KK’s Blog

For now, at least. I want to teach yoga classes for pregnant women. And write on the side, fun writing. I don’t know if this dream will come true, and I’m pretty sure Oxford is going to offer no help in this area. But I had no goal to look forward to there for a while, and I don’t function well when I don’t have a goal in mind. I get really stressed out when I’m not working for something in the future, which maybe is a bad thing, but my brain just keeps worrying if there’s nothing out there that I am working toward. So I was in church and there was this woman who looked pregnant, and I was thinking about whether I would keep doing yoga when I was pregnant because it apparently makes labor easier. And then I wondered if the person who would teach a class for pregnant women would be pregnant, and I decided not, so I thought that would be a good job for me because I just think pregnant women are so cute, and I think I would feel good about helping them. But then I decided that wouldn’t take all day, so with the rest of my time I would write. Although I don’t know if I’m creative enough to write novels. I wish I was because I think it would be so awesome to be an author of fiction that people really liked. I grew up reading Nancy Drew, and I didn’t daydream of solving the mysteries and being Nancy Drew. I daydreamed about thinking up the mysteries and being Carolyn Keene. I was devastated when I found out it was just a name and lots of people wrote the Nancy Drew novels. So I would write under the name Denise Banks because that was my name when I played with my friends when I was little. I don’t know why I wouldn’t write with my name, maybe I would, but it would be sort of cool to see the name Denise Banks on books too and have the mystery that nobody would know who I am. So that’s my goal for now. I’m sure it will change, hopefully to something that will make this degree and work worthwhile.

I’m getting ready to go to a lecture. Then I’m going to have tea with Sarah before we go to lunch so we can catch up on the week. And she borrowed Veronica Mars so I’m sure we’ll talk about that too. Then rowing, on the river for the first time!! Hopefully it will go well. I did a 20 minute erg last night, and I felt so tired last night, but I stretched well and I’m not too sore or tired this morning. I’m going to try to get more reading done today, and then formal hall and the Regent’s choir is singing at the Sheldonian, the place in Oxford where all the big stuff happens, like matriculation and graduation, so it’s a pretty big honor. So I think I’m going to go, as long as I can convince Celia to go with me. Then maybe we’ll watch a movie tonight or something. I don’t think there’s anything going on in the JCR, so we’ll see. Big day ahead of me, better get ready.

My two tutorials went okay this week, better than last week I guess. The politics one he said at least our essays were better, but then he kept asking me questions I didn’t know. Taylor would answer more quickly on one question, so the next question he would direct it at me. I felt better after the tutorial when Taylor said he felt bad because Lee kept giving me the hard questions. During the tutorial, I was just feeling like I was completely ignorant. It was on the UN. And I know the structure of the UN and stuff like that, but didn’t really read up on my current events, know the history, just not the present. But he at least seemed to think the essay was okay. I’ll try to do better next time. That’s all I can do. It’s on NATO. Can’t wait.

Economics lasted almost two hours because he kept us over. Normally tutorials are one hour, but Simon last term asked if he could have us for an hour and a half, so now Chris just assumed that’s what he would have us for, but then he tries to squeeze too much into that time. And he gets really frustrated when we don’t get through it all. And now he’s talking about having us turn in a rough draft of our essay on Saturday, then rewriting and turning it in on Sunday. We are already turning it in four days before our tutorial, and he doesn’t even give it back to us beforehand like Simon did. He’s having us do five essays, when the university syllabus says we’re not supposed to do more than four, short answer questions for three weeks, and then he also wants us each to do two presentations with typed handouts on top of the essays. I think I’m going to ask Simon and Joe, my tut partners, if this is a typical amount of work. It seems like way too much, especially when we each have another tutorial each week on top of that. I think it’s the first time Chris is doing a tutorial, but I don’t want to be the only one complaining if we just had an easy econ tutorial last term. We’ll see.

On other updates in my life at the moment, we were going to have an outing on the river today, but not enough girls could make it, so now we’re supposed to have one tomorrow instead. I still haven’t been out on the river. I did do an erg (on the rowing machine) with Ula last night, and felt like I was going to die afterward. And now one of my arms is really sore for some reason. My mom and I are supposed to be getting our plane tickets today, I think, which is good, before they get any more expensive. I’m hoping I can get my essays done early this week because I have to do some research on my thesis and get some application stuff done for internships this summer. Suke wants me to meet with someone about my thesis by 6th week this term so I can have an idea of what to do over Easter break. So now I have to get a question I want to answer that is more specific than “What is the effect of the economic relationship between China and US (the trade deficit) on US firms?” Any ideas? Let me know. Also, if anyone is just really wanting to send me something over here, I could use some more cereal, like granola or honey bunches of oats or something. I’m almost out of what I brought over, so I guess I’ll be trying to find something that looks good over here. I’ve become addicted to cereal.