Busy, busy, busy

Busy week! But Monday and Tuesday were quite chill it was only around Wednesday that things got busy.

On Wednesday my wife came up to do some studying and we filled out some application forms so that she can come take classes at the university next semester.

Thursday is where everything started to take off and get busy busy. It was graduation. I've already been to three graduations before, but this one felt a little different. Mainly because all the students graduating were the students who'd entered university at the same time I did.

It was kind of surreal. A lot of these students had been very familiar faces around the university, and had been some of my best students. They were some of the first names I knew, been there for the key moments where I realised how I needed to adapt as a university teacher and during graduation told me that I'd really helped them and that they'd enjoyed my lessons. (Although maybe that was just politeness, who knows?).

It was a little bittersweet, I'm not sure if I'll see any of these guys again. But at the same time I am immensely proud of all of them for graduating and I'm looking forward to seeing the things they go on to do in the future.

Friday was Open Campus. It felt just a teensy bit disrespectful to have the day where we courted new students take place immediately after a graduation, but that's life I suppose.

I always like Open Campus's, though I feel a little bit at a loss during them. My Japanese isn't good, so it's often 50/50 whether I can communicate with students. Add in my own social awkwardness and I tend to ramble about classes and students' special interests. But, we did good, we had a nicely decorated room, we got people talking about English and we got people communicating. We'll find out next year if it translates into getting new students.

Well ... most of us will.

That's the other thing that felt odd, since I probably won't be here next year it felt really weird to be talking about how we teach and what classes we offer when I won't actually be there.

On Saturday we went to see Project Hail Mary after Japanese class.

Gang, it's amazing. You should go and see Project Hail Mary immediately.

I'm going to talk about Project Hail Mary right now, and I'm going to spoil some things from the book and some things from the film.

...

I'm serious, spoilers below.

I think I preferred the book by a long shot. But the film was wonderful. Yes, they cut my favourite scenes from the book (For the curious those scenes are Grace discovering DuBois and Shapiro's relationship, Hatch explaining how the Beetle Drones work and Grace asking the crew how they want to die) I felt that everything they changed was for a good reason and that they all helped the story along. It also meant there were some story changes that I felt were more emotionally impactful.

Like, in the book Rocky just gives Grace extra fuel because he’s got waaaay too much. But because Eridians not knowing about relativistic space travel was kind of cut for time in the film. So instead we see Rocky doing the math and saying he’ll give some of his fuel to Grace and it means he'll just get to Erid a slower. I kind of liked that emotional beat a little bit more. It had Rocky actually giving something up to help Grace. In general I felt the movie gave Rocky a slightly frantic energy? As if he had some kind of PTSD and was utterly terrified of someone else dying when he could do something to help, whereas the book Rocky came across as more sad and depressed about it.

Likewise, the film characterises Stratt in a different way ... how do I put this? It humanises her in quicker, but less intimately. They have a few moments where they seem to be hinting at Grace deciding to go on the Hail Mary because he loves Stratt only for that to get ripped out from under us when we realise they do not share the strong bond the film made it look like they do during those scenes. Instead there's a different person who Grace wants to save.

Ryan Gosling is unbelieavably good, there's a risk of actors playing characters too suave, too handsome and too perfect. But Gosling does a wonderful job of playing Grace as an absolutely pathetic mess of anxiety hiding behind humour but who's fundamentally a good person. The scene of him crying after Rocky gives him a way out is great.

Also it looks great. All the scenes in the mental health room, all of the scenes in space and all of the framing inside the ship are brilliantly done. It's visually one of the most stunning films I've seen in a while.

And after that busy week, of course, we spent Sunday resting.