I went to the SOAS open day today. I hadn't slept the night before cos I normally sleep at 6am and I ran the risk of oversleeping if I tried to get a couple hours in. I took the central line to Holburn and changed to the Piccadilly. As soon as I got out, I realised that the map I'd printed of was gonna be useless. I was sleep deprived and kinda blase so I decided to wonder about/ follow any student-like people I saw. Just as I realised that I was going down the wrong street, I encountered a fellow applicant who was just as lost as I was.I think I was unconsciously sending off a 'Help, I'm bloody lost' beacon. She asked how to get to SOAS and I told her that I was wondering the same thing. We wondered about for a minute longer, talking about what courses we'd applied for and our names... the general "How do you do ?" stuff. She was Spanish and applying for Linguistics, other than having SOAS in common we were both totally jaded about religion. We didn't seem to be making any progress so we decided to ask a bystander.
We got there with time to spare and my hair was a mess. There was an introductory lecture in which I found out that SOAS was teaching Twi; maybe I should have applied for that. I think I'd have a better chance of getting in. Luckily for me the Japan and Korea lecture was held in the same room so I didn't have to get lost/ follow student-like people again. I'd give the main event a 3 out of 5. It seemed like they were free-styling it, which wouldn't have bugged me if they weren't reading off directly from the website (Japan more so than Korea). The thing about waiting is you get a lot of time to read. I've read all of the BA Japanese specification including the module specs many, many times. The most interesting thing I found was that even if Korean wasn't my major I could still organise a visit on a 6 week course.
I left after the lectures because I wasn't planning on living away from home and I figured I'd get a proper library tour if I was accepted. I slept on the train home.
