bookish

"Having been so little loved by his parents, [Honoré de Balzac] overflowed with love for his own issue, specifically the issue of his pen, but, needless to add, the issue of his loins also."
--Marcel Girard, Introduction to Old Goriot

Since I have lived in Bristol for three months and still have only gone out to one non-work social event, I decided this weekend to find some fun, an activity, and possibly a friend.

The first task set up to meet this goal has been to join the Bristol book club meetup group, which I found online. They meet about once a month at a pub to discuss a book. Sounds perfect for me, no? I found the current book today at the library, and signed myself up for the group. The book is the one mentioned above, which has been translated to English from the original 19th-century French.

Another friend-making fun scheme is the upcoming Bristol Cider Festival, which happens in two weeks. I'm hoping we can convince the only non-work people we know in Bristol--one of Dan's high school classmates and her husband--to join us. The cider will be made locally and, for anyone who might not know, cider in the UK is alcoholic. I expect that will be a boozy good time.

Oh, and in other book-related news, I read Harold and Maude last week. The film closely follows the book, and I think if I had read the book first, it might have done more for me, but as it is, the film kicks the book's ass. Though I will say that the book includes a little bit of helpful back story not shown in the film, and it is by no means a bad book.

12 things about where I am

6 things I like about living in the UK:
1. I can ride my bike in January.
2. I can take a train or bus to get almost anywhere in the country.
3. Things are close together, so it doesn't take very long to walk or bike somewhere.
4. National health insurance
5. I can rent a furnished apartment for not much more than an unfurnished one.
6. tea


6 things I don't like about living in the UK:
1. Job-hunting as a foreigner is much more difficult.
2. Most restaurant food is expensive and not very good.
3. I have to pay 50 pence (about 75 cents US) to reserve a book at the library--though I think this is just southwest England, not the whole country.
4. Many, many websites here are not very user-friendly. Particularly city bus system sites. If you already know your bus number and your stop, you're in good shape. Otherwise, you're better off going to the station and talking to someone.
5. They are very concerned with titles--everything with my name on it also needs "Ms."
6. Too many options when it comes to mobile phones and gas and electric companies. Once you choose one of the 40 companies, then you have to choose between 40 plans, all of which are confusing.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Hey kids. How are you?

One thing I've been doing for a few weeks now is interning at a local magazine. It's a green living, hippie-type magazine. Before today, I was not too excited about it, mostly because I wasn't doing much work and I didn't know if that would change. But today, I received some assignments.

I was given three short pieces to research and write. Short means 200-250 words each. The managing editor gave me the general topics and angles for them, and I just had to make some phone calls and write them up. So today I spoke to three different people and I have at least three lined up for tomorrow. All in all, it was a satisfying day.

I realized that I am out of practice when it comes to writing, but I certainly felt grateful that I could fall back on what I learned in the journalism program. While I was making a newspaper each week in Cardiff, I completely hated every second of it. But the skills I learned there--to do as much research as you can before you contact someone, to prepare all of your questions, and to just pick up the phone instead of finding reasons to put it off--were essential today. A year ago, I would have completely panicked upon being given such a task, and today I just did it. For a real publication.

I also learned that when I am researching topics that interest me, journalism isn't so bad. This should not be shocking, but it's important for me to remember. A lot of journalism students want to be newspaper reporters, and they will do anything to go out there (and "there" can be anywhere) and ask questions and dig deeper by thinking of new questions as they go. I am not one of them. The idea of being a junior reporter at a daily newspaper nauseates me. So much running around and approaching strangers. But if the subject in question is something that fits within my somewhat limited areas of interest, I feel pretty damn inspired after I get off the phone during story research.

So I'm sure you're dying to know what I'm writing about, but since the magazine won't be out for another month, I'm not going to give you any juicy details. Let's just put it this way: I spent 35 minutes on the phone with a pig farmer today. How could anyone not feel inspired by that?