Life as an English Honours Student - O-Week, or, as I like to call it, "Oh, wow!" Week

This week was orientation week - the week before my first week at the University of Auckland as a postgrad student. I was only there for about three hours but, wow, it felt so different to being an undergrad! There were so few of us spread out inside the tiniest lecture theatre, and the majority of the English Induction attendees were either in the wrong place (all the MCW-ers who clearly hadn't read their emails properly, which is probably why they are doing creative writing rather than literature...) or were lecturers or past students there to talk to us about what this year entails.

I am aware that a fair few of this year's honours students weren't present, as a friend of mine forgot to show his face. Yet, the sum total of the attendees will probably be quite equal in amount to them all. I feel like I am back in primary school with one small class of twenty or so students that are stuck together for the entire year. And, no, I'm not dreading that fact. I am looking forward to it so very much I think I might burst. The past students seemed so cool; if only I'd started a year early!

And of that tiny bunch, three were gingers! My obsession with that fiery hair colour really needs to be kept under control or I will probably make no friends this year. I am strongly considering dying my hair ginger, though. Almost a costume or a uniform of quirky english honours students, or so I feel.

There were only two fellow English honours students I recognised in that lecture theatre. One I have spoken to briefly before and have seen frequently in my courses, the other I have seen occasionally but I don't believe we have ever spoken. They both seem far more intelligent than myself, but I just need to keep telling myself that if I can make it into this programme, I must be able to succeed at it! Positive thinking.
Don't even get me started on the crazy things we heard about one of the papers in which I am enrolled! According to an email I received recently, English 777 'Pedagogy and Performance' is "a class whose design and assignments you co-create" and the English postgraduate advisor mentioned a certain kickboxing ring that would turn up at some point during this semester for this same paper. Watch this space! It is things like this that make me very glad that I couldn't do Linguistics Honours and chose to stay back at Auckland for at least one more year.

This is the gigantic chocolate brownie I got from Strata Cafe - a cafe specifically for postgrad students like me! They give 25% off to postgrad students with a special sticker so I need to get this sticker ASAP! :) :)

Now I should probably get back to the one downside to honours: reading. Lots and lots of reading.
Oh well, I better get used to it!

次回まで,
Caitlin




 

4 January 2014

Oops, I've already missed a couple of days! Oh well, at least I'm blogging today.

Today was fun, a bunch of us went to Pont's birthday celebration up in Omaha. The weather was great, other than the strong but warm wind that made our trip to the beach shorter than I would have liked. The water was amazing! Refreshing, it definitely woke you up, but it wasn't icy cold.

The good thing about Omaha is it's a wee while away, so there is plenty of time for good conversations with the other passengers.

I really need to stop trying to write these late at night. All I want to do is sleep, this writing is almost a chore to me. And that is not good. Hmm I might have to rethink my strategy here.

1 January 2014

Today was the first day of 2014. It was hardly the most exciting of days but I guess it wasn't a bad day! Most of my day was spent tidying my room - sadly, you probably wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it.

I watched two movies today: Crazy, Stupid, Love when I was supposed to be tidying my room and Priceless starring the beautiful Audrey Tautou after dinner. Both of them were great romantic comedies so I definitely got my fair share of smiles and laughter out of them.

So far I have made three New Year's resolutions (which you can find at twitter.com/caitvanhoff alongside my other musings, if you're interested) and I have actually been keeping them somewhat. In fact, I have been keeping all three of them for the past few days prior to the new year as well!

Oh dear, I really need to start writing these blog posts before I want to go to sleep. I feel as if I am not expressing quite as much as I would like to. Perhaps I will even write the occasional poem and post it on here. We shall see.

31 December 2013

So today was the last day of 2013. This fantastic year is now over and now I have to start writing 14 at the end of the date. Weird.

Today was an interesting day. I went to Titirangi with my family (I seriously dream of living there when I'm older), to the beach and then mall with Emma and then, after watching The Proposal (what a great movie!!), went to the beach and to a NYE party for 15 mins and then back to the beach to see out 2013. Wow that was a really long sentence but I just really want to go to sleep now so that's all I will say about this day. Goodnight and happy new year!

30 December 2013

So tomorrow is the last day of 2013. I really shouldn't be talking about the past or the future, I should be talking about today, but I guess today was a day spent planning tomorrow. Tomorrow night - a night which most probably wont go according to plan yet we still spent at least an hour and a half trying to organise it.

Other than that, today was a day filled with frustration and procrastination - not the most rewarding (or enjoyable) combination. A quick trip to the mall as a break from "room tidying" (which I put in inverted commas as my room doesn't look much tidier right now) turned into hours of feet dragging and impatient waiting with nothing but a Tropical Tank to keep me bearable to be around.

All I wanted to do, really, was sit at home in bed and read The Sacred Search. I'm still uncertain as to whether reading this book will actually benefit me as significantly as I would like it to. Part of me worries that A) I will forget about it once I've finished reading and won't apply it to my life, or B) I will try and apply it but it won't have even the slightest impact on my life (i.e., better in theory than in practice). Because it almost seems to be the answer to all one's relationship issues but if you could put all those answers in one 250-page book then why do people still have so many relationship problems? Maybe every Christian in the world needs to read it.

I will keep y'all updated with how this book goes (and if it has any effect on my life) and also how New Year's Eve tomorrow turns out! Hopefully 2013 will end well :)

29 December 2013

I'm going to try and turn this into a daily blog for a bit and then we'll see what happens. If it turns out well I guess I will delete my old posts or something - we'll see!

It's almost the end of 2013 - an interesting year for me as in it I completed my degree. Yet, 2014 is hinting to be an even more interesting year as Christine is getting married (in less than three weeks!), I am starting a postgraduate programme (still not 100% certain which I will be doing, though), I've transferred fully from Windsor Park to Northcross Church and, last but not least, I am now working at Birkenhead Library and loving it!

Everyone says that once you've got a full-time job (which I don't have yet, but still) you need a hobby or a club or something similar to keep you motivated. Otherwise you may get swallowed up by the convenient regularities of life and lose the things that make it your own. Unfortunately for me, I am one of those people who will start a hobby or two and then, after realising that it requires more discipline and determination than I can offer (and, of course, the novelty has worn off), give up and try find something else to distract me from my fear of the future (perhaps more about that another day). I feel this may be another one of those things. Hopefully I am incorrect and should have more faith in myself. Perhaps one year from now I will read this and smirk.

I am a big fan of 'fixing' or at least improving myself. You could say that that is a very negative way to view one's self - as something with a constant demand for a clean up. But I think of it as a positive thing. To me there is always a brighter future - a better Caitlin (yes, that's my name, if you weren't aware of that already) - and I want to get myself as close to that as possible. I'm also willing to wait to get there - or at least as close to there as I can get. And, no, I'm not a hippy. I might sound a bit post-modern/new agey but I'm really not! I am a Christian and thus I don't believe humans can change the world for the better. But I believe that we can make an effort. Honestly, if we all did I can't even imagine what the world would be like. But unfortunately that is near (if not completely) impossible so I won't get my hopes up. Wow I better chill out or I will soon start talking about something I had better keep for another day. (Incentive for me to come back and blog again!)

Anywho, I think this is enough for today. Even though I haven't really spoken much about the day itself.... Oh well, it was hardly an exciting day! I guess I should mention that I watched One Day for the first time and **SPOILER ALERT** I hate it how Emma died. Really, truly hate it. Ok, on that note I will bid you adieu and go back to reading The Sacred Search by Gary Thomas.

It's been a while.
I semi-moved on to Tumblr.... I'm sorry for betraying you!
I just knew that Tumblr was far easier to get followers on.
But I'm sorry that fame made me ditch you.
I've started a new blog, www.allofmylifeigivetoyou.blogspot.co.nz.
I might keep this one going for awhile as well :)
I will keep my Tumblr going.
But they are all different. You are all different. We are all different.
We have our different places, our different talents, our different callings.
You will continue to be my fashion blog. Coz I LOVE fashion!!

I'm glad to have you back :)