i went to the open university info session at SIM with cindy today, to see if there is a degree or diploma i might take up. i thought, as i walked through SIM's campus for the first time, that it was a pretty campus, and that these past months, walking only in the city and in the town centres, i've missed the cheerful and purposeful bounce i automatically assume when i am walking through any university. we came through tall, handsome gates, crossed a courtyard lined with koi ponds, up curved steps to the atrium. (atrium. ri calls theirs the atrium, rgs the foyer, and rj the concourse. i digress) we were half an hour early and inside the lecture theatre the b.a. in chinese language and literature info session was still going on, though many of the coursework handbooks and reading material were on display. i fingered them in excitement while cindy kept shaking her head saying: shut up, calm down, don't be geeky, you're rabid, i don't know you! the structure of classical chinese! modern poetry! historic linguistics! comparative lit! translation! classical chinese poetics! terrifyingly difficult and wondrously exhilarating! i pointed out that english literature spanned all of 6 centuries merely, and chinese literature, 5 millenium. you could do nothing but study classical chinese prose for years, whereas with sufficient diligence you could get through nearly all of early and late medieval lit in english in a year. in anycase i find there isn't time to do a diploma - you have to take 8 modules for 40 credits - and the semester doesn't begin till january, though i found out i can audit individual modules for a certificate. i'm thinking of taking the classical chinese literature course - afterall, my mother has been shaking her head in a manner brimming with suggestions of upcoming disownings because she wants me to get through the gu wen guan zhi on the big bookshelf downstairs, and i keep wanting to point out to her that i've had only two years of classical chinese in jc, and to get through both volumes of the gu wen guan zhi we have i'm going to need structured guided reading and a teacher, not self-study. besides i like construing classical chinese. there is an incomparable elegance and symmetry in style and structure in classical chinese that modern chinese simply can't hold a candle to. i shall get down to some relief teaching and earn my tuition rapidly.