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March 16, 2005
Exhausted
I'm really tired, and it's from more than just getting up every morning at 7:00 to get my workout in. We're halfway through the semester here, and everything is starting to get a bit too monotonous. Karl talked about finding something to appreciate every day, and while it's rather easy to do that in a completely foreign country like South Africa, I still go through my daily routine without particularly wanting to do any of it. I have mounds and mounds of reading to do for my HWS courses, and a contrasting lack of work for my combinatorics class. I have lots of little essays to write and mornings to spend running and biking when I'd rather be rowing. Granted, the same feeling of monotony has happened at HWS, but it didn't even cross my mind that I would be bored and slightly unhappy in South Africa.
The main thing is that I can't go anywhere off campus without travelling with someone or paying more money than I have to go by myself. I'm literally fenced in here, spending the majority of my time either in my room, reading or playing solitare on my iPod, or in the library and computer lab, trying to get all of my work done or passing the endless supply of hours I seem to have in front of me. I'm having great, new experiences here that I would never be able to have back in snowy Geneva, but I still find myself wondering why I'm 8000 miles away from anything familiar. I keep wishing that May 29th would get here a little sooner...
Next week we only have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, because Monday is a national holiday and Friday is Good Friday. I don't currently have any plans for Easter on Sunday, but on the Tuesday after Easter, I'm heading east with my group to travel along the Garden Route. Then it's back to the university for April and May, where I'll be taking number theory instead of combinatorics (I still need to figure out how to register for that...) and trying not to forget everything from combinatorics for the exam that isn't until the end of May. Yeah, I don't really know why they decided to do that, either. Two thirds of the class is going to fail anyway, but you take away their fighting chance if you leave a two month gap in between the time they've seen any of the material and the time they're expected to regurgitate it back. The exam is technically scheduled for June, but I'm really hoping that I can arrange a time to take it earlier. Preferably two months earlier.
Posted by rgutwin at March 16, 2005 05:12 AM
Comments
Dear - just remember, wherever you go, there you are. You've had some dramatic times there in South Africa, but there's also some slow times - It's normal. Think of it as an emotional siesta.
Olé
Posted by: Paul Gutwin at March 16, 2005 07:29 AM
Hang in there... Mental duldromes are more of a challenge to get through than physical challenges, I think. Let me know if it gets REAL bad and I'll put Kisi in a box and ship him to you so you can be "caged in" together.
Posted by: mom at March 16, 2005 03:36 PM
my turn to multiple post - but I'm not sure how it happened. I did try to post the first time and it got stuck... so i copied and pasted, refreshed posted again... apparantly it wasn't really stuck. and I just sent this one and it went to "no pg available... i'll try again
Posted by: mom at March 16, 2005 03:46 PM
The doldrums are even around near you somewhere, aren't they? (I mean like in the ocean.) And I suppose this is a learning experience as much as your curriculum and cultural experiences are, so drink it up! Soon you'll be leaving and you'll wonder how the days went so fast. Yup, I bet.
Posted by: Diana at March 16, 2005 06:29 PM
I'm gonna have to agree with Ms. mom there that this page takes a long time to post. I waited it out, but it was about 30 seconds of hourglass. So future commentors to this illustrious post: Patience. Trust in Moveable Type. All is well.
Posted by: Diana at March 16, 2005 06:31 PM
For some reason gutwin.org's web server has been running very slow at certain points. I don't think there's anything we can do about it other than report it if it gets awful, but just sit it out otherwise.
Posted by: Karl at March 16, 2005 06:43 PM