Je detest le français!!!!!

So my goal was to have three french novels read by sunday and then write my two french papers (8 pages each) on sunday. the topics aren't that hard but i need to have thesenovels read in order to write the essays! it is now sunday afternoon, 12:36pm, and i'm done one novel, the english translation of Candide, and am about half way done the other two. i'm looking at a good 7 hours before i'm done them both and probably about 12 hours on each of the essays. the just isn't any time to get this done! ARRGH!
I like learning languages, but they're so hard!
I went to Calgary last thursday for my JET (Japan Exhange and Teaching) Program interview. it was at 10:20 in the morning on friday so i drove down on thursday with my friend Jarret, who came along to keepme company and awake on the drive down there, and stayed at my uncle's house that thursday night.
The interveiw was a bit nerve wracking, and the more i go over it in my head the more i'm convinced that it was a bad interview. I'm sure i did fine, i got along well with the interviewers and i answered all their questions but i didn't know a lot about japanese culture and things of that nature so i don't think i answered those questions properly. anyways i need to stop over analyzing things otherwise i just tend to get myself depressed. as can be witnessed by the previous post. (note on that post: it was a combination of not acomplishing my goals for reading week, being lazy all week and the poor interview, amoung other things, that lead me to write that. i was just expressing my dissapointment in myself)
anyways, its sunday afternoon and i have a lot of crappy french novels to get through so i'll end this here.
Rob.

The Neuroses of Rob

I’m not the kind of person I think I am. My self-image is very skewed from the reality of who I am. This is something I have recently come to realize (well I’ve known deep down all along, but recently it’s slapped me in the face a couple of times this reading week) and I don’t know how to change.
This is how I see myself: Fun and outgoing, a person who always has the right answer for everything and always knows just what to say. People admire him and he is generally liked by most. He is fit and athletic and full of energy all the time. He can handle a tremendous workload with ease and excel at everything he does. He is handsome and popular and brimming with self-confidence.
This is who I really am: shy and awkward. A person who trips over his own words, terrified of contradicting himself or feels he has nothing interesting to add to the conversation because he isn’t smart enough. I’m not sure if people even notice him. He’s slightly overweight and tired all the time. He has a hard time concentrating on the task at hand and has no concept of his own limits because he feels if he sets the stage, that guy mentioned above will get it all done.

I’m feeling sorry for myself at the moment, please bear with me.

Rob's New New Room

Rob's New New Room
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

So this is my new room. I've been living in this house for a month now and it's starting to feel more and more like home. For a while there i had that feeling like i was just a guest in Chris and Ariel's house. I mostly felt that way when it came to using the kitchen and sharing the living room. i felt like i had to sacrifice what i wanted to watch to make room for them and for a while it just felt awkward. but slowly i'm beginning to feel more and more at home here.
anyways, so here are some photos of my new room. i'll post some of the whole house when i take some! so this is the "sitting area" of my bedroom. that futon is an excellent place to take a nap. and the shelving unit that is on the wall and all of my DVD's are out on display. just don't look at them too closely, you'll discover how big of a geek i truly am.

Rob's New New Room 2

Rob's New New Room 2
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

Next is my desk space. As you can see it gets cluttered up really fast with books and binders.

Rob's New New Room 3

Rob's New New Room 3
Originally uploaded by Rob Rutherford.

And this is the last one, its a not very good shot, but it shows the brown colour that is in the closet and the curtains that my mother bought for me to have as closet doors.

Reading Week!

Le sigh.
that was a sigh of relief, in case you thought that this entry was going to be talking all about how hard and difficult my life is. Cause thats all over now! Reading week is here and my homework worries are far, far away!

as of late my life has been dominated by school work, essays, projects, novels (in french!), and the crappiest midterm i have ever written! two weeks ago was probably the most coursework intensive week of my life, and i think that i could have handled it better had i budgeted my time a bit more.

i had:
2 french quizes (on three novels we had to read)
2 assignments that i had to hand it
1 paper that was due
and a bakesale to prepare for.

yah it was hard, but it's all over now.
last night was the first time, that i can remember, i had the opportunity to just veg out on the couch and hang with my roommates. for a while there i was afraid that they'd start thinking that i was avoiding them because i was spending so much time in my room. but i was there because of homework, busy typing away on my computer tryig to get all the coursework that i could, done.

so last night, i got home and watched this documentary about this one family in the states (the bible-belt) that has 14 children and are expecting their 15th! it was crazy! but a good way to sober up, i had been drinking at RATT prior to returning home because i wanted to celebrate being done midterms and celebrate reading week. then Ariel and I made some hummous, the i just watched some of the olympics coverage and then sat in the living room watching a movie that i downloaded onto my computer. Cheaper by the dozen 2. yah, i'm lame, but i liked it.

It's Cultural Night tonight! (for those of you who don't know, i'm MC'ing for Cultural Night, which is a show of cultural bands and dances to raise money for the IC's International Student Emergency Bursuary) so i'm kind of nervous about that. i'm not a good public speaker, so hopefully i wont make a complete ass of myself. luckily Franny, my co-host, will be there to pick up the slack if i start to freak out.

This weekend i'm going home for sunday dinner, and i'm looking forward to it as i haven't hung out with the family in quite some time. Though Will did stop by my place on thursday to pick up his money and we hung out for a little while, though i found it a bit awkward. i don't know why but he and i have become a bit estranged, in that we are almost like complete strangers to each other and find it hard to make comfortable conversation. its not the case for anyone else in my family, just him. i'll have to try and think of ways to change that, because i'm not liking it.

anyways, thats all i am going to write for the time being. Next friday is my JET interview, so i have to start preparing for that soon. wish me luck!
Rob.

Happy, Happy, and very busy

I've been neglectful to update this on a regular basis, and even though my life is no longer as boring as it was i still can't seem to find the time to update this thing.
mid january, about 2 weeks ago i decided to move out of my new place. Thats right, I was only living in that new room for one week before i decided to move out. What made the decision for me was the roommates. they were all pretty cool, but there was no sense of community in that house (for those of you who are wondering, the picutres located below this post is of the place i am currently talking about). They all kept to themselves. I mean, i was living there for 3 full days before i even met them all!
My friend Chris had an open room in the house he rents and he asked me if i'd like to move in with him. It was all kind of random, in that if i hadn't decided to return a coursepack that i borrowed from him that friday previous, i would have never gone over to his house to return it and decided that his place would be a way cooler place than the one i was currently living in.
So the following weekend some friends came over to help me paint the new room (it was a gross green, but is now a tannish yellow with a brown closet, i'll post some photos later). I've been here for 2 weeks now and am totally loving it. It is almost similar to the living situation i had in Lancaster, which is one that i totally loved and really miss.
So i've just been adjusting to my new surroundings, and trying to get caught up on all the homework that needs to get done. this upcomming week is probably going to be one of my busiest of the semester. I have two french quizes on monday and tuesday, an annotated bibliography due wednesday as well as the transcription of an interview that i did for my social research methods class, and a break on thursday but a french presentation and a report due on the friday as well as a bake sale that HuGSS is hosting then too! honestly i have no idea how i am going to survive!

oh and for all the UK folks who actually read this, i'm going to try and write you all a nice long e-mail, basically rehashing what i've just said here, but in a more personal note, as i don't think too many of you actually read this. because no one ever comments on it. so i have no idea.
okay, time to get cracking!