The Berkeley Archives: Jon Yip Talks to Himself

A Systematic Commentary On My Life At Berkeley

Week One: This Is Freaking Crazy

8-29-2001

It is the third day of school. I can't believe that I am so green. On the first day I ended up missing a class because it was added late, and therefore it wasn't in the schedule book, and the online schedule said the day and time was "to be announced," so when I finally found it (an the English department's website) it was Monday night, and the class was at 11:00 AM.

On Monday I had two film classes. The first class was History of Film, which covered the silent era. I found it to be even more interesting than I thought, because we are going to learn where all the things we take for granted in modern cinema come from originally. To be able to add the class (I was on the waiting list), we had to fill out these questionnaires and submit them to her. The other film class was Avant-Garde Film, which is a load of bullshit (almost, but not quite, literally. There really is no other word for this). Beforehand, the foul-mouthed instructor told us to have an open mind, but after the first screening, I found nothing mind-opening about a six-minute, completely static film of out-of-focus snow falling in front of a brick wall (no really, I'm serious), and even less about a 28-minute film of undeveloped, expired film (i.e. flashing colors). Certainly the word I used to describe it makes much more sense now, right?

Tuesday gave me the most horrific shock I've had so far: my Shakespeare class' instructor gave us until tomorrow to ready ALL of Henry VI Part I. This is freaking crazy. After that, I crashed this playwriting course that only had 11 people enrolled, and the instructor (who was in the same class as Lawrence Kasdan when HE took the course) would only take four more. So he told us to submit some of our writing to him, and he would tell us if we got in. So far I haven't heard from him but tomorrow I am going to bug him until he lets me in. Oh yeah, I got myself ripped off at the bookstore because I didn't have time to wait to get started with Henry VI. That night I went to InterVarsity small group with Leon, and then I went back to my dorm to get cracking with the reading. I stayed up until 1:15 AM. All this on the second day of school.

This morning (Wednesday) Leon and I jogged down nice and early to the Recreation Sport Facility and totally destroyed our upper bodies lifting weights and using the machines. Afterwards we went to an InterVarsity barbeque and I ate some really good steak. Then I went to the second class of the one I missed on Monday, Language and Literature of Films. It is about fantasy in literature and films. Immediately following, I ran back to the BBQ to grab some more meat, and then I went to the Film History class, where we watched a clip from Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. That man is brilliant, because he can take an illogical plot but still such you straight into it.

8-30-2001

I woke up a little late today, at almost 7:30, so I quickly went to breakfast at Unit 1, and what do you know, I ran into Gloria again. Since I was there so early, she asked me "You have an 8:00 class?"

I said, "No, I have a 12:30 class."

"What are you doing??" she asked, implying that I was hopping mad. I told her it was because I was going to visit the RSF again with Leon. When I returned to my room, I made a phone call to him, who sounded really tired when he answered. "Nah," he droned, "tomorrow." I remember in Mongolia when he gave a testimony and told us that he had said the exact same thing last semester with his friend. Oh well; I was already up early and I didn't have class until 12:30, so I jogged down there myself and did some free weights, machines, and sit-ups. My body is all sore now; just touching my chest or upper arms is a little painful, but I am getting stronger, man!

The 12:30 playwriting class was a disaster. On Tuesday I had submitted work to him to review, and today there were more than a few others who, like me, received no reply. When he finally arrived at class (my heart started beating really fast when he started asking for our names and then checking his registration sheet), we were all informed that the class was closed and we didn't make it. Crap! Why does it HAVE to be restricted to 14 people? That's freaking crazy for a class at Berkeley! Of course, he told us that now we were automatically in for next semester, but now I'm wondering if I even want to take it at all if this instructor, who everyone says is so great, is such a jerk (I'm going easy on the language here).

Using the time I had gained from being kicked out of the class, I took a little visit to the library. It is HUGE. There are so many stacks that they have to all be put right next to each other and you roll them out of the way when you want to get in between stacks. I also visited the media center in the Moffitt library, where they have a bunch of feature videos and DVDs that you can't check out; you can only watch them in the media center.

Argh, every time I go to the Shakespeare class I almost fall asleep. Henry VI was just so darn boring that even talking about it is non-stimulating. Plus, the instructor, Justice, always says "UM" really loud and obtrusively, and once I noticed it I almost laughed out loud and had to stifle my chuckling, because the "UM" was so long and obvious.

Pedro (he's my roommate) went to give blood today, so I went to eat by myself at the DC. He came back just as I finished, so I had myself an ice-cream cone and sat down again with him. The pasta alfredo he was eating looked pretty good, so I went back to get some, and I ate all of it. The ice-cream was good too, so I got another one, but the handle got stuck, so it kept coming out when I thought it would stop, and they guys at a nearby table were shouting to me, but by the time I realized it, there was a huge blob of ice cream on my cone and I barely caught it before it all toppled off.

8-31-2001

No class today, so I went to talk to some instructors and counselors. I am a mess with my major; I need to get things together. And I got lost in the labyrinth that is Dwinelle Hall.

On the way, I picked up my bus pass since my block was lifted from my registration, and I also ran into Elliot, who was manning a table for IV.