Lately I've felt like I'm living Jorge Luis Borges' El sur. Especially when I'm lying in bed at night. Is this all real or just a hallucination produced by sepsis from an unfortunate head wound?
...just kidding, but I do sometimes feel like I'm existing in a state of almost constant disorientation, and it's a feeling only too similar to the one that story evokes. The protagonist dreams asleep and dreams awake, he dreams in his hospital bed and dreams on the train taking him away from it. It's too easy to convince myself, while falling asleep, that I'm in my dorm room at Mills or in my own bed at home. Part of my brain still thinks I have two realities to choose from--maybe because I spent so much time at home trying to picture what was waiting for me here, and I can still remember doing that so clearly.
So obviously I'm still waiting around for my sense of place. I'm also waiting around for my classes to finally begin. [Confidential to Type A people: DO NOT, under any circumstances, STUDY AT UB. You WILL have an aneurysm due to frustration.] I have shown up to two out of my three scheduled classes so far this week, and both professors have been AWOL. Or maybe they had leave, who knows, apparently nobody, and why tell the students anything ahead of time? It's not like there's been this recent invention that allows you send information almost instantaneously via electronic--oh, what's that? UB has online email service? Who knew? Apparently not PhDs they hired.
This morning I got up at 7. Tomorrow I'm supposed to get up at 6:30 for my 8 AM fotografía digital class. My digital photography professor most likely will not show up, just like my figure-drawing professor and my pictoric reality and space professor. But I think that'll be okay, because I discovered a place where I can soothe my pain. I wandered into Café Dole today as I was walking up my street. It's a narrow little corner place with metal counter-tops and pretty tiled walls, and the best café cortado and croissant I've had since I got here. That's where I'll be writing postcards from now on, kids. The coffee came with a little sprinkling of cocoa powder on top and a little square of dark chocolate to eat after--and the croissant was actually fresh, something I've learned you can't always count on. Their main menu item seems to be entrepans (classic Catalán/Spanish sandwiches), and I think the place also doubles as a bar at night. So, you can't break me, UB, I've got Café Dole! Ha.
Another plus side of getting stood up by my teachers is that I can make friends quicker by commiserating with my fellow students. I met a couple of chicos today that seem really nice. Also, it's a gorgeous day and Logan and I are going to the beach. So maybe I should thank my professor for the bait-and-switch...
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