What an utterly fantastic weekend! Wow! The last few weeks have been pretty awful, thanks to extended literature review submissions, the start of exams and some weird friendship and personal issues (when I figure out what's going on, I might be able to blog about it). The worst part of it was undoubtedly the psychoanalytic theory exam that's been hanging over my head though - the course is more like philosophy than actual psychology, and I was really not looking forward to having to study Freudian and Kleinian theory off by heart (since there was really no other way to learn the material). After much procrastination - and then, much panic - I eventually managed to study enough of it to get me through the exam and wrote on Thursday morning. It actually went relatively well, and I feel fairly confident, although I refuse to make any concrete statements about how I might have done until I get my marks!
Writing the exam has certainly changed my life for the better though. It really has! For the past 3 or 4 weeks, I've been stressed and horrible and blowing things out of proportion, drinking far too much tea and sleeping way too much (although struggling to get to sleep in the first place). As soon as I finished the exam, however, I felt infinitely better! After my exam, I went up to the Honours common room to get something and ended up having a 3 hour chat to a friend of mine! It was such fun - and for once, I wasn't standing there thinking, "I really should be at home, reading Freud". I even got to enjoy some "me" time this weekend, as Friday was spent searching Eastgate for shoes, and Saturday morning and afternoon were spent searching Balfour Park and Sandton for shoes (which raises the question of where have all the a) emo shoes and b) black, knee-length flat non-leather boots gone. Specifically, where have all the size 4 and 5 boots gone? I spent about 8 hours looking for shoes and it would appear that everyone on the planet got to the malls before me. *sad face*), and finally got to watch some more "X-Files" episodes! Despite my shoe shopping failure, I didn't come home empty-handed - I bought a book and I had a chat to a friend who works in Sandton and distracted him from his studying.
The highlight of my weekend was undoubtedly going to see John Kani's "Nothing but the Truth" on Saturday night. I love going to the theatre, but very few of my friends have the time or concentration span for it. Luckily, one of my friends recommended that a friend of his might like to go, so on Saturday night we set off to the Market Theatre. The play was absolutely brilliant - if you get the chance to see it, please do! It's the best South African theatre production that I've seen and while it deals with issues about apartheid, it's subtle (far more so than any Athol Fugard!), and more about the experiences of individuals than a grand scale narrative. It's the last time that John Kani (who also wrote the play) is performing in it as well, and he is excellent! The two guys that I went with also thoroughly enjoyed it, and were great company - although it was slightly weird going to a theatre production with two guys who were more interested in each other than in me, if you catch my drift! We had a lot of fun though, between the play itself, swapping our seats for better ones, and then walking through Newtown in the middle of the night to go have drinks (and getting funny looks from the waiter for ordering hot chocolate)! I can't wait for our next outing! There is nothing as fun as going to the theatre with two gay men! Talk about laughing in the face of heteronormativity!
I've still got 2 exams left, but I feel as if I'm able to tackle them. I haven't quite got around to starting to study yet though, as I spent all of Monday replying to emails and organising my birthday party. The email thing was simply ridiculous - 241 emails in my Hotmail account, mostly from Facebook. I looked at it and just wanted to bang my head on the keyboard! Organising by party was a lot more fun though, and I'm really looking forward to it! I'm also hoping to update my blog a little more often now that I'm on "study leave" - assuming that I have something to blog about! Perhaps some more theatre escapades are called for!
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