In Which Our Heroine Faces Unreasonably Cold Weather and Consequently Spends Much of Her Time Indoors

Hello again! I’ve just finished my first week back at Mac and have finally managed to get back to my blog. Sorry I never wrote one for my last few weeks last semester—everything got crazy earlier than I expected and I felt too swamped to do any blogging. But I’ll try to get back to (and stick to) my old schedule (every-other Saturday) again this semester.

I’m obviously not going to be able to do a full recap of the end of last semester, but I can tell you about a few adventures. At the beginning of December every year, Mac has a dance called the Winter Ball which, last semester, was such a colossal failure that Mac has been banned from the hotel that hosted it. Consequently, several of my friends and I didn’t particularly feel like attending this year’s, so Charmaine and Tori and I had an alternate Winter Ball in our room, fancy dress and all. Basically, we all put on finery in order to watch Sherlock with Tori (who hadn’t seen the second series yet). Partway through we decided we needed to be more comfy, so Charmaine and I added pjs to the fancy attire. Definitely red carpet-ready.

Charmaine and I also decorate for the occasion, both with the hilariously tacky plastic tree her father brought when he visited

[Emily made us the tiny TARDIS when she saw how bare our tree was.]

and with lots of paper chains and snowflakes, just like the kindergartners we (not so secretly) are.

To round out the semester, Charmaine and I went to see Skyfall (the new James Bond movie) and then the midnight premier of The Hobbit, both of which we enjoyed immensely. And, of course, I finished up all of my classes (even my massive drawing project!) with good grades across the board. A brief moment of bragging: I got an 106% on my C18 final! And those extra points weren’t from extra credit opportunities, either, but just because Professor Chudgar really liked my essay answers. HUZZAH!

I also did some work on my self-designed major (IDIM) proposal, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

After some confusion and difficulty, my schedule this semester has finally settled down to these four classes: Art of the West II, 19^th Century British Literature, British Youth Subcultures, and Shakespeare Studies. I’m really quite excited for them all.

Art of the West II is from Renaissance to Modern, which is exciting. Stopping just before the Renaissance in AotWI was so terribly tantalizing—it’s nice to get to this material. And my professor is as enthusiastic as could be hoped, even saying that this class is a necessary part of everyone’s education—not just artists and art historians. She sort of prowls excitedly in front of the class in a very amusing manner.

C19 seems exciting as well, so far. Our first assignment was to ready Tennyson’s Ulysses—nice to see a familiar face. And we finished out the week looking at the Crystal Palace Exhibition’s art catalog—SOMONE COMBINING ENGLISH AND ART HISTORY IN ONE CLASS!!

British Youth Subcultures (post-WWII) is basically a cultural studies course in the English department. It looks like it will be rather challenging, but it’s exciting to take a class so completely outside of my knowledge set. The professor (Dr. J, as she prefers to be called) also combines media. We’ll be looking at art, fashion, movies, and listening to music, not just reading literature.

Shakespeare Studies focuses on six tragedies and on the nature of tragedy—a great premise. Although the professor is charming and ahs a lot of interesting and unexpected things to say (and clearly has good taste, since she loves A. S. Byatt’s Possession)), I’m a little concerned that this class will be too easy. We spent the first day “translating” a single Shakespearean speech.

As for my proposal! Last semester I met with Kari (my visual culture professor), Chudgar (C18), Daylanne (Harlem Renaissance), and Joanna Inglot (head of the art history department) about it. Kari said she’d absolutely love to work with me and Chudgar said no (the stinkhead). Joanna (possibly misunderstanding my question) said that she definitely thought Kari should work with me on it because it was a great proposal. ) Daylanne sent me on to two other English professors she thought might be able to help me better—Casey Jarrin and Robert Warde. When I met with them, Warde was interested and definitely in agreement with me, and Jarrin was enthusiastic, saying that my proposal could be a “manifesto” for one of her classes. (!!!!!) In order for them to be able to work with me, though, I had to have taken or be taking a class with them at the time I submit my proposal—so this semester. That was the cause of my schedule reorganization—but luckily it worked out! Jarrin is the Dr. J of my Subcultures class and Warde teaches C19. Because of that stroke of luck, things are looking pretty good so far. I’ll give you guys more updates as I proceed (or not).

Otherwise, the only dramatic thing happening in my life has been the weather—it’s been an uneventful if long first week back. The weather, though. Brrr!!!! Friday was particularly horrible—the high was negative eleven. Fahrenheit. I could feel ice crystals forming inside my nose after only a few minutes outside—an experience I do not particularly want to repeat. It’s warming up again now, though (thank goodness)!

I’ll try to write more next time—love you all! 

P.S. You can tell I'm not up to my usual blogging standard—I didn't make you guys endure even a SINGLE one of my numerous winter photos. Maybe next time. Mwahahaha!