reflections:1

The year is nearing its end, and once again I am prompted by this societally constructed/determined temporal delineation to reflect upon my current state..

I have recently been boring near friends with my exasperation over actually having to do large amounts of schoolwork during the holidays. I realize that many people in many situations and studies have done exactly the same before through many years. In my case, it's just the fact that I usually haven't had to perform this tortuous action during family visits, which has made me quite stressed and annoyed.. So, forgive me for going on about it.

I guess it's just when you only have so many days to see family and friends, it's annoying to have to do things that you could do elsewhere, while in proximity of said relations. I'll just have to be time-efficient, I guess.

It's been a weird term. Since beginning at uni, my approach has ranged from "will I do well?" to "man, this should be piece of cake" straight over to "they actually DO expect me to work my ass off!". My own interest in having time to spend with long-time friends, getting to know new ones, as well as the city, may have attracted my interest a bit too much, too. I guess I was fooled by the feel-good manner of the course - I'm used to getting more direct confrontations with the shortcomings of my work.

I don’t understand the concept of tutors being diplomatic about the work of the class, and yet expecting us to pick up on what is lacking… I just want an up-front comment that I can deal with!

My perception of the apparent lack of criticism during the middle of the term has definitely given a backlash.. I was not focusing enough on the main subject, spent too much time on random research (which I do find extremely inspiring though). Lately I've been getting more into it, producing some thought work that actually makes sense. It's nice. But it's also really taxing. Especially since it’s group work. It just takes more effort and energy. We have been getting on quite well in my group, 3 girls of seemingly different backgrounds, and I have learnt a lot about many things through our co-operations, both academically and personally.

I do continue to find the food issues extremely interesting :.) I don't know how they find the energy to keep answering questions on what they eat for this and this occasion, or in which manner or how to prepare a certain dish. I just like to visualise the differences in our culture in order to understand myself - and them - better.