Day 15

Today I endangered the mission in a manner altogether unacceptable.

Day 14

We received our essay questions today to prepare for our exam next week.1 There are five questions. He will give us four, we will choose two.

I used my free time on Tuesday to get caught up on the reading so I was prepared for class. Unfortunately, the tangential nature of the class reared its ugly head and we spent a good deal of the class discuss the nature and role of the rebel in our modern society and the societies of Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales. This I had not prepared comments on. I still remain too anonymous for my own comfort. In the one class I am almost too conspicuous and this one I've never exchanged words with the professor.

We discussed the reversion from a literate culture to a culture of the image and our accented voice proposed a number of conspiracy theories, none of which I am at liberty to comment on.

After the break we continued to contrast the author of The Canterbury Tales with the narrator. I had considered the Wife of Bath to be a purely comical character, but now I can see where Chaucer seems to revere her. I admit to being a little sleepy as I read and not quite catching all the details of dress in the General Prologue. All in all, every day in this class I am reminded that my mind does not work in the same way as an English major's so I must continually be alert and on my guard.
Where should I see conspiracy and degradation? Where should I rise above my culture and where conform to it? I have only a year to answer these questions.

NOTE:
1- This will be a busy weekend with watching Orlando, writing the Orlando paper and preparing five essays. "This is not a drill, soldier."

Day 13

Today I arrived early to class and was able to participate in moving the desks into a circle. This seems to create a feeling of friendship among the students.

I sat down and the class trickled in. P.J. forgot my name again, but gave me back my Choose Your Own Adventure enraptured. I told her I had a copy and she kept hers. She then proceeded to pass it around the class for all to see. I tried to play down my annoyance at being made so conspicuous and hoped everyone else had forgotten my name too. I'll have to lay low for a while so people don't start picking me out. Crucial is my ability to remain a bland face in the crowd. Still, it can't be a bad thing to impress your professor unwittingly.

As it turns out, class yesterday was, in fact, cancelled. However, the trail of the underground English majors does not end there. Two girls in my class said knowingly to one another (unaware that I was paying keen attention to their conversation), "That was nice to have three free hours yesterday." There's something fishy there. Somehow they have rigged the classes. What does that "free" mean? Is there some kind of monetary exchange involved? Why are there only girls in this group?

The papers are to be at least four pages long.1 We will turn them in on Monday. We are supposed to be reading more about how to write, but the discussion no longer takes the secondary text into account. I'm formulating my ideas for my paper, but what with the upcoming convention and my required attendance at yet another debriefing, I'm not sure how much time I will have to devote to it.

We are also supposed to watch the film version of Orlando by Monday.

P.J. is admittedly giving us insider information. Today she gave us the secret list of departmental terms that professors will look for in our papers.

NOTE:
1- She keeps saying "The longer the better. If you go on to five or six pages, I'll just get more impressed." This is interesting because most of my English majors have spoken of professors as being strict about not going over the length and the difficulty of getting everything into a concise 4 page paper.

Day 12

I was coming in to the MBH (Milton Bennion Hall)1 a few minutes after eight. As I turned to head up the stairs a helpful blonde girl stopped me and asked if I were in "Matheson's" class. I indicated in the affirmative and she told me that class was cancelled.
"He has the flu. I just didn't want you to have to go all the way up there."

When someone says this to you, you have to thank them and walk back outside with them. There is no other option. Imagine what would happen if you said, "I'll think I'll just go see for myself."

But there was something funny about her. Why would class be cancelled? It's got to be some kind of ploy to sabotage the mission. By now I think I've spent enough time in the library2 to dispel any suspicions that I'm on to her. I'll just head up there and see for myself. I had heard about these underground groups, but I had no idea their counterespionage was so sophisticated. A lesser agent would never have spotted her.

NOTES:
1- Incidentally, my grandfather used to have an office in the MBH. He was a professor of educational psychology.
At least that was his cover.
2- Ostensibly paying tuition and taking care of other personal matters. I even have my IT guy in Denmark pretending to chat with me. But I think I lost her.