I seem to be having a lot of meetings lately. Both ones I am meant to attend, and ones I attend to fill in for someone else. The latter ones are more interesting to me, but I never really get the opportunity to follow up on those. Yes, I know it’s weird, I like attending meetings. I’ve always thought I’d be really good at an administration position at the high school or university level – a principal, a superintendent, a dean. But I would want to go straight to that – I wouldn’t want to work my way up the ladder. I don’t think it works like that. I feel the same way about being a professor. I wish I could just teach the literature classes, and not have to do the introductory verb conjugation and all that jazz. Last night was fun. I hung out with a few people with whom I do not normally hang out. We drank wine and had a lovely time. The problem with these things is that I get back to my room and am so wound up that I can’t fall asleep until about 3 or 4 a.m. That’s the good thing about having friends all over the world: I can talk to my friends at home during that time, when it’s only 10 p.m. for them. At home, it’s the other way around – if I am up in the middle of night and can’t sleep, it’s already morning in Europe, so there are people who are up who can talk to me. I like that feeling of having friends available whenever I need them, and I don’t feel like I am burdening them because it’s not an odd hour for them. I never really had this, or never really noticed this, until I got to Oxford. My research seems to be going well for once, finally. My supervisor has me taking a “pincer-like approach,” focusing on two areas at once – the medieval and renaissance (do I write that with a capital?) theories, and the notions of authority in Cervantes. I am really hesitant when it comes to the theory part. I feel like I have no clue what I’m writing. On the other hand, I know my Cervantes inside and out. I’ve read the Quijote about eight or nine times now. When I go to lectures about it, I know exactly which examples the lecturer is about to cite, and when they will be cited. It’s actually quite amusing. I also know a lot about the theorists who write about Cervantes, so I feel really comfortable when writing about his works, even though it’s rather difficult to write about someone so famous. What could I possibly say that hasn’t been said already? It is really a daunting task, although far more exciting for me than writing about something obscure. The next few weeks are going to be rather busy. We have quite a few exchange dinners and a big party coming up. I am looking forward to that. And although I am very much single, I am actually looking forward to Valentine’s Day. My friend Jenni and I had to give a presentation for our theory seminar on Valentine’s Day last year, and since we were alone and single last year, we decided to go have dinner together and then went to see Casablanca at the Ultimate Picture Palace. I had never seen Casablanca before, and I absolutely loved it. It was so glamorous. We had a great time, so we decided to go again this year. I think I am one of the few people who actually likes Valentine’s Day. For a few years now, I have been out having fun with friends on this day, so it’s nice. Why is it that I can write about a thousand words here without a problem, in the course of less than an hour, but when I write a paper, it takes me ages to come up with a thousand words? Is it because there is less at stake here? Less thought is required? I am still writing for an audience, but this is much more relaxed. Sometimes I wish I were pseudonymous on this blog, because I want to write about certain things but really don’t want to have everyone know that I am the one writing these things. Oh well. My last blog was a bit more pseudonymous than this one – but honestly, I’m really bad at keeping secrets. And besides, Oxford is far too famous for me to talk about without giving away my location. So maybe this way is better in the long run. I’ve always wondered if it’s worth it to try getting paid to blog. What does that involve? Is it mostly about putting ads on your site? I don’t know if I would want to do that. And that’s actually a kind of funny thing, since two of my degrees are in advertising. Sometimes I really just do not care for the stuff, if I may be completely honest here. Yes, I know, I am a strange person. My room has been a mess lately. I’m very bad about cleaning stuff in a punctual manner, as I have no really motivation to do it. No one comes over – I have no room to entertain. And I can’t cook, so I’m not in a hurry to serve people dinner any time soon. And I don’t really care what my neighbours think. They still speak to me nonetheless. So I’m cool. You know, I think I’m supposed to write these pages out longhand. It makes more sense, because you’re supposed to write them without stopping to think. I stopped and took a minute to surf the net before coming back to write this last bit. So next time I think I will try it the old fashioned way. Sorry for not doing paragraphs or anything, it’s just how my stream of consciousness seems to be working at this point in time. Wow, I have exceeded a thousand words in not very much time at all. That is very exciting. Now if only I could put this skill to good use. My friend Chrissie and I are going to watch the Superbowl tonight. My favourite part of the Superbowl is the commercials, but it’s not so much fun here because the commercials are not the same. So I don’t know what it will be like. We are ordering a very American dinner, which will be fun. And I still get to see them sing the National Anthem. Who is singing it this year? You may have noticed that I am using British spelling here. That is because I am writing in a Word document, and my computer is set to British spelling. So that’s why we have favourite and neighbours here. I think I am going to stop here because I have a lot to do this afternoon. I want to get a lot of work done. This was a fun exercise, I will do it again sometime.
