Tuesday, May 01, 2007

charlie chaplin, grades, and deadlines


I have been so lacking in anything to write about lately that I'm going to write a post about what is happening at university and in my unthrilling life. That really shows I'm desperate.

1) Today we watched the Charlie Chaplin movie 'The Great Dictator' in my drama class. We've been reading Brecht plays, which were also thinly veiled critiques of Nazism, although set in different eras and countries. This was such a cool movie. Half the time I was cracking up, the other feeling sombre. A weird combination really, but it worked. Has anyone else seen it? I love the plays too. Has anyone seen a Brecht play? I will be very jealous of you if so.

2) I felt a bit depressed today because I got an A- on my last history essay and my history teacher said he was disappointed because he had come to expect essays of the highest standard from me. :( Although that was almost a compliment, it made me feel annoyed with myself, especially as all his comments about how it could have been better really made sense!
But then my friend texted me; she handed in a close reading exercise for her English class, and got a C-, because, apparently, her grammar is 'unreadable'! I read it yesterday, and it was definitely not unreadable. Anyway, you don't fail people because they make a few grammar mistakes. It so happens that this particular lecturer gave out feedback sheets at the start of the year, my friend said she didn't like the structure of the lectures, and the lecturer got very offended, despite the fact that she asked for honest feedback. So it looks very much as if the lecturer has decided she has a bone to pick with my friend. I didn't think that happened except at ... I don't know, other universities, in other countries!
So I am feeling a lot more grateful that I have a lecturer who gives me fair grades.

3) I handed in two essays yesterday that I spent my whole mid-semester break working on. Now I've realised my next history essay is due in three weeks so I have to start straightaway, especially as now I have to ace it to make up for my slightly disappointing mark! It's two months until I finish... I will just have to put my nose to the grindstone and work, even though I just don't feel like it.

4) My friend Sarah and I had a really, really good friend at school who moved to another city when I was fifteen and I haven't seen her since then, since we basically dropped off each other's radar. Well, she has moved down to Christchurch again, and we are all going to meet up for coffee sometime in the next few weeks! Very exciting but also scary. She was always absolutely gorgeous and now she'll probably be all cool and model-like, compared to how we were at high school - wavering on the fringe of nerdy.

If you have read all this, I will be very impressed.

7 comments:

Trish Ryan said...

Hooray for fair grades and reuninted friends :)

On a completely unrelated note, I found your God blog yesterday and was quite blown away. Girl, you have some cool perspective bouncing around in your mind....can't wait to read more!

LEstes65 said...

I read it all. I sure don't miss papers and deadlines. I'm glad you'll be reunited with an old friend. That's always cool.

Stacy said...

You don't give us much credit for attention spans, do you? :)

I've never seen a Chaplin film, though I have wanted to. I love old movies. I'll be sure to check out The Great Dictator.

You are a very diligent student. I always procrastinated on classwork.

j said...

Woohoo for rekindling old friendships! Always a fun thing :)

Anonymous said...

Wow, if you are disappointed in an A you are a much better student than I was.

Allie said...

Trish: thanks!

Lynette: well done ;)

Stacy: I may seem diligent but actually I bluff my way through a lot of things.

Sara: Hmmm. No. I think I'm just anal-retentive.

Bonsai said...

smile. i read it :P sorry i havent read your blogs in awhile so i got a lot to catch up on..