Studyspiration

Whenever I feel tired, lazy, overworked, burn out, or any other typically collegiate emotion, I watch the trailer to Return of the King (or sometimes the Two Towers) to remind myself why I want to keep learning and where I want to go. I guess it’s a bit odd, since it isn’t directly academic, but somehow it just always works for me.

Choosing Spring 2010

Ah, registration. The beeping of my alarm clock screaming at me to wake up at 7:40 AM, crawl over to my desk and get my series of classes ready for registration. I had no trouble getting into any of my classes, as I expected, but there is definitely something fun about doing it right at 8:00 when BannerWeb lets you sign in.

I am, at the moment, registered to take the following classes in the spring semester of my sophomore year:

Elementary German (Semester II)

An introduction to spoken and written German, and to the culture and history of German-speaking people and countries. Emphasis on grammar and practical vocabulary for use in conversational practice, written exercises, and listening and reading comprehension. By the end of the year, students will be able to read short edited literary and journalistic texts as a basis for classroom discussion and compose short written assignments. Students who successfully complete this year-long course and take GER 200 and GER 250 (220) will be eligible for the Junior Year Abroad in Hamburg.

Arthurian Legend

The legend of Arthurian Britain as it developed in Wales, France, and England. Readings will include early Welsh poems and tales, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, La Queste del Saint Graal, the Gawain-poet, and Malory.

Old English

A study of the language of Anglo-Saxon England (c. 450-1066) and a reading of the Old English elegies.

Gender and the British Empire

Traditionally, historians have portrayed the British Empire as largely the province of male explorers, merchants, missionaries, soldiers and bureaucrats. This course treats such men as gendered subjects, investigating intersections between the empire and masculinity, while also surveying women’s colonial experiences. Slave societies and cross-cultural encounters through the lens of gender history. The gendered structure of racial ideologies and the imperial features of feminist concerns. From the mid-17th to the early 20th centuries, with a focus on the 19th century.

Italian: Advanced Conversation

Practice in conversation, using a variety of materials including newspaper articles, films, television broadcasts and web sites. This course is designed to develop oral proficiency. There is no written work. All exams will be oral.

I may end up dropping Italian or switching a few things around, but I’m pretty excited for next semester! It’ll be my first semester without taking a class on Asia (despite my History Major concentration being in Asian history…) so that’ll be interesting. All of my history courses so far have been in Asia or Medieval Europe, and I really need to take a class on another geographic region – but I just can’t resist this British Empire class!

Also, by not taking a certain Italian Literature course I am ruling out going to Firenze for my year abroad. Though I really love the idea of going to Italy in the abstract, I have to remind myself how much effort it takes to get me to class, so spending a year studying a Firenze con i studenti italiani is probably not the best idea. Purtroppo, Italia, non ne vale la pena.

Julia Child Day

This post is a bit belated, but I wanted to record some of my culinary adventures that took place on this past Thursday. Julia Child Day is an annual event here at Smith where we celebrate one of our more beloved alums and her impact on the cooking world. The Campus Center hosted a “French vs. Italian Culinary Smack Down” which, for the little bit I could attend, was super amusing. I really love the Italian department, especially Alfonso Procaccini who brought a lot of laughs.

After the cook-off, the Campus Center had a ton of food, from chocolate fondue to cheeses to ravioli. It was way too overcrowded, though, so after indulging in some chocolate fondue I headed back to my house for dinner.

YUM. The menu at my house was:

Pumpkin Ravioli W/
Nutmeg Cream Sauce
Chicken Piccata
Mushroom Risotto
Green Beans W/
Sauteed Shallots
Caesar Salad
Plum Tomatoes, Basil,
Baby Mozzarella Balls
Antipasto Platter
Herbed Focaccia Bread
Almond Cookies
Straciatella Gelato

And after stuffing myself here, I went to another house to indulge in:

Pommes Au Gratin
Popovers
Sin Cake W/
Raspberry Sauce &
Fresh Whipped Cream

I almost exploded with food, but it was definitely worth it. I wish it could be Julia Child Day everyday!

The Bare Necessities of Life

I just watched Disney’s The Jungle Book with some of my friends this morning for the first time in a very long time. All racial caricatures aside, I really love this film & it’s groovy tunes & especially the philosophy of one Baloo. I think that if my roommate was there this morning to watch the movie with us she would have very much approved of his don’t work hard, be happy mentality and would have added it to Daoism as her personally philosophy. Of course, that’s her trying to get out of doing math homework, but I too definitely see the appeal of letting go and relaxing a bit. It can be so hard to just step back and take a break, especially in the competitive and hyper active college world of many schools like Smith College, but I definitely think it’s important to break the mindset of workworkwork and to live & enjoy life a little. It can seem so impossibly hard to not kill yourself with stress over this midterm or that paper or these exams. But stress is not what life is about! I think…I hope.

Anyway, I need to learn all of this myself before I preach anymore. Enjoy the music and add a little rhythm to your life:

P.S. Have a great Halloween!

Unsure, as usual

Eye of God

I have spent the last hour or so curled up in bed reading Exodus for my Religion class’s discussion of Judaism tomorrow and I can’t stop thinking about my personal spirituality, so I figured that I should write it out. I know I’ve opened up about spirituality at various points over the last year, but I have failed to speak in the recent months how confused and flustered I feel every time the topic of faith has come up. I just…can’t decide how I feel about all of it! Being at Smith has left me far more cynical than I was this summer and, in turn, much more confused. I’m sure this will multiply tenfold when we actually study Christianity in class.

All I am sure about is how much I love Buddhism. Seriously, I get so giddy and happy when we discuss it. Then again, it also just makes me homesick for my spiritual, vaguely hippy mom (and much more cynical father.) Speaking of my mom, she’s going to be giving a Dharma talk at our local Sangha next Thursday! Go mom!

On a completely unrelated note, I really enjoyed James’ most recent blog entry and I am rediscovering my insane love for A*Teens (listen to Slammin’ Kind of Love, it’s deliciously 90s. Sorry for the awkward anime video, but it’s worth it.)

My Five Favorite Songs, Fall 2009 so far

Pretty self-explanatory. These are the songs getting me through these dreary midterm weeks. In no particular order:

1. Mordred’s Lullaby by Heather Dale

2. Rudie Can’t Fail by The Clash

3. Losing My Religion by REM

4. Pretty Visitors by Arctic Monkeys

5. Elegy from Bear McCreary in the Battlestar Galactica Season 4 OST

How to Be Lucky and a Tiny Apple

I really love this article from the Telegraph that was linked on Gala Darling on how to be lucky. I tend to be on the luckier side, and I totally agree with that they said!

* Unlucky people often fail to follow their intuition when making a choice, whereas lucky people tend to respect hunches. Lucky people are interested in how they both think and feel about the various options, rather than simply looking at the rational side of the situation. I think this helps them because gut feelings act as an alarm bell – a reason to consider a decision carefully.

* Unlucky people tend to be creatures of routine. They tend to take the same route to and from work and talk to the same types of people at parties. In contrast, many lucky people try to introduce variety into their lives. For example, one person described how he thought of a colour before arriving at a party and then introduced himself to people wearing that colour. This kind of behaviour boosts the likelihood of chance opportunities by introducing variety.

* Lucky people tend to see the positive side of their ill fortune. They imagine how things could have been worse. In one interview, a lucky volunteer arrived with his leg in a plaster cast and described how he had fallen down a flight of stairs. I asked him whether he still felt lucky and he cheerfully explained that he felt luckier than before. As he pointed out, he could have broken his neck.

In other news, I have a very tiny apple from when I went apple picking this past Monday.

look at how tiny that is. IT’S IN A SPOON.

tiny.

I Wish Someone Would Act Out Clovis’s BAMF Self

Aka I should be reading Gregory of Tours History of the Franks, or doing Italian, or reviewing German. Here are some random Youtube videos I have found particularly amusing lately.

Twilight: The Cat Version. Do I really need to explain?

Amusing advertisement that Rhi sent me. Très amusant!

Some German TV show…with Viking hats…and dinosaurs. IDEK.

This video cracks me up and is horrible and please don’t hate me for linking it. Alyssa totally just walked into the room when I was playing it and gave me that look. Don’t judge me, girl, or I’ll send the ninjas after you.

Humanities Girl in a Science World

Aka, what the hell is quantum gravity?

Today I decided to try to distract myself from my ever growing black hole (hardy har) of homework by going to a lecture about “Black Holes in Higher Dimensions”. At first I started taking general notes, jotting down stuff like “Event Horizon – surface dividing black hole interior from outside world” to “super massive black holes – millions to billions of solar masses. see Muse.”

And then the wall of WTF hit. Seriously, I didn’t even feel stupid, it was just beyond that. I was there with someone who is a science major & loves physics and she had the same sort of bzuh look on her face that I had. The follow is our exchange of notes:

“WTF is going on?”

“Dude, I’m a history/Medieval studies major. He is speaking Chinese.”

Despite still not having any idea of what Kerr-Newman space time is or how to understand the possible 5th – 10th dimensions, it was very nice to immerse myself (if only for an hour) in something that does have to do with language, Confucius or Germanic Tribes. I’ve been feeling particularly sick of religion at the moment (not my class, which is great, but religious institutions in general) so hanging out with scientists was a nice breath of fresh air.

Things Getting Me Through the Day

1.2.

3.

4.

5.

My friends ♥