I feel that I made a very important discovery today. Not only have I made great strides in self-sufficiency (see the previous post) but I have found my people. And they are medievalists. Having never been around a large crowd of such people before, I had no idea how fantastic it is to be in a room full of people that GET IT. We can all geek out together. It is pretty much awesome.
We had the departmental welcome party today, which had the potential to be more than just a little bit awkward and horrific. But it was pretty much not! I would say that roughly 60% of the people there were just as shy and socially awkward as I am. We were able to mingle around and discuss how much we hate these kinds of events with awkward chit chat that means nothing and will be forgotten in a few minutes, etc. and talk about historical things that tend to bore the entire rest of the world. I FOUND MY PEOPLE! We're all socially awkward but we can be socially awkward together! It was also pretty amusing because the North Americans outnumbered the Brits. The couple of British students that I know were pretty amused by the fact that they were generally the only Brit in a conversation circle. The program has LOTS of Americans and Canadians, 2 Europeans that I've encountered, some British students, and a couple of Aussies. I'd say that Americans are probably about half the program which seems strange to me since we ARE in England...
Anyway, I'm pretty much exhausted and not making much sense anymore, but I felt the need to share that I'm not the only crazy person out there. Academics are my friends :) Plus, we have pretty awesome theology conversations after a pint or two at the pub!
(On a side note, I FOUND KOPPERBERGS! Also, Bulmers/Magners makes a pear cider now, and a lot of pubs here carry both Magners and Bulmers labels. I'm puzzled by this because Bulmers is supposed to be for domestic distribution in Ireland and Magners for everyone else. I'll have to do some further investigating...)
EDIT: 10/16/09- I got to the root of the Magners/Bulmers confusion. There is a British cider company named Bulmers (which is actually part of the reason why Irish Bulmers is labeled as Magners outside Ireland) who just happens to use a very similar-looking label and also offers regular and pear cider. Mystery solved!
Haha, I know exactly what you mean about finding "your people," except that mine are obviously Italianists rather than medievalists. We call it "talking shop" here when people congregate with the rest of their cohort and discuss academic things. Granted, I'm glad that I also have some good friends outside my department--variety is the spice of life and all that--but it's seriously one of the best feelings ever to be with people who have completely similar interests to yours. In other words, yay for geeking out!! :)
ReplyDeleteHaha, I felt the same way in coming to social work school. The cool thing about that, though, is that it's so multidisciplinary that I have a bunch of friends with different interests--psychology, anthropology, business, American studies, economics, etc--working toward a common goal. It's so awesome to be with people who "get it"!
ReplyDeleteAlso, we had Bulmers in Australia--I thought I told you about that. Granted, they also had Magner's and Woodchuck, but on a good day you could get Bulmers at the pub. Just sayin'.
I hope you drink lots of Kopperberg pear for me. All I can get here is Woodchuck (big surprise).
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