Lectures and Societies

I have, as of today, experienced my first two lectures as a university student. Oh dear lord. To say that they were dull would not entirely be correct, they would probably have been interesting enough were it not for the fact that it was about 100 degrees in the lecture room (even next to the window where I was) add in easily 50 plus people and you have what is essentially an oven.  I found myself looking out the window, hoping and wishing for a breeze, even a slightly warm one, to float its way into the room. For goodness sakes, it’s September and the weather is carrying on like we’re in the middle of July! Equally making the lectures less than simple was the fact that the topics were completely obscure, it’s like they were related to nothing at all. It felt a bit like we had been thrown into lectures more than a week in without any warning and the assumption that we would catch up. Maybe they’ll all be like that, and I’ll always be shell-shocked in the afterhours. Who knows? I’m hoping that the prose workshops / lectures will make much more sense to me than the poetry ones at least. Prose makes sense to me a good amount more than anything poetry related, so I will live in that hope.

After a few sleepy hours of lectures it was time to choose my societies, once I managed to escape a very excitable rep for the cheerleading society that is, who seemed convinced that she could persuade me that I had always wanted to jump around in very little clothing waving pom poms. She seemed put out when I told her that I really wasn’t cheerleader material...twice. The societies fair was pretty interesting though, you can apparently become a member of as many societies as you like, but I have stuck with two. I first joined Knitter Knatter (the knitting society) which seems to be entirely made up of girls so it should be a lot of fun; they give me free wool and needles just for becoming a member. Membership was only three pounds! It seems like a good deal to me. There are no trips planned, no strange excursions, just weekly meetings where we sit, and chat, and knit away to our hearts content. Hopefully there will be large amounts of pattern swapping and technique sharing. I still need someone to teach me how to cable knit.

 I have also signed up to the BSL (British Sign Language) society. While I had planned to join some kind of knitting group I hadn’t really considered joining a signing group, as I only know the basics of sign these days and even then my precision is, well, imprecise. The group will offer lessons and teach us all a bit about the deaf community. Might even be some volunteering work in it, who knows. I think it’s pretty darned important that people learn at least enough sign to have a conversation with someone who is deaf, even if they’re with speech. I’ve just felt a little rude expecting them to lip read all the time, expecting them to cater to us. So I’m doing something about it. Maybe enough others will do the same someday and we can finally move towards some kind of worldly equality. Ok, so I’m not entirely hopeful about that bit, but it will be good to learn all the same.

I think it’s now time to make myself a cup of tea, then snug myself up in bed with a book and read till I pass out. No mad parties for me tonight. I’m just too tired.