the fuck-up fairy
Kylie Minogue - Nu-Di-Ty-- Billy Joel
Several qbee pages under construction...
Firstly, let me express my frustration (read: rant) over those on despair.nu who do not comment. Do they not realise how bloody annoying that is!? Seriously. I joined the site not only to gain traffic and receive comments on my blog entries and the site in general, but also to discover new sites online, and make friends with other webmasters and webmistresses. Last time I checked, those are the exact reasons why despair.nu exists in the first place.
So why is it that I sign in to read and comment on everyone's blogs, and find that out of the three every two days who are supposed to comment, I get one - perhaps two, if I'm lucky?
I appreciate that not everyone has the time every day to visit my site and comment on it - after all, the blogs we own are but niches in our busy lifestyles for the majority of us - but come on.
ANYhoo, life's busy, life's stressful, as usual. My friend Adam recently had a test for hiv, which needless to say had me and our other friend, Michelle, worried sick when he told us when we met up for dinner last Monday. Fortunately, he tested negative and got the results of the tests on Wednesday. It was a huge relief for the both of us, and for his current partner, Stephen. He has been taking the precaution of getting numerous vaccines against other venereal infections as well, because he also managed to catch gonorrhoea from another partner. I think you can imagine I was pretty disappointed in him for not taking more responsibility in the bedroom, and gave him the mutha of all pep talks. He's promised me that he won't be so reckless in future, and he has been more committed and serious about who he sleeps with (the multiple partners were beginning to get upset at not being "the one and only" and this was causing all sorts of other drama as well.) I hope he sticks to that promise - I know that I can't order him how to live his life, but I can certainly tell him when I believe that he's fucking up. I can safely say he wouldn't want to be on my bad side if he does something this irresponsible again. *brandishes rolling-pin*
I got my first rejection from the university of bristol, but I can't say I was surprised. That university is infamous for rejecting people by the truckload and I wasn't really intending to take up the offer there, even if I'd received one. I, however, did get an invitation for an interview at university college london, my joint top choice with nottingham (and I've gotten in there!) which I attended on Monday. As well as being interviewed by a member of the French department for twenty minutes, Dr. Gilbert (who was very kind and helpful, and was sympathetic when I admitted to feeling nervous!) I was also given a tour of the "campus" and a departmental talk on what studying BA French at ucl would involve. By the way, I used inverted commas there for the word campus as ucl is spread out over a wide expanse of London's bloomsbury area, and doesn't really have a typical campus layout. The Student Union was in a seperate building around the corner from the Languages Department, and there was a theatre with a gymnasium and other facilities on the same street. It was very impressive, even though it wasn't like the other universities I had seen or read about.
My interview, however, was bloody awful.
I can say with a great degree of conviction that I totally fucked it up. I was extremely apprehensive and hesitant throughout the entire affair, and when the couple of minutes of French discussion began I hardly knew what I was saying. There weren't any moments where I drew a complete blank, but at the same time, there was quite a lot of "uhm"-ing and "ahh"-ing, which can't have looked too impressive by any stretch of the imagination. She asked me what interested me about French at first, to which I told her about my favourite aspects of France (eighteenth-century arts and culture, and the discussion of pressing current issues - especially those involving the minorities in France, which I explained as being because I wished to work in a job that would involve helping such people have a voice, and a more recognised input in society.) We talked about those things for quite some time, and a lot of what she told me was pretty new to me - but I found it very interesting. Unfortunately, I managed to arse this up when she asked me if I knew of the dreyfus affair and I had to admit with resignation that I didn't know very much at all. If I was her, that would have disappointed me. I certainly felt that way.Then she asked me in French about my interest in the theatre, and I told her my favourite west end shows. She then asked me to describe the plot and characters of wicked - in French! I had virtually no idea how to respond to that, but I did my best. She said my French was "quite good" and that I was "articulate" both in French and English, and seemed happy to hear that I was interested in doing a lot of reading, as the course at ucl is largely literature-based, especially in the first year. However, I think she was only being polite, as I felt very stupid by the end of the interview. I hope I gave off a better impression than I feel as though I did, and that they'll let me in - but it seems somewhat farfetched right now that I would. I'm up against around eighty other people, competing for a course with only around fifteen places. The odds certainly appear to be stacked against me.
If I don't get in, I won't be that shocked - but certainly, I'll be very, very upset. It was a very impressive university, and I felt quite happy and comfortable imagining myself as a student there. I can only hope against all hope that they will forgive my nerves and hesitancy and give me a chance... wish me luck, guys. Quite honestly, I doubt they'll have me.
Oh, and I have a ton of work to do and am beginning to get a touch of rsi from all the typing - yes, I know, how pathetic! - so I'd best be going.
| Update by Sarah @ 18:14, Wed. February 27 2008 |
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