Yet Another Cultural Experience

...Waiting in line for two hours for ticket to a football game.

This morning I headed up to the Russel House at 10:30am to get in line for tickets. Usually I wait maybe 5 to 15 minutes. Today, it was almost 2 hours. This year the tickets have been running out around 1 or 2pm, but getting there at 11am is no problem. But as I got in line and saw the mattresses, coolers, chairs and trash, I realized people had been camping out. I heard people in line talking about friends who had gotten up at 7am to get in line. A girl in front of me was skipping a test for this, and lots were skipping class.

But even with all the students crazy and willing to do anything for their tickets, and news crews walking around (I think they wre there about the fire in NC where 6 USC students died), the line gets a little boring. Thankfully I had Tracy on the phone for half an hour. Then my roomie Sydney got in line with me, and a little later Josh, though he was only able to stand with us for about 45 minutes, minus a few when he went and grabbed lunch. It was crazy cold out (maybe 50 degrees, which is cold for us) - we can finally wear scarves, boots and hats. Some people saw the sunshine, thought it was warm, and threw on shorts and flipflops. You are allowed to bring two student ID cards, so I was able to hold Josh's when he left for work.

When we were almost there (had about 45 min left) a guy came by and mentioned that he saw there was only one box of tickets left. I was getting all nervous because so many people had been cutting in line with friends, and most people were carrying two IDs. I had observed from very early on that the line was oddly growing rather fatter than shorter. But we made it. And even if they had been out of tickets we would have had to stand in line anyway to get our cards swiped to get us into the lottery for tickets to the Clemson game.
Being a football fan is complicated.

I can now see why everyone here hates Spring semester because there is no football - that's all people care about here. At least Josh and I are two of the 8,000 students who will have one less boring Saturday.

I

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did, In a Sieve they went to sea: In spite of all their friends could say, On a winter's morn, on a stormy day, In a Sieve they went to sea! And when the Sieve turned round and round, And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!' They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big, But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig! In a Sieve we'll go to sea!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

II

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did, In a Sieve they sailed so fast, With only a beautiful pea-green veil Tied with a riband by way of a sail, To a small tobacco-pipe mast; And every one said, who saw them go, 'O won't they be soon upset, you know! For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long, And happen what may, it's extremely wrong In a Sieve to sail so fast!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

III

The water it soon came in, it did, The water it soon came in; So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet In a pinky paper all folded neat, And they fastened it down with a pin. And they passed the night in a crockery-jar, And each of them said, 'How wise we are! Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long, Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong, While round in our Sieve we spin!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

IV

And all night long they sailed away; And when the sun went down, They whistled and warbled a moony song To the echoing sound of a coppery gong, In the shade of the mountains brown. 'O Timballo! How happy we are, When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar, And all night long in the moonlight pale, We sail away with a pea-green sail, In the shade of the mountains brown!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

V

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did, To a land all covered with trees, And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart, And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart, And a hive of silvery Bees. And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws, And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws, And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree, And no end of Stilton Cheese. Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

VI

And in twenty years they all came back, In twenty years or more, And every one said, 'How tall they've grown! For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone, And the hills of the Chankly Bore!' And they drank their health, and gave them a feast Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast; And every one said, 'If we only live, We too will go to sea in a Sieve,--- To the hills of the Chankly Bore!' Far and few, far and few, Are the lands where the Jumblies live; Their heads are green, and their hands are blue, And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Rainy Friday Food.

Apparently there is no such thing as Tomato Rice soup in the South.
And from the looks of it, Andy Warhol wasn't even aware it existed, either.
Oh, but it does. People are just missing out.
I didn't want to have to miss out this year, so I'm cooking rice and heating tomato soup at this very moment.And I plan to scald my mouth with it, while staring out at the rain.

Rainy Friday Recipes.

After inviting Josh over for breakfast, I stopped and considered the lack of breakfast foods in my cupboard. Just finished off the cereal... there's one banana... 3 yogurts... a part of a cheese croissant. Not that promising. Then I thought of my baking ingredients and asked him if he wanted scones. Finding no milk and old eggs in the fridge, I thought again.

We ate scones made of flour, oats, sugar, salt, baking powder, chocolate chips, and peach yogurt.

They were great.

Rainy Friday Tunes.

Mouthwash
(Kate Nash)

This is my face, covered in freckles with the occasional spot and some veins
This is my body, covered in skin, and not all of it you can see
And, this, is my mind, it goes over and over the same old lines
And, this, is my brain, it's torturous and analitical thoughts make me go insane

And I use mouthwash
Sometimes I floss
I've got a family
And I drink cups of tea

I've got nostalgic pavements
I've got familiar faces
I've got mixed-up memories
And I've got favourite places

And I'm singing uh-oh on a Friday night
And I'm singing Uh-oh on a Friday night
And I'm singing uh-oh on a Friday night and I hope everything's gonna be alright
And I'm singing Uh-oh on a Friday night and I hope everything's gonna be alright

This is my face , I've got a thousand opinions, but not the time to explain
And this is my body and no matter how you try and disable it, yes,i'll still be
here
And, this, is my mind, and although you try and infringe, you cannot confine
And, this, is my body, and even if you try and hold me back there's nothing
that you can gain

Cause I use mouthwash
Sometimes I floss
I got a family
And I drink cups of tea

I've got nostalgic pavements
I've got familiar faces
I've got mixed-up memories
And I've got favorite places

And I'm singing Uh-Oh on a Friday night
And I'm singing Uh-Oh on a Friday night
And I'm singing Uh-Oh on a Friday night and I hope everything's gonna be alright
And I'm singing Uh-Oh on a Friday night and I hope everything's gonna be alright
Uh-Oh-Uh-Oh-Uh-Oh-Uh-Oh

Water and Leaves.

[More from Fall Break]

It's called a "writing spider"


I had never seen so many turtles so big.

Today.

These are the words I read about in my homework tonight.
I'd love to know if anyone knows the meaning and usage of more than two of these off the top of their head:

Parallelism

Isocolon

Antithesis

Ellipsis

Asyndeton

Polysyndeton

Anastrophe

Parenthesis

Anaphora

Epistrophe

Antimetobole


On another note, here's some proof that it does rain here occasionally.

Sometimes I Just Don't Have the Words.

Half a page of notes, half of it quotes. I think I spent the rest of class joining in with the awkward cringing and laughter. We were looking at Chapter 8 "Reading, Writing, and Thinking about Multicultural Literature".


"We'll call that one hyperbolic synecdoche"

"Busy as a one legged man in an ass-kicking competition"

"You saying 'we're all cultural' reminds me of 'it's a small world'"

"I just feel like it's beating a dead hor[se]..." (a life lesson on the importance of finishing one's words)

"Student demographics of South Carolina from 2004:
White 54%
African American 40.3%
Hispanic 4.0%
Asian/Pacific 1.3%
Native American 0.3%"

Speak of the devil.

Where the Wild Things Are

Release Date: October 3rd 2008
Director: Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation)
Cast: Forest Whitaker, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, James Gandolfini, Paul Dano, Catherine O’Hare
The Buzz: Every kid has read the classic illustrated Maurice Sendak book, about Max, a mischievous little boy, creates his own world - a forest in habited by fabulous wild creatures who crown Max as their ruler. Music Video turned filmmaker Spike Jonze has always created some visual and conceptual masterpieces. This is also Spike’s first feature film not written by Charlie Kaufman.
Trivia: Dave Eggers, who adapted the book for the screen has been hailed as “the J.D. Salinger of Generation X”.

Highlights

This week's highlights (I know it's only Wednesday):

Monday: Multicultural Music Miday - translated: at lunchtime over by the Russel house Josh and I had the pleasure of listening to a very talented (they translated from French to Spanish to English just for fun) eight person Mariachi band. What made this probably the coolest and possibly funniest musical experience of my life was when they played "The Devil Went Down to Georgia". You have no idea how amazing this was.

Monday night/Tuesday: Spending the night at Liana's! Got to watch "The Island" and stay up talking with this lovely lady. Good times.

Tuesday: Finding out that one of my Thursday classes is canceled this week.

Wednesday: Playing World of Warcraft. Yaaaay! It was fantastic. I leveled. And I got to talk to Mike and Kelly. And kill a bunch of ugly beasts that wanted to hurt me.
And I had a dream that Josh had a baby brother with long eyelashes. Not like normal long ones, but one's like I wore with my Muppet costume last Halloween. Speaking of Halloween, Josh and I are probably doing nothing. Sad but true. I might get desperate and think of something fun to wear and trick or treat in my classrooms. Just kidding.

Hmph. I was going to show my super awesome library card, but blogger is being dumb. You'll just have to wait.

Congaree National Swamp

We left Oregon to look at trees. I know. It's weird. I think we just can't ever get away from our love of them.

Today's featured picture

On the Wikipedia main page:

"A view of Portland, Oregon from the east waterfront depicting the skyline of the downtown district. The Hawthorne Bridge is prominent on the left. Although Portland is Oregon's largest city, it is not the state capital; that designation falls to Salem."

South Carolina is a place of

Beautiful homes...

[Drayton Hall, Charleston]

[Camden, SC]

Flags...
And rebels.

For Rose...

After about 15 minutes into our ferry ride to Ft Sumter, a 7-ish year old boy to my right commented, "I just wish I could see a shark". Cool kid.
Alas, no sharks.
But.... I saw dolphins and pelicans for the first time! Yaaay!

Making History

Now You Know.

The Goods

I have devised a plan of attack for using up each week's meal plan.

I had so many possibilities for the weekend, I actually had to make decisions.

This weekend is Fall Break and my parents are coming to visit.

I now have at least one friend in each class to whom I can make snide comments or simply chat in the [rare] event that I am early.

It may be 90 degrees out, but there is a breeze.

I have my sanity back because the horrible whining, whistling sound from our AC is gone. I have turned off my music and opened my door, basking in the soft, whirring sound of the air rushing through the vent, as it should.

One word: Josh.

Cultural Experience of the Week

Taking an hour to drive 2 miles from campus to the stadium.

Mallory and her mom and dad rode with us.

It turned out that our long ride in the car saved us from getting drenched in a huge downpour that lasted about the 45 minutes we were trying to find a parking spot. The rain let up about two blocks after we got out of our car. Perfect! Especially since you aren't allowed to take umbrellas into the stadium.

The three of us sat in the student section. At halftime Mallory joined her parents on the other side of the stadium.

The noise in this place is deafening! Josh and I are a little hoarse today. And a little sore from standing on bleachers for 4 hours.
See that little section on the left that's sort of bluish? That was the unfortunate section of Kentucky fans.Those flags mean touchdown!
Final score. We won.
Long line of traffic heading home at midnight after a super fun game.

Fall is in the Air

At least it is this morning. After an evening caramel apple cider at Starbucks, I slept without air conditioning. This morning, on coming downstairs, I put on a sweatshirt (allbeit a short sleeved one). Oh yeah! And yesterday I wore a scarf to church, and saw a few leaves fall.
I hope it's on its way.

In other news... Josh and I have been wandering around town armed with cameras. He has fun photography projects so I have been tagging along. We decided to have our own little photo shoot for anyone who might miss us. And because it's fun.