Reading Week

I still don't know how to explain reading week, I still don't understand the concept. The closest I can get is that it is the bizarre british form of midterms and so (for me at least) if you have papers due in your classes then you don't have lecture in that class. Since I had finished my Social Movements essay over the weekend my goal was to write my literature essay on Monday since I didn't have to go to class but a few wrenches were thrown in the way. First, I told my friend Andrea I would go shopping with her in Newcastle, second, I had math homework due at 5 pm that was not finished, third the library was more crowded than normal and normal is still pretty crowded. I wrote this Monday: Finding a place to study in the library during reading week is like finding a parkingspot at the mall on black friday. I actually had to do the whole, are you leaving can I take your spot thing, and I hate that. Long story short, my day went math homework, shopping, math homework, turn in math homework, bust out literature essay ridiculously easily and only in a few hours and have more than 1,000 words. Yeah, the great irony, I struggled and fought with my Social Movements paper and could not get to 2,000 words on the first draft, but I cruised right on through my literature paper like I was writing a friend a letter. Tuesday was a busy/interesting/political day. It started off not bad, I went for a run and started to edit my papers, then I went to a Lunch Bar at the Chapel with my friend Hannah where I listened to an interesting talk, then it was off to my Mass Media class where because it was American elections day, one professor was at a morning show for the BBC and the other one was doing local radio spots and had to leave class early. Then Hannah and I had a library study party, okay a barely focused, sitting next to each other, making silent jokes and realizing how overloaded we felt. Then it was off to British Culture class which had MORE POLITICS. Then after a short break in my room I went to the KPA to watch the elections coverage with my friends. By 1 am there were no results and I was politics-ed out. By bedtime that night I was coughing a lot and waking up the next morning the being sick that I thought I had almost kicked was back in full force. Wednesday found more editing, a wonderful skype date with my friend Shoshana who is studying abroad in Israel and math class. Then I rewarded my self with a Wednesday afternoon movie with my friends, we saw Skyfall and I realized that we got it before America! I got to see Skyfall first, I don't know why that is exciting but it is. We got back later than I expected and so it was back to my room and to the computer to finish the edits and finalize my paper. Thursday was a serious roller coaster of a day. The first hour was probably the most eventful though. I knew I had between 10 and 12 to turn in my papers to the Humanities office and so I wanted to get it out of the way early. [9:50] I printed two copies of each of the final versions and picked the up from the library [10:10] After asking for directions, I arrived at the office where I had to fill out one form for each paper and get a receipt and because no one believes in specific instructions I had to hand write my id number on every page of both papers standing in the office. [10:20 ish]Went to pick up my first not online math homework from my pigeon hole (like return boxes) and it was a really really really bad score which meant (based on an email received earlier) that I had to go meet with the professor after class. [10:30 ish] I picked up my post from the post room and got a letter from my littles and the package I had been waiting for forever from my mom and sat on a bench to read it and basically cried and laughed and just kind of had a little moment on the bench. [11 ish] By 11 (give or take, these times are really fuzzy) I was in the library I was so exhausted that absolutely nothing was going to get done at that point. I tried a little but not that hard because the hour described above had killed me. So the rest of the day was slightly calmer. I went to class, then met with the professor in his office afterwards and there was a misunderstanding on how much scratch work he wanted to see and so he gave me a chance to do a new question for Homework 5 and turn it in Monday when homework 6 is also due. Then I went back to my room and had more brain dead time because there wasn't a whole lot I was going to get done at this point. I ended the day with a special version of Jesus Jam which was all singing, which was a nice outlet after the day I had. Although singing and being sick was not the greatest idea I've had. Friday I went to my math class and then spent some library time by myself and then working with Meredith on our portfolio for longer than I should have because then I had to run back to my room, pack in like 15 minutes and run to the bus. Where was I catching the bus you ask? The blog of my weekend is coming up next.