Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Just passed the classical test. I got 17.25 out of 30. The average was 17 though so I should get scaled up a bit. Today in class we all got the giggles trying to translate seemingly nonsensical ancient passages about vassals presenting gifts of jade to ministers etc. Ben and I are on the right track, tonight Leah, him and I are watchinga movie at Manning then studying at my house for the classical test together. I saw his combi yesterday, Leah made cheeky remarks about how there was room for exactly two people to sleep in the back. I got a free pizza today for picking up all the pizzas for the Architecture Society pizza day (I saw Phuong on the street who is the president) so I can safely say having a car has it's perks. I've become a bit better at the clutch, me and the friction point are becoming fast friends and soon I will be able to consider myself extra cool for driving manual.
Back to the Beijing thriller:
Not only had Sam displayed a sudden shift in his feelings towards her but he had also begun to act very strange. He seemed to be following her wherever she went around the hostel and she was practically never out if his sight. This is the point at which for her, reality split into two...
Speaking of which, it is speed that contributes to my brand of madness which leaves pot in the clear. So the other night I was very pleased to share a giant spliff with my housemate Marcus out the back door. Then I came back into my room, and got stuck into the myriad readings I haven't been doing for weeks. China in the 1960's totally came alive for me and I started thinking very deeply about other things, like my visit to the community health centre that day, where they asked me questions designed to gauge whether I was mad or not. Smart people. One of them was "if you were unwell again, and your Mum told you so, would you believe her?" and I answered truthfully, which was my mind would no doubt find a reason not to believe her. That's the nature of madness. In fact it was only then that it really hit home waht happened - how serious it was, how lucky I was that it wasn't worse, how if I was like one third of the people who suffer a psychosis, it would come back as soon as medication stopped and be officially diagnosed as schizophrenia. Another third will suffer another psychosis once or twice in their lives, the last third never will. Now we will see if I fit into this third.
Anyway reading about communal life was like watching an episode of the Smurfs. There happened to be two or three great readings which really detailed what life was like. It made me realise how bloody boring Australia is. We've never suffered any extreme social experiments or major upheavals and not that it's a bad thing but frankly it's just plain boring. This is why I can't wait to write that essay on how good or bad Mao was. It might give me a chance to talk about how amazing a period in history it was.
OK gotta go doll myself up for my oncoming flirtations with Ben.
Ciao! ¶ 15:32
Back to the Beijing thriller:
Not only had Sam displayed a sudden shift in his feelings towards her but he had also begun to act very strange. He seemed to be following her wherever she went around the hostel and she was practically never out if his sight. This is the point at which for her, reality split into two...
Speaking of which, it is speed that contributes to my brand of madness which leaves pot in the clear. So the other night I was very pleased to share a giant spliff with my housemate Marcus out the back door. Then I came back into my room, and got stuck into the myriad readings I haven't been doing for weeks. China in the 1960's totally came alive for me and I started thinking very deeply about other things, like my visit to the community health centre that day, where they asked me questions designed to gauge whether I was mad or not. Smart people. One of them was "if you were unwell again, and your Mum told you so, would you believe her?" and I answered truthfully, which was my mind would no doubt find a reason not to believe her. That's the nature of madness. In fact it was only then that it really hit home waht happened - how serious it was, how lucky I was that it wasn't worse, how if I was like one third of the people who suffer a psychosis, it would come back as soon as medication stopped and be officially diagnosed as schizophrenia. Another third will suffer another psychosis once or twice in their lives, the last third never will. Now we will see if I fit into this third.
Anyway reading about communal life was like watching an episode of the Smurfs. There happened to be two or three great readings which really detailed what life was like. It made me realise how bloody boring Australia is. We've never suffered any extreme social experiments or major upheavals and not that it's a bad thing but frankly it's just plain boring. This is why I can't wait to write that essay on how good or bad Mao was. It might give me a chance to talk about how amazing a period in history it was.
OK gotta go doll myself up for my oncoming flirtations with Ben.
Ciao! ¶ 15:32
