Sunday, April 17, 2011

Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, and Robert Louis Stevenson...oh my!

these three men are dominating my life right now. I really don't appreciate being dominated, especially by men (even more especially, by three dead men). However, classes are demanding my attention be focused on these three men in particular for term-long projects. So not fun.

Of course, Shakespeare is to be expected since I'm taking a class called Shakespeare. Sadly, I was not expecting the term-long sonnet project. Everyone picks a sonnet, writes a paper about it, memorizes it, and "recites it with feeling" at the end of the term. (have I mentioned I really, really hate public speaking?? This ain't gonna be pretty....) The paper is due this Tuesday by 5, and I'm really scared, I've never written a paper about a poem before, and this professor is infamous for making people cry with her super harsh comments and grading. For the first time, I haven't put off the paper 'til the night before it was due. I sent a copy to a friend who has had the class before for editing/helpful comments to make my paper less painful to be graded....

Langston Hughes was slightly by choice. For my 1920s literature class, we chose out of 6 poets who we would prefer to work on. We're doing a group project, where everyone picks a poem by their poet published in the 20s and writes a paper on it, then the group gives a half an hour presentation on our poet at the end of the term. the presentation instructions are super confusing, so we'll see how it goes. That paper is due in class on Wednesday, so I have to figure out what that professor wants too. and quickly. eep.

Robert Louis Stevenson is purely my choice for Survey of British literature. I have to read Treasure Island and possibly Peter Pan and write a paper on it. Well, I'm not sure what I'm writing on, to be honest. Then I have to present with a girl who's reading Jekyll and Hyde and talk about RLS's life, I think? I have no idea. These professors are about at clear as horse puckey on what they want from us. Such a pain in my arse. at least I have til May 2 to write the rough draft of that paper....

And these three, plus various readings and deciding on a topic for American Lit are the main focus of my life. So much to do, so little time.....

Sunday, April 10, 2011

egads, it's been awhile!

Okay, I'm a bit ashamed it has been so long since I last posted.

However, in my defense, I have been super crazy busy!

Yep, it's the wonderful term where I'm the crazyhead who way overloaded on credits and is now paying for it with my life. Mondays are horrid - class from 9-2 solid, followed by a three and a half hour long class. Yep, I sit in the same room from 4:30-8 PM every Monday. Luckily, that class only meets once a week. (thank goodness, because I have a terrible time trying to sit still for that long) Random fact about me: I can't sit still. at all. I have to be moving in some way, whether it's tapping my pen, jiggling my leg, or writing furiously. Or a combination of all three.

The rest of the week isn't too horrible: just classes from 9-2 every day with no breaks. except Fridays. Fridays are my pseudo-weekends. Since I work on the actual weekend and don't have class on Friday, I run all my errands and try to get as much non-school-related stuff done as possible. For example, this last Friday I ran all over town taking my roommate lunch, shipping a birthday present three weeks late, catching up on TV shows (i have three weeks of tv piling up in my Hulu queue), and then running around buying birthday presents galore for the six million people with birthdays in April (okay, so maybe there are only five I bought for). Then I was off to work, where I actually attempted homework (and nearly pulled my hair out over it).

So this is why I haven't posted in forever....so sorry!

This term actually isn't too bad. I'm enjoying my classes for the most part. I love my American Lit: 1920's and my Survey of American Lit classes...(I'm sensing a theme there) and my Survey of British Lit professor is hilarious. My Shakespeare professor intimidates me - she's so different from any professor I have ever had, and I don't know where her boundaries are, or what she expects from us exactly. My Spanish class is same as last term - hilarious professor, seemingly easy material, but I always screw up on the tests. Linguistics is hard. Our first big assignment, which the first draft is due tomorrow, is a completely open topic essay. 1,200 words on whatever we want to say. Seems nice right? No. No, it's not. It is so hard to come up with a topic that I can ramble about for 1,200 words that makes a decent essay, while attempting to skew it to a particular newspaper's audience (yeah, that part was confusing). The readings make zero sense - it's like being back in Philosophy, which I really wanted to leave behind.

there's more to tell, but I actually have to work now, so possibly another post soon....I won't go nearly a month, I promise!