Some well-needed distraction from this essay while I went to get a drink. If you can’t read the French then just read the bottom two lines.

The University of London Institute in Paris - three days a week of pure, organic, force-fed bollocks.

It’s a hugely depressing thought that I’ve got another 18 months of this unbearable, pathetic excuse for a university, during which period I can no longer miss one single lesson (yes, I just received a formal warning for absence under the new system imposed on us by Royal Holloway, who refuse to believe we exist when we need them but enforce us to comply with their ridiculous policies and procedures which are nigh-on impossible to fall into line with when you live in a country as politically and bureaucratically backward as France, a system which is implemented in different ways by different members of staff and not fully understood by the student body or union).

One more absence between now and end of term 2012 and I fail my degree.

Unless you enjoy being ill, I strongly dissuade you from two things.

1. Going to university.  Freshers’ Flu is not a myth - I repeat, not a myth. It is a real and terrifying phenomena brought about by the mixture of several hundred people from different corners of the country and all their germs. I developed Freshers’ Flu around the first week of term and it has to date lasted over 15 months. That’s right, it never goes away.
2. Travelling to/from a foreign country. Especially just after having begun to feel better following a cold or flu. If you do this, which I have done this Christmas, it is an almost 100% certainty that you will catch something straight away and then feel awful for the rest of your trip.

Choisissez une scène (environ 3-4 pages de la version imprimée) de La Leçon d’Ionesco et décrire comment la question du pouvoir et son rapport au savoir entre en jeu. Vous pouvez situer cette question dans le cadre plus général du théâtre de la période après-guerre ou vous limiter à une considération de la pièce et les possibilités qu’elle détient de mise en scène.

Just under 1800 words completed, now less than 2 days to do another 1500 words on a topic I know absolutely nothing about.

Wish me luck.

I’ll let you into a little secret.

This very post was written at 3.12 this morning (CET). I should be asleep right now, because I have a rather important exam in about 6 hours.

Now here’s the trick. (This is like one of those important episodes of Eastenders where they film several endings so even the cast doesn’t know the real story-line and no spoilers can be leaked.) If you are reading this, then you should congratulate me because it means I successfully woke up, got washed and dressed, and made it into university on time and sat my exam and everything went swimmingly.

If, on the other hand, you are not reading this, I have queued up another post - which I will have deleted if you are reading this (this is getting confusing now) - but which sent itself about half an hour ago saying that I didn’t get up, missed my exam and am subsequently going to fail my exam and end up working at a fast-food restaurant until I am 53, at which point I will probably buy two cats, who will mate, but I will mistreat the kittens and shortly after my 86th birthday the RSPCA (if we even still have a monarchy then), will have to rescue me from my small, dank bedsit which will in actual fact be occupied mainly by cats.

If, on the third hand, you’ve already read that post and now you are reading this post, then something has gone terribly wrong - in other words, I’ve slept through all four alarms - and I’ll sort this all out when I finally wake up. Let me sleep, okay?

In any case, expect to hear from me soon. And wish me luck (albeit retrospective)!

I’ve come to the decision that I don’t know enough words. I’m starting to worry about moving to France and inevitably hindering my English development to a minor yet greater degree than would happen if I were to stay in England.

I’m so young and I’m worried about being out of the English loop, as it were.