Today I discovered something terrible about my flat...we have a note-writer. I've never had the misfortune of living with one before, but my luck has changed ladies and gentlemen! All you readers who have roommates (parents don't count on this one since they pay for the house you live in) or have had roommates know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. A note-writer is someone who posts notes about things that need to get accomplished in the apartment/house/flat in hopes that all chores can be divided up evenly with everyone doing their share. Passive-aggression to the max. Dividing up chores is definitely important and keeping the living spaces clean is paramount, however, considering the living situation I'm in, I really don't think it's necessary.
Let's take a look at the evidence:
Click Read More to see the evidence!
This gem showed up in our bathroom a week ago. I am fully aware of the function of a flusher and am an avid user of them in all instances and situations, so I assumed this did not apply to me.
Then, these were discovered in my kitchen this morning:
On the positive side, the note is very well-written, polite and to the point. The chart ensures that everyone has their fair share of garbage to take out. Keeping the kitchen as tidy as possible in between cleanings should be something we all work on. For the most part it's come along pretty well.
On the other hand, we have a cleaning service that comes every Wednesday to clean the common areas and to take out our communal garbage. Sooo I'm thinking that I don't have to. I'm not trying to sound like an ingrate or anything but it already happens once a week so I think the note, schedule, and map of the garbage area are a bit unnecessary.
Also, the food I make is pasta, grilled cheese......and yeah that's it actually I max out at pasta and grilled cheese. (I'm trying to branch out but I can never get any time in the kitchen because my flatmates are always in there making stuff) so there's not too much garbage created from that. My flatmates on the other hand make these fantastic dishes with so many ingredients that our garbage is always full at the end of the day Wednesday. By the way these are our garbages:
The top one is for garbage, middle is for plastic and bottom is for glass. Big enough for kindergartners but not for 7 grown women living in a flat together. I can see where my flatmate was coming from but I don't think her approach was needed. Note writing to flatmates is also one of my biggest pet peeves. I'm not down with non-verbal communication when it comes to people who live together so the whole thing irked me from the start.
I'm trying to figure out which one of them put up the note. I'll let you know of any updates.
Yeah so you can tell I've been waiting all day to vent my frustration to my anonymous readers. Super. On to other things!
I went food shopping today, which is my favorite domestic activity, and I found Tropicana OJ and pineapple juice! I was so excited to see another brand from home :) . The cartons of Tropicana juice were double the price of the generic cartons but it was well worth it (£2.19 as opposed to £1). AND they had Philadelphia cream cheese so I was all over the family size portion (which was about the same size as a regular size portion in the US) and bagels (which are half the size of bagels in the US) for breakfast for the next week!
Now let's turn to academics. Lately I've been feeling pretty bad about my classes. The other British students seem to know so much more than I do about everything we talk about. They reference ideas, theories and people that I've never even heard of. It's like everyone in class knows what's going on but me. Not gonna lie, I was feeling pretty down about my intelligence. I thought to myself, "Hey, I graduated with honors from La Salle, taught World History to 15 and 16 year-old girls while student teaching who sometimes paid attention and learned things, so why is this so difficult? What am I missing?" Then, I talked to my Mom who has a good friend who is English and got her undergraduate degree in England. My Mom's friend said that UK students are expected to be experts in their field by the time they graduate so they only take courses that pertain to what their degree is.
And the weight was lifted from my shoulders.
It all made sense now! I could never figure out how UK students graduated in 3 years while US students took 4 years. I did some more research and found out that UK students aren't allowed to take classes outside their degree program. So if they're in the BA History program, they can only take History classes. US students take gen-ed classes because the majority of US employers want to employ well-rounded students (not these days, but that's the general idea). So that meant I wasn't dumb, I was just well rounded! I felt much better knowing that :)
Besides that not much is new over here. I've started researching my papers which are due in December/January so hopefully that will go well. I had to learn an entire new system of citation, MHRA, which sucked because learning a 5th or 6th (I've lost count at this point) method of citation is just excessive. My first essay is a literature review on any topic of my choice. My second essay is on Antonio Gramsci and how his theories applied to the Black Sea Mutiny of the French Fleet in 1917. My third essay will be about the significance of the study of mind, body and gender in social history since 1980. Exciting right? No. So if anyone has any help to offer please let me knowww!
xoxo
Becstar
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