Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Good Night!
Hello everyone, long time no chat! Grad school has literally been consuming my life. But that's okay. I'm learning to live with low-level stress and manage it. I've done a lot of knitting, particularly socks. It's a small, manageable thing to do that makes me feel accomplished. For many of the patterns I can also knit as I read really dense articles for class.
I've also started to pace while reading sometimes, or even dance. I've been re-teaching myself the Charleston - and learning more difficult moves - through videos like this one, this one or this one, and being inspired by crazy skilled people in this video or this one, for example. The Charleston is very fun, and has been helping me exercise since I had to stop biking everywhere once the snow fell and ice stayed. I'm probably going to start swimming on campus next semester with a few friends once a week, and apparently the grad students association also offers free yoga lessons next semester? I may have to take them up on that!
The semester has definitely been a stressful one - second-guessing thesis topics, gigantic research papers, tons of weekly readings... but I've learned a lot. It's a very steep learning curve. It got much better once I got my office. Due to inter-departmental moving and renovation I only got an office in the first week of December (AKA the final week of class) instead of the final week of September or mid-October, as the majority of other History MAs did. It's one of the few that has a view of the Rideau River from my window, and isn't over-stuffed with grad studies. It's also the only door that can be seen the entire length of the hallway. We have thus dubbed it the "Panopticon", a reference to a Foucaultian concept. Being dorks, we have taped a picture of the Eye of Sauron on the door. Because we're awesome like that.
I'm sorry I haven't said much on this blog - not much has been happening aside from schoolwork. For more information on the neat things I've run across while researching, see my academic blog here. I shall probably post more in the new year, particularly of my family ski trip to the Rockies.
Happy new year everyone!
I've also started to pace while reading sometimes, or even dance. I've been re-teaching myself the Charleston - and learning more difficult moves - through videos like this one, this one or this one, and being inspired by crazy skilled people in this video or this one, for example. The Charleston is very fun, and has been helping me exercise since I had to stop biking everywhere once the snow fell and ice stayed. I'm probably going to start swimming on campus next semester with a few friends once a week, and apparently the grad students association also offers free yoga lessons next semester? I may have to take them up on that!
The semester has definitely been a stressful one - second-guessing thesis topics, gigantic research papers, tons of weekly readings... but I've learned a lot. It's a very steep learning curve. It got much better once I got my office. Due to inter-departmental moving and renovation I only got an office in the first week of December (AKA the final week of class) instead of the final week of September or mid-October, as the majority of other History MAs did. It's one of the few that has a view of the Rideau River from my window, and isn't over-stuffed with grad studies. It's also the only door that can be seen the entire length of the hallway. We have thus dubbed it the "Panopticon", a reference to a Foucaultian concept. Being dorks, we have taped a picture of the Eye of Sauron on the door. Because we're awesome like that.
I'm sorry I haven't said much on this blog - not much has been happening aside from schoolwork. For more information on the neat things I've run across while researching, see my academic blog here. I shall probably post more in the new year, particularly of my family ski trip to the Rockies.
Happy new year everyone!