the unbearable dullness of academia

Okso.

Here comes a little rant, partially because I am so tired that I can't be bothered to be funny, interesting or cool. Partially because I am pissed off. Yes, sometimes it happens, even to nice people like me. I work my arse off every day of the friggin' week to learn new stuff, reading tons of articles and books, attending countless lectures and conferences, organising dinners so interesting people can fire interesting ideas at each other, all with the firm belief that this is the *right* thing to do, all for the best, it will pay off in the end, all this cash I am pouring into the LSE's bottomless coffins.

I don't really have a social life any longer. I haven't seen some of my friends for decades. I know they are alive simply because their blogs get updated. That's how miserable my life has become. Bed --> Library --> Bed.

So, on the day I am handing in yet another essay, which is not assessed, but which I have spent most of last weekend and early days of this week writing, 2 things occur simultaneously, which send me rocketing with wrath.

1. Last week the Fees Office sent me - and many other fellow students - a message saying I hadn't paid for my MSc fees. I promptly replied with all the details of the transfer, when I got another message saying their IT system had fucked up, and to ignore the previous message. Fine, I just wasted 15 minutes looking for the trasfer details, but fine. There's worse in life. Then today I get ANOTHER message urging me to present 'copy of bank transfer' so their brilliant accountant (who has clearly lost my money) can trace the payment. Surely, I reply, all the information the brilliant accountant needs is in the email I just sent to you, containing ALL the information that a copy of a bank transfer would give you (fuckers). Is it too much to ask for you to actually READ an email before you send out more onerous requests, given how I am struggling to find time to sleep and bearing in mind the hefty fees you are charging me for this painful experience? Would it be too much to ask you to start using Excel to record the money people have transferred to you 8 months ago?

2. I went to my EU seminar, where I had to sit through another hour and a half of idiocy squirted out of the mouth of this fat Israeli woman, who for the first time in my life made me want to torture someone (her). She's one of those people who HAS TO talk all the time, regardless of whether she actually has anything even remotely interesting to say. Week in and week out, all 16 of us have to endure her constant interruptions, trivial banalities and pointless remarks, while the tutor's inability to reign her in constantly reminds me of the UN in Rwanda during the genocide. Highlights of her interventions today included "You know that THING in the Ukraine... You know... The REVOLUTION, yeah? Like, THAT was awesome" and "You know what the problem of the EU and Russia is? Eh? Is that they are COWARDS, the EU, you know?" No, REALLY? Thank you. Thank you SO MUCH for this amazing insight into the complex world of international relations.

It's on days like this that I feel I threw the cost of a decent car down the drain. And that I should be learning something useful. Like knitting.