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...

no me gustav.

Well, 17 days post-hurricane, I'm finally telling my story. Basically, I hate hurricanes. I never really realized that before I experienced the head-on glory of the "worst hurricane Baton Rouge has ever seen" 2.5 weeks after I got here. Perfect. Anyway, so after the actual storm, which I waited out in my friend Rosie's apartment, things didn't seem all that bad from where we were. I mean don't get me wrong, the winds were pretty crazy (91 mph sustained winds... nuts!) but from where we were, it just didn't look like that much damage (just a tree down and a sign blown away). Well apparently it actually did very much damage indeed. When I finally left the apartment 2 days post-storm, I realized that huge 100-year-old trees were uprooted all over campus and around the city, roofs were destroyed, and things were just all around in disarray. My friends came to get me a couple times to go in search of air conditioning and food (luckily), so that was a fantastic break from the monotony of reading by candlelight in my sweaty apartment. I didn't really think about the full repercussions of a hurricane really hit me until I lived it: no A/C in Southern Louisiana (95 degrees, 95% humidity), no lights, no food other than crackers, nothing but warm water to drink, no food to buy, no idea what's going on due to lack of communication with the outside world, no gas to buy, no functional traffic lights, the sound of sirens every 30 minutes, 8:00 p.m. - 6:00 a.m. police-enforced curfew... it was just crazy. It was like living in the 17th century. However, what was worse than living in the 17th century was when everyone around us (all 4 sides!) including our own parking garage which is ATTACHED to our building got power, and all the sudden we lived in the 17th century SURROUNDED by the 21st century. Anyway, after 9 days, we finally got power, and life was fantastic again! I am still so thankful everytime I come home and I have lights, air conditioning, and life past 8:00! Life is beautiful when you have electricity. It was a crazy time (these things actually happened to me during the duration of post-Gustav period without power: I slept on the floor with the window open and woke up with a dead wasp by my head, I had to throw a couple frogs out of my apartment, I lost a peanut butter sandwich one night until the next morning when the sun came up and I could see again, I sat at a cross street while a 17-bus prison caravan rode by, I went to the mall in my pajamas, I got asked out in Arby's by the manager of Arby's, I did homework sitting in McDonald's only to get bombarded by an old man who wanted to tell me his life story, I took cold showers in the complete dark, and I partook in other various adventures), but I feel like a real Louisiana resident now, like it was a rite of passage. All-in-all, I'm glad to be on the other side of this craziness, and even though there are still huge piles of dead trees and big blue tarps on people's roofs and will surely be for a while, I'm glad that both the city and myself are getting back to a normal life!

getting blown away on the bayou

Well, here's the thing: I now live in hurricane country. In other news, it's Wednesday evening during my first week of grad school and by some lucky series of events (which will soon be revealed), I am done with class until next Wednesday at 3:00. Fabulous much? Yes. Well here's an update on life:

1) I had my first grad school class Monday night. 6-9. "Old French & Medieval Literature." All hopes that the class wouldn't actually last until 9 were shattered when our professor lectured for 3 hours. Good news: It seems interesting, and I haven't read a whole lot of medieval literature before. Bad news: We have to read medieval literature in the original Old French. Which, by the way, doesn't look like French at all to me. It looks like Latin to me. Upon my first impression, the words don't look French, the grammar doesn't look French, therefore to me, it's not French. It's not my French. It's foreign. Oh and I had to order a totally new dictionary and grammar for it for 62,33 Euro, which is a good indication that a) if the language requires a new dictionary and grammar, it's clearly a whole new beast and b) I'm now poor because 62,33 Euro is a lot of money in American moolah. Anyway, this class intimidates me and it is going to cost me a whole lot of time and effort... but it'll be an experience!

2) I had my second grad school class today. 3-6. "La Carte du moi: Mapping the Self in 17th-century France." All hopes that the class wouldn't actually last until 6 were... not shattered. We pretty much just introduced ourselves, talked over the syllabus, and went over the fact that "if there's a hurricane next week, we'll meet the week after that, just do the readings!" Fantastic. I'm not in Kansas anymore...or North Texas, for that matter. I've traded tornadoes for hurricanes... we'll see how I feel about that. Anyway, class totalled about 45 minutes, and then it was done! Wonderful.

3) I still don't know what I'm doing for work yet, other than the fact that I've been chosen for "Friends of French Studies." Apparently, it's an organization of people in the university and the community who love French, for one reason or another. There's one student who works with Friends of French, and now it's me! Surprise! So that's pretty exciting. I like friends, I like French. Done and done.

4) My Friday class is cancelled for the first day... and Monday is Labor Day... so no class until next Wednesday! Friends of French tomorrow, and that's it! Fun times USA.

5) Hurricane Fay blew her lovely rains all up in Baton Rouge on Sunday, and now our good friend Gustav is apparently headin' on over. Marvelous. I went to get gas tonight, and they were out of regular gas. I had to get plus. I'm probably going to get blown away when Gustav arrives this weekend... but don't worry. If all the woodland creatures start heading for higher ground, I'll refugee myself somewhere safer. Oh and by the way, I won't have to look far for woodland creatures. I've got enough spiders in my room and even a lizard somewhere around here (that I cannot find in order to catch... scary?) to give me a fair amount of warning.

Over & out.

new places, new faces...

Here I am, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, living in a teeny, expensive apartment with Magnolia trees outside located not too far from the school which in 4 days, I'll attend. The unpacking is STILL coming along, and I take comfort in the fact that eventually it will be done and the first place that has ever been completely and totally mine. Feelings so far? a) I'm absolutely loving my independence and living alone. I think everyone should do this at one point or another. b) I'm feeling a bit melancholy about the fact that I really am not going back to Lubbock. I mean I've "known" it for a while, but I've caught myself several times this summer saying "Oh, when I go back to Lubbock for the fall..." and now it's really hitting me. Graduating early = all my friends are still in Lubbock, and I will miss them all so much! My old apartment, my roommates, my friends from all groups, my classmates and professors, my coworkers and office... it feels so weird to know that all of that will just go on without me while I'm a zillion miles away. Okay, this one's getting sad, so next emotion... c) I'm nervous about classes... first day of grad classes? I feel too young to be doing this, unprepared, like I'm going to completely forget the last six years of my life during which I've been learning this little thing I like to call the French language. I'll probably forget the word for "cheese" on my first day of class or something terrifyingly humiliating like that, but we'll see how it goes. And finally... d) I'm excited about the fact that I get a fresh start! New place, new people, new life! It's a world of new and I'm ready to take it on. I've already been warmly welcomed by the other students in the department, and I'm excited to meet more people in the French department and otherwise! So on this super-long initial post, let's end on that happy note: while I'm so thankful for everything in my life up until this point and I miss all the people who've influenced me and played a part in that life (DFW, Lubbock, and elsewhere... ), I am excited and ready for all of the new I'm about to encounter!