hey look! it's a different blog!

Well, obviously this blog is dunzo. / never really even was.

However, I'm writing a new blog about my move to France to teach English! Come check it out, so far it's way better. :) Promise. (I mean, just look at the name!)

www.soyouthinkyoucanfrance.blogspot.com

our lady of the lakes

Well, I have a new favorite thing: walking around the lake(s?) by campus. It takes about an hour and a half, and the houses are absolutely beautiful, and the lake is beautiful, and the trees and grass and flowers are beautiful, and the weather's been beautiful. It also gives me an hour and a half to get away from all the craziness and just be by myself with my thoughts and my music.

I.love.it. :) Hopefully this habit'll last!

like the energizer bunny...

... I'm still going. Not quite energetically, but I'm still here.

I almost dropped out of grad school, but I didn't. Yet.

That's all I have for today. :)

magic numbers: 2009, 22, 123

1) It's 2009... That's pretty exciting. And crazy. How did that happen?

2) I'm 22 now. Meh. BUT I did have my first ever birthday surprise, courtesy of my Baton Rouge friends. It was pretty fabulous!

3) 123 days until the semester is over. It doesn't start until tomorrow, but that's how ready I am for it to be over. Tell me if THAT tells you something.

Christmas break was absolutely fabulous. Busy as all get out (between doctor appointments, working at The Station House, family gatherings, and attempting to see as many people as possible) but absolutely amazing. I mean really. I love my friends so much. I love my family. It feels so good to be in such a wonderful place (the DFDubb) and feel like home - like I belong. I'm excited about the rest of my time in Louisiana, but it feels so good to be going back eventually, to know I'm going back to my favorite place in the world. Anyway, it was good to get my life back on track a bit, and maybe this semester will be a bit more tolerable... so I am forcing myself to believe. Well, here goes... I'm off to lay in bed for the rest of the evening, pretending that I don't have to wake up early tomorrow morning to face one more semester.

a day of surprises

Surprise #1: It is 73 degrees outside, but it's 26 degrees in Lubbock and 27 degrees in the DFW. I wore a light cardigan to walk to work and was burning up. NUTS!

Surprise #2: I checked grades today. I have, of course, an "I" in 17th Century Lit, because I still haven't STARTED putting words on the page for my paper. Fantastic. BUT! The surprising part? I made an A in not only Louisiana French & Bilingualism (I figured I'd make an A in that one...) but also in Old French & Medieval Lit... I almost PASSED out when I saw that. I mean really. This in the class in which I would have been happy to scrape by with a B. This in the class in which we read documents in the original Old French, that really was a different language to me. Nuts. I can't believe it, but I'm happy. I'll take it.

Well, now I'm off to Highland Coffees to see if I can start on this paper... we'll see! :) (I better get on it... I leave Baton Rouge on Friday!)

writing in a winter wonderland...

Well, I woke up today at 7:30 to a text message from my friend Rosie telling me that it was snowing. SNOWING. In Baton Rouge, LOUISIANA. Southern Louisiana. The last time it snowed here was in 1988. Alas, I opened my blinds to see a ton of people running around in the snow. With their dogs. With their dogs in little sweaters (seriously?). My response? "Huh." And then I got back into bed and slept. After living in Lubbock, snow = not that exciting. Especially when you have to be writing a paper.

Well, I haven't posted on here in about a bazillion years. Here's the update on my life: I'm tired of grad school. Grad school and its pressures and politics. I'm overwhelmed in work and I'm overwhelmed in school. Surprise! Good news? I'm taking French linguistics classes next semester rather than French literature courses... and I'm pretty sure I'm never going to take a French lit class again, or any other lit class, for that matter. Turns out I'm interested in literature, but for fun, not for my life's purpose. Linguistics is a much better fit.

Soo basically, of my 4 papers (one 5 pages, two 10 pages, and 1 15 pages) due in the past week, I've finished the shorter one, and 2 of the longer ones. I now have 1 page paper (15 pages) left. Bad news? It was due today at 4:00 and I have not even finished reading for it, let alone started thinking/researching/outlining/writing. Fun times. I'm taking an incomplete, and hopefully finishing it before Monday or Tuesday. Also, I have a bunch of work stuff, I'm giving a final for a friend, and I have the department Christmas party... which reminds me, I need to cook something.

But! In a mere 8 days, I will be travelling home to the Lone Star State. I will eat Rosa's, Chipotle, and Chicken Express. I will sleep in a double bed. I will see my family. I will see my puppydogs. I will park by my house, and not far away in a garage. I will play the piano. I will drive, not walk, to school. I will play MarioKart. I will go to the chiropractor (I'm actually really, really excited about this one). I will not read, write, speak, or think in French for a couple weeks. And I will see all my best friends, and feel at home.

I'm SO EXCITED! :) Light at the end of the tunnel... all of things things are keeping me alive right now. It's CHRISTMASTIME! I'm excited for lights, and hot chocolate, and Christmas movies, and Christmas music, and Christmas Eve church, and good food! YAY!

Okay, I'm off to read 17th century tragedies and compare the spatial represenations and interiority of characters. You jealous?

ants, coffee, & all-nighters, oh my!

Well, it's been a crazy week... I turned in my first grad school paper yesterday, have had a ton of readings for class (as per usual), and there's an event for Friends of French Studies on Sunday that has taken a lot of time lately.

Also, I've been drinking coffee like crazy... and I DON'T drink coffee!

Also, Sunday night, about 1,000 ants crawled out of my bathroom drain when I was taking a "relaxing" bath to distract myself from the woes of school. Literally 1,000. I had to go to Walmart to get Raid that INSTANT, and now I'm terrified of my bath. Just what I needed!

Anyway, I'm going to get to go to Texas soon, and I'm looking forward to it. I'll be in Lubbock November 7-10, and I'm pretty excited to see everyone! :)

Okay, over and out for now...