Episode 16: Fresher's Flu, Swordfighting In The Woods & Rosemary's Baby

I've developed a frightful case of fresher's flu! Hardly surprising, since I was sick to begin with when I arrived at Warwick. I am now consoling myself by snacking on Doritos. Once they're gone, I'm not going to buy junk food for a week! I know people tend to gain weight while studying overseas, but I was rather hoping to lose some. I was coughing so badly that David Morley took pity on me during this morning's seminar and got me a glass of water. The seminar was awesome, by the way. We got to wear funky hats and write insulting poetry. In rhyming couplets. Then we walked into the woods just outside Millburn House and recited it while swordfighting, accompanied by a small bonfire that died out much too quickly. I think the last time I had a lesson this cool was back in NYPS, when we went digging in the sandpit for dinosaur 'bones'. If only all my modules were as fun as EN124! Speaking of modules, I actually missed an EN122 seminar yesterday afternoon, which I only realised at the end of the day. My very mortified self e-mailed my seminar tutor, Adam Putz, to apologise. I can't believe I was such an idiot, and I actually did the reading for that seminar too!

I went for the Alternative Film Society's screening of Rosemary's Baby. Before I say anything about the film, I must say that I feel somewhat foolish for paying to join the society when all its screenings are free. I console myself with the thought that I'm helping to pay for more DVDs, which is pretty much why I paid to join anyway. The film was a trifle too long for me, but that could have been my stuffy nose complaining. Haven't got much to say about it, except that it was the film that made Mia Farrow famous and cost her her marriage to Frank Sinatra. Oh, and it was directed by Roman Polanski, perhaps better known to my generation as the director of The Pianist. The film was based on a novel by Ira Levin, and it supposedly revolutionised the horror genre. I can understand how for its time that might have been the case, but it's a bit dull to my desensitised, contemporary sensibilities. Still, not too bad a way to spend a night, and I had Michelle for company. Now I'm going to read a bit of Joanne Harris before bedtime because like the Bookshop lady said, everyone needs a bit of light reading once in a while, and I was reading Yeats in the Library earlier, so I've paid my dues for today.