Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Reporting home

I've started drinking a lot of coffee from the faculty café, which is run mostly by communists. The blend is actually quite good. I've been having one or two large lattes a day, and I look forward to them so much that it's weird. This morning I was nodding off during my first class, and the guy sitting next to me had a flask of coffee which he would periodically sip. It was tortuous. I felt like jumping on him and stealing his drink (I didn't).

Oh, and also today I crammed studied all day for a test, only for the teacher to not show up. It's a bit weird, actually, because he's not the type to just vanish. I suggested that he maybe fell into an open manhole and lost his phone, so he couldn't call us to say he wouldn't be able to make it. Or maybe his mom is still in the hospital. I hope not. I hope it was a manhole with a pile of pillows on the bottom to cushion his fall.

Pardon my terrible writing. I want to get this over with so that I can do my homework before I get too sleepy.

On Saturday it's my first field trip for this term. We're going to some mountain or other to gather mushrooms, so that should be fun. And then, in a few weeks I'm going to... um, I forgot where. Somewhere for Botany, someplace else for Earth Sciences, and then four days at the beach for Zoology.

Going to the beach should be a lot more fun than it was last term, for Algae class. I was in a funk that time, plus I didn't like anyone in my class and spent all my free time being talked at by a really annoying teammate:

"Let me see your iPod! *grab* My ex-boyfriend had an iPod like this. I used to borrow it. But he's an ass because he..."

"[Teammate dude] is making me really angry!! He didn't help carry the algae back up the beach [or something stupid to that effect]!! All men are the same. Like my ex-boyfriend, you know! He..."

"…but he changed, and I changed. It just wasn't the same. We spent some great times together, but then he started to…"

"…and his dog had seven puppies. One of them was called…"

If I hadn't been in such a crappy, apathetic mood back then, I think I might've smacked her over the head with some ever-handy Sargassum and told her to shut the hell up.

Anyway, in my Zoology class I get along pretty well with my team and I don't feel like rolling around in a hamster ball all of the time anymore* so I'm looking forward to it. Also I always hated Algae class anyway, but this time we'll be looking for ugly, slimy, spiky, worm-like invertebrate... things… hanging out under rocks. Much more fun.


* You know? So I don't have to talk to anyone?

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Tired + prose

This schedule is cracking me. Last week I had my first baby stress attack ("I thought this assignment was due next Monday! NOOOO!!! World... shrinking...! GAAH!"**).

Actually, that's wrong, now that I think about it. The first stress monster was like two weeks into the term. I think.

Anyway, the point is that my schedule is kind of wearing me out. I don't actually hate it; in fact, I like not having lots of free time between classes, I like constantly having something I need to do, and I don't mind spending so much time at school. The only bad bit is that, in order not to fall back, I have to get a big chunk of my homework done ahead of time, so that I can do another big chunk of my homework ahead of time, and that way I can get the last chunk done in time.

Also, time seems to pass really slowly. Today was Tuesday and it felt like Thursday. When I'm going home at night, I think back to what happened that morning and it seems like it was two or three days ago. The beginning of the semester seems like it was before the summer holidays.

Also, I'm not reading nearly as much as I used to. I used to get through a lot of books while I stood in the bus, during lulls in labs, and when I was procrastinating. Now I sleep even when I'm standing and I don't have time to procrastinate. Basically I read in lab, while waiting for our test tubes to stop bubbling*** or for our turn on the single spectrophotometer (the Molecular Biology 2 lab is sort of under-equipped. The Molecular Biology 3 lab, on the other hand, is REALLY under-equipped).

I did finish two books... in the last month or so. I'll do a post on those sometime later.

Wow, this post is boring. I'll tell you a story to try and salvage something from the wreckage. Your mission is to guess how much of it (if any) is real.

Peanuts

So there I was, walking up the first flight of steps to the library. Some men in blue overalls kneeling on the steps, chatting about videos they'd watched on YouTube. Sawing at a thin, wooden board. Can't they do that somewhere else? This isn't a place to fill with dust. The hostile thoughts come to a halt when I become aware of the crunch underfoot. Glass. The glass that was in the library door lies shattered on the floor.

The men in the overalls are cutting the wood to fit into the doorframe. I continue up the second flight of steps to enter the main part of the library. No shattered glass here, but the door is hanging off its hinges. I pass under it quickly– knowing my luck, it must be waiting for me to get near to finally collapse on top of my body.

What happened here? The books I've so often browsed are lying in tatters on the floor. The library computers are spread out in pieces, the desks have all been knocked over. The bookshelves are leaning at odd angles against each other and against the walls. A loose page flutters down the staircase leading up to the reading room. The place is deserted.

I hesitantly ascend to the reading room. I don't know what to expect. I don't even know if I should be here. I'm alone. Where is everyone? I consider asking the men I saw before, but then realize that the sawing noises have stopped. They've gone, too.

I'm jerked from my thoughts when I see the state the reading room is in. It's even worse than it was below. Feeling uneasy, I turn to leave– and see the peanut shells. They lead around the corner of the room, away from me, away from the stairs, away from the exit. A perfect trail. I can hear my heartbeat, feel it in my throat. Are the rumors true?

I make a decision; despite my misgivings, I get down on my hands and knees. I don't want to be seen before it's inevitable. I slowly crawl forward, painstakingly inching my way towards the photocopy machine. There's a cracking noise now, constant, growing louder as I approach the source. Crunch. Crack. Munch.

Munch?

We catch sight of each other at the same instant. Stiffen in surprise. Hold each other's gaze unblinkingly. I stop breathing.

Then he blinks. The spell is broken, and I exhale in relief. The librarian left her peanuts here when she finished her shift. It was just the library elephant that got loose again.



Oh, come on, it's 1:00 AM. Cut me some slack. Yesterday (or last week? I don't know, I told you about my time distortion) I went into the library, and some guys were boarding up one door, and the second door was on its hinges. As I walked under it I thought, "What, did an elephant run through here?".


** I'm just kidding. When I get stressed I find the nearest corner, put my forehead against the wall, close my eyes, hyperventilate and cry breathe deeply. If there are no corners handy I curl into a little ball. Then I go for a run the next day, or as soon as possible.

*** Which sounds like an odd thing to do, but imagine they're full of strong acid. There you go.