Societies Follow-Up

Last Thursday, as mentioned, was a Deviant Society social at the Red Pub on campus, so I headed over there hoping to meet folks into similar musical digs. Immediately, someone takes note of my Celtic Frost hoodie and welcomes me over. I chatted with a few people over the course of the night. I'd say I was half-comfortable/half-not...some awkward personalities here and there, but really my fundamental discomfort is this: I don't feel the need to distance myself from others with even the loosest of labels. I don't wish to be labeled "deviant" just because I enjoy some heavier music; similarly, once I thought it through, I didn't want to be called "straightedge" when I didn't do drugs or drink in high school. I also do not consider myself a "dark" person in any sense despite some of the darker influences inherent in some of my musical interests. So yeah, there's that. Let's see how many further Deviant events I attend. Groucho Marx (and eventually, Woody Allen) once said "I'd never want to be part of club that wanted me as a member." Maybe that quote is applicable here.

Tonight was my first Wing Chun lesson. There were about 15 people total, including Rob (the main instructor), Ray (the society head and student instructor) and Dan (the other student instructor-- I think that was his name). We train from 7-9 every Monday. Today we learned the basic stance (which in and of itself is an exercise in muscle endurance-- makes your legs burn), the first part of the first form (a series of basic motions chained together like a kata would be in karate, somewhat), three different basic countering (bong sao, tan sao and fook sao), basic punching and kicking, and a series of counters for a wrist grab. There were also plenty of fitness exercises integrated-- we did ten sets of alternating five punches and five push-ups (they call them "press-ups" here), a painfully long plank, and sit-ups where we did ten punches every time we went up.

Ultimately, I'm beat and this will make for great learning and great exercise! I just need to get all squared away with the gym via an induction session so I can go at least two other times a week and, between that and Wing Chun, keep myself fit this semester. As I was leaving, Dan commended me on doing a great job. I thanked him for his patience...I hard time with a few elements of a particular exercise. Still, fantastic to be commended on my first martial arts class in nearly a decade!

I am so very excited to be returning to martial arts in any form (no pun intended). Some of the best days of my youth were spent sweating away in Sifu Rick Demile's martial arts academy-- and my learning there began at his garage on Madison Avenue, with no mats for the first few months, punching water-filled boat buoys. Years later, between weak cardio endurance from a pubescent growth spurt and looming Bar Mitzvah studies, I quit at the age of twelve. I always regretted it-- especially as childhood friends later ascended to black belt and assistant instructor positions-- and as a result, I've yearned to go back for the past few years, now and again. Buying a lot of old kung-fu films this summer only bolstered my desire. Now that desire is fulfilled. Awesome.

Contrary to Popular Belief, My Cell Phone is NOT a Sex Line

My flatmate Adam approached me at dinner tonight and asked what network I was using for my UK cell phone.

"Orange," I said, "Why?"
"Well, whenever I call you, there's this woman's voice as it rings and she says something about you being busy."
"What?'
"Here, I'll call you and show you what I mean."

And sure enough, over the dial tone, some sexy female voice goes "the person you're trying to reach is busy right now, but he'll call you back later. You see, he's a busy boy. A busy, busy boy!"

If only it were true.

To Bex, if you're reading this

Nicked from Martha C's recent Facebook album:

New Year's Eve.

I think this is the best and funniest picture of us both since that timeless 8th-grade-camping-trip-one. This picture reminded me of all the great laughs we crammed in to what was an unfortunately small winter break. Miss you, buddy.

Books on the Reading Docket

Currently reading: Michael Moorcock's The Chronicles of Corum, a compilation of the second Prince Corum trilogy-- The Bull and the Spear, The Oak and the Ram, and The Sword and the Stallion. On the third book already and loving it. A lot of Celtic/Cornish folkore in the influence, evidently.

In the queue:
Michael Moorcock, The History of the Runestaff. A British compilation of another series of one of Moorcock's characters, Dorian Hawkmoon. Star Wars meets King Arthur. Badass.

Michael Moorcock, The Cornelius Chronicles. Moorcock's cyberpunk, androgenous secret agent/master-of-all-trades Jerry Cornelius.

Robert L. Howard, The Conquering Sword of Conan. The final compilation of all of Howard's work before he committed suicide at a young age. I'm a big fan of his stuff and it's quite interesting to read pre-Tolkien fantasy.

Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The title short story is one of the most amazing, heartbreaking things I've ever read. Can't wait to read more of him.

Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning. This one sounds fantastic and profound, to say the least.

Mickey Spillane, One Lonely Night. "Sure I write garbage," Spillane once said, "but it's good garbage." Tough-guy detective fiction. I'd say it's a guilty pleasure, but I don't feel too guilty reading Mike Hammer novels.

Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing. Perhaps my favorite author, giving guidance on the craft. Can't wait.

EDIT: Forgot to mention John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Knights. One of the most popular modern translations of Malory's work. Years ago my Dad tried to get me to read this and brushed him off and now I truly regret it. First, because I loved reading Of Mice and Men and Grapes of Wrath in high school; second, because I loved Arthurian tales as a kid and recently rekindled my this love when I read Morte Darthur for a lit class this fall. Also quite excited for this one.

My possible return to the martial arts, and an early English success

Yesterday was the SocMart-- basically a club rush, but here clubs are called societies. I signed up for the mailing list for two societies.

The Wing Chun society holds a once-a-week martial arts class. The Wing Chun form is the same sort of self-defense techniques I initally learned when I was very young and studying under Sifu Rick DeMile before his curriculum focused more on combined elements. The classes are a pound each session, with a two-pound starting fee. The only catch is that I already have two classes that day, and the martial arts class is another two hours, so...we'll see. Obviously it also involves a lot of independent practice that I'll have to make time for along with the independent research for classes that British teachers are so hep on emphasizing.

The unfortunately-named Deviant Society is an alternative music collective. This seems somewhat hit-or-miss in regards to specific music I like, but they have socials at the on-campus Red Pub every Thursday night at 8-- so I'm headed there in a bit to see what's up. They also book and host gigs in town.

Today my sole class was a 4-6 Creative Writing: Prose Fiction seminar. It went quite well; a fellow Goucher English major, Mike, was in my class. At one point we all had to write for 15 minutes on our first day of school. I immediately wrote about my arrival to UEA rather than the subject instructed, realized it, and furrowed my brow a bit but kept going. After we all finished writing, we read the pieces aloud and recieved brief but straightforward verbal feedback from the the teacher. When it came time for mine, he commented that the ending was a case of telling more than showing, but otherwise the rest was "very concrete writing." Good to hear-- sometime my verbosity gets the best of me.

On an unrelated note, I watched this last night.


If you're one for samurai/kung-fu cinema, gore, or basically wonder what Road to Perdition (based on this film/comic series) would be like if it took place in feudal Japan, this one is for you. It also has four or five sequels.

Classes so far

Monday: TV History lecture/screening, an hour break, and then a small seminar discussion. The lecture outlined the course and we were shown an installment of the British 60s TV program Seven Up, which chronicled the lives of a select sample of children every seven years. Interesting stuff.

Today: Movie screening for Film History course. Given that it's titled "Film History: 1930- Present," I was hoping we'd be covering noir film or, say, Casablanca in short order, but instead we watched Scream. Yes, this Scream.


I'm not a horror film buff, though I do enjoy the genre for most part. It was quite entertaining and very 90s. Guess I'll learn about its relevance to the course tomorrow during the lecture portion of the class.

Class Schedule.

Monday
1-3 PM: TV History lecture

4-5 PM: TV History seminar

Tuesday
2-5 PM: Film History screening

Wednesday
10-11 AM: Film History

Thursday
4-6 PM: Creative Writing- Prose Fiction

Friday
3-4 PM: Film History

Hopefully not a prediction of the future

If for no other reason than not forgetting, I just want to note a pretty funny dream I had the other night-- or at least, funny to me.

Somehow, Bridget and myself were back in Gordon Stenerson's math class-- just the two of us-- and had gotten our recent test results returned. For some reason, I had gotten a B-minus and was bummed out at the fact (which is unrealistic-- I got C's in math during most of highschool, and would've jumped for joy if I'd gotten a B-minus). I felt myself frown and looked at Bridge.

"How'd you do?"

She looked at me really skeptically. "Really, really well."

"Well, shit."

Ups and Downs

+ Got a solid cell phone with pay-as-you-go plan
+ Got classes registered
-I have five days of class a week, while my friends average 2 or 3 days
+Most classes aren't very long
-Need to find source of good, organic food and stop scrimping and subsequently buying bad food
-It's below freezing outside
+I haven't gone outside my dorm hall today

Of the many things I miss while away from home...

I miss this.

New Day Rising.

Today made everything feel a whole lot better. Got up at 9, went to orientation at 10:30ish and met two girls, Casey and Kristy, who know a friend of mine at Dickinson where they go to school. Sat with them for the following lecture, then had lunch and met Jonah and Ian, who both hail from the Bay Area. After a good 36 hours of relative social isolation-- no friends, no cell phone, no communication-- this was all refreshing, to say the least.

Did more grocery shopping in town with the newfound friends, then headed back to the somewhat off-campus area called the Village where Casey, Kristy, Jonah and the girls' friend Anekit live in flats. We made ourselves dinner from the various groceries previously bought and laughed a lot, then headed to the campus pub. Had a little to drink, and confirmed for the umpteenth my dislike for all beer that's not Lambic Framboise (thanks, Bolesta).

After the pub closed down, we all headed into town once more to the Mercy nightclub, a truly refined and flashy joint. Dancing was not my scene, nor was it Anekit's, so we walked around the mostly-empty streets and talked. Good times, really.

I need to sleep so I can meet Jonah and buy a phone tomorrow. Love to all.

Arrival

Got in last night at 7 PM here. It was and is really cold.

The flight Sea-Tac to Cinncinati was fine, as was the flight from Seattle to London, but afterward the busride from London-Gatwick airport to University of East Anglia lasted some sevenish hours. I hadn't eaten since the brief breakfast on the plane because 1) I'm an idiot and 2) I would've had to wheel all my baggage around the airport to find food.

I couldn't and still can't make any expensive international cellphone calls because my cellphone doesn't even get reception. Going to have to find a way to get a plan or new phone or both for such things. I'm also writing this from a library computer because I won't have access to internet from my computer/dorm till Monday or so-- I have to wait to register and get my campus card and other stuff.

Anyway, while on the bus, I befriended a first-year named Jonathan, who hails from Cyprus and was also onboard. He was nice enough to help me with hauling my luggage. There's construction going on on the main roads of campus, so we had to be dropped off the main drive to campus. We then walked some 15-20 minutes to the on-campus hotel thingy, Broadview Lodge, so I could spend the night there-- I called UEA from the airport and they told me I had to find accomodations there as my room wouldn't be accessible yet. But somehow someone in the Accommodations office had forwarded my key to the Lodge's front desk. Even better, the woman working there phoned security and I got a ride to my dorm hall, preventing another tendinitis-inducing luggage haul.

My room is pretty darned huge, which is nice (pictures to come). They provided a set of sheets, which aren't the most cozy but are quite warm. My bed is like a shortened queensize. The showers & toilet are just down the stairs. The shower is like a damned coffin; I can't even stand up straight.

I woke up jet-lagged at 5-something (the only way I can tell is by looking at my computer clock). Then I went back to sleep an hour later, and woke up at 12:50. I just spent £36.50 on food at the campus supermarket and I hope it lasts. Orientation is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll feel a little more secure about things then. For now, I feel very insecure and unsure of things... there's not really anyone I know and I've only now just contacted the outside world, save for a brief call home from an aiport landline.

Thanks and love to any and all who read.