me 'n beowulf: October 2005

P and P

so finally saw the new Pride and Prejudice, and can i say i have enormous respect for kiera knightley now?

she basically does the film by herself. everyone else was just a supporting role! amazing acting and just overall claps for kiera! yay, i finally can love all the rest of the films you're in b/c up until now i've basically detested you.

saw it with sarah walton (amazingly nice person who is reading english) and mike the medic.

it was much fun, and i also went to a uganda meeting today so i might be going to uganda for easter holiday for five weeks and working for straight-talk, an organization that teaches young people how to prevent the spread of HIV in Africa. I really want to do this, so everyone please pray/contribute/support me for this. I'm v. excited that this opportunity has literally fallen into my lap. so i'm hoping that the monetary issues/time issues will work out for me.

today

i've noticed i really like listing out things i've done.

so here goes again!

1. woke up and did biochem.
2. ran, came back, slept for half an hour due to utter exhaustion.
3. went with the seniors. rowed eights. effing scared. mike (our coach) kept yelling at us.
4. ate informal
5. went to church. met up with kelly and laura from WashU.
6. went to the Undie (ChCh's bar, undercroft)
7. ah. to the good part:

so i initially went to hang out with sarah walton, maria, and a few other people. met fatima, and shan-ii. they were really nice. theeen. alex and russel came along with maria. then martin (cute engineering kid), tom, rachel, and louise came along. theeeen. some other people i don't really remember came along. so it ended being the really large gathering that wasn't supposed to be that large.

but so much fun! i love meeting actual british students. much nicer than the americans here for some reason. and i guess, i like the experience. plus, maria is the best kick-ass friend you can have.

8. so after spending an hour talking about a gamut of topics running from american politics to harry potter. we all dispersed. mostly b/c we got booted out by the barlady.

9. maria and i decide to go to sid's kebab van and get us a yellow jumper that says:
chungy and maria *heart* sid's kebab.

amazing! so we're picking up the jumpers on wednesday.

so yay! end of my day.

So...

today.

1. woke up late 9ish and didn't go running as planned. avoided some flatties
2. found priscilla's package in the mail and squealed like a little schoolgirl.
3. went to maria's and studied for bit...which means i didn't really study
4. lydia (but we pronounce it lydiar, like the brits do) came and studied with us.
5. russel and alex came into maria's room. we chatted a LOT.
6. i found out that lydia is TEH awesome and funnier than most girls i know.
7. went shopping for lydia's soil and plant pot. found none. went to sainsbury's for cheese. found out it was cheese platter night at the house. did not buy cheese, but lots of spreads
8. kept losing russel in random places. russel, btw, is v. funny and is surprised at his drunken antics the next morning.
9. explained to lydia what "crik-gout" is. haha.
10. went back to lydia's room, drank green tea. v. good.
11. met tat seng. and maria came into the room explaining a story about chad's crazy roommate at yale. v. long story. irrelevant but funny
12. talked in group: tat sent, maria, lydia, me. v. good convo about how mixed people are too beautiful
13. went to informal hall
14. met up with graham, irish/aussie neuroscience grad student. yay! he's quite funny and we ended up talking about how ADD both of us are.
15. picked up stuff at maria's room.
16. came back to flat.
17. am studying.

glee! i'm so happy that i had fun meeting non-drunken people. it's sooo much more fun to meet people outside of parties.

halloween party

So i usually don't go to halloween parties, since they're all rather anti-christian and such. However, one of my crew buddies wrangled me into it, and i couldn't resist. i really haven't met as many Churchers as i want too.

So all of my flatmates refused to join me (including my fellow Christ Church members) and I didn't have any form of a costume. Maria, my crew buddy, was going as Puck from Midsummer Night's Dream. So i immediately though of Huckleberry Finn, because it rhymes with Puck.

I arrived about an hour early, and maria helped me dress as Huck, although it was rather sad and funny at the same time. I met her friends, Alex and...opps i forgot the other name. They happened to be amazingly drunk. Maria, who by the way has the most amazing ability to handle alcohol, downed a substantial amount of vodka and wine before we all headed off to the party. She acted stone cold sober the entire night, it was such an impressive feat. i wish i could do that after that much alcohol.

mind you now, i didn't drink anything b/c i want to go running in the morning, which is looking v. dim indeed as it is already midnight here.

So i met sooo many people that i've already forgotten the majority of their names, and i met this v. interesting scot from exeter (tolkein!), who i quite fancied but sadly he disappeared after awhile.

the highlight of the night was finding another group of v. sober people and one of them was a girl interested in joining the boat club. the ChCh boat club is such a sorority for me. it's terrible, it's really my only form of socializing. but i'm soo hooked!

anyhoo, that's my first official party b/c i haven't been to a bop of any kind thus far.

troubles

So I've really been struggling with one of my flatmates. This person is possibly the most internally insecure person in our flat, yet outwardly portrays him/herself as a self-confident, intelligent being. In my humble opinion, this person is the most egotistical person I've encountered since the last time I stepped into the local Republican support group (j/k).

In any case, I find this person extraordinarily rude, annoying, and not unlike me a few years ago. I like to think that I've overcome the hurdle of arguing with anyone about everything. I've learned to that Christ was not only our Saviour, but the Prince of Peace for a reason. I need to practice peace. But it's really difficult when someone is constantly attacking you everytime you open your mouth! It's non-stop rampage! And my efforts of avoiding him this person up being bouts of ignoring the person, which I believe irks the person even more. The person believes that by arguing and "winning" every argument, he/she justified him/herself.

So I went in a read a friend's xanga and to my surprise, found a very apt verse that would lift my spirits. It was the verse referring to God's use of using the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. And while I believe that this person is very far from wise, I think that using peace and meekness is much more powerful than hostility. It is much more difficult to hold your tongue and keep your disagreements within, than to constantly harangue everyone around you to show them your superior knowledge.

Thus, I'm glad that God has taught me this lesson. Showing me what a foolish person I was, and what a foolish person I still am. But that I still have the ability to change, and that change should be more amazing than anything.

crazy emails from ChCh

check out what i just got in my email

pertaining to a bungee jumping extravaganza:

"PS - It is also possible to jump in tandem, hugging somebody as you go down.
In recent years this has caused problems because when boys do it with their
mates their concerns about looking gay have resulted in insufficient hugging
during the jump, thereby causing minor injuries when boys bash their heads
together all the way down.

Please think about this before you jump."

oh, boys here are insecure about their straight-ness too. only it's much funnier to see them scream shrilly while they're insecure.

haha.