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Sleepy Beanie
Nov. 13th, 2007 10:06 pmSo, right now I am debating between watching a movie, and getting myself a pot of herbal tea and being ready for class tomorrow. It may end up being a mix of both.
Let's see: got up early for me, and actually got out of the house around 10ish. Then I went to University, seeking out places to both read and drink coffee- this is impossible in most places. There were a number of nice benches that I was devoted to in the inner courtyard, but the weather has a taken a turn for the popsicle. However, I ended up out there because there was a book flea-market in the main hall where there are usually benches inside and students using them. Which actually was not that bad- scarf, hood, hot coffee and der Zauberberg were actually a fairly good combination.
Then class, which today was actually interesting. As I keep saying, my German functionality is a series of unexpected leaps- today, if there was stuff I didn't understand, I was probably just tired enough to let it pass rather than trying to figure it out. It made for a nice class. It was a contrast of the process of constructing a "house of memory" according to the classical method of mentally constructing physical spaces and objects to remind/ store memory, like your very own museum, versus using photographs to give your recollection a firm external and empirical structure. (I happen to like the 'house of memory' concept a lot- when I first ran across it in a novel, I drooled over the idea for several weeks, but thought that the construction of such a thing would be too large and cumbersome- at fifteen or so I already thought I was too old.)
Post class, I went to a bookstore to get myself a Cliffnotes version of Der Zauberberg, which I read and am feeling better about my ability to at least understand what the hell my next lecture will be about. I also found an English copie of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I will measure out to myself as a reward for good behavior, like tootsie rolls in the top drawer.
However, I should be reading stuff for my history lecture- which will basically reiterate exactly the reading being given to us, in a slighty more understandable form.
Let's see: got up early for me, and actually got out of the house around 10ish. Then I went to University, seeking out places to both read and drink coffee- this is impossible in most places. There were a number of nice benches that I was devoted to in the inner courtyard, but the weather has a taken a turn for the popsicle. However, I ended up out there because there was a book flea-market in the main hall where there are usually benches inside and students using them. Which actually was not that bad- scarf, hood, hot coffee and der Zauberberg were actually a fairly good combination.
Then class, which today was actually interesting. As I keep saying, my German functionality is a series of unexpected leaps- today, if there was stuff I didn't understand, I was probably just tired enough to let it pass rather than trying to figure it out. It made for a nice class. It was a contrast of the process of constructing a "house of memory" according to the classical method of mentally constructing physical spaces and objects to remind/ store memory, like your very own museum, versus using photographs to give your recollection a firm external and empirical structure. (I happen to like the 'house of memory' concept a lot- when I first ran across it in a novel, I drooled over the idea for several weeks, but thought that the construction of such a thing would be too large and cumbersome- at fifteen or so I already thought I was too old.)
Post class, I went to a bookstore to get myself a Cliffnotes version of Der Zauberberg, which I read and am feeling better about my ability to at least understand what the hell my next lecture will be about. I also found an English copie of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which I will measure out to myself as a reward for good behavior, like tootsie rolls in the top drawer.
However, I should be reading stuff for my history lecture- which will basically reiterate exactly the reading being given to us, in a slighty more understandable form.
