Debating Society

I’m all for second chances, but I needn’t have bothered this time. Rarely is it possible to hear as much ill-informed nonsense parroted by people who think they’re preaching the new gospel as at university debating societies. I can’t decide what the worse thing about last night was: how personal and clique-y the whole thing was (people shouting out ‘hi-larious’ remarks about other people’s sex lives and/or illegal habits, which are really more befitting of a secondary school playground, not an supposedly adult debating forum), or the sheer patronising ridiculousness of some of the arguments, made with a straight face, as though people wouldn’t notice.

I consider myself well out of that one. I know I’m not really that good at it, but if that’s the company, I don’t particularly want to improve myself. The whole thing also makes me feel old because I am now older than the society president and at this stage of my life struggle to treat the opinions of people that much younger than me with the respect they theoretically deserve; it’s one of my less admirable character traits. (God, that was overloaded syntax if ever I saw it. I must work harder to prevent my writing style turning into one similar to Lucy Mangan’s. The horror of it! Her columns depress me, but not as much as the fact that someone in the Guardian gave her a job and probably would never give me one.)

IKEA

I am three hours and a few bob worse off for my travails, but thanks to my trip to IKEA in Edmonton this afternoon, I finally have coat hangers, decent kitchen implements, an anglepoise lamp (yo Knicola!) complete with energy-saving lightbulbs (because I am concerned about my carbon footprint, y’know) and a desk organisation system.

I hate going to IKEA. I almost had a panic attack when I walked in and remembered back to this time last year and the fun and games at IKEA Tempelhof and IKEA Südkreuz and the ridiculous sums of money I merrily threw around the place. That was a lesson sorely learnt.

Now I am off to participate in my first Debating Society meeting for two and a half years. I just want to go and see if they’re all still annoying whingebags. (Probably.)

Also, I’ve started drinking gallons of strong black tea. No sugar, no milk, just tea-flavoured water. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doing it because of all that ‘tea without milk is healthier than water’ rubbish: I ran out of milk and just couldn’t be bothered to go to the shop. But it turns out I don’t need milk in tea anyway, so I can save myself the time and the money.

Lessons start tomorrow and then I will have to turn my attention away from such arresting issues as milk in tea to focus on things like grammar and Parzival.

First impressions

What a strange week this has turned out to be. I have been pottering around not doing very much because my first class isn’t until Tuesday; there was supposed to be a meeting at the department this afternoon, but it got cancelled. I’ve decided to go back to Nottingham for the rest of the week – partly to pick up some more things, partly to escape Freshers’ Week, for which I simply do not have the energy or interest any more.  I don’t really want to leave London yet, as I’ve been in such a good mood since I got back and feel like I’m on my own turf again, but I have no reason to be here this week and it’s costing me loads and I can’t afford it.

Last night there was a “shindig” (what a stupid word) in one of the kitchens across from here and I felt like I had gone to sleep and woken up in the middle of one of my brothers’ parties. Honestly, it’s like the Skins generation just grew up and started university.

The place where I’m living, Schafer House on Drummond Street, is perfect for my needs.  It’s a five-to-ten minute walk from the department, so I have no transport costs at all.  I have my own room.  I am, thanks to the ingenious planning of the hall administrators, in a self-contained flat with four other students – including two French exchange students – in which the average age is 23, to which 18 year old freshers have no access at all.  It’s cheaper than any private sector equivalent and it’s better quality: they only built it about twelve years ago, so everything still feels new.  I have internet in my room.  My bed’s comfortable.  There really is nothing to fault about it at all!

Hold on to your hats…

…because I am about to say something revolutionary.

I am looking forward to going back to university.

For someone as perennially miserable as myself where discussion of my degree is concerned, this is remarkable.  It is, in fact, the first time I’ve longed for the end of the summer and the start of term: I didn’t even look forward to the start of First Year this much.  At the start of Second Year I was so upset I wanted to drop out; ditto at the start of Third Year.  I was sick of feeling like an inadequate, stupid, irrelevant undergraduate, sick of having no money, sick of feeling hemmed-in and obliged to complete the course on pain of what dropping out would mean for the time and money I’ve invested over the last three years.

So it’s very refreshing indeed to feel so enthusiastic again – it’s been a while and I’m having to reacquaint myself with it.  The main reason for it is that I am no longer so paranoid about the department: maybe I do and say and write stupid things now and again, but I am starting to believe that I have proved myself somewhat, that I am not thought of as a stupid fool by the staff.  I mean, I might be deluded – maybe they actually do think that – but I’d be surprised if they were to pass their time thinking about little old me, so on that basis I’ve probably nothing to worry about.  The comments on the first draft of my year abroad essay – the first set of comments, in any case – were surprisingly positive, which is probably responsible for this current bout of euphoria.  I really feel like I’m in with a serious chance of doing well in this enterprise and getting what I really want from it at the end.

Hello everybody

You are, by now, probably aware of the fact that I go through blogs at a rate of knots and should therefore not be surprised that I have set this new one up. My previous one was by virtue of its title and URL somewhat time-limited anyway – I am no longer in Berlin, the year in question finished in July and I am about to start a whole new one anyway. So out with the old, in with the new. And this is the new. I didn’t rate the last hoster much in any case. And this is much more fancy: I can add pages and everything! Maybe I will set up a page with some photos on soon. It’s not like I have anything else to fill my time with.

Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin. I still have a suitcase in Berlin. Look it up.

As usual, I’ll try to keep this thing up to date and to the point. Although, given my verbosity, that could be a problem.