Class Readings: Donald Barthelme

For today's class reading on of the stories we were assigned was Donald Barrthelme's In The Morning Post. I read this story while I was working out on the elliptical in the TCU Recreation Center, and as embarrassing as it is, I found myself chuckling out loud. I will admit that I was "that person" that everyone was staring at, probably thinking I am crazy. But, that's besides the point, I chose to blog about this reading because it actually caught my attention and made me laugh. Usually, I find our class readings less than entertaining and more of a chore than anything else. But, this story was different.

I really liked how In the Morning Post was written. I have found that I enjoy a more conversational text, rather than just straight narration. Barthelme's writing style kept me engaged through the story. He is also very descriptive. I found that I could picture him going to his mail box and picking up the magazine Writer's Digest and the perplexed expression that must have been on his face. Then, he goes into the details of his thought process as he reads the letter from the magazine. This was very entertaining to see his scattered brain jump from one question to another regarding his drinking.

I also found his answers to the various questions very humorous and witty. Particularly, I enjoyed his response to the question, "how would you describe your own drinking habits? Light, Medium, Heavy, Other?" He responded with, " Medium. Light is sissy and heavy doesn't go down so well with Deans, Loan Officers and Publishers, and who in the world would want to be Other?" I love how he is so blunt and honest about how he feels through out the text.

Lastly, I connected to the story because there have been a lot of times that I have thought to myself, "He must have been on something when he wrote this," when reading certain stories or books. I thought it was really funny that Barthelme wrote a whole story about this and made light of it in a sarcastic and blunt way.

2nd Meeting with Conversation Partner

So, Francesca finally made it to my class. She came to my 2:00 O'clock Organizational Management class. I chose this class for a few reasons. The first was because she could only come to a class that was after 2:00PM. The second was because this is one of my fellows classes. I thought this would make it more fun because everyone in the class are all really good friends, so it makes for good discussions. The third reason was because this is one of my only non accounting or finance classes. I figured that if I get bored in those classes then SHE was bound to fall asleep in them, and that would not be good. The last reason why I chose this particular class is because it is usually pretty fun. Our teacher is really outgoing and engaging. Plus, we usually play some sort of game in this class, and who doesn't like games? Well, after I put all this thought into choosing a fun class that would be anything but boring, it was boring. All my teacher did that day was read off a bunch of slides! Needless to say I was very disappointed. But, luckily I think Francesca didn't think it was as terrible as I did. After class she told me that classes in Chile are all three hours long and the teacher will keep you even longer if they want to. I think that this experience was really good for her because she got to see what a class at an American University is like. If I were in her position I would really like to do this just to get some nerves out. I also think that this was helpful because she got to really practice her English compression. She said that she could understand pretty much everything that my teacher was saying. This is really good for her confidence in her English speaking abilities because she had mentioned to me earlier that she wasn't very good at English. But, now I think she will be more confident and willing to speak to Americans because she won't be so self conscious about it.

50 Funniest American Writers - James Thurber

Part of today's reading for class was James Thurber's story More Alarms at Night. This story stood out to me for a few reasons. The first, although silly and no where near relevant to the story, was with in the first few lines; to open the story Thurber says that the father "threatened to get Buck." To be honest I'm not really sure when this story was written, but since it takes place in the early nineteen hundreds I am going to assume "getting buck" does not mean the same thing as it does today. In today's terms "getting buck" means that the person is getting "crunk" (AKA extremely drunk, wild, and crazy) according to urban dictionary, and any other 20 year old n America. I have included a link to the song, "get buck in here." I thought that this may give the reader a more complete understating of the word.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x45xic_get-buck-in-here-akon-ft-diddy-luda_music

So, as I read the story I kept waiting for the faster to start going crazing and "raging." But, it wasn't till half way through this short story till I learned that buck was supposed to be a name, not an act of getting "crunk." Once I learned this I had to read the story all over again because I was clearly reading it in the wrong light.

The second reason why I found this particular story intriguing is because I really love pranks. I have always found pranks to be very funny and ever since I was young I was pulling them on people. As a self proclaimed "master of pranks," I must say that this is a pretty good one (at least for its time). Basically, the son pranks the father by running into his room and speaking in nonsense (calling him Buck, when in fact his name is Charlie). The father runs out of the room as to not catch what ever it is that the child must have. Then the son sneaks back into his room as if nothing had happened. Subsequently, the entire family is awoken by the father’s shouts. But, instead of blaming the son, they blame the father. They wrote it off and said that it must have been a nightmare because clearly the son was asleep. The perfect prank always ends with someone else getting blamed for it, but this story goes even further and blames the prankee.

I found this story very witty and funny and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

 

Conversation Partner

Today I met with my conversation partner, Francesca. We met outside of Smith Hall at 1 O'clock. Francesca is a very nice girl and stylish 19 year old girl. After our brief introductions we quickly got into a very interesting conversation. I learned that she just moved to Fort Worth from Chile. I can't remember the name of the town that she is from, but I do remember that it is in the center of the country. She described her home town to be similar to Fort Worth, but a little bit smaller. Apparently the weather is very similar, however her favorite thing about her country is that no matter where you are you are always two hours from the mountains and two hours from the ocean. I found this particularly interesting because I am from Orange County, Ca. If you know anything about "the OC," then you know that I am also two hours from the beach and the mountains. As our conversation progressed, we began to talk about our families. Francesca is living about fifteen minutes away from TCU with her mother, step-father, and two younger sisters. Fortunately, she and her sisters are very close as she described them as her best friends. This became particularly important because she has had a very hard time making friends since she has moved to America. It has been difficult for her because all of the other AP students are either much younger, much older, or completely different than her. She was telling me a little bit about the cultural differences that she has had to face in these classes. I thought it was very interesting to hear her speak about her social interactions with these people that are from all over the world. As you can imaging, it is very hard for them all to agree on something social to do because they come from such different and diverse backgrounds. Because I noticed that she had been very lonely I decided to invite Francesca to come out with my friends and I. I think that this would be really fun for her to get to hang out with more people her age and to finally have the American friends she talked so much about. Also, I think that this may help to do adapt to the culture and language a little bit better because she will be submersed in it while still having fun! Francesca also mentioned that she is trying to find a school for next year. She had attended a university in Chile for one year before she came to college and is now read to go back to school. She asked a lot of questions about TCU and why I chose the school. So, of course I told her all the wonderful things about our wonderful school! I also invited to sit in on one of my classes. I chose for here to observe my organizational management class because this is a very fun and lively class. Also, the material is not too heavy... I don't want her to get bored with my finance and accounting classes. This will be a really cool experience for her because she will have a better understanding of what the universities in America are like.

I had a really great time speaking with Francesca. It was really interesting to learn about her background and the struggles of moving to another country. Although, it was really cool to hear about the things that made our lives so different, the best part of our conversation was learning about all the things that made us so similar. It was awesome to learn that even though we come from extremely different backgrounds and circumstances we had so much in common.