God bless my professor Clara. She's been sending me really long emails about the grad school crisis, supporting me and continually encouraging me to follow my heart. I can't believe she's taking such time out of her holidays to counsel me. She's my guardian angel this Christmas.

My creative writing teacher called tonight and says she looked at my poems and none of them is good enough to put in a portfolio. She says, among other things, that all of them give a didactic message instead of creating an experience for the reader. "If you have something to say," as she used to say in class, "don't write poems, write a book." ( Read more... )

Today was a good day.

Woke up late, read more of Castle Waiting in bed, and went to brunch at Clara's house, featuring homemade bagels and her incredibly loving dog. She gave us back notes on our final paper drafts, and she said mine is basically an A paper as it stands. So all I really have to work on is studying for my German exam and ( Read more... )

Today in Vergil, Clara casually advised the freshmen that in her experience, Week 7 was the hardest week of our 10-week term. And in a way it sort of is. Other weeks this term have been more dramatically bad: I was sick, the weather was gloomy, I was getting worse grades, etc. This week, there's nothing really wrong, but all I want to do is ( Read more... )

Our party was fuckin' awesome. People danced a lot. I danced quite a bit, and I didn't mind sitting out because I was already tired when we started. The food was a big hit, and people contributed many delicious things, like caramel apples, deviled eggs, and gingerbread with a chocolate ribbon. They also helped us set up and clean up. Some ( Read more... )

Today, Steph and I made lots of mocha chocolate chip and vegan pumpkin oatmeal cookies to give out at the Union Street block party. While doing so, we danced enthusiastically to the really bad music the DJ was playing. Then we sang karaoke to Shakira's "Whenever, Wherever." We were, if I do say so myself, extraordinarily loud ( Read more... )

Done done done! Man, that was difficult. Especially since I got four hours of sleep last night since I had to get up early for brunch. I think I only made it because of a) Delerium (that electronica-induced trance state is so good for paper-writing) and b) the frappuccino Steph and Taylor sweetly brought me. But tomorrow I can sleep, edit and ( Read more... )

Today was the Classics picnic. This year two of our beloved professors (out of four permanently in the department) were in England, so it wasn't as big a deal as usual: no whole roasted lamb and much less wine than usual. However, I did get to hang out with the other majors and meet some very enthusiastic freshmen who remind me of me back in the ( Read more... )

This Latin American Studies paper is officially the hardest thing I've ever done. Ever. At least the end is near, ready or not...

Last day of classes. I went to sleep at 3:45 a.m. and was awakened at 11:00 by a smiling, sleep-deprived Steph. Wore my new skirt since we have springish weather for the time being. Read my translation of an obscene Latin poem to a lecture hall full of people. After Spanish, followed Steph to the coffeeshop for some pleasure reading. I still ( Read more... )