But I can say that passion fruit is great. Even the smell is divine. Have one as soon as you can. Sit in the sun, smell it and then eat it. It'll give you an oddly summer feeling and it'll be nice for a second. Which is a hard thing to do these days, I'd imagine. With all the fuss, anxiety, stress and bother of general living, nobody gets to have a simple pleasure. Although, it's very easy to just buy some nice chocolate and go for a stroll to ease up. Nothing beats the Cock (Tavern) of a Thursday or Sunday night either for a wind-down. Buy the paper and a Zumo smoothie or juice and sit in a park somewhere (St. Stephen's Green for example) and have a read at one's leisure. Have a nice big cup of coffee at home with a favourite CD playing. I don't know what this is; is it a list of ways to relax from me? Just came out.
Tonight I watched many videos on youtube (videos with music not of some 14-year-old from Wisconsin jumping from a moving truck or similarly stupid videos that one so easily finds) of Rory, EC, Leadbelly and others. It was grand craic altogether.
I was in college today for the first time in about two weeks. There's an essay due next Tuesday for CM135 Analysing Media Content. It's about image analysis, both semiotic and ideological. Sounds mickey and, to me, it is. It's not what I''m about at all. But, in all fairness, is any of the stuff I'm doing "me"?
Last semester I enjoyed most things, especially the Language, Culture and International Communication lectures. Identity and Belonging threw some values up in the air for me, fine, that needed doing. This semester, I picked some modules I don't like and/or are making little sense. Introduction to Intercultural Studies is an example of the latter. I don't particularly like the aforementioned Analysing Media Content. Looking for implied value systems within a picture/image/photograph/digital representation? That's not the sort of thing that I like!
Introduction to Modern Ireland is a module about Irish politics. When I picked that module, I didn't even look at the bloody outline or the code. If I did, I would've seen LG (Law and Government) on it and thought, euh! Maybe. It's full of Erasmus students that are from far-flung places and not so far-flung (towns mythologies) places. The essay for this will be very hard.
Understanding Social Change is a good module. Dr. O'Brien missed two classes and not many people seem to like him. I think he's grand, but that an elephant (pardon the poor use of Groucho Marx quote thing). Like all the essays for all modules, picking something to research and write about is the difficult things. Do about Nordyland? Sunningdale and Good Friday? Dunno. The lectures that I liked was the Nordyland one because it was just like a history lesson and I liked that. Another lecture in Introduction to Modern Ireland was like a history lesson too and I also liked that. Is there something in that? Should I be somewhere studying history instead of all this Contemporary Culture and Society business? Ah, questions galore it is.
Study of Language 2 is good like last semester. There's going to be a test in class though, which I don't like the sound of. Most of all these worries stem from one thing. Obviously that one thing is the fact that I've done fuck all this semester. Waay. Intercultural Studies might make a little more sense if I read the suggested readings. Although, I did give it a bash and it went terribly. I was on the bus though.
This college bollix seems so mickey. And that made me sound like a sobbing little Yank wank. I'm not prepared to do any work so therefore it's someone else's fault. I presume that's a textbook case of not bothering one's bollix. It's great that the number of people going to third-level has tripled (I think that's right, it was in an The Irish Times article on Tuesday) and that fees are no more. But is college for everyone? Is DCU or UCD or TCD or NUI the right place for a slightly intelligent, slightly middle-class 18-year-old who can get over 300 points in the Leaving Certificate? Is there some pressure for sixth year students to go to college? (EDW.) I don't think academic life is for all even though it is accessible by all (supposedly).
I am sceptical of my own place in DCU sometimes. (Again, I'm probably a textbook example of some unsure, whiny teenager.) The essays due, the exams to be sat and other assignments to be done will take some doing on my part. It's even difficult to know to do them on, with no module exempt. If I was a really bad worrier, I'd be fucked because it can look impossible. I don't know if I'll pass these modules. Then get reading you say! Good idea. "Am I bovvered though?"
To leave on a nicer note than that I hope you all enjoyed St. Patrick's Day whatever you were up to. Isn't great to be born on the island of Ireland!?
