Ruby Granger #18 Still no deal with Waterstones but half her food was mailed from home

[ggacc]

It’s utterly bizarre to me that anyone would suggest that Ruby work into schools so that she can hold on to her own fantasies of still being at school - that would be incredibly dangerous for anyone for whom she would have responsibility.

To clarify, when I say I can imagine her doing it, I don't think that she should be doing it !

 

[Lasagnacreamcone]

I'm late to the party but can I just say how freakishly Weird that ad for her old school is to me. It just seems so removed from reality, it's wild. I feel like this explains A Lot about Ruby's behaviour, if you come from an environment like that the real world must be a mighty shock to the system, even if it's just the real world in the form of the Exeter bubble. Judging by that ad girls at that school get told over and over again that they're the greatest and that they have a great future because they went to such a great school. Yikes.

A personal highlight for me was the youngest girl saying that "I now pack my school bag myself every night, and I try hard to remember my homework" like that is some brilliant, show-stopping achievement for a student? Like the ad clearly wants to convince parents that this school is worth paying 10.000 pounds in tuition per year because this school will teach your little darling to be so independent and amazing, she'll even be able to pack her own school bag! And not only that, she'll also "try to" remember doing her homework! Clearly, that is some next-level education you could never get at a regular school.

So I watched the ad and I was like "Imagine going to a school like that" and my boyfriend was like "well, I went to a school like that" and I thought, no, this school looks a lot more prestige or whatever than your school.
His school cost 5000 canadian dollars a year. That's 3000 pounds.
I checked the admission fees of Ruby's school and it's insane. If you do all of your school from age 4 to 18 there, it's a total of 230 310 pounds, or 387 331 canadian dollars.
What the fuck. That's more than an american bachelor degree you got there lmao.

(PS: I checked, there are three terms a year)

 

[GoinDowntown]

But I'm gonna do a very simple example: pick a book by Lemony Snicket. Any one. Then imagine this book written in a very descriptive pov way. With good syntax and grammar and beautiful words tho. Same story and all. Do you think it would be as enjoyable?
That's what I mean by that.

Tell that to Tolkien lol. You don't think he could have made an epic story out of that material?

 

[Scapier88]

That window looks so damp and I bet her room is really chilly I can see how Ruby would like the aesthetic but give me modern double-glazing any day. I’d also find it pretty depressing to spend hours in a room with a window that you can’t really look out of.

The last flat we were in before we moved to glitter hell was really bad for condensation on the windows I brought a window vacuum that sucked the water of the windows

 

[Lola123]

It’s interesting because all the local grammar schools do far better on the league tables. So she must’ve not passed her 11+ ?

Or they knew she wouldn’t cope with it so she continued to stay on at that school, she wouldn’t have had the same pass mark if she was at the prep school

 

[asilosmagdalena]

ruby’s background music choices are absolutely hysterical. hall of the mountain king’s most intense section playing during what’s supposed to be a “cosy decorating session” is definitely interesting

also lol at her immediately berating blakeney for her positioning of the pumpkin on the windowsill then cutting it off because she knows it makes her look bad

I also loved how she asked for classical recommendations on Insta and was supposedly listening new stuff on Classic FM but has been using that same Grieg piece over and over again for a while now

 

[CalatheaLater]

Can't see ruby doing this though? she vegan x

Veggie sandwich from Five Guys then

 

[EllaEm87]

Imo touching everything in a shop when there's absolutely no need to do that is unhygienic in general, even outside the context of the pandemic lol it was unhygienic before Covid as well, most of us just didn't pay attention to stuff like that back then

And people will go back to not paying attention again. People have short memories, if I remember well the lockdowns after the first seemed to be broken here there and everywhere. People didn’t care anymore.

Also the touching could be a sensory thing for some people. By all means, do what you’re most comfortable with. Some like touching, some don’t. Some use good hand hygiene, some don’t. We gotta let some things slide and just focus on yourself!

 

[lupanda]

If it was my child and they were coming home every weekend I’d give them an ultimatum. Come home one weekend a month, because you’ll never settle if you’re running home every weekend, or transfer to a college that’s closer and live at home full time, if that’s option.

I couldn’t deal with the constant back and forth. Being in the US and near no good colleges, if my kids decide to go, they will have to move away and they wouldn’t really have the chance to come home often at all. They’ll have to settle in or come home.

Coming home this often won’t hurt anyone but unless her parents are patient saints, it must be a little… irritating. And she’ll never get any less homesick.

 

[3calico3]

I reckon she'll begrudgingly complete her degree, take a year out (at home, of course) and then try to apply for a master's. She may get rejected, take another year out, and then she'll go back and do another UG degree in philosophy or something similar, and the cycle will continue.

Reality is, she doesn't need to work to support herself so she can prolong her education for as long as possible. She could find some influencer-adjacent job due to her YouTube channel, but I imagine recruiters would look at her social media in that case and that probably wouldn't go too well.

I can't see her in any 'normal' job. It will likely be 1. Academia (probably not), 2. Social media, 3. Living with mummy and daddy

I met someone at a uni social who was on her third UG degree, when I asked why (thinking she'd say a career change or something like that) she said "I enjoy collecting degrees" without a hint of sarcasm. For most people doing multiple UG degrees would be pretty unthinkable as most aren't funded by Student Finance after your first, but she/her parents clearly have the money, so she doesn't need to worry her little head about that.

 

[iglie]

Well, she’s back at AXE-ter. And she’s been #gifted a new ”broach” (a piece of jewellery the rest of the world spells ”brooch”) It makes her feel autominal, because there’s absolutely nothing about November that would accomplish the same.

not to defend her, cause like English is her native language after all, but wow English pronunciation/spelling doesn't make any sense. I've just learned that even though 'brooch' is pronounced /broach/ it's still spelled as 'brooch'..

 

[Lasagnacreamcone]

I'm a bit late two add my two cents, but I remember carrots tasting SO GOOD when I was malnourrished. Because they are on the sweeter side for a vegetable. So maybe that's why. I never liked carrots like ever in my life, besides that.
I am even more late for this, but for "culotte", there's not really a way to write it for english speakers. I thought about it a lot and I didn't find any way to write the french "u" phonetic in english. It's a bit like the end of "q" (ueue?).

 

[Lasagnacreamcone]

Weird cause for me the last sentence means you are reproaching something because of the double negation. ive always found double negations very confusing anyway so I avoid using them, be it in French or English.

Yeah it's really weird. But basically those "nothings" are different words. There's a "nothing" that's a pronoun, and one that's an adverb.

Yeah it's really weird. But basically those "nothings" are different words. There's a "nothing" that's a pronoun, and one that's an adverb.

"Depending on context, nothing is either nothing, emptyness, or something"
It's really hard to translate, néant and rien both are nothing in english, and it says "one empty" (un vide) instead of emptyness, but "empty" is not a noun in english so... Google tells me "a hole" but that's not exactly it.
Languages are wild. English has too little words. And then you have japanese where there are extremly specific terms but also nothing is conjugated.
わたしはがくせいです means "I am a student" but translated word for word it's "me student be". です means "to be" but also "am" "was" "are". You get the tense with context.
Also you guys don't conjugate nouns. Wich is great. Making gender neutral statements in french is really hard, and writing them almost impossible. Like, I can't be a student, I have to be a girl student or a boy student in french, no in-between.
In bulgarian they gender last names.
Also french is a nightmare even if it's your first language.
"The gift that you gave me", well to say that in french you would have to say "the gift that you to me have given", it's a tense called composed past, and you either use it with have or be. If it's used with to be, it's gendered (we even have a word for gendering nouns and verbs that doesn't exist in english because we're that obsessed with identities ig idk) with the subject of the sentence, but if it's used with to have, omfg. It's gendered with the direct object complement if it's places before the verb, and if it's placed after, it's not gendered. So with "the gift that you to me have given", "given" would be gendered as my gender, because I am the direct object complement, and it was indicated before the word.
Thanks for reading my little rent. I am so sorry for anyone learning french at the moment, even the babys born in France doing so. They don't know how much they'll suffer in high school yet.

How did I quote myself on there

Ok so now I can't edit my mistakes but I can add to this post that'a already too long endlessly. Great.

 

[Ilaariaa]

No wonder she's out of touch after growing up in that environment since she started school

 

[Spencerskates]

I joined a society and we went away to do our Thing about once a month. Of course, we were also the weirdos who sat just outside the bar with our largely non-alcoholic drinks and occasionally our niche interest instruction manuals before going home to watch 24 and eat “a fleet of cakes” but we had a good time. I think Ruby would hate our Thing but our socials sound kind of like they’d suit her fine.

I don’t understand why Ruby didn’t join a dance society, as she seems to really enjoy it. It gives you a hobby/interest and an opportunity to meet new friends without having to go out drinking if you don’t want to.

 

[slamvs27]

Who exactly is she inspiring with these outfits? With this "CONTENT"??

 

[Magpie02]

Ruby tries desperately to brand herself as unique by describing her fashionstyle as "dark academia" while all I see are bland colors, unironed Miss Patina shirts and mismatching outfits. Boring as hell.

 

[dodadedo]

Long time lurker , talking about ruby's non linear filming , that Waitrose is not in Exeter but near where home is , in a small town starting with B. (Won't name the town as I don't want to explicitly state the approximate area of where her family lives) Hasn't she been in Exeter for 6 weeks? No way this was filmed in September.

I KNEW I RECOGNISED IT I thought to myself that's not in Exeter and now I know why!

 

[GoinDowntown]

Some people are just, not made to be writers.

Not sure what you mean by this...?

Sure, some people are naturally more talented, but can't everyone improve by practicing if they have something interesting to say?

 

[CatCafe234]

You're right with this. It's really unfair to a child to make them believe they're some kind of genius child prodigy.

But I don't think the school was wrong to encourage her to apply to Oxford - she did manage to get an interview after all, and she wouldn't have been invited to interview if she wasn't seriously considered as a potential applicant.
Even if they didn't think she would get in or thrive there, it can still be a confidence boost to be asked to interview at Oxford.
In Ruby's case, it had the opposite effect and crushed her.

I guess they might have known that she would tank the interview, but they also might not have - she always appeared very confident and well-spoken at that age. Either way they gave her the opportunity to try and give it a go, and you never know, a student might surprise you if you give them the chance!

I agree If anything I’ve always felt that her school did her a bit of a disservice around the whole interview process. I have no idea what her school’s Oxbridge prep and support was like but Ruby seemed totally focused on doing loads and loads of extra work, and whilst this can have value she never seemed to think about the actual interview. It seems like that was where she was let down, because as soon as she had to think on her feet and make those links between her knowledge and research and the stuff she was presented at interview, she panicked. I always thought private schools tended to do a lot better in terms of things like practice interviews but I wonder what support Ruby had in that line.