sincerest apologies: rambling meditation in place of photos

So, I've left my handy photo-uploader-doohickey (strangely, Chrome's spell-check recognises "doohickey" but not "uploader") in the luggage that I checked at the hostel, so unfortunately I seem to be unable to upload photos for a few days, unless I go down and get it. Which is a major hassle.

A pity, because I have a good photo of the group of us at the Eagle and Child. Ah well. Will upload in a few days! I promise! At any rate, the E&C was fun, and it was nice to talk to people from all over the world.

This next bit seems obvious, and I suppose this is the case at every university, but I've never felt it so strongly as here: it's just simply fascinating to hear people talk about what they love. No matter how boring I think economics is or how much I dislike philosophy (if you're reading this Mark, Brian or Sungwoo, sorry but it's true), I could listen to people who really and truly love those things talk about them all night long, because the honest and sincere love of something transforms it in every case.

Like I said, I've noticed this at Mercer. I could listen to Cameron talk about engineering or Corey about mathematics or Leeanne about photography or Abby about music no matter how little I know (or, in some cases, care) about such things. I think that most of y'all would be at least moderately interested in feminism and poetry when it comes from me, since it's clearly a realm of sincere interest. But that impulse, that magnetic attraction to any academic subject when a fellow conversationalist is head-over-heels in love with it, has never felt so strong as here, where people are just really good at what they study.

Oh bother. I'm getting all pretentious and snooty already, and I haven't been here a week. As Olga would say (there now, I've mentioned all four of you by name!), it's time for a good dose of pop-culture whoredom. Good thing there's a new Glee tomorrow, eh?