Saturday, February 04, 2006
I did my laundry, finished Greek homework, and attended the work meeting. Last night I received April's Christmas package, which contained, among other things, a box of cereal, some ravioli, and three microwaveable bowls of soup. She also sent a book about Roman life, of which I had heard but not yet perused.
Oddly, I find myself this year invited to two Superbowl parties- one with Rebekah and the other hosted by Daniel, a manager (newly this semester) of some level between my shift supervisors and Ali, the main manager guy. I opted to accept hospitality with Daniel, since Jenni offered to take me, and there will be little to no boozing. If I went to Rebekah's fete, I would only sit around whilst everyone else had fun. Plus, I never do anything with Jenni, and Daniel is pleasant enough and seems to think highly of me (he's only known me two or three weeks, though; it will pass).
Last night I took Kimmy (she drove) to the bi-weekly Stammtisch, though we did not remain long and spoke no German. Afterward we picked up her loverboy, named "Ramzi", from the airport. He appeared more reserved than she, but then, he was probably tired from the flight as well. Seine Namen errinert mir an "Rambo", hee-hee.
One of the basketball players was talking to some girl in line as they checked out this evening. The girl was saying something about how she couldn't afford this or that, and the guy responded with, "Oh- well, don't you have academic scholarships?" His ride through college being free, he apparently assumes everyone else receives funding somehow, too. The girl didn't say anything, she just gave an embarassed shrug.
No program at Tech receives the kind of support the football and basketball teams do. Tech concerns itself only with recruiting as many people as it can and slolloming them through meager academic programs in exactly four years (five for architecture majors). The system thoroughly nauseates me. I only remain because I committed myself to the programs here; I am tired of moving around; and I spend less of the money I do not have, there being nothing to spend it on. The atmosphere and the student attitudes do not correspond at all with what I had envisioned my college experience to be. The lady who taught my swimming class last semester told me I would be much better suited for an east coast school, and I would agree.
I stay because I would be just as miserable anywhere else at this point, since I must work as much as is humanly possible around school hours. Having discovered that I am not at all acclimated to "work" as such, I merely want to graduate, fly into a fellowship-funded graduate program, and hope then that I might actually learn something, and read my little books and build my little models of the Parthenon or the Pantheon, and write my little essays in little scholarly publications. That's all I want- with a multi-million dollar house to shuffle around in.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 11:33 AM]