is it over yet?

Well, it's finally crunch time. Two take-home finals. Started one today, but my brain hurts so it's time for a dinner break and Eddie Izzard. My mind needs to relax. Shall I work more on my final tonight? Who can say. We'll see what Mr. Chianti says about it :-)

are you still out there???

So as finals are drawing near and I should be reading frantically, I sit here in 615 of Ballantine staring out the window at the not so gently falling snow. Oh and I just realized that I have my headphones in, but turned of Pandora about 5 minutes ago, oops.

Problem solved. Gotta love Christmas music on Pandora :-) Is it normal to snow up? So in case all two of you are wondering, I have almost made it through my first semester of grad school. Two days of class left, 2 take-home finals and one in-class exam. I feel that I should be hardcore stressing about now, but oddly I'm not. Hopefully that's a good thing. I'm mainly just looking forward to next semester, no more lit classes. Hooray! I have French Semantics, Morphology and Teaching Methodology. I'm looking forward to the classes, but I'm little anxious about teaching next semester. I will be going from 4 students in an 8am section to about 50 in 2 back-to-back sections starting at 9:05. Should be good times.

As for the holiday break, no concrete plans yet. I have to be in Bloomington at least through the 17th. After that I'll probably stop off in Nashville for a few days before going home and then after Christmas I need to make a trip up to Ktown. Soooo, Let me know what you're doing after New Year's if you're in Knoxville. I feel that a well-deserved trip to Sassy's might be in order.

Another exciting thing for next semester is that I will be playing in a band :-) Given that it's IU I will obviously not be in one of the actual bands, but rather the All-Campus Band. At least I'll be playing though. Rehearsals are only one night a week, so luckily it won't take too much time. I went to their concert this semester to check them out. Kind of reminded me of a high school group (is that mean?), but I'm excited to get to play.

That being said, I'm going to actually try to get some work done now. Hopefully I will update sooner than later.

I'm alive... aka I promise not to use excessive Celine song titles and lyrics to label all of my posts...maybe

So it's official. I survived my first day of teacher orientation at IU and it was relatively painless. That is, unless you count the massive headache I had this morning, because I'm an idiot and thought that I could make it through hours of sitting in a classroom without caffeine. WRONG! This problem will be rectified tomorrow. Luckily I work for the French department, so at 1030 we had a coffee and croissant break. Nothing I love more than free food and coffee :-) The one downside to being in training is that we actually have homework. I can't remember the last time I actually sat at a table and completed an assignment. Yes, I realize that I JUST graduated with my BA, but trust me... it's been a while.

So, after 2 hrs of sitting at my dining room table with my beginning French book, notes from today and a heaping class of some rather crappy cheap inexpensive red wine, I have come up with lesson plan for 4 days of class which I am rather pleased with. Hopefully Dr. Sax will approve as well. If not, I guess I'll just have a nice chat with Dr. Cabernet tomorrow evening when I get home. :-)

Time for a change...

Well, here it is. Yet another attempt at blogging. I feel pretty sure that I will actually have some decent material pretty soon, what with teaching college students and all. Frankly, I'm slightly freaking out at this point. We start training tomorrow morning at 9am and I basically have no idea what to expect. Training will last a week and a half, then they throw us in with the sharks. Have I mentioned that I have never had any teaching experience before? Sure. I've tutored, but this is a whole new ballgame. I'm not really concerned about the material, it's more the students. It's strange to me that my students will be basically the same age as me and in some cases, even older. I'm sure that I'm just worrying for no reason and everything will be fine.

Other than that, I'm completely settled into Bloomington now. I really think that I'm going to like it here. It seems to be just the right size. I love my apt and campus is very close (about 10min by bike). Although, the first time I rode my bike to campus, I realized exactly how out of shape I am. The second day seemed better, and I'm going to make myself do it again today, I hope. haha. As for now, I need a break from the computer. Time for a good book. Is 2pm too early for a glass of wine? Books are always better with a glass of wine. :-)

Pierre Corneille, you are my bitch lover!

so i'm pretty much up to my knees elbows neck hair? in 17th century french lit right now. ahhh. actually i really enjoy it, but i've gotten behind on readings and it's kicking my butt trying to catch up. I just finished Le Cid. Now I'm about to start La Querrelle du Cid (42 pages), which is an essay explaining why these two critics thought Le Cid was awful, but i'm pretty sure they just wrote it out of jealousy towards Corneille. Then I have to read an essay (16 pages) about Le Cid, which is actually laudatory of the play. THEN... I have to read a classmates 3 pages analysis of the play to discuss in class tomorrow. Did I mention it's 1:52am! but hey, i needed a break from all the french. time to get back to the ol' meule à aiguiser (grindstone).

monies

so it's official.... i have two jobs. i swore it would never happen, but going to europe for 10 months leaves you completely broke. technically my job at abercrombie kids, from this point forward is only gonna be one day a week and only to keep the discount, but still... on that point my saturday was filled with working at abercrombie and WATCHING THE OLYMPICS!!! I'm addicted. It's official. I just can't wait for the gymnastics. That's pretty much occupied my day today until I have to go to work at 3 :-(.

After that there is Jordi's bday pool bash at Tj's. That should be good times. I love swimming and am sad that I haven't gotten to do much of it this summer.

Apart from that include practicing, reed making, and more practicing. Geez, I have such an exciting life. Orchestra auditions are on Saturday and I have to get in some serious practice time in with the contra. yeah, that's right. Fellenbaum is making all of the bassoons audition on contra. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate contra? If not, let me do it now. I....HATE.......CONTRA......BASSOON! Well, pretty much just playing it in orchestra, but still.

Well, back to watching the olympics. woohoo, powerlifting

Back in the swing of things

So I realize I missed a lot of posting, but now I'm back in the States and am getting back into a normal schedule. Hopefully part of this schedule will be blogging regularly. Summer class ended today and none to soon. Not that I don't love World Civilization, in fact I'm quite fond of civilization, but that class was too much for me. I feel bad admitting it, but I came very close to falling asleep several times in that class.

Finishing that class made me realize something. I am one step closer to graduation and... the real world. Just so we're clear, by real world I mean I'll be moving out of TN to go to grad school. Not sure where exactly yet, but hopefully somewhere in the NE. My list of applications at this point include Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, and U of Chicago. Not really looking forward to filling out applications. It's going to feel like applying to undergrad all over again, but this time it'll be a 5-6 yr commitment rather than 4.

Now that class is over, I'll be working quite a bit in the weeks to come before fall classes start. Currently I'm working at abercrombie kids and Calhoun's on the River. Once school starts I'll mostly be at Calhoun's, but I'll probably keep one shift a week at abercrombie so that I can keep my discount, cuz let's be honest, I need new clothes.

As for right now, I'm gonna head to sleep so that I can get up in the morning and hand out PMA flyers to the band freshies.

More to come...