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Neurotic_Hybrid
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Name: beverly
Country: United States
State: New York
Birthday: 1/3/1986
Gender: Female
Interests: drinking soup in the dark
Expertise: applying my blatant lack of talent and/or any redeeming qualities to the obstacles that life insists on bludgeoning me with
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
11/3/2002
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| i've lived in Riverside for a little over a year now, and i have not met a single person i could actually be friends with. at first i assumed this was because i hate people and suck at making friends. seems like a logical conclusion. but then i realized that i've never lived (or visited) any place where i didn't like at least a handful of people i met. this is including Georgia and all the psych. wards. so i started thinking about it more, and i came to the conclusion that the people in Riverside are terrible.
now, i'm sure that not EVERYONE in this city is awful. that would be improbable since it's a pretty big city, and i'm sure a fair amount of people who go to UC Riverside aren't from around here. and actually, i met a guy from Riverside years ago at one of my mom's friend's thanksgiving dinners. he was half japanese/half black, had a very japanese name (hitoshi or something along those lines), and a southern-ish drawl. i liked him. he warned me to stay the HELL away from riverside because "it's hicksville." i probably should have listened. oh the folly of youth!
at this point i should mention that all of that was more or less just ranting, and the real reason for this post is my health science class.
it's one of the classes i'm taking at RCC, and it's taught by this african guy named ali issa. his method of teaching is by making jokes and telling long-winded stories. granted, sometimes he is genuinely funny. unfortunately, most of the time he just spews politically-incorrect phrases and the whole class will laugh because.....well, because they are Riverside people. for example: on the first day of class, he explained how he wasn't very social outside of his classes. in his words: "i'm a retard! i don't talk to anyone!" i have to admit that the first time he said it i did laugh. but now he repeats it at least twice during every class, and i strongly suspect that the students laugh because they are tickled by the word "retard."
he also has the habit of mentioning (over and over and over) how amazing his teaching methods are, and how his class is so much better than any other class that we've ever taken. in fact, the last 20 minutes of each class are spent talking about how awesome his class is. sadly, i'm not even exaggerating. he gives us 3 questions to answer:
1. what did you learn today?
2. what was fun?
3. what did you like about the teaching style?
everyone seems to fixate on the third question. and whenever someone kisses issa's ass (hehe, it's like a tongue twister!) he responds with a jovial, "YES! VERY GOOD!" notice how none of the questions ask what he can improve, or what people disliked about the lesson. this is probably because in the first class he labeled everyone who disagreed with him as "a tightass."
now, i have to state that i don't dislike him as a person. he's not someone i could stand for a prolonged period of time, but he is interesting. unfortunately, his teaching style is horrible for me and i can't retain any of the information he gives us. as i mentioned before, he likes to teach through storytelling. unfortunately, he uses all these long stories to explain very, very simple concepts that can easily be explained in a few sentences. like placebos. and the importance of eating breakfast. and since he takes up so much time telling these stories, he just glosses by the more complicated subjects such as the different types of fats, minerals, vitamins, sugars, etc.
luckily he allows us to use our notes on the test, but under one condition: we need to make 50 posts a week on his forum. the forum has nothing to do with the class (other than that it's composed of students from his classes). as far as i can tell, it is proof that Riverside is full of terrible, terrible people.
here are some of the more.....amusing......posts:
Re: Why do you think god didn't mention the dinosaurs in the bible? maybe they were his early attempts at Earth inhabitants. He created man in his image, maybe he was originally just creating pets or entertainment. *************
(i forgot the name of this thread, but it got a lot of replies...)
My friend and I have a theory that the more well done a guy likes his steak the less likely he is to go down..... Is this true? *************
A$$ to mouth,! 3rd date or 6th date? (it was a poll. the two choices were: 3rd date, 6th date)
*************
What wierd things do Vegitarians eat?
Like why are french fries ok? ************* Re: I beleive God created the world in 7 days! i believe 6 and the seventh he just had fun and created weird stuff like snails. *************
Progressive Society Evolution is obvious in our society because women can vote, have careers, and we have Obama! *************
Polygamy Why do some practice? Re: Polygamy on the farm its one bull for every 7 cow...it can be hard to say to someone its only you when its a complete lie...live on lies or honesty? *************
Re: SWEARING Quote from: Samus on July 27, 2009, 08:41:58 AM
i dont use them but
to me it shows lack of tongue control
bad oral sex also shows lack of tongue control. (ok, I admit I posted that reply. Couldn’t resist!) *************
and these threads are just....depressing:
Doing things for your MAN without being asked is the hottest thing ever
yes, he always wants a bj
yes, he always wants bbq for dinner
yes, he always needs a massage
pick any of the above AT LEAST twice a week, and he will love you forever ************* Can Girls have Guy Friends!! If u were in a relationship would u let your partner have friends from the opposite sex! Re: Can Girls have Guy Friends!! It usually leads to attraction so no. Re: Can Girls have Guy Friends!! [censored] YEA!!!
Girls that have guy friends didnt have good guy "role models" in there life so they found other guys that they could look up to!!!!
I LOVE ALL MY BROS!!!! 
and.....that's RCC. so wherever you're going to school, be glad it's not here.
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| i was chatting with a friend online recently, and he asked me what i did to cheer myself up when i was feeling really sad. i admitted that i was a chronic wallower and brooder, and that cheering myself up was never really an option i considered. i just rode things out, sinking into that murky cesspool of angst until i was ready to come out of it.
******
semi-random tangent: remember those CDs that cordero used to make for us? here are a snippet of the lyrics from one of the songs she included for me. and yes, you may laugh.
Happy Girl- Martina McBride
I used to live in a darkened room
Had a face of stone
And a heart of gloom
Lost my hope, I was so far gone
Cryin all my tears
With the curtains drawn
I didn't know until my soul broke free
I've got these angels watching over me, yeah
ok, back to the business.
******
i told him that what i usually did was watch my "sad" movies: the royal tenenbaums, manic, harold and maude, secretary. of course that wasn't really a way to cheer myself up....it was basically another way of indulging in my sadness. but at the same time it let me distance and distract myself; i was too busy being caught up in someone else's sorrows that i'd be too busy to think of my own. after all, constructed tragedy is so much more interesting and meaningful than the stuff in my life. it makes sense to be despondent over death, unrequited love, betrayal, war, broken dreams. it makes me feel pretty stupid sitting at home moping over not having a job, any classes to take, or any friends nearby.
i know, i know, you can't qualify an emotion like sadness. one person can be sad because their parent died, and another person can be sad because they didn't get accepted into college. both their feelings of sadness are equally legitimate.
still, my moping about my problems makes me feel dumb. so i'd rather mope on someone else's behalf.
then i started thinking about when i used to write. it's painfully obvious in pretty much all my fiction pieces that i used writing as a form of therapy. (well, except for the stories i wrote in my kiddie lit class...thank god.) i basically coated my angst in metaphors and imagery and slapped it onto a piece of paper. it was crude but effective: i never produced anything of actual worth, but the process kept me occupied and i felt productive for creating something. even though i viewed my personal pain as pointless and completely unjustified, i was able to use it to make something that was more intense, something that i could lose myself in.
so, basically i was using my sadness to create better, more "worthy" sadness which would allow me to wallow even harder. can that even be considered catharsis?
then again i've always worked in extremes, so i guess if i was going to be sad, i better be REALLY FUCKING SAD before i could get over it. sounds about right, yeah?
i kind of gave up writing a year ago when i briefly took a creative writing class and then promptly quit when i remembered that i HATED creative writing classes. but it wasn't just the class...i realized that i just didn't have anything to write anymore. and i didn't feel compelled to do it like i used to. i always wondered why i suddenly lost the inspiration and desire to write when it used to be one of my passions in life. (the others being going to disneyland, eating ice cream, and playing with puppies and kittens. i see now that i am a very passionate 8 year old)
during this chat with my friend, it occured to me that maybe i don't write anymore because i lost the ability to...well, use my sadness. it's not fuel anymore, it just sits there in a trivial lump, and i can't make it into anything else. it is what it is: boring and trivial. it's not nearly as intense as in highschool (not many things are), so it just sits there and colors everything in a particularly bland shade of grey.
anyway, i suppose my "epiphany" was that i don't write anymore because my current sadness is not the productive sadness that it used to be.
the stupidity of my realizations makes the whole thing all the more depressing.
oh well, i'm going to knott's (and therefore getting delicious fudge) tomorrow, so things aren't all that bad. fudge will make things better.
yes.
fudge will solve everything.
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| i had a lot of fun in prague (probably the most fun of the entire trip, but i guess i can't say definitively since it's not over yet), but that's because i was actually social here and put forth the effort to make friends. but then i realized that most of my stories won't be interesting to anyone else, since they consist of the usual pub-hopping/clubbing, sightseeing, and hanging around in the common area sharing different (yet remarkably repetative) stories with fellow backpackers.
so instead of going on and on about stuff that's not really interesting even to me anymore, i shall list some things that i learned:
1. i need to familiarize myself with the local currency (especially coins) BEFORE going out to a club, getting drunk, and flinging random bits of money at the bartender.
2. prague has really tasty, really cheap desserts and pastries.
3. salmon, shrimp, and spinach pizza = best pizza ever.
4. white people are too fucking tall.
....wow, i guess i didn't really learn very much. um.
oh! yes. the creepy hostel.
so i spent 8 nights in prague, went to berlin for 4 nights, and then went back to prague for one night before heading over to sweden. for that last night i just wanted a cheap hostel close to a metro station, and i ended up booking a place called Atlas Hostel.
welcome to the ghettoest hostel in the czech republic.
to be fair, it had decent amenities. a "common area" with a tv, table, chairs, some books, computer (ancient, but with free internet!). a kitchen-ish thing with a sink, microwave, cabinet, and water boiler. free lockers. in the dorm room there was a huge mini fridge, big wooden bunk beds (not the cheap metal kind from ikea that most hostels use), and even a big table.
unfortunately, it was located in an alley lined with strip clubs and bars. normally this wouldn't bother me, but the hostel itself was giving me a really creepy vibe. i was the only person in the 8-bed dorm room i had booked, which was odd since the website claimed there were only 3 or 4 beds available. the room was on the ground floor along with the reception, the common area, the kitchen-ish thing, and the communal WC/shower. all the other rooms were on the upper floors, but for some reason this didn't occur to me and for the first few hours i was convinced i was the ONLY person in the hostel. paranoia seemed to be strangling common sense, but when i finally realized that the other people in the hostel must be hanging out in their rooms, i relaxed somewhat.
though unfortunately not enough to allow me to go to bed (i was still fairly certain i was going to get stabbed in my sleep), so i took advantage of the free internet, even though it was slow as hell and the computer was close to dying. i was up until 3am, and when i finally stumbled into bed and started drifting off, i was almost immediately roused by the sound of a large group of drunken czech men congregating loudly right outside my room. (did i mention that the "wall" that faces the street is actually 3 large papered-up windows?) it was probably 4 when i finally got to sleep, and i had to wake up at 7 to fly to dublin so i could wait 5 hours and then fly to sweden.
and.... that was prague. the dublin airport was HORRIBLE (it ties with LAX for worst airport ever), but that's nothing new.
next: sweden and amsterdam
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| or: Goddamn I Hate Berlin
i know i already posted about my first night, but i forgot and wrote it all out again. feel free to skip the part between the asterisks, since it's the same thing except with more detail.
*******
the trip from prague to berlin was beautiful; we passed through this one part of the czech republic that was along the river (no clue which one), and it was just covered in greenery. there were hills and cliffs and a little house that was drenched in ivy. so, admittedly i enjoyed the bus ride immensely. i suppose the trouble started when i actually arrived at the berlin bus terminal.
it was around 10 at night, (or 22:00, rather) and most things were pretty much shut down. i had directions from hbf (the main train station) to my hostel, so my first ordeal was figuring out how to get from the bus station to hbf. i asked the man at the information desk and he told me to follow the middle aged man who he had just finished talking to, and then added something about crossing the street. i wasn't really listening to him seeing as i was busy dashing out the door calling after the guy. it turns out he wasn't going to hbf, but i followed him anyway out of sheer lack of knowing what else to do. i s'ppose i could have gone back to the information desk, but i had a feeling it wouldn't be much more helpful or informative the second time around. so. we wandered around until we found an entrance to the metro, at which point the man took his leave since he knew where he was going and i still didn't. luckily i found a backpacker with a map, and he helped me figure out which train to take and what station to transfer at.
so i made it to the train station, which was HUGE and rather impressive. there were 5 (6?) floors, tons of stores and cafes, and a huge circular elevator made of glass. actually, pretty much all the walls in there were made of glass. from the outside you could see the trains going in and out of the station through the glass tunnels. incredible. plus the stores were legitimately sized stores, like the kind you would find in a shopping mall. i think the station was my favorite thing in all of berlin.
anyway. the directions from hbf to my hostel were: "take bus M41 to the hostel." naturally i got lost at the station and had to ask the information desk where the bus stop for M41 was. that i managed to find with somewhat ease, and when the bus pulled up i assumed everything else would go smoothly. i was HORRIBLY wrong, of course, since i somehow got on the bus going in the wrong direction. i didn't really find that out until i got off at what sounded like the correct stop, looked around, and realized there were no hostels to be found. once again, due to lack of knowing what else to do, i picked a random direction and started walking. when i finally found something open (an internet cafe), i asked for the street my hostel was on, and the guy at the counter told me which way to go. i.e. back the way i had come.
yeah.
so i trudged back, and even with his directions i STILL couldn't find the damn street. i dragged myself and my luggage around the general area until finally i sick of it and just stood there looking pathetic and lost. this seemed to work since almost immediately a guy came up to me and asked if i needed any help. i was tempted to hug him just for speaking english, but seeing as more important matters needed to be taken care of, i asked him if he happened to know where the meininger city hostel was. it turns out he was actually staying there, so he was able to point me straight to it. thank god for english-speaking helpful strangers who take pity on sad, lost americans.
*******
i did have one decent day, when i met up with this guy i hung out with in prague. we saw some of the sights, ate some pricey (but delicious) food, walked a lot, and sat around with hostel people. unfortunately the next day was utter crap. after getting up too early (and finding out NOTHING in berlin is open on a sunday morning) and heading down to a cafe to get lunch, i was too tired to do anything of real consequence. i headed back to my hostel to do a load of laundry, but since that was going to take 2 hours just for the wash i stepped out in the meantime to go see brandenburg gate. it was a decidedly tourist-oriented place, with soldiers covered in silver paint standing around bring photo-ops. didn't spend too much time there since the gate wasn't interesting and it was too crowded.
on the way back, i got caught using a bad metro ticket and had to pay a 40 euro fine. 40 euro could have bought me 2 nights at a hostel! the whole thing annoyed me greatly, but at least the two ticket checker guys didn't start yelling at me in german. they were actually incredibly polite, bordering on nice. it's the small mercies that are keeping me sane.
i got back to the hostel and found that even though i had set the washer to cold, my clothes had been washed in hot water, and thus all my white clothes were grey. initially i was incredibly displeased, until i realized i had too much crap from buying all those clothes in prague and that one less shirt was a good thing. (yes, aimee, i know.....it's a monstrous thing, backpacking priorities)
leaving berlin was no easier than arriving, since i could not for the life of me find the bus station. i was frantically running around this enormous building several times at 6:30 in the morning, afraid i was going to miss my 6:45 bus. finally i happened to glance across the street and saw that the station was.....across the street. relieved beyond belief i sprinted there, and then proceeded to wait an hour because the bus was late.
and that was my berlin trip. next up is the prague recap, but for now i must be off since other people need to use the computer.
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| so, the ireland portion of my trip is done. it was interesting, but i realized that most big cities seem to have the same feeling to them. (or so i'm assuming, though i probably shouldn't since i've only been to like 4 of those cities). dublin reminded me a lot of new york city, except less crowded and less ghetto. and more......historical and architectural, i guess, on account of all the old churches and whatnot. but it lacks the mind-blowing variety of food that NYC has. they're both good cities in their own way.
it was kind of dull keeping my own company for a week, though i did actually go out to a club and a pub one night. i started talking to temi, this guy from london (he was just taking a weekend trip. lucky bastard.) and he was going to a pub to meet his friend who lives in dublin, so i decided to tag along. the pub was SO FUCKING CROWDED, and conversations had to be screamed into people's ears. not that this is new to anyone who's ever been to a concert or a nightclub, but you don't generally expect to have a decent conversation in those types of places. apparently, the people in the pub were actually legitimately trying to communicate with one another. it was disturbing.
after that we went to a small club where i asked the bartender for a black & tan, since apparently that's the signature irish drink that i HAD to drink while in ireland. the bartender asked me what was in it, making me realize that i didn't know the "tan" part, so i just kind of mumbled "it's uh....guiness. and some sort of light beer. on top of the guiness. it's, um, like.....2 beers...mixed together...." of course i was shouting this over the music, and shouted mumblings are about 90 times more awkward than the average awkward thing. the bartender gave me a dirty look so i slunked away and asked temi if he had any idea what i was talking about. he didn't. he asked his friend, and she had no idea either. by this time i realized that if a native dubliner had no idea what a black & tan was, then it probably wasn't an actual "irish" drink. god, why do americans love making up shit for other countries and then insist that they're authentic?
so instead of the black & tan i got the most expensive jager bomb of my life (11.50 EUR), and we danced for a bit before heading over to another club. the cover was pricey, but it was neat....it was actually a theatre that they turned into a club when there weren't any productions running. throughout the night at least 10 people dropped their drinks somewhere in my vicinity, which led me to believe that irish people have far too much confidence in their ability to dance and hold a drink at the same time. either that or they have slippery hands. at the end of the night "Come on Eileen" came on and i managed to get temi's friends plus 3 random guys who happened to be standing near us to go into a dancy frenzy with me. there was jumping and stomping and arm-linking and everything. it was awesome.
other than that, i was mostly on my own. went on some day trips to galway and malahide, and took a bus tour around dublin. i visited the guiness factory which was actually pretty interesting, though i only managed to drink a few mouthfuls of my free pint. i was standing at a table with 2 other irish guys, so i couldn't very well just LEAVE my nearly-full glass of beer and walk away. they'd probably throw it at my head! or laugh at me. or not notice at all. or something. but i was thinking that they'd probably laugh at me, which made me sad. so i picked up my beer, took it to an unoccupied table, put it down, look around distractedly, and then quickly and surruptitiously made my way to the exit. wow i'm lame.
i also went to the irish museum of modern art, which was neat because it was housed in an old hospital. but, yeah....it was a museum. not much to note there.
the only other memorable thing that happened was on my second day there, when there was a big storm with really strong winds and i was trying to walk from one hostel to another. stubert had lent me his portable umbrella for the trip, but it kept flipping inside out (like in the movies!) so i thought, "no....this won't do" and popped in to a store to get another umbrella in the hopes that it would be sturdy enough to withstand the wind. 10 minutes later i found out that no, it wasn't, and now had a mangled 12 euro umbrella on my hands. i spent a few minutes standing under a building overhang trying to figure out what to do, when the wind almost tipped me over. i actually had to fight to keep myself upright. a guy standing next to me laughed and asked if we had storms like that in china. i told him i had no idea, but we certainly didn't have them in america.
strangely enough though, i didn't die from the cold. i was a little uncomfortable at times, but for the most part i weathered the weather rather well. (especially considering this is ME we're talking about) i even wore flip-flops and a skirt one day!
well, that's about it for ireland. next up: prague!
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