(no subject)
Well well...I'm amazed and flattered that my options have generated such interest! Thank you all so much for your help, I was going to reply to each comment individually but now there are millions of them so I'll just do it on here!
Hmmm...I'm much further on than I was yesterday, mostly because I was being completely dense about the regulations and it took the Mighty Mind of David to bring me enlightenment..for some reason I'd got it into my head that the first philosophy paper I did had to be ancient, and thus thought that if I wanted to do Descartes to Kant it would take up 2 papers...and now I'm angsting over whether I actually want to do the Republic at all. Because I'm not mad keen on the Plato I've done (at least I wasn't until it suddenly seemed to click shortly before Mods, which was entirely down to Ben Morison), nor am I mad keen on the guy at Merton who would teach me Plato, plus the History paper would probably be quite a good general one if I'm only doing one philosophy option...I think?
I definitely agree about text vs topic philosophy options as well, not least because my brother got all excited when I told him I could do Philosophy of Mind and started throwing books at me, and after a quick look at one I had to go and lie down for a few minutes. Which suggests I'm possibly not cut out for it.
I've also dug out my A-level Seneca as well and reminded myself quite how annoying he actually was, and rid myself of any random urges to do Neronian literature. And the only reason I thought about Ovid was because it randomly seemed like I wasn't doing much Latin, but actually the Lyric Poetry paper has plenty of Horace, who's better anyway...I don't particularly mind that the archaeology paper covers a massive period because I have absolutely no knowledge of it so a general overview would be good, and I'd definitely go for Greek over Roman if it was one or the other.
So...if I got rid of the Republic, I'd be able to do the stuff I was always sure about (Greek Core, Latin Core, Tragedy, RH6) AND Lyric Poetry AND History of Philosophy AND the sex paper AND pretty (Greek) pictures! That's 4 literature, 2 history, 1 philosophy and 1 archaeology, 5 of which are text based. Or I could abandon either sex or archaeology in favour of the Republic. (God, that last sentence would sound weird out of context.)
Either way, that's enough to placate my tutors with for the time being. Thanks again! I owe you all lots of drinks...
My eagerly-anticipated foray into town today was a bit anticlimactic. I timed it badly so that I ended up getting in just as everyone from my old school was heading down on their lunch break, and when I spotted herds of carefully-rumpled dark suits I had a kind of Pavlovian panic attack. I've never seen another group quite like the Millfield sixth form 'cool kids', and they scare the hell out of me, especially the girls. They're the same every year and the current crop is two years younger than me, but that doesn't help. Blonde, model-thin, posh, perma-tanned from various ski/sun excursions, arms linked, laughing and flirting into tiny mobile phones or plugged into iPods, and always wafting that glamorous aroma of Chanel and Marlboro Lights behind them...I spent years in awe of them, knowing they were superficial trust-funded rehab stays waiting to happen but not being able to help it. And when I saw a few of them heading my way today, I stood my ground for a few minutes furiously thinking thoughts like 'I am almost 20, I can drink and smoke legally and stay up as late as I want without getting told off by a prefect, I am at university - Oxford! - I have car keys in my hand, I have friends and a boyfriend and a future and you can't touch me' until years of conditioning kicked in and I cringed away in a flobber of insecurity and hid in Boots until they all went away. Then I went home and miserably ate things.
This may or may not have had something to do with the other odd thing that happened today - on my own in the middle of the afternoon, I had a sudden and powerful urge to get drunk. This has never happened before and worried me slightly. But luckily I remembered I had to go and pick my mother up from work in a few hours, so I pulled myself together and cleaned the bathroom instead. I figure when I start wanting to drink at 10am I'll get worried.
I mentioned to my father when he came home that I was missing Oxford and he got really offended, so probably best not to labour that point. I will be going to see Steve next week then probably straight to Oxford (in preparation for Mega European Vacation of Joy with rhymeoverreason) on Wednesday or Thursday and at some point during this time, my sanity may return. Until then I'm going to sulk about the fact that I'm in Somerset. Grrr.
Hmmm...I'm much further on than I was yesterday, mostly because I was being completely dense about the regulations and it took the Mighty Mind of David to bring me enlightenment..for some reason I'd got it into my head that the first philosophy paper I did had to be ancient, and thus thought that if I wanted to do Descartes to Kant it would take up 2 papers...and now I'm angsting over whether I actually want to do the Republic at all. Because I'm not mad keen on the Plato I've done (at least I wasn't until it suddenly seemed to click shortly before Mods, which was entirely down to Ben Morison), nor am I mad keen on the guy at Merton who would teach me Plato, plus the History paper would probably be quite a good general one if I'm only doing one philosophy option...I think?
I definitely agree about text vs topic philosophy options as well, not least because my brother got all excited when I told him I could do Philosophy of Mind and started throwing books at me, and after a quick look at one I had to go and lie down for a few minutes. Which suggests I'm possibly not cut out for it.
I've also dug out my A-level Seneca as well and reminded myself quite how annoying he actually was, and rid myself of any random urges to do Neronian literature. And the only reason I thought about Ovid was because it randomly seemed like I wasn't doing much Latin, but actually the Lyric Poetry paper has plenty of Horace, who's better anyway...I don't particularly mind that the archaeology paper covers a massive period because I have absolutely no knowledge of it so a general overview would be good, and I'd definitely go for Greek over Roman if it was one or the other.
So...if I got rid of the Republic, I'd be able to do the stuff I was always sure about (Greek Core, Latin Core, Tragedy, RH6) AND Lyric Poetry AND History of Philosophy AND the sex paper AND pretty (Greek) pictures! That's 4 literature, 2 history, 1 philosophy and 1 archaeology, 5 of which are text based. Or I could abandon either sex or archaeology in favour of the Republic. (God, that last sentence would sound weird out of context.)
Either way, that's enough to placate my tutors with for the time being. Thanks again! I owe you all lots of drinks...
My eagerly-anticipated foray into town today was a bit anticlimactic. I timed it badly so that I ended up getting in just as everyone from my old school was heading down on their lunch break, and when I spotted herds of carefully-rumpled dark suits I had a kind of Pavlovian panic attack. I've never seen another group quite like the Millfield sixth form 'cool kids', and they scare the hell out of me, especially the girls. They're the same every year and the current crop is two years younger than me, but that doesn't help. Blonde, model-thin, posh, perma-tanned from various ski/sun excursions, arms linked, laughing and flirting into tiny mobile phones or plugged into iPods, and always wafting that glamorous aroma of Chanel and Marlboro Lights behind them...I spent years in awe of them, knowing they were superficial trust-funded rehab stays waiting to happen but not being able to help it. And when I saw a few of them heading my way today, I stood my ground for a few minutes furiously thinking thoughts like 'I am almost 20, I can drink and smoke legally and stay up as late as I want without getting told off by a prefect, I am at university - Oxford! - I have car keys in my hand, I have friends and a boyfriend and a future and you can't touch me' until years of conditioning kicked in and I cringed away in a flobber of insecurity and hid in Boots until they all went away. Then I went home and miserably ate things.
This may or may not have had something to do with the other odd thing that happened today - on my own in the middle of the afternoon, I had a sudden and powerful urge to get drunk. This has never happened before and worried me slightly. But luckily I remembered I had to go and pick my mother up from work in a few hours, so I pulled myself together and cleaned the bathroom instead. I figure when I start wanting to drink at 10am I'll get worried.
I mentioned to my father when he came home that I was missing Oxford and he got really offended, so probably best not to labour that point. I will be going to see Steve next week then probably straight to Oxford (in preparation for Mega European Vacation of Joy with rhymeoverreason) on Wednesday or Thursday and at some point during this time, my sanity may return. Until then I'm going to sulk about the fact that I'm in Somerset. Grrr.