Day 38: Perfectly Imperfect

You know, on days when your hair gels to absolute perfection, the way you want it, you feel that you’ve conquered all quarters of the world and that nothing in the world could possibly defeat you. Nothing could possibly ruin your day, nothing.

Mmhmm… Wish it were nothing.

I swear it was like a hurricane today. The wind was so strong, there were many, many, many broken umbrellas just rolling down the street side like tumbleweeds on a rainy day. So, needless to say, my flawless hairstyle went down the drain, along with my patience. I had a serious battle with my umbrella. I thought the top would just fly away, and just when I finally thought I got control of the damn bugger, a sudden gust of wind blows and I get slapped in the face with the stick of the umbrella. Ugh.

Umbrellas in the city are annoying. The sidewalks are too narrow and there’s too many people so the umbrellas get caught into each other, or you get slapped in the face with one. It’s quite “pleasant.”

At least I wasn’t the only one fighting. One of the things I was able to witness for the first time with my own eyes is someone’s umbrella go inside-out and then fly out of their hand [they had the strap around their wrist so it didn’t kill anyone, I promise]. Hahah. Yea, that was funny.

Which reminds me. In lit, we learned where the word “protagonist” comes from. “-agon” means to fight, and “pro-” connotes advancement. So, if we were to call ourselves the protagonists of the stories of our lives, we are people fighting to advance. Isn’t that interesting? Anyway, this was in Panorama de Literatura.

I think it’s impossible for some people to talk slower… it just can’t be done… For lit we had to work in groups of 3… But, my group consisted of 2, the other guy being new to the class. So, it was interesting: a person who could barely explain anything clearly and a person who didn’t know anything about what was going on because he had missed the last class. We made it through though. Yay, I guess?

…
Still shocked just how much I could not understand him.

Afterwards, I went to the café and tried to catch up with my reading for my next class. It was actually an interesting reading, far more interesting than what I would ever read in English [maybe it was because it was about film]. It was about interrelationship between film and philosophy. Very interesting.

There’s no doubt everyone in the film track, myself included, enrolled into the film track, thinking the world of cinema is in a totally different realm than that of anything we’ve yet to see. But in reality, film is very much close to home, interrelating different aspects of science, math, history, language, or in terms of SUA, humanities, social & behavioral sciences, and international studies. Cinema is much grander than just a means of expression and much more in touch with humanity that we’ve somehow lost in the other disciplines.

I came here thinking I’d be taking solely film classes (though I didn’t know what it would be like). After classes started, I was somehow disappointed when all the classes I signed up for were philosophically-driven and devoid of anything film-related. Then, I realized. The basic foundation of film starts with understanding the fundamentals of other disciplines, especially in the humanities [something I’ve been studying during my SUA career]. Who would’ve thought that liberal arts would actually help me with my future in film?

Philosophy is much easier to understand in Spanish for some reason. I don’t know why.

I found out today that I’m probably one of the few students in the program to be in the Butler program and having the grades counted toward their GPAs. It’s absolutely frustrating and stressful to know that how I do here is going to affect my GPA. It’s a big worry, because I really don’t know just how well I’ll do. It’s hard to predict.

Which also reminds me. My schedule changed AGAIN. The academic system is really starting to piss me off. It’s the same class that changed last time, too, which adds more to the fire. Luckily, for me, it didn’t conflict my other classes, as some of my other program mates had major problems to work out. So, goodbye 4-day weekend, hello 3-day weekend. I’m actually kind of glad I have some obligation on Mondays, since that’s when the maid comes.

Anyway… Argh. I want to scream.

Forced 8]

P.S., you know the Day count in the title of my posts and the Week labels at the bottom? I don’t pay attention to those… and when I hear today that we’ve been here for a over a month, I FREAKED. Shit. So fast, yet so slow.