Norfolk Terrace, UEA, Norwich, Day 115. Into Study-Panic-Fun
Mode
As if it was planned, Stephen King came over
to my family’s house (not actually our house but my family lived there, might’ve
been partially my first house) and spent the evening with us. I remember him
sitting at the baby grand piano, on the far left of the bench and I told him
it’s better to sit in the middle. He asked me how my stories were coming along and
I answered ‘all right’, slightly timidly. He even went with us to the movie
theatres (all my family and Stephen King). But I also remember many more people
coming along: Jen, Dan, Charlie, Alvin, Gemma, etc. (I remember Jen waiting for
me when I had ticket troubles) and then I had high school friends Will, Elsie, Chris,
Greg, Joe, etc. (Will and Katya also waited with me.) and then college friends
too Katya, Dylan, Memo, etc. I never actually got in to see the movie because
the upstairs shifted into a house and I saw Stef wandering around the living room.
But at some point I was driving back from the cinema and got to park my car in the
backyards driveway of my first house (way back, in Curtis Park). Stephen King
at this hour left but I didn’t see him leave—I felt the weight of regret in that
I had never gotten a photo with him, but I somehow had the feeling that he’d be
back to visit, whenever he was in California again (he lives in Maine).
That was my dream.
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| In the ARTS building with Collins. |
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| In the ARTS building with Stef. |
The day was fun. I walked to the library to
see Stef and James Collins, my study group for Romanticism, when I saw Stef and
a group of her friends walking to Blend. Just before that moment, I was feeling
like I hadn’t eaten with people outside my flat kitchen in awhile, so it was
perfect timing. I ate lunch with Stef, Dave (her flatmate), and Sophie and
Sarah. Sophie asked me up front, ‘Is it true that if I say an interesting word,
I will get mentioned on your blog?’ I laughed, and said sure. Unfortunately, I
don’t find the word interesting enough to ment—kidding, the word was scone, but
the correct pronunciation is apparently more posh than I previously believed. It’s not SCOwwn, but SCOnn. Sarah
argued on this with her, but apparently the Queen says it the second way. So it
must be correct. Meanwhile, Dave sat at his corner of the table texting away,
eventually being teased for his reticence.
I
went off to study with Stef and Collins, who had just come from the barber’s (he missed lunch...), and we studied in the ARTS building since the
library is still an exorbitant sponge too fat to have enough space for trickles
of afternoon entries (as in, finding a seat past noon is like finding the tip
of a needle in a haystack—and then sitting on it before someone else does). The
coaches in ARTS are slightly disorienting—trying to promote students to sit
there when the dark red couch sits beside the maroon couch and the lime green
one…too much skittles-taste-the-rainbow for me.
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| FIRST LENTIL SOUP I'VE EVER MADE! YES!!!!! |
I
studied on and off, made a trip to the library for a few books, and panicked a
little when I read Stef’s and Collins’ papers from earlier in the semester (since
they wrote on Blake and childhood for the paper, I can write on it for the exam
but they can’t; and vice versa with me and Shelley). Their formatting and the
modes of analytical writing were a lot different from mine—they focused a lot
on the secondary sources when I barely used them past introductory usage. I did
close read more, but I don’t know what the professors and tutors are looking
for. This is the scary part of studying in another country.
The
Sunday skype with Katya was moved to today, and it was a nice two hours.
Another positive thing was my triumph in making lentil soup from scratch! I
called up Jen and Charlie for advice and help, got some from Matt in the
kitchen, and in general it ended up being mostly an improvised process. But a
success all the same!
I
let Vinnie borrow my black waistcoat for the LCR tonight, in which he adorned
himself as Aladdin. He looked pretty good, I must say, and I think the picture
of him flying on a magic towel above the desk does him justice. I had fun
chatting in the flat, oh and this was a great dialogue exchange:
Charlie: OOH, it’s getting too hot in here?
Alvin: [dramatic pause] Should I leave?
[And he nailed it, folks! Hook, line, sinker
and the crowd goes wild, ba dum tiss.]
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| And here's Aladdin before taking off to the LCR (yes, he did fly over on this magic towel, of course). |
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