2006-10-11 - 1:44 a.m.

school days, school days..

And no, this is not an entry about the lyrical sounds of Andrew Lloyd Webber, and how the theme from Phantom of the Opera is stolen from a favorite old time melody...

This is rather about my first few days living at the university in Norwich. Yes, I am living on campus for two weeks, eating campus food, staying in campus rooms, listening to campus noises....

I'd say the fond nostalgia lasted all of two days. It was dwindling yesterday evening when all I could find for dinner was a pot-o-noodles...and it died a bloody death last night and early this morning when I suffered through the third loud booming party outside my window - a party that lasted until 3am. Oh, I remember those days....except in college I was always in the same position I found myself now - trying to sleep through loud booming sounds and drunken yodeling - or whatever it was they were doing...

Unfortunately, I was wound up enough by 3am that the troubles of the world descended upon me, and it took another hour for me to lull myself to sleep. The phone and internet in my room were also broken - no entertainment there while I waited out the party. This was probably a good thing because it meant that I couldn't wake myself up entirely by doing more work. My eyes finally closed at 4am.

I woke this morning at 7:30am and promptly packed my bags. There is no way I could work like an adult for two weeks when my nighttime hours are surrendered to the whims of 20-year-olds newly released upon the world!

I went to the main office to ask for a different room, but I was prepared to move out entirely if need be. Fortunately, the office staff members were lovely, and my room was switched in less than ten minutes. Of course, when I dropped the old key off, I accidentally surrendered the key to my colleague's office as well...I guess these are the errors one makes when sleep deprived.

But altogether I was feeling much better as I walked through empty bottles and beer stench of the smoke-saturated quadrangle just outside the office, and promptly stepped into a wad of chewing gum.

School days, school days...