http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like Just another bbPress community en-US Thu, 20 Jun 2013 09:51:28 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/search.php http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38625 Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:55:36 +0000 Anonymous 38625@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ i agree that i don't like &quot;what's it like&quot; questions.<br /> <br /> not many people ask me about myself, but if they do it's when someone asks what's it like to be queer or what's it like to grow up in rural oklahoma ... the latter of which i got asked a lot when i went to grad school with a bunch of people from manhattan. &quot;ohhhh, it sounds so INteresting&quot; well, i'll go back in time and grow up in affluent massachusettes and then return to this time and place and tell you...<br /> <br /> honestly, i don't know. is that a cop out?</blockquote><br /> <br /> It's not a cop out at all! For some people it's an interesting question, for others its not (same for it being an easy or difficult question to answer). To each their own and such. &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_smile.gif&quot; title=&quot;:)&quot; class=&quot;bb_smilies&quot; /&gt; http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38620 Sat, 29 Sep 2007 00:18:40 +0000 Anonymous 38620@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ i agree that i don't like &quot;what's it like&quot; questions.<br /> <br /> not many people ask me about myself, but if they do it's when someone asks what's it like to be queer or what's it like to grow up in rural oklahoma ... the latter of which i got asked a lot when i went to grad school with a bunch of people from manhattan. &quot;ohhhh, it sounds so INteresting&quot; well, i'll go back in time and grow up in affluent massachusettes and then return to this time and place and tell you...<br /> <br /> honestly, i don't know. is that a cop out? http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38493 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 14:34:01 +0000 Fryphile 38493@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <strong>What's it like being made of awesome?</strong><br /> <br /> AWESOME &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_biggrin.gif&quot; title=&quot;:-D&quot; class=&quot;bb_smilies&quot; /&gt; http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38479 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:43:21 +0000 AxmxZ 38479@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ wild guessing here...Finnish?</blockquote><br /> <br /> *interrupts headdesking to give Whattocallmyself a cookie*<br /> <br /> *resumes headdesking to the tune of Jukka Poika's <em>Keinuta Mua</em>*<br /> <br /> People are always baffled by this one:<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like studying abroad in England?</strong><br /> <br /> Cold. Expensive. Jesus, I love it so much.</blockquote><br /> <br /> Studying abroad in Berlin was the most stressful nine months of my life. Between the student strike, which threw all my academics into chaos, having to read and write academic prose in German, the fall of the dollar depriving me of 20% of my carefully tabulated expenses, my grandfather's death and my then-boyfriend's betrayal, I can safely say that the depression I sank into in Berlin was fully warranted. <br /> <br /> Naturally, as soon as my time there was up, so were my spirits - for about a week. And then I started craving the sound of Verkehrslage being read on Deutschlandfunk; broetchen and Madagascar lychees from the local Penny-Markt; the purple-blue nighttime glow of the Sony Centre on Potsdamerplatz; KDW ice-cream and the sight of Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedaechtniskirche on Ku'damm; even, God help me, the StaBi on Unter den Linden, which I loathed while I had to do research there, used as I was to <em>browsing </em>. http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38456 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:21:26 +0000 whattocallmyself 38456@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ wild guessing here...Finnish? http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38454 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:12:34 +0000 Anonymous 38454@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <strong>What's it like being addicted to the sound of a language you don't understand?</strong><br /> <br /> *headdesk*<br /> <br /> *headdesk*<br /> <br /> *headwall*</blockquote><br /> <br /> Ok I have to ask...which language? http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38453 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:30:30 +0000 AxmxZ 38453@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ <strong>What's it like being addicted to the sound of a language you don't understand?</strong><br /> <br /> *headdesk*<br /> <br /> *headdesk*<br /> <br /> *headwall* http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38452 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:13:26 +0000 Selma 38452@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ Dammit Mr. Fry!! I have a blasted essay to write and reading yours isn't helping! Though, having said that, I now would like to change my stand on the matter.<br /> <br /> I'm not even half way through but already my head is becoming clear of the cobwebs which grow when one is in battle with one's own forced and unwanted writing. I have giggled at one phrase, laughed out loud (lol, I believe is the correct terminology) at another and have gained great pleasure from many.<br /> <br /> There's no better medicine for the ails of doing homework than well constructed sentences which tickle and entice the brain back to freshness and loveliness. Already, I feel I could write ten-thousand more blasted words on the blasted notion of blasted <em>iki</em>. So long as every second one is 'blasted'. http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38450 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 04:06:20 +0000 Anonymous 38450@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ People are always baffled by this one:<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like studying abroad in England?</strong><br /> <br /> Cold. Expensive. Jesus, I love it so much.</blockquote><br /> <br /> I studied abroad in England when I was in undergrad! Can I add &quot;damp&quot; and &quot;nothings ever open on friggin' Sundays!&quot; to your reply? &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.stephenfry.com/bb-content/plugins//bb-smilies/default/icon_wink.gif&quot; title=&quot;;)&quot; class=&quot;bb_smilies&quot; /&gt; http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38449 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:53:43 +0000 MinervaMoon 38449@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ People are always baffled by this one:<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like studying abroad in England?</strong><br /> <br /> Cold. Expensive. Jesus, I love it so much. http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/topic/whats-it-like#post-38448 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 03:45:32 +0000 Anonymous 38448@http://www.stephenfry.com/forum/ The most recent blog (&quot;Let Fame&quot;) touches on the question oft posed to people in the public eye, &quot;What's it like being famous/a celebrity/rubbing elbows with the similarly famous etc?&quot;. However (and perhaps this is only my experience?) this question is often posed to people of all professions -- often over a cheese platter at a social gathering of some kind -- regardless of their public notoriety. So I ask you, my fellow forum denizens, what's it like doing whatever it is you do? Alternatively what's it like living wherever you live? Or, again alternatively, being whatever you are? What's it like [Insert your clause here]? I've gone and opened this can of worms so I'll start with the answers to the three questions I get most often.<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like being an academic?</strong><br /> <br /> The experience, of course, varies widely but for me I start every day with a little giggle over the fact that someone is actually paying me to do my job. It's not the most impressive salary of course but, still, <em>someone</em> is paying me to roll in around 11, teach a class or two (which I adore), read for 3-4 hours, and then bugger off home. It's more tiring than you'd think (the thinking and reading parts, I find the teaching invigorating) but terribly fun. Certainly a profession you take up for the lifestyle, rather than the other traditional reasons for entering a certain field.<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like living in LA?</strong><br /> <br /> The minute anyone around here discovers I'm from LA this question appears. They want to hear that LA is like the telly makes it seem -- all sunshine and attractive people which it is, I suppose, in an anorexic-that-outfit-allows-me-to-view-your-hymen sort of way. I've lived in three countries, two states, and about ten different cities and despite even the best of LA's charms (and it does have quite a few) I can still list a dozen places I'd rather live without having to pause and think.<br /> <br /> <strong>What's it like living in Canada considering you're from LA?</strong><br /> <br /> It's not that different. After a year here going home only makes LA seem stranger. I don't mind the cold, not even the -45C weeks, and no it doesn't distress me that the money is multi-coloured.