It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas (in France)
Grad school applications are... coming along. One professor made me panic slightly because though the applications I wanted her to act as a reference on aren't due until the second week of January, she wanted all of the info a month ahead of time and doesn't work over the Christmas break (understandable), and she has to take a week off in December for reasons I can't get into here, so essentially she said that I was a bit LATE in contacting her for this reference thing, but she'd do her best to meet the deadline anyway because I was a promising student. Then, another professor whom I contacted a week later than the first one actually thanked me for giving her a ridiculous amount of time to write the reference! Then again, she is on sabbatical and so December is no busier than any other month, as she doesn't have to mark papers or exams.
Anyway, I essentially just have to write my statements of intent and prune down my writing samples to the proper sizes. One of the applications asks for a twenty-page paper. I have a lot of 15 page ones, as well as a 60 page honor's thesis, so I may just take a chapter from the latter or something. SO NERVE-WRACKING.
I have also decided which university I have my heart set on, if in the best case scenario I get into all of the institutions and have to make a choice about going to just one: the University of Western Ontario's public history program.
Yes, they only accept 12 students a year, but I have a very strong dossier (what with my experience in public history, the honour's thesis, etc.) and I got a very positive response from the woman who, as it turns out, is going to be in charge of the master's students NEXT year AND is in charge of the medical artifacts collection there from the 19th and 20th centuries. She seemed very interested in what I said about my thesis and spoke in definite terms - like "when you come next year, you'll help me with the new artifacts displays", etc. :) She also forwarded my e-mail to the grad student organizers, and both of them said they're eagerly awaiting my application!
They have been very friendly, and more than that a master's in public history will open so many doors to practical careers in the heritage field, especially when it comes to museums and archives... plus digital history, the creation of documentaries, etc. However, it doesn't limit my academic career, because you can pursue a PHD in history with an MA in public history no problem. I'm really working on that application and I hope to send it off by Wednesday - like a month before the deadline, just in case something goes wrong with the application process. I am paranoid, but I really want this position.
Anyway... let me share with you what I've been doing while not hard at work on grad applications, or, y'know, working. (Oh yeah, remember how I'm teaching English in France in between all of my travelling? ;) )
One of the things I've been doing is transcribing interviews for the Rutherford House Centennial Book project, for which I did some research during the summer, and now I'm donating volunteer hours for here because I don't need to be there in person to transcribe digital files. I'm listening to so many cool stories about the goings on in the house over the last hundred years, but due to confidentiality agreements I can't share them with you guys. Sorry! It is really cool, though, to try to transcribe speech exactly, hesitations and rephrasings mid-sentence and all. (This also looks great on my CV in all of this history MA applications!)
This past weekend, I went to Lille with a bunch of the other English assistants - most of them were from England, minus my friends Christie from Scotland and John from Ireland. I'm pretty much the token North American in the group. We stayed at Christie's in a little town at least a third of the way to Lille from Rouen, on the same train line. We pretty much watched movies like Love, Actually, ate popcorn and fajitas, played silly party games and chatted. It was great!
On Saturday, though, we visited Lille and got to see the Christmas market there. It gave me a taste for them - I really want to visit them in Strasbourg, Brussells, Bruges, and possibly Germany, if I can swing it. The entire downtown area was decked out in lights and Christmas ornaments, and despite the lack of snow and that it was still November, I really felt the spirit of Christmas. I drank mulled wine, ate roasted chestnuts, bought a few nice Christmas presents for my family, and rode the giant Ferris Wheel in Le Grand Place - I saw an amazing view of the oldest part of the city to the sound of French Christmas carols!
There was also a booth of Canadian goods run by a fantastic Quebecois woman. Apparently she comes down once a year and spends a month in France selling things at this market. I bought maple candies and maple spread from her. :)
Note the dusting of fake snow on the roof. Still, it had atmosphere!
Roasted chestnuts being sold within view (right across from, really) the giant Ferris Wheel.
View of the square (with Christmas market in upper right corner of the frame), from the top of the Ferris Wheel.
Aww yeah vin chaud. (AKA hot wine AKA mulled wine)
Anyway, I essentially just have to write my statements of intent and prune down my writing samples to the proper sizes. One of the applications asks for a twenty-page paper. I have a lot of 15 page ones, as well as a 60 page honor's thesis, so I may just take a chapter from the latter or something. SO NERVE-WRACKING.
I have also decided which university I have my heart set on, if in the best case scenario I get into all of the institutions and have to make a choice about going to just one: the University of Western Ontario's public history program.
Yes, they only accept 12 students a year, but I have a very strong dossier (what with my experience in public history, the honour's thesis, etc.) and I got a very positive response from the woman who, as it turns out, is going to be in charge of the master's students NEXT year AND is in charge of the medical artifacts collection there from the 19th and 20th centuries. She seemed very interested in what I said about my thesis and spoke in definite terms - like "when you come next year, you'll help me with the new artifacts displays", etc. :) She also forwarded my e-mail to the grad student organizers, and both of them said they're eagerly awaiting my application!
They have been very friendly, and more than that a master's in public history will open so many doors to practical careers in the heritage field, especially when it comes to museums and archives... plus digital history, the creation of documentaries, etc. However, it doesn't limit my academic career, because you can pursue a PHD in history with an MA in public history no problem. I'm really working on that application and I hope to send it off by Wednesday - like a month before the deadline, just in case something goes wrong with the application process. I am paranoid, but I really want this position.
Anyway... let me share with you what I've been doing while not hard at work on grad applications, or, y'know, working. (Oh yeah, remember how I'm teaching English in France in between all of my travelling? ;) )
One of the things I've been doing is transcribing interviews for the Rutherford House Centennial Book project, for which I did some research during the summer, and now I'm donating volunteer hours for here because I don't need to be there in person to transcribe digital files. I'm listening to so many cool stories about the goings on in the house over the last hundred years, but due to confidentiality agreements I can't share them with you guys. Sorry! It is really cool, though, to try to transcribe speech exactly, hesitations and rephrasings mid-sentence and all. (This also looks great on my CV in all of this history MA applications!)
This past weekend, I went to Lille with a bunch of the other English assistants - most of them were from England, minus my friends Christie from Scotland and John from Ireland. I'm pretty much the token North American in the group. We stayed at Christie's in a little town at least a third of the way to Lille from Rouen, on the same train line. We pretty much watched movies like Love, Actually, ate popcorn and fajitas, played silly party games and chatted. It was great!
On Saturday, though, we visited Lille and got to see the Christmas market there. It gave me a taste for them - I really want to visit them in Strasbourg, Brussells, Bruges, and possibly Germany, if I can swing it. The entire downtown area was decked out in lights and Christmas ornaments, and despite the lack of snow and that it was still November, I really felt the spirit of Christmas. I drank mulled wine, ate roasted chestnuts, bought a few nice Christmas presents for my family, and rode the giant Ferris Wheel in Le Grand Place - I saw an amazing view of the oldest part of the city to the sound of French Christmas carols!
There was also a booth of Canadian goods run by a fantastic Quebecois woman. Apparently she comes down once a year and spends a month in France selling things at this market. I bought maple candies and maple spread from her. :)
Note the dusting of fake snow on the roof. Still, it had atmosphere!
Roasted chestnuts being sold within view (right across from, really) the giant Ferris Wheel.
View of the square (with Christmas market in upper right corner of the frame), from the top of the Ferris Wheel.
Aww yeah vin chaud. (AKA hot wine AKA mulled wine)