Prologue to history

I can’t remember a back-to-school season where i wasn’t stupidly excited and over-prepared with my stationary and back-to-school outfit. Talking to Val last night in between dashes to the living room, we decided it’s probably because you don’t necessarily see friends in class anymore. Since grade 4 there were gifties. Last year it was iffy for a bit but then there were Arts Leg friends. This year the weather was dreary and my friends are all in different disciplines.

It was like coming back from New York to Toronto again. I like having friends with plans. I get to my apartment and Gina tells me we’re all going out for dinner and then seeing a French film. So a couple hours we get to Timmy’s to meet up with Kat and the guys and the other apartment. O it was so good to see everyone… they’re all at such good heights for hugging. We went for Chinese in Chinatown (they’ve still got nothing on Chinese food in the GTA I have to say) and then to Place des Arts where the Festival des Films Monde hosts its Cinema Under the Stars every year on the esplanade. So we watched Les Valseuses (1974) or Going Places in English. This is the film’s premise according to IMDb: “Two whimsical, aimless thugs harass and assault women, steal, murder, and alternately charm, fight, or sprint their way out of trouble.” Needless to say, it was… boring… especially sitting on concrete steps while it was raining. I don’t know… maybe we were all missing important cultural references lost in translation but it was just a lot of sex. For a film we were all describing as porn, it wasn’t even racy. And I couldn’t really identify much of a plot. But it was really good to see friends: roomies, Adam, Andres, Avi, Tae-Young, Angga, Gabe, Sybille, Monika, and Farzan.

Yesterday, Gina helped me assemble my dresser so I finally started putting shit away. AdamAviAndres were going to watch another French film at the festival but they missed it and cam over and we all ate corn and then watched the Wicker Man (1973). It was all right. But I kind of get the idea that people from the 70s were kind of weird. I wonder how well Ellen Burstyn works as Christopher Lee in the new version.

Today was school. We just talked about class policies in every class so I don’t have anything to share. My First Level Chinese class was bigger than I expected. I had thought that language classes were meant to be small. Then my Introduction to East Asian History class was big too and I froze for a bit trying to figure out where I’d sit because again, I didn’t know anyone and with Arts Leg holding me back, everyone looked like a froshie.

My last class today was Ethnography of China through Film looking at fifth generation Chinese film. I’m SO excited. I didn’t think I’d be allowed in since I don’t have the right prerequisites and I’m a lower year student but I got the professor’s permission and bypassed all the registration restrictions and now I’m rather excited for this class. Prof. Hyde seems really approachable and there are only about 20 students in the class. There’s movie watching, seminars and seminar reflections, and take-home exams: it’ll be like last year. Excited!
Tomorrow will be more of the same I expect… so my “excited for class” post will probably come later this week. =/