(pictures are of reed college's campus canyon, a shot in the autumn of portland centre, and the main campus building- 'eliot hall')
hello all,
i realise after typing the title of my post that i only one entry last semester (albeit a rather long one) and now we are already into semester 2; madness. time flies incredibly quickly with the heavy workload here at reed college in portland, oregon, so sorry for not updating too much since last time!
i can inform everyone that i had a mighty fine christmas holiday...it was wonderful to be able to see my family and girlfriend back at home. it has been rather difficult leaving those individuals behind, as well as all my good friends from nottingham. however, once i returned to reed i got back into the swing of things quickly. i'm really enjoying my classes here (this post may be a bit academic-centric, and i apologise for this, it really does go with the territory of the campus).
i have organised an "independent study module" to prepare me for my dissertation next year...looking at some of the texts i may touch on for my dissertation work next year, and just generally trying to get my head around the subject. so, i'm currently i'm doing lots of research into emerging ideas of "post-postmodernism" and the literary trends of contemporary american literature. loads of the material i'm looking at is really recent, and i am excited about the prospect of writing my dissertation next year and breaking some new ground in academia- ambitious i know. currently ploughing through "gravity's rainbow" by thomas pynchon, this is a MASSIVE (900/1000 odd pages) novel, and it's completely mental. i'm also taking a shakespeare module- which is rather odd being in an american educational environment; one of the students read some lines from the play in a (put on) southern american accent in class the other day, for no apparent reason- and a course in modern humanities.
i have found that studying here at reed has given me a greater appreciation for academia. i read in one of the earlier blog posts that a nottingham student who went to stay with friends at columbia university in NY found them getting up at 7am to go to the library; this kind of ethos is also prevalent at reed. people just seem to love assimilating knowledge and "expanding their minds"...though not in the way the majority of you are probably thinking! i think that doing this year abroad is preparing me really well for my final year, and has made me think more seriously about taking some kind of postgrad course. i am lucky enough to have an american passport, and i am considering studying this in america somewhere.
sorry so far this post has been ALL about work. to be honest, this is what reed culture is all about. although it's slightly annoying that people don't go into downtown too much (it's really not very far, though because the buses take silly indirect routes to try and pick up as many people as possible, it takes a bit longer to get from campus to town than students from nottingham will
be used to) i am finding more time (so far at least) to do fun stuff this semester aside from just sitting in the library 24/7. i have been playing music with a bunch of people, and am most probably going to play a show with my friend frank on campus. i went to another friend's house last night and played some music in his (very large) basement...if any of you have heard of a band called EARTH, or are familiar with the term "drone", you will have the right idea.
after some hassle with waiting lines/website credit card rubbish, i have successfully booked a flight to new york to meet my girlfriend in april. i will be staying for 6 days in a friend's apartment and want to make it an incredible few days. over the course of this term i am also hoping to go to vancouver, british columbia to do some education fairs with the nottingham student ambassador programme (here would probably be most appropriate to thank ceri and rachel buckley for organising these work trips) and make my way down to austin, texas for a music festival called south by south west that takes place in march. anyone want to join me!? DO IT.
i'm about to go and do some rapping at "freestyle friday", a rap collective that meets every friday in one of the dorms. can i get a hell yeah? peace. xxxx
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