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I finally booked a dentist appointment today. Historical moment: for once I didn't have to wait a month, my appoinment is Thursday next week! Strangeness. Of course, with the new YTHS they have more room (and actually three dentists, they used to have two) and thus more appointment times. Which is fairly nice.

On a side note, the new YTHS is a tad bit strange. It looks like a set for a futuristic film made in the 1970s.

I've been feeling even more exhausted today than usual, and as a bonus have also had a killer headache. Conclusion? Spent most of the day in bed watching quality TV, like Dr Phil and Murder, She Wrote. I did go out for a walk at one point and naturally got absolutely soaked. Whoopee. All in all, not quite the most productive day ever.

Actually, all I wanted to do this evening was put on nice and warm woolly socks, drink cocoa and watch some cheery romatic comedy, such as French Kiss or You've Got Mail. Then I realised that we were supposed to read John Gardner's Grendel for tomorrow's Grendel myth lecture and that I'd never even flipped through it. And so I was a good student, buried the idea of Meg Ryan fest and read three chapters of the novella. Planning to read another three later this evening. And possibly finish reading it tomorrow morning. Hmm.

Anyway. If get as far as halfway through the story, I might have at least a faint idea of what John's talking about tomorrow and won't be sitting there with the familiar "what the fart?!" expression on my face. It'll be interesting to hear how John will approach the novella, though. Only because of the fact that Grendel is male, not female.

John's lecture about any topic ever summarised:
Female! Identity! Identities! Femininity! Female identity! The Gothic! (Female) identity of the monster! The horror, the horror!

It's nice that I have both him and Jopi this term, since - as Jaakko put it yesterday - Jopi is the anti-John:
The male! Masculinity! The body! The ideal male body! Male sexuality! The male identity! Non-ideal male versus the ideal male! Non-masculine versus masculine! (Genre!)

Ooo, and whereas John loves the words "modern" and "modernity", Jopi's favourite seems to be "post modernism". They balance each other very effectively. Indeed.

It turns out that Jari's applying for Erasmus exchange at UWE Bristol for the spring term (or three months of it anyway). Well, what do you know. o_O

(Aina vähän symppasinkin tuota Hermannia, nyt tiedän mistä se johtuu - kerrankin nettitesti, jonka tuloksesta en valita lainkaan.)