I'm a MASTER of Medieval History!
I have an MA in Medieval History! I passed! It's been a relaxing week since Friday. UGH that was such an ordeal. And I mean that in the medieval sense of "the ordeal" (ordeal by fire maybe?). Friday morning I got dressed, and was more relaxed than expected. I put on my little white blouse with a black dress over it. My attitude was "give me my MA I look the part."
I went in and set up the room with Kathy and Chris and waited for my board of professors. The mood was quite lighthearted at first but I was too nervous to appreciate that. And then it began. I had 15 minutes of questions with Dr. Finan, Dr. Madden, and Dr. Smith, in that order, and then they each went back and had five more minutes each. And OMG they have awful poker faces, so it was hard to tell if I was giving them the answers they were looking for. Sometimes it was really hard to tell what they were driving at. Especially Finan. He started out with questions on Richard v. John, which I had prepped. I was excited to start talking about it but frustrated that I couldn't really answer it the way I'd prepped and that I only got to say about 25% of what I knew before he moved on. It was very nervewracking. Dr. Smith asked me a lot of dates, and Madden asked me a list of battles, most of which I knew (and had just learned in the process of prepping for this exam!). Dr. Madden also asked me a list of Papal Bulls, none of which I got right, which was horrifying, though Smith and Finan both laughed at him like those were completely ridiculous questions (which they were). I had a lot more questions hurled at me, many of which I handled well and many that I just didn't know. There's no way to feel good about this test. You're GOING to get a lot wrong. It's just about what you can get right. And apparently I got enough right! One question I did NOT appreciate was when Dr. Smith asked me, in front of Dr. Madden (who wants SLU to be THE place for Crusading studies in America), if studying the crusades has been overblown by modern historians! Gah - not nice to put me in that position. Haha.
I was so relieved when I passed. So relieved. And I was so glad a few of my friends were there to wait outside the room with me while the professors decided on my exam. The rest of the day was more relaxed. Kendra and I got some pictures together because we both wore very similar outfits! And in the evening a lot of the grad students all went out to the Scottish Arms to celebrate the new MA students!!! That was a lot of fun. Strongbow, Fish & Chips, and lots of good conversation, mostly with the other MAs about the exams!
My problem now is that I'm having SUCH a hard time getting back into productive mode to finish this dang seminar paper on Ramon Marti! I really do want this to be a good paper, but I have no motivation to get back into working round the clock. Blargh. haha. Can't wait for summer. Just want to do wedding stuff!!!!!!
I will have a summer job though. I am really excited that I managed to snag at job working at the VFL. YAY! SO much better for me than Pasta House. I'll be helping create a manuscript research index for the Manuscripta journal, so that if a scholar needs to know what has been written on/about a particular manuscript, they can just look it up and see all these collected articles. :-) It'll help me get through the data entry knowing how helpful this index will be to the VFL. And then once a week I'll be helping Susan L'Engle sort out boxes of miscellaneous manuscripts and information so that we can get those pieces into the working collection and be available for research. I'm most excited and intimidated for that, though it is a lot like what I did for the Colorado Historical Society a few summers back. Just pleased about finding that for this summer. And the schedule will work out SO nicely with Casey's work schedule so I'm only working when he's also working and we'll have more time together this summer.
Looking forward to more time with Casey because with my studying and his play, we have NOT seen much of one another. I'll have to write more about The Country Girl later. It was a wonderful play and I hope he's proud of it. Definitely worth working a 60+ hour week to pull off! (40 at Paulo and 20+ more at the theatre!)
Last week with my students, which makes me sad. I've really enjoyed this group. Lots of great students that I'll miss. I do hope they leave me some helpful comments on the evals, and that some will take 111 with me in the fall. I'm so glad I'm TAing again in the fall! Not many of the grad students are because we have SO many ABDs teaching. I'll be working with Jen Popiel again (I was her RA last year) and after the RA experience (I wasn't incredibly helpful I don't think) I'm looking forward to doing a good job for her, and teaching again! I love it so much that I'd be bummed if I had to go back to research. Luckily Damian said that winning the TA Award means that I'll have to TA every semester from now on. haha. Good!
Lunchtime! Work Time! Teaching Time! It's going to be a productive day.
I went in and set up the room with Kathy and Chris and waited for my board of professors. The mood was quite lighthearted at first but I was too nervous to appreciate that. And then it began. I had 15 minutes of questions with Dr. Finan, Dr. Madden, and Dr. Smith, in that order, and then they each went back and had five more minutes each. And OMG they have awful poker faces, so it was hard to tell if I was giving them the answers they were looking for. Sometimes it was really hard to tell what they were driving at. Especially Finan. He started out with questions on Richard v. John, which I had prepped. I was excited to start talking about it but frustrated that I couldn't really answer it the way I'd prepped and that I only got to say about 25% of what I knew before he moved on. It was very nervewracking. Dr. Smith asked me a lot of dates, and Madden asked me a list of battles, most of which I knew (and had just learned in the process of prepping for this exam!). Dr. Madden also asked me a list of Papal Bulls, none of which I got right, which was horrifying, though Smith and Finan both laughed at him like those were completely ridiculous questions (which they were). I had a lot more questions hurled at me, many of which I handled well and many that I just didn't know. There's no way to feel good about this test. You're GOING to get a lot wrong. It's just about what you can get right. And apparently I got enough right! One question I did NOT appreciate was when Dr. Smith asked me, in front of Dr. Madden (who wants SLU to be THE place for Crusading studies in America), if studying the crusades has been overblown by modern historians! Gah - not nice to put me in that position. Haha.
I was so relieved when I passed. So relieved. And I was so glad a few of my friends were there to wait outside the room with me while the professors decided on my exam. The rest of the day was more relaxed. Kendra and I got some pictures together because we both wore very similar outfits! And in the evening a lot of the grad students all went out to the Scottish Arms to celebrate the new MA students!!! That was a lot of fun. Strongbow, Fish & Chips, and lots of good conversation, mostly with the other MAs about the exams!
My problem now is that I'm having SUCH a hard time getting back into productive mode to finish this dang seminar paper on Ramon Marti! I really do want this to be a good paper, but I have no motivation to get back into working round the clock. Blargh. haha. Can't wait for summer. Just want to do wedding stuff!!!!!!
I will have a summer job though. I am really excited that I managed to snag at job working at the VFL. YAY! SO much better for me than Pasta House. I'll be helping create a manuscript research index for the Manuscripta journal, so that if a scholar needs to know what has been written on/about a particular manuscript, they can just look it up and see all these collected articles. :-) It'll help me get through the data entry knowing how helpful this index will be to the VFL. And then once a week I'll be helping Susan L'Engle sort out boxes of miscellaneous manuscripts and information so that we can get those pieces into the working collection and be available for research. I'm most excited and intimidated for that, though it is a lot like what I did for the Colorado Historical Society a few summers back. Just pleased about finding that for this summer. And the schedule will work out SO nicely with Casey's work schedule so I'm only working when he's also working and we'll have more time together this summer.
Looking forward to more time with Casey because with my studying and his play, we have NOT seen much of one another. I'll have to write more about The Country Girl later. It was a wonderful play and I hope he's proud of it. Definitely worth working a 60+ hour week to pull off! (40 at Paulo and 20+ more at the theatre!)
Last week with my students, which makes me sad. I've really enjoyed this group. Lots of great students that I'll miss. I do hope they leave me some helpful comments on the evals, and that some will take 111 with me in the fall. I'm so glad I'm TAing again in the fall! Not many of the grad students are because we have SO many ABDs teaching. I'll be working with Jen Popiel again (I was her RA last year) and after the RA experience (I wasn't incredibly helpful I don't think) I'm looking forward to doing a good job for her, and teaching again! I love it so much that I'd be bummed if I had to go back to research. Luckily Damian said that winning the TA Award means that I'll have to TA every semester from now on. haha. Good!
Lunchtime! Work Time! Teaching Time! It's going to be a productive day.