Category Archives: Academia

Tossed Salad

08 Monday Sep 2008

Posted by in Academia, Bostonia, Die Bücher, Life As We Know It

≈ 4 Comments

I’ve been back in Boston for nearly two weeks.  It’s nice to be back.  I’ve had a lot going on and even less to say about it, but I just thought I’d post an update on my life.

The trip here started off somewhat tumultuously with a cartop carrier falling off on the interstate.  A semi hit it and my bedding exploded, flying all over the place.  It all turned out ok in the end, though.  I only lost one thing, and it’s nothing too terribly regrettable.  The important thing is that no one was injured in the process.

I’ve spent the past week becoming obsessed with a series of books that I am embarrassed to name.  They are not terribly well written, and the typos throughout the books are maddening.  It was difficult to read the book when I wanted to take a red marker and just start crossing out entire paragraphs and pages that are wholly unnecessary and even distracting.  HOWEVER, I was not the editor, so those paragraphs and pages were allowed in the final product.  Still, I fell in love with the books (and the male lead).  I love the storylines.  I am not naming the series, but I imagine there are a few people who will read this paragraph and automatically know of the series I am speaking.  To those people: JUDGE ME HARSHLY.  I am mostly chalking this all up to me being more of a girl than I realized.  It’s not good literature, but I suppose everyone is allowed to have their indulgences.

I didn’t iron out my class schedule until Wednesday of last week.  My class schedule is rather forgiving.  One of my classes is a directed study, so that just requires me to meet with my advisor to discuss my thesis, but the frequency or infrequency of those meetings is entirely up to me.  (My program is run in an Oxford manner since the co-directors and assistant director are of Oxford backgrounds.  I like this.)  I took the two MA fall classes last year, so I had to come up with two classes to replace them this year.  I’m being allowed to take the two Ph.D. courses instead.  Neither one meets often during the semester (one meets ten times over the course of the semester, and the other one meets approximately eight times), so that frees me up to spend time in the archives and working on my thesis.   My elective is a linguistic anthropology class.  This class actually meets with an undergraduate class, though the graduate students meet an hour a week with the professor to have our own discussions and to work on our separate work and readings.  The linguistic anthropology class meets three times a week.  This is obviously significantly more often than any of my other classes.  It’s the only class I’ve had so far, and it also involves an extensive amount of reading.  I am finding myself wishing I were a fast reader.  Unfortunately, I very much am not.

Tomorrow is my first day in the archives!  I don’t have class, but I set things up so that I won’t be able to stay the whole day; I have errands to run and loan deferrments to get approved.  If I didn’t have other things to do, I know I’d end up staying until they kicked me out, and it’d be a bad idea anyway.  Because I am sick.  Boo.

I am starting (I think) to recover from a bout of the stomach flu that started yesterday morning at six in the morning.  I am a wimp when it comes to throwing up or being nauseated.  I can handle nearly anything, but stomach pain?  Noope.  It also prevented me from attending Mass yesterday, and that just put me in a sour mood.  Fortunately, I have a lovely friend who was kind enough to stop by the store and pick me up some Pepto Bismol, Fiji water & Gatorade yesterday.  I thanked her approximately one hundred times.  She kept waving it off as nothing, but I don’t think she realizes how much her little errand helped me out.  It helped yesterday be tolerable.  I also kept trying to throw all sorts of money at her to pay her back, but she kept refusing.  Finally, she gave in and agreed to take half of what I was offering.  I like when people are willing to compromise.

This post is too cursory for my liking, but I still have an elevated temperature and the nausea is overly distracting.  I guess something is still better than nothing, though.

Congraduations!

18 Sunday May 2008

Posted by in Academia, Elatedness Abounds

≈ 7 Comments

Welp, I made it.  After three years, I finally graduated from college.  I know that saying that makes it sound as if it took me an absurdly long time to graduate, and I’m well aware that such is not the case.  In fact, I attended the big ceremony, and this evening I attended my department’s ceremony and received my diploma, and yet I’m still having difficulty grasping the fact that I have graduated.  I am technically an alum now.  It doesn’t feel like I am, though.  I think it’s probably because I am going straight into grad school and have another year left, but this whole graduation thing has yet to sink in.  Anyway, I am much too exhausted to write about today, and I still have to finish packing so that I can move out early in the morning tomorrow.  Hopefully I will get a chance within the next week to upload some pictures and write about the experience.  If I don’t, you have my full permission to harass me.

Elatedness Abounds

18 Tuesday Mar 2008

Posted by in Academia, Elatedness Abounds

≈ 2 Comments

Three days before I left on spring break, I woke up from a nap to find that my laptop’s hard drive kamikazed itself without any forewarning. Given my background in psychology and my training in peer listening/counseling, I’m certain I would have been able to talk my suicidal hard drive down from the ledge on which it stood, but as I mentioned before, I was sleeping at the time. I know what you’re thinking; I shouldn’t be responsible for answering any red phones at 3 a.m., but — but! — I assure you that had my laptop (named Little Napoleon, but affectionately known as Li’l Nappy) been considerate enough to call me first prior to offing himself I would have answered that phone and been out of bed before you could blink. Of course, if that phone call occurred at 3 a.m. on Daylight Savings then I wouldn’t have answered it at 3, because that time does not exist on that day. But you know what? Hillary wouldn’t be able to answer it at 3 a.m. either, and neither would you, so you can’t be too critical.

Anyway, it was a rough three days. I didn’t sleep at all, not even a nap or 15 minutes to rest my eyes. In losing my computer, I also lost my study guides, and I had 3 midterms over the course of 24 hours. So, I spent a lot of time in the computer lab looking stuff up and trying to compensate for the fact that I had to start from scratch. Not that anytime is a good time for a computer die, but Li’l Nappy chose a particularly bad time for it to happen. Thankfully, I had a week over spring break to get my laptop functional again, and by me I mean Steven. The day I went out to New York for my spring break, Steven was moving to Connecticut, because he just started a new job with a new company making much more than he was before and with hours far more human-friendly than the 14+ hour days he had been working the past year. (Feel free to congratulate him!) Right before he moved, he ordered a new hard drive for Nappy and then this past weekend he drove 5 hours back to New York to see me and to fix Nappy for me. He deserves a lot of cookies for that. Instead, he got a check for $250 and an Office Space Kit. The money was to pay him back for the hard drive and for money he loaned me last semester, and the present was his belated Valentine’s Day gift, but I like to think it would rival cookies. He installed my new hard drive and reinstalled all my software. He took my old hard drive back with him to see if he can retrieve the data on it (like my documents and my pictures — I would be sad to lose them, especially since I had some pictures of my grandma on there), and in May when he comes out for my graduation, he is going to add more RAM to my laptop so it will last me through grad school. Clearly, Steven is a saint. The next time I get angry with him, you have my permission to direct me to this post and tell me to kindly shut up.

Over break I went over graduation plans & summer plans, and during the course of that I realised that I needed to change the way I want my name to appear on my diploma. I hopped online to do that, and on the same page was my diploma & graduation summary. It included the college I am graduating from, which degree I am receiving, my expected graduation date and right in the middle of all of that, “Cum Laude.” I had a double take, looked, stared dubiously at the screen, checked again and then wondered when the heck someone was planning on informing me. Although it is a very pleasant surprise, I’m thinking that finding out at graduation might not have been the best time. Unless of course it’s all a joke and I’m really not receiving Latin honours, which is improbable, but that doesn’t stop me from checking it every day anyway, just in case it is.

Oh, yeah, and then there’s this:

Beauty & the Beast (of All Applications)

15 Tuesday Jan 2008

Posted by in Academia, Bostonia

≈ 3 Comments

I got into Boston late yesterday afternoon.  Last night when I went to bed there was nary a speck of snow on the ground.  Today I woke up to a winter wonderland:

Some things in this world really are black & white.

I turned in my application for grad school today.  You have no idea how gleeful I am to be rid of it.  I woke up at 7 this morning to work on revising & editing my personal statement and my thesis proposal.  I did not finish until 2 this afternoon.  I actually spent an hour alone on the phrasing of one sentence, only to follow it by spending 45 minutes making a crucial decision regarding punctuation in another sentence.  I had determined that there were two correct ways to punctuate the sentence and then went about making up my mind as to which better conveyed my point and which was more aesthetically pleasing.  I have since been informed that the committee reviewing my personal statement probably will not dwell on that particular sentence, and therefore will not recognise or appreciate the 45 minutes I took AGONISING OVER PUNCTUATION.  All I have to say to that is that someone better notice and give me the world’s biggest chocolate chip cookie.  Except not, because I’m supposed to be trying to lose weight and Maggie might then leave me messages regarding the satanic properties of cookies.

I learned an important lesson from all of this.  I need to never do this school thing ever again.  If I ever attempt to, I want to be reminded of today and this entire past semester.  If I still attempt anything, I want to be put in a straitjacket.

Gryffin tried to save me from myself multiple times.  He kept slapping his paw up on the table and knocking my paper off.  He’s a good friend. 

After I finished the Application of Many Horrors, I went to go check my mail because I hadn’t since I got back.  I have this habit of opening & reading my mail as I walk back to my room or to the dining hall or wherever rather than waiting until I arrive there.  I was reading one of the lovely cards I received (from someone who is probably reading this, actually) when a tree popped up out of nowhere and hit me.

Why, hello there!  Where’d you come from?

In my defence, the tree shouldn’t have been there.  It wasn’t where I left it when I went home for break.

I got to spend a little time enjoying the beautiful snowy day some.  It was a nice present after working on my application for seven hours.  I got to take some pictures while I took a walk in the snow, and that always makes me happy.  Snow is so enchanting.  Something about the world blanketed in a beautiful, pillowy white just tugs at my heart and makes me want to spin around in joy.  What doesn’t make me happy, though, is cleaning my room, which I still need to do.  Classes don’t start until Wednesday, but I’m very excited for the beginning of the semester.  I’m finishing up my last required class (an experimental Psych course, but I got to choose which and I’m taking Developmental Psych, and I loved that class, so it should be pretty interesting) and taking three fun classes.  Interestingly enough, my fun classes are all religion courses — Roman Catholicism, The Bible, and Death & Immortality.  I’m actually really, really giddy about my classes right now.  That will probably change a week or two into classes, but still, it’s bound to be at least an interesting & enriching semester.  Plus, RCIA starts back up again this week!  Life, it is good.

Ready to see where the path takes me.

Checking Them Twice

19 Monday Nov 2007

Posted by in Academia, Work

≈ 2 Comments

Right now I am drinking a venti caffe mocha with an extra shot of espresso for good measure.  A venti caffe mocha.  With an extra shot of espresso.  I think that should give you a pretty good indication of what kind of a night I expect to be having.  Right now my life can be summed up in lists, all of which I have right next to me.  Tomorrow I am leaving to go to Steven’s parents’ house for Thanksgiving Break, so I need to attend to my lists right now instead of taking time to write y’all a more substantial post.  However, since I am detained for the time being, I present you with this (because everyone loves LOLcats) because you are awesome and I love you:

Romance: Not Like It Used to Be

15 Thursday Nov 2007

Posted by in Academia

≈ 1 Comment

I don’t know if this is of any interest to anyone else other than myself, but since it consumed nearly my whole day I am going to talk about it, it being a project I am currently working on for a class. Though, if things work out, this sort of work will be consuming my life next year and perhaps for a long time after that.

I spent my day in the archives today. (Side note: I love that word, archives. It makes me tingle with joy.) Actually, I have spent quite a few days in the archives, but today I was there the longest. I will be going back Monday. The secretary and my own “personal liaison” (I have no idea what to refer to Charlie as. This seems ridiculously demeaning considering how much he’s done for me and how much of a help he is. I don’t have a name for what he is. He’s just Charlie, and he is awesome. Also, he knows… a lot. Hmm, I suppose those Yale alums have done a lot of reading in their day.) there for my project know me pretty well by now. I am no longer called by my first name explicitly. I am referred to by some sort of nickname depending upon who it is, but Lindsay I am not. I am ok with this.

ANYWAY, my project involves the personal correspondence of Sir Lucas White King and his wife Geraldine Harmsworth King. They are the parents of Cecil King. I’m dealing with letters from the very beginning of their courtship, in June of 1890. The beginning of a courtship. During the Victorian era. Are you seeing the awesomeness here? It is beyond amazing. Just seeing their handwriting, reading their words, imagining them writing it, being pulled into that world — it gives me goosebumps. Really, it does. And that world? It is so very different. So much passion and feeling are poured onto those pages. I’m not saying that people do not do that now, but back then the whole sex-before-marriage thing did not exist (Can I go back in time?). You can literally see the excitement poured onto the page with the ever so slightly shaky handwriting at certain points of the letter. In some ways, it’s so neat and in others it can be so annoying. It’s very cat-and-mouse. Everything you’ve ever seen about love back then, with the clingy guy who says cliché things and sounds like a poet mimicking Shakespeare? SO VERY TRUE. Real example from one of Lucas’ letters: “I cannot tell you how sorry I am that our acquaintance (edit: note choice of diction — this speaks volumes) should be cut short so soon. Perhaps it would have been better had we never met! That cannot be helped now and all I can do is to ask you to mitigate the pains of parting. Will you do me one favor — ’tis all I ask — and send me one of your photographs?” This is perhaps not the best example, but it gives you an idea of the tone of his letters. In one of them he gets so bold as to ask her to call him by his Christian name. It’s really neat stuff.

Charlie was the one who put me onto the project. He gets really excited by this stuff. He just lights up upon reading this and talks about how sensual it is. It’s pretty funny to watch. Although realising some of the customs and stuff, I sometimes feel as if I’m reading something I shouldn’t be. It is quite intimate and revealing, but that’s all a part of the process. It’s an exciting, fun project and I love it. I love delving into this stuff, and I would love to discuss more, but I am tired and not so very coherent right now. Also, I am sure that this is not quite as interesting for you. Maybe tomorrow I will have something better.

Friday Night Curve Ball

03 Saturday Nov 2007

Posted by in Academia, Randomness

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There are many things which people would not expect me to do, one of those being (and probably relatively high on this imaginary list) staying in on Friday night to read an essay on the clitoris*.  Well, or any night.

*It was a scholarly essay, and it was for class.

This Train Will Keep on Chugging

02 Friday Nov 2007

Posted by in Academia

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I have recently received a lot of news which could be categorised as the lesser side of less than pleasant. I mentioned that I did not do well on the GRE. To keep the story short, I have been strongly advised to retake the exam. So, that is what I am going to do. Given that I am a student, my current financial status does not exactly welcome this news, and given how terribly last time went, the prospect of putting myself through that again makes me feel sick with anxiety in the pit of my stomach. However, as it was pointed out to me, I was quite ill when I took the exam the last time and this is a chance for me to regain my confidence and set the record straight. Despite the fact that I really feel like that is a grossly optimistic view of the situation taken into account the variables I mentioned, I am choosing to adopt it. Regardless of how nervous I feel about putting myself through this pain again and how afraid I am of screwing up again, this is something I should do and probably need to do.Similarly, the idea I had for a thesis proposal has fallen through; I am not going to be able to do what I had hoped to do. I kept hanging onto the idea, trying desperately to find any sort of workability within it, but I have come up empty-handed. I talked to one of the co-directors of the programme which I am going to apply to and he affirmed my fear and told me that I need to abandon this and pursue something else. So, I am back at the drawing board, and the drawing board? It is blank. I have the name of someone to contact who may be able to help me get back on my feet with this, so I am hoping that I will soon be back on the right track.

This is obviously difficult for me. Everything kind of fell apart at the same time, but I have to believe that this all is happening for a reason — a reason I cannot see at the present moment, but I’m sure I will understand when I’m meant to. Things tend to reveal themselves when they’re meant to, and that timing does not always coincide with that of my own. Actually, it usually never does. Normally I would be freaking out about this. I would be panicking, I would be depressed, I would be frustrated. Right now, though? I’m actually doing ok. I feel ok with this. I normally need to feel a sense of control about things, especially when they are not going according to plan (read: my plan), but as experience has constantly reminded me, I tend to screw things up when these sort of things happen. So, as difficult and contrary to my nature as it may be, I’m going to trust that what is happening is happening because this is the best thing. I’m going to do my best to let God take control and to let Him lead me where it is I am supposed to go. I’m going to do my best to enjoy the ride, I’m going to try to remember to remain calm, and above all, I’m going to try to remember to take God’s lead on this one because it will all turn out ok in the end regardless of what happens.

(I do not know how many people are reading, so perhaps it is presumptuous of me to even ask this question, but since I will be blogging every single day of November, I thought that I would see if there were any topics you would like me to write about or whether there are any burning or even any not-so-burning questions which you have for me. If so, please feel free to leave a comment with your suggestion or question, or feel free to email me if you are not of the commenting type. I would not at all mind the blogging material. Of course, now that I have so arrogantly asked this, no one will respond and I will be forced to mock myself. That would be sad.)

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