Chester, soulmates, and coursework

Chester

On Saturday I went to Chester with a group that was organized by the Graduate College (kind of like when I went to Whitby in October). We stopped first at a factory outlet shopping center for 2-1/2 hours. I was done shopping after 1 hour. After that, I read for my CDA class -- that lasted about 20 minutes before I was so annoyed I couldn't take it any more -- and then I wandered around the complex for the next hour or so, reciting to myself the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, which I'm working on memorizing.

After that, we went to Chester. A lot of the students did more shopping there, as there are some great stores, and the sales are on big-time right now. I, however, went to the cathedral. I was highly impressed -- I've seen some great churches in my day (including Notre Dame de Paris and the York Minster), but this one blew them away, in my opinion. The outside wasn't that much to look at, although it was unusual, being made of sandstone. But the real kicker was inside -- the decorations were amazing. I kept taking pictures of the floor, because the tiling was so wonderful everywhere. Then there were the choir stalls, which are just always fascinating to me, and misericords. Good stuff. I will be sure to let you know when I've added those pictures to my website, and put some links in here.

I also tried to see the castle in Chester, and the moment I found it, I realized why the guidebook didn't really say anything about it. There has been a castle on the site since around 1070, but it has been so altered and dismantled down through the centuries, that by the time anyone was interested in preserving things like castles, there wasn't much left to preserve there anyway. I did, however, stop by at the Grosvenor Museum, which had a very interesting display about Roman Chester -- there was a Roman fortress at Chester by at least 76 AD, and many people think there was a Roman settlement much earlier, although there's no conclusive evidence of that. They had some interesting stuff in the display, including a Roman-style lock (fascinating!) and an abacus, with an explanation about how to add and subtract in Roman numerals. The main parts of the Roman fortress have left their mark in Chester, as the main streets of the fortress remain the main streets of the city now, and parts of the city wall mark the boundaries of the fortress as well.

Soulmates

Last night, "the girls" got together for dinner. (If you're not aware by now, "the girls" refers to JoAnna, Denise, and Sarah, all of whom are both students at Lancaster and members of the Church, and active ones -- there are other students in the ward, but they don't come to anything.) We had a sort of potluck meal together, and then we sat around doing silly girly games afterward. JoAnna taught us how to find out who our soulmate is (and I'm so planning to do it with lots of you!), and Denise taught us this numerology-type thing to find out if you're compatible with someone. Many of you will be pleased (and probably not surprised) to hear that my soulmate is Edward Fairfax Rochester. And if you don't know who that is, you can't be my friend anymore! :)

I had a great time, though! It was the sort of bonding experience that I really miss these days -- being able to sit around with girls who are not drinking, swearing, speaking a different language, or talking about who they want to shag, and just being silly and having fun together. Good times, good times.

I'm also very excited for FHE tonight. We're going to watch Napoleon Dynamite, with root beer floats, microwave popcorn, and rice crispy treats. Yum!! I'm so pumped for this movie -- I've heard tons about it, and I plan to like it. So I hope I'm not disappointed!

Coursework

I got my first piece of coursework back today, with my mark (read: grade) on it. I got 73%.

Wait, wait! Before you get all sad for me, I have to tell you that in the Social Sciences Faculty, anything above a 70% is a "distincion" mark. So, that means I did really well. REALLY well. So, yay! :) Elena put some really good comments in, and looking through it, I realized how badly I need an editor for things like this -- there were several mistakes, the natural consequence of doing 3 drafts and then revising all of them before turning one in.

So, big sigh of relief on that one! I was starting to get really nervous about it, so it's great to see that I did all right. That grade, of course, is subject to alteration when the external examiners review the work, but I hear that they rarely change the grades, except in unusual circumstances. That grade, though, also means that I'm on track (so far) to get an overall distinction for my degree, which would be really great. I'd also have to get over 70% on my dissertation in the summer, along with high marks on all of my other coursework. So, there's much left to do, but hey! it's still a possibility.

Quote

I've been trying to think of harder ones for y'all, as I keep thinking of the same books and movies. But, for today, I'll have to stick with a fairly easy one again.

"Only during thunderstorms, sir." (10 points)