Owwy-owwy-ow
Aug. 4th, 2003 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenSo developments...
The first real Monday of term began with me being late for a tutorial because I ran into Lloyd and, well, the tutorial was crap anyway. Literally five out of about 25 people didn't even have the book yet, half hadn't read the assignment--the assignment of all of, oh, eight pages of large text in ONE COLUMN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE. So, the first fifteen minutes were invested in reading and then we could go over the questions--four questions about the reliability of the fossil record, explaining over and over that the reason that any habitat in Australia changed is because of its break-up with Antartica. Lordy...
After that, I went to purchase my writing class' reader, then set out to get myself access to the 24-hr-lab. Ran into Andreas, who accompanied me only to find out that they didn't have any more access cards. I have to come back at the end of the week--which means I can't print anything there till then either, because you can't get the print card till you have an access card. Sigh.
From there, it was off to the Education Resource Center, the place I *thought* was where I was supposed to sign up to play video games and read comics as part of my film course. They had some of the movies and some books, but the lady looked at me as if I'd grown a large and noisy head when I asked about comics and games. Anyway, Andreas invited me to crash the compatriot lunch for the Europeans, and I almost refused, but the lady said I was welcome to join them, so I nicked some Chinese food. Chinese food. At a European students' lunch. I don't understand either. I ducked out to meet Amy at the Union before my film tutorial.
Film tutorial kicked arse. First off, we're all geeks in the room, it's quite clear. The grad student running it started off by asking us to name the superhero/comic movies that had come out in the past five years or were coming out soon. I'm proud to say I didn't just rattle off all of them--I let another American in the tute mention the Punisher and the Fantastic Four! We did a show of hands to see who'd read Spider-Man comics before the movie, or seen the old cartoon show, and half of us had. When we introduced ourselves, we had to say what movie we'd last seen, and one girl mentioned an anime movie I can't remember the name of. I asked her if she knew anything about the anime club on campus (she didn't), but she seemed really cool and said she loved anime!
Then came time to pick the movie around which we would both do a paper and guide a discussion in class. To my surprise, despite being told to pick alternate choices should our first choice be taken, I still managed to get "The Matrix" and I'm not even working with anyone (others doubled up on some of them, like the Buffy episodes, Spider-Man, the like). I can't believe "Starship Troopers" went first. The downside is I can't then write the final paper on "The Matrix," but that's okay--there are plenty more films I can be stupid about, if not on quite the same level. The anime-fangirl picked "Spirited Away," rather predictably, and I complemented her on the choice. Wish I'd caught her name. I'll check out the anime club and if it's any good, invite her along to it.
Several times, the teacher would go "why do you suppose we all know so much about, say, comic books?" and one kid really liked the answer "because we're a room full of nerds." It was a bit derisive, but he wasn't excluding himself, he raised his hand a lot when we did a show of who had read or watched what. It was fun to see so many people liked it. Dunno if they still do, but eh, geeks are geeks, even if they're in remission.
I woke up with the most awful congestion today, and I really started to feel it come Aussie Flora and Fauna, and for a moment I despaired that I would actually make it to karate. But I perservered, met the Mayor (aka Mike Flynn), and we trammed it down. I asked a lady on the tram about which stop to get off, and she was most amusing as she tried to explain. She was all confused despite knowing exactly where we needed to go--it was an instance of doing something so often you can't actually think about it or verbalize it. She got off with us, though, since she needed to go somewhere close to the karate dojo, so we got there.
Getting to the dojo was a bit more interesting still. It's down a dark alley--that was like the second test of the student. A) Can they find it from the tram? and B) Can they survive potential muggers/drug dealers in the alley? We walked in, were invited to join the beginners class, and got right to it.
(Side note: Pooch, I have *no* idea what kind of karate it is. It's called seido karate on the form, that's all I could really tell, but see if you can tell me what kind of fighting they do from the next paragraph)
Lemme put it this way: OUCH. Okay, look, I stretched the past few days, trying to just limber up a bit, get rid of some kinks. We did stretches, we did push-ups, we did curl ups three different ways. I'm the WORST at push-ups, and my side has a serious stitch in it from the sit-ups. My lower calf aches, too.
I loved it! We started off with basics, which I predictably was terrible at, but had a good time trying out. We did some kicks, which I could only just manage to do without falling over. I've got to work on the shouting, when to do it, what to say, and they count in Japanese, so I basically learned what ten was though I can't remember now. Other than that, we bowed a few times for things I don't realize why we did. At the end, we paired up with color-belted students. There was a derth of blue and yellow belts, so I got a green belt, which was intimidating, but she was amazingly nice, and helped me where she could. I'm bloody crap, so she had to keep reminding me to keep my arms in close, but she said I hit pretty good. I practiced blocking with her and she blocked me back. It was just tapping, mostly (Pooch?), but halfway through, the more advanced class entered and sparred next to me (I was on the very end), which was highly distracting. They were kicking at each other, all were brown belts or better (a few blacks, though one turned out to be the teacher, er, uh, sensei?), and it was really cool what I did catch.
So, what did I do? I signed right up. I paid for a uniform, for a month's lessons. They have this deal whereby you get a month for $55 if you let them just charge your card automatically at the start of the month. It's $15/class otherwise, so it's a real bargain if you go twice a week. Depending on how sore I am, I may rearrange one of my tutorials so I can go Tuesday nights, too. Otherwise, it's Monday and Thursday and Saturday if I think I can make it out. I'd like to make Tuesday as that's another specificall beginners' class, and Thursday/Saturday are "All Belts" classes, which is, well, intimidating.
I feel like this is a good way to get in shape, so I'm really pleased, even if I still end up just as girly as ever before. The teacher for Monday's class told me seido's home base, if that's the word, is New York city, so I have hope of continuing it when I get back, which made the deal that much sweeter. And to be honest, a gym here is going to charge you $60 regardless, and, though this isn't anywhere near me, the place I went was very friendly, so I'm cool with this. It's better than the school gym which I think was $90, very far from me anyway, and tiny. Janice, with whom I sparred, said it was a good place to meet people, too. Coupled with the promise that someone would be able to show me how to put on the gi when I came back, the whole thing sounded marvelous.
I liked the pain, even. I felt all tight in the arms, managed to hold in at times, others stumbled, but I was all determined to get it right, so brava! I may have to forsake Tuesdays if I want to do singing with Amy, but we'll see how that goes. Basically, it's shaping up that Mondays I'll be beat, Thursdays, too, probably, Wednesdays will be in class till way too late (8 pm!), and Tuesdays may or may not go to karate/singing. Somewhere in there, I need to book a flight to see Carrie, which, depending on how movable I am tomorrow, may be tomorrow before class.
So, yeah, all's well!
(PS: Michelle, what the hell are you talking about with this 'footy' fetish? Woman, that's what they call the ruddy game! Aussie Rules Football = Footy! And I don't even know how to do whatever it was you suggested I do instead of writing Footy. For the rest of you: AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL WILL BE COMING BACK TO THE STATES WITH ME IF I CAN MANAGE IT!)
The first real Monday of term began with me being late for a tutorial because I ran into Lloyd and, well, the tutorial was crap anyway. Literally five out of about 25 people didn't even have the book yet, half hadn't read the assignment--the assignment of all of, oh, eight pages of large text in ONE COLUMN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE. So, the first fifteen minutes were invested in reading and then we could go over the questions--four questions about the reliability of the fossil record, explaining over and over that the reason that any habitat in Australia changed is because of its break-up with Antartica. Lordy...
After that, I went to purchase my writing class' reader, then set out to get myself access to the 24-hr-lab. Ran into Andreas, who accompanied me only to find out that they didn't have any more access cards. I have to come back at the end of the week--which means I can't print anything there till then either, because you can't get the print card till you have an access card. Sigh.
From there, it was off to the Education Resource Center, the place I *thought* was where I was supposed to sign up to play video games and read comics as part of my film course. They had some of the movies and some books, but the lady looked at me as if I'd grown a large and noisy head when I asked about comics and games. Anyway, Andreas invited me to crash the compatriot lunch for the Europeans, and I almost refused, but the lady said I was welcome to join them, so I nicked some Chinese food. Chinese food. At a European students' lunch. I don't understand either. I ducked out to meet Amy at the Union before my film tutorial.
Film tutorial kicked arse. First off, we're all geeks in the room, it's quite clear. The grad student running it started off by asking us to name the superhero/comic movies that had come out in the past five years or were coming out soon. I'm proud to say I didn't just rattle off all of them--I let another American in the tute mention the Punisher and the Fantastic Four! We did a show of hands to see who'd read Spider-Man comics before the movie, or seen the old cartoon show, and half of us had. When we introduced ourselves, we had to say what movie we'd last seen, and one girl mentioned an anime movie I can't remember the name of. I asked her if she knew anything about the anime club on campus (she didn't), but she seemed really cool and said she loved anime!
Then came time to pick the movie around which we would both do a paper and guide a discussion in class. To my surprise, despite being told to pick alternate choices should our first choice be taken, I still managed to get "The Matrix" and I'm not even working with anyone (others doubled up on some of them, like the Buffy episodes, Spider-Man, the like). I can't believe "Starship Troopers" went first. The downside is I can't then write the final paper on "The Matrix," but that's okay--there are plenty more films I can be stupid about, if not on quite the same level. The anime-fangirl picked "Spirited Away," rather predictably, and I complemented her on the choice. Wish I'd caught her name. I'll check out the anime club and if it's any good, invite her along to it.
Several times, the teacher would go "why do you suppose we all know so much about, say, comic books?" and one kid really liked the answer "because we're a room full of nerds." It was a bit derisive, but he wasn't excluding himself, he raised his hand a lot when we did a show of who had read or watched what. It was fun to see so many people liked it. Dunno if they still do, but eh, geeks are geeks, even if they're in remission.
I woke up with the most awful congestion today, and I really started to feel it come Aussie Flora and Fauna, and for a moment I despaired that I would actually make it to karate. But I perservered, met the Mayor (aka Mike Flynn), and we trammed it down. I asked a lady on the tram about which stop to get off, and she was most amusing as she tried to explain. She was all confused despite knowing exactly where we needed to go--it was an instance of doing something so often you can't actually think about it or verbalize it. She got off with us, though, since she needed to go somewhere close to the karate dojo, so we got there.
Getting to the dojo was a bit more interesting still. It's down a dark alley--that was like the second test of the student. A) Can they find it from the tram? and B) Can they survive potential muggers/drug dealers in the alley? We walked in, were invited to join the beginners class, and got right to it.
(Side note: Pooch, I have *no* idea what kind of karate it is. It's called seido karate on the form, that's all I could really tell, but see if you can tell me what kind of fighting they do from the next paragraph)
Lemme put it this way: OUCH. Okay, look, I stretched the past few days, trying to just limber up a bit, get rid of some kinks. We did stretches, we did push-ups, we did curl ups three different ways. I'm the WORST at push-ups, and my side has a serious stitch in it from the sit-ups. My lower calf aches, too.
I loved it! We started off with basics, which I predictably was terrible at, but had a good time trying out. We did some kicks, which I could only just manage to do without falling over. I've got to work on the shouting, when to do it, what to say, and they count in Japanese, so I basically learned what ten was though I can't remember now. Other than that, we bowed a few times for things I don't realize why we did. At the end, we paired up with color-belted students. There was a derth of blue and yellow belts, so I got a green belt, which was intimidating, but she was amazingly nice, and helped me where she could. I'm bloody crap, so she had to keep reminding me to keep my arms in close, but she said I hit pretty good. I practiced blocking with her and she blocked me back. It was just tapping, mostly (Pooch?), but halfway through, the more advanced class entered and sparred next to me (I was on the very end), which was highly distracting. They were kicking at each other, all were brown belts or better (a few blacks, though one turned out to be the teacher, er, uh, sensei?), and it was really cool what I did catch.
So, what did I do? I signed right up. I paid for a uniform, for a month's lessons. They have this deal whereby you get a month for $55 if you let them just charge your card automatically at the start of the month. It's $15/class otherwise, so it's a real bargain if you go twice a week. Depending on how sore I am, I may rearrange one of my tutorials so I can go Tuesday nights, too. Otherwise, it's Monday and Thursday and Saturday if I think I can make it out. I'd like to make Tuesday as that's another specificall beginners' class, and Thursday/Saturday are "All Belts" classes, which is, well, intimidating.
I feel like this is a good way to get in shape, so I'm really pleased, even if I still end up just as girly as ever before. The teacher for Monday's class told me seido's home base, if that's the word, is New York city, so I have hope of continuing it when I get back, which made the deal that much sweeter. And to be honest, a gym here is going to charge you $60 regardless, and, though this isn't anywhere near me, the place I went was very friendly, so I'm cool with this. It's better than the school gym which I think was $90, very far from me anyway, and tiny. Janice, with whom I sparred, said it was a good place to meet people, too. Coupled with the promise that someone would be able to show me how to put on the gi when I came back, the whole thing sounded marvelous.
I liked the pain, even. I felt all tight in the arms, managed to hold in at times, others stumbled, but I was all determined to get it right, so brava! I may have to forsake Tuesdays if I want to do singing with Amy, but we'll see how that goes. Basically, it's shaping up that Mondays I'll be beat, Thursdays, too, probably, Wednesdays will be in class till way too late (8 pm!), and Tuesdays may or may not go to karate/singing. Somewhere in there, I need to book a flight to see Carrie, which, depending on how movable I am tomorrow, may be tomorrow before class.
So, yeah, all's well!
(PS: Michelle, what the hell are you talking about with this 'footy' fetish? Woman, that's what they call the ruddy game! Aussie Rules Football = Footy! And I don't even know how to do whatever it was you suggested I do instead of writing Footy. For the rest of you: AUSSIE RULES FOOTBALL WILL BE COMING BACK TO THE STATES WITH ME IF I CAN MANAGE IT!)
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Date: 2003-08-05 01:18 am (UTC)