partner, but it all worked out in the end. Lots of fun, and I think I'll go again next week. I hate to even say it, but I'm on a bit of a healthy living kick. None of that 300-sit-ups-and-nothing-but-carrots crap, but, you know, more walking about in the sunshine with my iPod, more badminton and maybe the gym once in a while, and more water and fruit. I hope it lasts.
In short, I am in a good mood now; come the end of first week I will not be. I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts, and take the chance to go shopping on Saturday.
And as I have a lot of new friends (hello, again), and my LJ is, um, not so coherent, so this is the meme that I wanted to do.
Ten things I assume you know about me:
1. I am a student. More specifically, I am a first-year PPEist at Balliol College, Oxford. PPE stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and getting in here to read it is probably the peak of my academic achievement (it's all downhill from here). My speciality is Philosophy, and I loathe Economics because I am trés crap at maths. Better now than I was, but still crap.
2. I'm a polymath. Name any academic subject, with the exceptions of economics and botany, and I'm probably very interested in it. My first love is English language and literarure, but I thought PPE was more useful. I'm also very, very interested in the sciences, particularly chemistry, and I applied through UCAS for four medicine places and PPE. I picked PPE, but I think I'll always feel a bit of regret that I never did medicine. My mother was very keen for me to do it, leading to much angst and histrionics when I refused, but we're on better terms now.
3. I am a British NRI. That is, non-resident Indian, and it causes me angst. I was born and brought up in Britain, but I'm quasi-bilingual (my first language is Hindi, but I forgot it as I learned English and I've always wanted to go back to India to get my Hindi back up to scratch) and a Hindu. I'm half-Bengali, half-UP, but I look classically north Indian. I mention this because I'd had my LJ a couple of years before I realised that my being Asian is something you couldn't miss in real life, but you could feasibly read my LJ for months without knowing it.
4. I'm a fangirl. Okay, you must know that by now. I haven't been one since the heady days of print 'zines or anything, but I have an excuse in that I wasn't born then. I got into fandom in early 2001, and it was Stargate fandom back when it was small and funky, and oh, my, such fun. I was thirteen-nearly-fourteen then, and Pedar said it was just a phase. I'm nineteen next week and showing no signs of growing out of it.
5. Pedar, yes. He is my father, and in some ways he's my best friend. He and I are very much alike, with the same sense of humour, the same tendency to be anti-social, and we get excited about the same things and have a disconcerting habit of saying the same thing at the same time even when it's not obvious. (My favourite example of this is a few months ago, my mother asked what we thought of some movie or other and we both said, simultaneously, "It was a humdinger!" My mind boggles.)
6. I like books and I read a lot, but I'm not remotely literary. I read books I like, and what I like can be something that's a classic but is usually total fluff.
7. I've travelled a lot. When I was younger, my parents took me with them on conferences all over the world, so at last count I'd visited fourteen countries across five continents and accumulated half a million air miles. I'm hoping to push this total up quite a lot before I die.
8. I'm a heavy sleeper. People in comas have been more responsive than me asleep. I am not exaggerating, here; I am quite capable of sleeping through an earthquake and a brass band combined (I did both during my last holiday). Getting up before ten am in college is always a struggle for me, as is going to bed before two or three. I'm always meant to get myself to a GP and find out if there's anything physically wrong with me, but I've never got around to it.
9. At home, I work in an indie bookshop called Pritchard's. It's a small business slowly being sent under by the influx of supermarkets, is run by Tony, my manically wonderful boss, and a small handful of other people. I know everyone, everyone knows me, I love the work, and it's really the best job anyone has ever had for minimum wage. I entertain secret fantasies of getting my degree and just buying a small bookshop to run, rather than any of that pesky career stuff.
10. I'm terribly, terribly ambitious, and in my heart I'm a real Slytherin. Not ruthless, really, and not inclined to ride roughshod over other people's feelings, but not someone who'll ever sit back and be satisfied.
In other news, Doctor Who is being shown in the USA. I can't muster up as much excitement as the rest of the flist, for obvious reasons, but the Beeb's new take on the website is fantastic. (And bizarre. But mostly fantastic.
And now, to bed.
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no subject
on 2006-01-13 12:53 am (UTC)About #8 - do go to the doctor. I sleep a lot, have trouble getting up in the morning, and am tired all the time but still stay up til ridiculous hours. I kept going to the doctor about it, had lots of blood tests and all sorts, but they couldn't find anything wrong with me. After several years, and it getting much worse, I've finally been diagnosed with Chronic Fatgiue Syndrome and have been referred to a specialist. I mean, I'm not saying that you have the same condition as I do, but it is worth seeing the doctor, even if just to rule out any serious underlying causes.
Gosh, this comment is long. Sorry. I'll go away now...
no subject
on 2006-01-13 07:46 am (UTC)Also, I hate to admit, but it didn't dawn on me that he was your dad.
:D
xx
no subject
on 2006-01-13 11:22 am (UTC)And I would frequent that bookshop. In fact, I might sleep outside of it, on the sidewalk. ;)
no subject
on 2006-01-13 05:23 pm (UTC)Thanks for the advice; I've always assumed it was normal, because my wonderful doctor parents seem to think so, but if it gets worse I should get it looked at. Thanks.
no subject
on 2006-01-13 05:24 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-13 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-13 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-13 07:24 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-13 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-01-14 04:05 pm (UTC)