I chose this scene from the movie ‘Mean Girls’ because it is such an iconic monologue from my favourite movie ever.
Cady: Oh dear.
Janis: You dirty little liar!
Cady: I’m sorry, I can explain…
Janis: Explain how you forgot to invite us to your party?
Damian: Janis, I cannot stop this car. I have a curfew at 1:00 AM.
Cady: You know I couldn’t invite you. I had to pretend to be plastic.
Janis: Hey, buddy, you’re not pretending anymore. You’re plastic. Cold, shiny, hard plastic.
Damian: Curfew, 1:00 AM. It is now 1:10.
Janis: By the way, did you have an awesome time? Did you drink awesome shooters, listen to awesome music, and then just sit around and soak up each others awesomeness?
Cady: You know, you’re the one who made me like this so you could use me for your 8th grade revenge!
Janis: God! See, at least me and Regina George know we’re mean. You try to act so innocent. Like, “Oh, I used to live in Africa with all the little birdies, and the little monkeys!”
Cady: You know what? It’s not my fault you’re like in love with me or something!
Janis: What?
Damian: Oh, no, she did not!
Janis: See? That is the thing with you Plastics. You think that everybody is in love with you, when actually, everybody hates you! Like Aaron Samuels, for example: he broke up with Regina and guess what? He still doesn’t want you! So why are you still messing with Regina, Cady? I’ll tell you why. Because you are a mean girl! You’re a bitch! Here. You can have this. It won a prize.
Damian: [Yells out the window as he drives away with Janis] And I want my pink shirt back! You hear me? I want my pink shirt back!
One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin. He lay on his armour-like back, and if he lifted his head a little he could see his brown belly, slightly domed and divided by arches into stiff sections. The bedding was hardly able to cover it and seemed ready to slide off any moment. His many legs, pitifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, waved about helplessly as he looked.
“What’s happened to me?” he thought. It wasn’t a dream. His room, a proper human room although a little too small, lay peacefully between its four familiar walls. A collection of textile samples lay spread out on the table—Samsa was a travelling salesman—and above it there hung a picture that he had recently cut out of an illustrated magazine and housed in a nice, gilded frame. It showed a lady fitted out with a fur hat and fur boa who sat upright, raising a heavy fur muff that covered the whole of her lower arm towards the viewer.
Gregor then turned to look out the window at the dull weather. Drops of rain could be heard hitting the pane, which made him feel quite sad. “How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense”, he thought, but that was something he was unable to do because he was used to sleeping on his right, and in his present state couldn’t get into that position. However hard he threw himself onto his right, he always rolled back to where he was. He must have tried it a hundred times, shut his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to look at the floundering legs, and only stopped when he began to feel a mild, dull pain there that he had never felt before.
“Oh, God”, he thought, “what a strenuous career it is that I’ve chosen! Travelling day in and day out. Doing business like this takes much more effort than doing your own business at home, and on top of that there’s the curse of travelling, worries about making train connections, bad and irregular food, contact with different people all the time so that you can never get to know anyone or become friendly with them. It can all go to Hell!” He felt a slight itch up on his belly; pushed himself slowly up on his back towards the headboard so that he could lift his head better; found where the itch was, and saw that it was covered with lots of little white spots which he didn’t know what to make of; and when he tried to feel the place with one of his legs he drew it quickly back because as soon as he touched it he was overcome by a cold shudder.
He slid back into his former position. “Getting up early all the time”, he thought, “it makes you stupid. You’ve got to get enough sleep. Other travelling salesmen live a life of luxury. For instance, whenever I go back to the guest house during the morning to copy out the contract, these gentlemen are always still sitting there eating their breakfasts. I ought to just try that with my boss; I’d get kicked out on the spot. But who knows, maybe that would be the best thing for me. If I didn’t have my parents to think about I’d have given in my notice a long time ago, I’d have gone up to the boss and told him just what I think, tell him everything I would, let him know just what I feel. He’d fall right off his desk! And it’s a funny sort of business to be sitting up there at your desk, talking down at your subordinates from up there, especially when you have to go right up close because the boss is hard of hearing. Well, there’s still some hope; once I’ve got the money together to pay off my parents’ debt to him—another five or six years I suppose—that’s definitely what I’ll do. That’s when I’ll make the big change. First of all though, I’ve got to get up, my train leaves at five.”
And he looked over at the alarm clock, ticking on the chest of drawers. “God in Heaven!” he thought. It was half past six and the hands were quietly moving forwards, it was even later than half past, more like quarter to seven. Had the alarm clock not rung? He could see from the bed that it had been set for four o’clock as it should have been; it certainly must have rung. Yes, but was it possible to quietly sleep through that furniture-rattling noise? True, he had not slept peacefully, but probably all the more deeply because of that. What should he do now? The next train went at seven; if he were to catch that he would have to rush like mad and the collection of samples was still not packed, and he did not at all feel particularly fresh and lively. And even if he did catch the train he would not avoid his boss’s anger as the office assistant would have been there to see the five o’clock train go, he would have put in his report about Gregor’s not being there a long time ago. The office assistant was the boss’s man, spineless, and with no understanding. What about if he reported sick? But that would be extremely strained and suspicious as in five years of service Gregor had never once yet been ill. His boss would certainly come round with the doctor from the medical insurance company, accuse his parents of having a lazy son, and accept the doctor’s recommendation not to make any claim as the doctor believed that no-one was ever ill but that many were workshy. And what’s more, would he have been entirely wrong in this case? Gregor did in fact, apart from excessive sleepiness after sleeping for so long, feel completely well and even felt much hungrier than usual.
“And the woman may be awestruck And the woman may truly care But the woman is so tired So the woman disappears” – Bella Donna, Stevie Nicks
I can’t believe this Language 3 semester went by so fast. Even though it felt quick, I’m honestly really exhausted. Use of English was by far my hardest class, I struggled a lot at first, but I studied hard and slowly started to improve, which feels like a huge win to me. My first grade was a 3,3 I think, then my second grade was a 5,6, and my midterm grade was a 6,6. So I’m really happy about it, I studied a lot, I put a lot of effort into it. Phonetics was also really challenging for me, especially remembering all the things we’ve learned, because I’m kind of disconnected in class, I’m still working on it and trying my best to get better at it, I just need to work on my memory. I struggle a lot with remembering things, and I forget the IPA.
The midterms were absolutely rough, honestly, horrible at the time, but somehow we survived, me and my friends. That week was full of stress and pressure, and it felt really overwhelming, but making it through felt like a victory to all of us. I kid you not, some of us we’re really struggling, my eyes was twitching, and I saw some of my friends that couldn’t get their legs to stop moving when they sat down, their eyes were also twitching, some of them even got sick because of the stress, but we managed, we survived.
A lot has changed during these past months. It’s been a really strange and intense time in my life, full of unexpected moments and random things happening. I met so many new people, I did so many things that I didn’t even think I would ever do, and through all of this, I got to know myself so much better. I discovered new music, new movies, new hobbies, new styles of dressing up, everything, I’ve just been working towards finding myself, especially since I’m now about to enter my 20’s, which for me is the era of self discovery, I take is as my second chance at my teenage years but being independent, being smarter than I was when I was an actual teenager, emotionally smaryer. Some things happened that I never thought were possible. If someone told my first-semester self about all of this, I don’t think I would’ve believed them.
Even though I’m drained, I’m proud of how far I’ve come. This semester challenged me in ways I didn’t expect, but it also helped me grow. Now, I’m looking forward to some rest and hoping to keep building on what I’ve learned. University life is still weird and unpredictable, but I’m slowly finding my place in it.
I chose this story because I find it pretty interesting; I like the topics of psychology and child development, and I think it is important for us as future teachers to know about these things.
I decided to record this article because I really like this expression. I am a really restless person, always wanting to do more, so I tell myself to not let the grass grow beneath my feet.
Also, I loved the introduction to the article, I see spring the same way, as a “rebirth”.
I HAD to choose this article because, even if it’s been just two weeks, I’m already stressed and collapsing lol. I’m going to use these tips from now on.
I can’t believe we’re already back to university, summer felt so short, but at the same time, it felt endless. I’m glad to be back, although I’m already stressed, but I have faith that I will get used to all the school work again. My brain is still in vacation mode.
Honestly, I don’t remember much from Language 2, at least not off the top of my head. I will probably remember things once I see them, but for now, everything in my head is mush. But I know one thing, and it’s that, this semester, I will study a lot, and be a lot stricter with myself. I’m working towards my goal of having better grades than last year, hopefully straight As. I want to be more organized as well.
I’m really excited for all of the upcoming projects we have, I remember last year seeing the upperclassmen do the movie dubbing assignment, and I loved it, it seemed so fun, and I’m hopeful that it will be. I’ve been thinking about what scene of what movie I want to do, and even if I’m still unsure, I know I have time.
I’m looking forward to this school year! I want to learn a lot, better my pronunciation, and have more confidence on my skills.
