Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Life...


It is update on my life time... Several things have happened since my last shall we say 'normal' blog entry. Not least, that I now have a fairly smashing Nietzsche card on my desk, inspiring me to great thoughts (see previous chicken entry).

I guess the main thing is that I have decided to move out. The room is nicer, although admittedly the flat isn't. Still, I will be living in the ICEUS-Gebäude, in a flat with a good mate, plus I will have a couch, an armchair AND a balcony, and any day now it's going to stop snowing and the temperature is going to reach positive figures again, and so a balcony will def come in handy. (I'm imagining relaxing in my armchair, sipping chilled sparkling wine/beer in the sun...) Yeah, my current flat has advantages but my relationship with my flatmates is certainly not improving and I am looking forward to a new start.


On to the academics. Well, I did my presentation. Unfortunately myself and Chryssa chose the day of our presentation to discover that the uni has only 2 projectors. Needless to say, they were both hiding when we needed one and so we had to present ohne our amazing powerpoint presentation. In case we weren't mad enough at this fact, Prof Ott decided to lay into us saying it was our fault for not being more organised. The fact that there has been one in the room every other Monday seems to have slipped his mind, and the time we spent in between class searching for the projector was apparently not satisfactory enough. Anywy, we did our presentation. It could have been a whole lot better. I know I am terrible at doing presentations, and no matter how hard I try, I don't seem to get any better. Well, I basically just read out my 10-page essay, without managing to engage the audience at all and without any real eye-contact. I am not pleased with myself and I'm not happy with my presentation. But at least it is over. If Ott had acknowledged my request to do a dissertation instead of a presentation, rather than ignoring it, then I think, he, myself and the class would have been a lot happier. Needless to say, he is not my favourite professor at the moment. Anyway, it's over now.


Finally to address my progress on sticking to my resolutions. I am not very proud to announce that I have not done any exercise since 2005 and that I have only today started actively learning French. I am however drinking less, although studying more remains questionable. The motivation is more present than it was before Christmas. Unfortunately it has a tendency to disappear at the key moment, i.e. when the time comes to do the work. Still, it's a work in progress.

ps - As if wishing to counter my own claim, here are a couple of pictures from the first (and only one that I have attended so far) party of January - Heidi's leaving party. There's me, Ragil and Chryssa, Susi and Heidi and then Toby, Ajay, Arne and Bec.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes I feel like if I didn't think then I wouldn't worry so much about things. But then again, if I didn't have a brain I would do more things like spill tea on my laptop.

Don't fret about Ott. I am thinking how aweful is he in forcing the oral presentation. I mean if we turn the table around on the people who have German as their stronger language, they have the option to write an essay. So this is reflection as him as a teacher. It's not a reflection as you as a student or your abilities in German.

I would lay a brick if I had to stand up and speak in a German presentation like yours, even if I had it written for me by a German speaker and knew the questions that would be asked by the class after you finished.

Can't wait to you move into your new place...because that means that there are no more dizzing stairs to climb up! And less far to walk!

Hehehe I told you I was lazy.

Anonymous said...

My tickets are booked!! All on the discussed dates!

I am coming to the lands seperated from the European mainland by a big chunk of chanel.

I am excited. Can't wait...now just got to get over this assessment...I hope my head doesn't implode.

Cheerio...see you in class.