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Life in pink bootsDe gustibus non disputandum 4月12日 Kathryn's New York Photo Diary
I went to New York with these three people who are (from left to right) my mum, my mum's friend Jude and my friend Ben. This is a picture of them in Times Square on the first day. I liked Times Square because everything was so brightly coloured and sparkly. I may have been a magpie in a previous life.
This is me in my new hat on the top of the Empire State building. We went up 80 floors in a lift, all at once. It felt like the bottom was falling out of the world. The view was amazing, though!
The next day we went on a ferry trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Here is a photo of me with the Statue of Liberty on my shoulder. Ellis Island was the island all immigrants that arrived in New York had to be processed on. There was a huge hall (see photo below) that on a busy day would be full of up to 10,000 immigrants, waiting to be processed. On average, only 2% of people were turned away. There was a really interesting museum, telling the immigrants' stories. It was fascinating.
We were on the 22nd floor, and I was remarkably excited by this.
We had breakfast at a place called Norma's, in a veryvery posh hotel called Le Parker Meridien. This was the fruit basket, which was the best fruit that I have ever tasted!
I bought a remarkable amount of things that I couldn't really afford, but I care little. It was like everything was half price because the exchange rate is so good! If you want to know anything else, just ask - would be happy to tell you. Hope everything's OK with all of you! 4月5日 Noo YoikOff to New York this morning - I will take many photographs and blog when I get back.
Look after yourselves! 3月31日 More QuestionsYou're on a roll now readers...keep them coming, as I feel obliged to answer them and so there will be many more blogs! Or, conversely, if you'd like me to stop writing forever, then no more questions... I can't remember who all these are from, because I copied and pasted them over a space of a few days. I could go and look, but it seems a bit pointless. Enjoy!
If you get a grain of sand, and you put it on a flat surface, and add more grains of sand to the same point, one after another - at what point does it become a 'heap' of sand?
I would say that when I think of the word 'heap', I think of a little mountain shape. Following that logic (not that it is logic, but it sounds much more impressive when I call it that) I would say that you would need about 20 grains of sand to make a heap. Another thing that I would say is, I think you need enough grains of sand so that you can't tell how many there are by looking at them. So, if I saw a heap of 20 grains of sand, then I wouldn't know that it was 20 grains, it would just be a small heap of sand. If there were 10 grains of sand, you could probably tell roughly how many there were, and then it would no longer be a heap. I have to say, I was remarkably tempted to go and find some salt and do this experiement, so perhaps at some time in the future I will and then I'll photograph it for proof...
Firstly, I'd like to ask if you have any siblings, I've often presumed not, simply because you don't tend to speak of such, but maybe it's just you prefer not to say...?
Yes, I have a little brother who is 15. His name is Thomas and he is not little by any stretch of the imagination - he is about 6' with very long arms and legs and also very long curly hair. He's a bit of a star.
Do you prefer cats or dogs? I prefer cats, by far. Dogs are so needy and pathetic and they still love you no matter how many bad things you do. Cats are independent, and they only come to you when they want to, not when you want them to. Also, dogs need a lot of looking after, whereas cats don't as much. And I sympathise with the way cats play with wool. My favourite Just So story was The Cat That Walks By Himself (although I also liked How the Elephant Got His Trunk, but elephants are less usual pets) and so I have always felt an affinity with cats.
Given the recent decline of modern languages in secondary schools, what is your opinion on programmes designed to promote the uptake of Latin?
To be honest, I think that in a school as multi-cultural as that, they need to teach a neutral language. Latin is about as neutral as it gets, as no one speaks it anymore so it has little political impact. Also, I would say that if children know the basics of Latin, then other modern languages descended from Latinate roots are much easier to learn. So, on balance, I think that it's quite a good idea. I don't necessarily think that it's more important to study a modern foreign language than it is to study Latin - Latin is just a different kind of skill, as it is much more about translation. I myself have never studied Latin - I had to choose between Latin, German and Spanish and I chose Spanish, because I wanted to be able to speak to people - but I have to say that it would come in very handy for my English degree.
Would you be happy to go out in public without any makeup or product on?
It depends how bad a day I was having. I never wear any makeup to my lectures (they are early in the morning, and who am I trying to impress?) and I don't tend to wear makeup in the daytime. I always wear makeup when I go out in the evenings, but I don't wear a lot of makeup at all, just a bit of concealer and blusher and then some mascara. I feel silly with lots of makeup on, because it's really not me at all.
Also, (if you're not vegetarian (!) ) what's your favourite sunday roast? My favourite sunday roast is beef - the classic - but only when it's cooked really well. Otherwise it can be very tough. I like all other meat as well, though, so it just depends what I'm in the mood for. The most important part of the sunday roast, contrary to popular belief, is not the sunday roast at all - it's the yorkshire puddings!
What do you make of the proposals to remove oral assessment from Modern Languages GCSEs and A-Levels; ostensibly because it's "not a fair assessment", but more realistically because "lots of people do very badly at it and that really won't do"? I'd go and find the BBC link, but I can't be arsed.
I think that it's a very bad idea because we know from experience that if something isn't on the syllabus then there is no time to teach it. So, if there is no oral element to the exam then you won't speak the language very much at all in lessons, which is entirely pointless because you learn a modern foreign language so that you can speak it to people. It would also be less interesting in lessons if you didn't get to speak much. So, all in all, I think it is a very very bad idea.
What is the best album you have bought/acquired so far this year? Hmm, let's see. I acquired a lot of songs by a band I've never heard of, in a genre I've never heard of, which I turned out to enjoy a surprising amount. The band? VNV Nation. The genre? Dark electro (or goth electro) - upbeat music, miserable lyrics. I am sure I'm doing it a disservice by describing it like that, but that's what it is to me. However, I think that the best album (that isn't actually an album - it's a single with four new songs attached) that I've bought is The Real Damage by Frank Turner (new album out today, very excited). Although I do like the Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. album I have - Confessions of a Bohemian Teenager or something. I also like an album of Italian folk music that is based on my favourite book of all time (Hundred Years of Solitude - at least, it's what I always say when someone asks me what my favourite book is) by a band called Modena City Ramblers. The album's called Terra e Liberta (I can't be bothered to find the accents) or 'Earth and Liberty'.
Right, you've probably had enough of me by now, so I'll write to you all again soon. Look after yourselves. 3月28日 Question timeWell, I haven't had a huge amount of questions, but within the four I have had there is a lot of variety. This feature is not going to go away, by the way, so if you suddenly think of a question you would like to ask me I will answer it in blog form. That could be the stimulus I need to begin blogging frequently again, like the good old days of yore. I always remember how much I enjoy blogging when I get back to it, so I'm going to try really hard not to disappear again. It's just that eight weeks is a very short amount of time to cram all my learning and playing into, so this falls by the wayside slightly. Which, at least to me, is rather a shame. Maybe I will have blog-writing day, and it will be like writing home once a week to tell everyone how I'm doing.
Anyway, that can be pondered on at a later date. For now, I am going to answer Hannah and Callan's questions.
First, Hannah's (because I copied and pasted them first):
a) what's your ideal job?
I have three ideal jobs. One that I will actually end up doing, one that I always thought I would end up doing and another one that is entirely and totally illusory, as it will definitely never actually happen. The entirely and totally illusory job is the life in which I become an itinerant singer and make CDs on a very low budget and go and play my heartfelt and beautiful songs to small, yet discerning, crowds of fans, who will laugh and cry and sway slightly. This life is based on my entirely idealised view of the life of Frank Turner (who I am going to see in April, which excites me enormously - Hannah, you had a tagline on your blog that came from one of his songs, I think - 'Whiskey and a wry smile, I check my vital signs...'). So, that is the illusory job, as I have very little musical talent, and no ability to write beautiful heartfelt songs. The job that I always thought that I would end up doing is being a journalist. I still think that I would be quite good at it, and it could still happen, but I don't want to do all the boring legwork first. I want to get straight on to a national newspaper, writing news articles and commenting in a wry and world-bedraggled way on the important issues of the day. This does not happen. You spend years working your way up. So, the ideal job that I think I will actually end up doing, is being a lecturer. I want to stay studying for a long long time, and I never want to stop studying. I genuinely do love my subject and my degree, and I want to learn more about it forever, and then teach other people about it too.
b) are you still up for visiting my coffee shop with Flix one day? Of course, google map me the details and I'll be right over :). Honestly, that really would be lovely. Do you think we could buy icecream and watch films and laugh a lot too?
And now Callan's:
1. Do YOU think the Dalai Lama threatening to resign over Tibetan violence is an empty threat? Is it possible for him to do so, considering his manner of appointment?
I would say that the Dalai Lama can't threaten to resign as a religious leader, but he could perhaps resign as a political leader. As you pointed out, he has become the Dalai Lama because he is the reincarnation of the last Dalai Lama. He can't just stop being the reincarnation of the last Dalai Lama and give up his post at the head of the religion. However, he could renounce worldly governance, and cease to lead the Tibetan people politically. According to the Wikipedia page on the Dalai Lama lineage, the Dalai Lama is a tulku (a Tibetan Buddhist lama who has consciously determined to be reborn, often many times, in order to continue their vow to help others achieve Nirvana). He could say that as the leader of the Tibetan state, staying in political power is not the best way for him to help others to achieve spiritual awakening, and so he will step down. Maybe? I don't really know. As you can tell, all my information on this has been gleaned from Wikipedia, but it would seem to make sense.
2. Out of phone and wallet/purse/whatever you put your cards and cash in, which would you rather have stolen? Assuming that this theft was a matter of extreme urgency, and could not under any circumstances be avoided? I would prefer to have my money and my cards stolen than my mobile phone. I find it quite difficult to cope without my phone - if it were to be stolen, I would lose all the numbers of my friends, and noone would be able to get in touch with me. I need to stay in touch with people, especially when I'm so very far away from all my university friends.
Right, that's me done for the evening. Please ask me more questions - answering those was really fun :) 3月19日 I'm not dead.I know it's been practically years since I've been here in this little piece of cyberspace that I like to call my own, but I'm back now, at least for the holidays, and I thought I'd write a little catch-up blog to tell you what I've been up to for the last month or so.
OK, so, I don't really know where to start - lots has happened. Shall I make a list? I think so, I do love lists. Right - here is a list, definitely not in chronological order, of things that I have done/seen/etc since I last wrote in this blog:
1. I was given a holiday reading list (this is at the top because it currently irritates me the most). The first line of the holiday reading list is: 'Read the entire works of Shakespeare, including the poetry.' This is clearly ridiculous, as I only have five weeks and there are 38 plays and over a hundred sonnets. Also, I have to write a long essay (5000 words) on Tony Harrison, a poet I know little about and also revise for my exam at the beginning of term. My exam at the beginning of term is on Medieval literature over a period spanning 250 years. I feel in such a relaxed and holiday mood right now, can you tell?
2. I have written many essays, which was weirdly and surprisingly enjoyable. 7 of them were on said medieval paper and the other 2 were on literary theory.
3. I have learnt to love literary theory. I may give literary theory master classes on my blog, which will have many capital letters and perhaps resemble my one-off tutorial on the stock market about a year ago, which I remember wasn't universally loved - you might want to avoid the masterclasses on literary theory... Although, they may be a little bit like the marxist fairy tales, which were loved. So, you should perhaps wait til I write the first one and then decide.
4. I have been elected to CUSU (Cambridge University Students' Union) as Target Campaigns Officer - this means that I do things to encourage people from 'non-traditional backgrounds' to come to Cambridge. Things like organising open days and poster campaigns and getting volunteers to go into schools. I'm really excited about it :)
5. I have read a lot of medieval plays. I have come to the conclusion that medieval plays are really really really cool. This instantly makes me uncool, I am aware, but I have not the slightest bit of interest in that. One play I read was acted entirely to a communion wafer - how weird is that?! Now that's almost post-modern...probably (though I have to admit, I have no idea what post-modern is).
6. My mum bought us tickets to go to New York in the holidays, which I am almost unbelievably, can't-breath-I'm-so-overly-excited excited about.
7. I had to say goodbye to one of my favourite people for five whole weeks, which is almost like a lifetime. Though, I suppose not seeing him will mean that I can fully concentrate on all the things in point 1...
8. I have planned to go and see my grandpa on Friday, which I am looking forward to immensely :)
I don't like the number 10 - it's so definite and final (and I have no more things to tell you off the top of my head) so 8 it will be.
Next blog is 'question-time'. You may submit - in the comment to this blog - two questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Unless they are obscene.
In which case I will lie... 2月14日 Valentines Day - the classic blogHey everyone, this is a February blog - how exciting! So, as you are all aware, it is Valentines Day (for another 20 minutes or so) so I am going to talk about it a little bit. Interesting fact - Chaucer may have invented Valentines Day in his amazing (I mean that) dream poem 'The Parlement of Foules'. In 'The Parlement of Foules' lots of birds get together and have a bit of a chat about what love means. This happens on Valentines Day, and this is the first recorded mention of the holiday in literature. Interesting snippet of information about my day - I went out for lunch. It was lovely. I had fried feta cheese triangles to start, and I think that this may be the supreme achievement of man. Forget the wheel, it's all about the feta cheese triangles... I also received a copy of 'A Winter's Tale' from my new favourite shop, AKA the little antiquarian bookshop off the marketplace. It's so beautiful...and it smells amazing. I love the smell of books. Especially old books. Perhaps interesting fact - Even if people pretend not to care about Valentines Day, they are in fact lying. If they are in a relationship and pretend not to care, it is because a) they know their partner will do something anyway or b) they don't want to appear too keen. If they are not in a relationship, they are pretending not to care because a) they don't want to appear desperate and lonely or b) they are scared of commitment. There may be people out there who actually do not care about Valentines Day. However, I haven't met them, and I don't talk about things outside my experience. That's actually a lie, I do. All the time. But normally I choose things on which I can bullshit successfully, as opposed to human emotions. I don't know much about those, except the ones that I have, and they might not be normal for everyone. I don't know, I don't know how anyone else feels... Back to my day. We were going to go out to the theatre, but then we fell asleep on the cushions in the living room. Then we ate pizza. Romance is not dead. :)
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