Merry Brandybuck...?

Happy Holidays, all! I'm a bit late for Chanukah and Christmas, but... anyway. Kwanzaa is still going on. And New Year's is in about three days. So... I'm not that late.

Anyway.

I've been home for almost two weeks already... it feels like a much shorter time in some ways, and a much longer time in others. It's been nice being back in New York, but... yep. You guessed it. I miss Goucher already. And speaking of Goucher, I've noticed what I think is quite an interesting incongruity over the past few days: during the four months I was living in a dorm with at least 20 other girls, sharing a water fountain and bathroom and showers and all sorts of germs I don't really want to think about, I was not sick even once. Never. I have been tired, and slightly unwell, but not seriously sick.

So, I thought that I wouldn't have anything to worry about back here. I have my own room, my own bathroom, and there isn't even a water fountain to get mononucleosis from. Should be relatively safe, yes?

...ha.

I'm now stuck in the house with a cold and a box of tissues practically attached to me.

It hasn't been all too bad, though... I mean, I missed out on most of the fun of the snow storm we just got hit with, but I can live with that. I've been spending most of my time sitting in front of the fire, re-reading The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman. I feel like I've talked about this book before in a previous post, but in any case. It's a wonderful book-- I'm not particularly interested in the First (or Second) World Wars as compared to other time periods but, to be honest, but the book is just so well done...

I've also started Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, which I'm enjoying, and I've finally started watching HBO's John Adams mini-series. John Adams has never been my favorite American president... the Alien and Sedition Acts always bothered me a bit. And the series does take some liberties with history.

That being said, I love this series. I should be finishing it tonight, and after that, I think the family is planning on listening to Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian on audio-book. I've been meaning to go back and re-read that, so I'm excited.

I've also been doing a lot of thinking about the next few years... of course, when am I not? But this time, I've actually been thinking productively.

...surprising. I know.

Anyway. Specifically, I've been thinking about my study-abroad options. Goucher College requires that each student, in order to graduate, travel abroad as part of their studies. There's quite a good range of programs, and for different amounts of time: there are some shorter ones, like the three-week program to South Africa, and there are some longer ones, like the year-long program at Oxford University in the UK. Most programs are only one-semester, however. I've been thinking about it quite a bit since I'd really rather do a longer program, and even just one semester is quite a period of time... I really need to make a good decision, and the time is rapidly approaching when I will need to make that decision.

I'll be going abroad sometime during my junior year: that is a given. It needs to be something that's going to give me credits for my history major, obviously. It sounds closed-minded to say I wouldn't consider anything else, but it's the truth. And obviously, I need to be able to speak (or be able to learn) the language of the country I will be traveling to. For a while, I considered South Africa, Ghana, the Czech Republic, a program at the University College Cork in Ireland, and a program at the University of Salamanca in Spain, but after quite a lot of deliberation... well. I know what my first choice is, we'll put it that way.

Goucher offers a program in which it subsidizes a full academic year at Oxford University, in the UK. It's rather competitive: only one student from Goucher gets this scholarship per year, but... well. I really want to get it. And by that, I mean I really, really, really want to get it, and I will probably be completely heartbroken if I don't.

Here's Goucher's little blurb on it, if you're interested: http://www.goucher.edu/x37559.xml

But aside from the theoretical heart-breaking, I think it would be the perfect program for me. My interest in history has been steered more and more in the direction of British history since... well. Fine. Forever. And while Goucher's history department is certainly decent, it doesn't happen to have much in the way of my current specific interests. (Actually, there is one class that's all about American and English relations up to the American Revolution, which is exactly what I want to be studying, but I think some more general classes might help as well...) I can't imagine a better way of learning what I want to learn about than going to the oldest English-speaking university in the world (sorry Cambridge: 113 years difference).

So, that's what I'm thinking about that. First choice: Oxford University. Second Choice: probably University College Cork (for the archaeology program), but we'll see.

Anyway. That's pretty much it for now. I'll write more soon. In the meantime, take care, have a wonderful holiday, and I'll be seeing most of you at some point very soon!

Love to all,
Tasha











ps. I got an Indiana Jones hat for Christmas. "Happy" does not begin to cover it.

Tea and Cookies (or Biscuts. I'm not really sure what to call these, actually.)

That title pretty much sums up my week. I spent most of it sitting in my room or in the Atheneum finishing up final projects, studying for finals, staying up late doing nothing with friends, and surviving on earl grey tea and shortbread cookies that say "Biscuts" on the front. It also says "Product of Scotland" on the front, so that explains that. Anway, I'm sure all the adults in the audience will be very pleased to hear about my ever so healthy diet. Except not really, at all.

Anyway.

I spent the weekend at my friend Ellie's house: she lives about half an hour away from Goucher, and she invited to come see a dance concert at her old high school. It was fun, and of course it was nice to get a break from studying and frantically tying up loose ends. But it was a little... well. Awkward. I've only met her parents once before, and I think I was too busy being shy to make a good impression. In any case... it was odd. Whenever I go to somebody else's house, I feel like I'm walking into somebody else's entire life. And... well. There's a big difference between walking into your best friend's house, and walking into a near stranger's house. Ellie is my best friend at Goucher, but... I think we've all gotten used to the idea that our homes are now our dorm rooms-- not where we came from before Goucher.

Okay. Enough of that rambling.

The next week should be a lot better. I don't have classes, and only one actual final test (on Tuesday morning). So I'm pretty much free to roam Towson and Baltimore for the next week. Kaira and I are hoping to finally make it out to the Baltimore Art Museum on Wednesday: she's interested in the Andy Warhol exhibit, and I just feel ever so slightly embarrassed that I haven't been there yet. Especially since I'll be taking Art History next semester... I get the feeling I'm gonna get to know my way around the museum quite well before the year is out. I'd also like to go back to the USS Constellation and go through a better tour. I rushed through it last time, as I was looking for pretty specific information for my Historic Preservation paper, so I'd like to do it properly this time. I also want to see the other ships in the harbor: USCGC Taney (a survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941), and USS Torsk. So, I'll let you know how that goes. Theoretically, I'll be able to borrow Karia's camera for pictures, so... yep.

I'm leaving for New York on Thursday afternoon, so I'll get back that evening. And... I will write another post then! Until that time, my love to all,

Tasha

Cardinals and Snowflakes

Hello again!

Firstly, I saw a snowflake today. Yes. One, single, snowflake. Not much, but it was enough to keep my hopes up for a real winter. Secondly, I just finished my last piece of work for Philosophy EVER. Thirdly, yesterday was my last day of work at the Stables until next semester. So... yes. It's been a good day.

...I've got to figure out what I'm doing over the Winter break. I have a few plans laid out: I'll be visiting Mallorca in January, and I'm really excited about that. Of course, there's the annual Holiday party at home. This will be the first one I haven't been preparing for for months prior with our little a capella group... and there's the obligatory giant get-together with my high school friends. A few of my friends from Goucher may also be coming up for New Year's... so that should be good. But other than that... I mean, it's not like I'm going to have class work to do, or finals to study for. What am I going to do with myself?

A lot of hiking, hopefully. But other than that, I've been attempting to... well. Lots of non-academic projects going on, actually. A list might be the best format...

1. I'm trying to get a jump start on Arabic (which I will be taking at some point) by teaching myself the Arabic alphabet. So far, it's going as one would expect it to... slowly. I'm not worried, as I taught myself Elvish in the space of two weeks over the summer. If I can teach myself a made-up language in two weeks, then I can figure out a real one in the space of a few months.

2. I'm teaching myself basic Egyptian hieroglyphics. Which is exactly as practical as it sounds. Which is not at all. But it's a lot of fun, and the way I see it, if I get an internship at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which is what I'm trying to do, but more on that later), I can hang out in the Egyptian Art section and try reading the 'glyphs for myself.

3. Applying for internships. My most ambitious is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's unlikely I'll get this one, since they want college juniors and seniors, and one question on the application concerns how many languages one speaks...

...er... how about (barely) fluent English, basic and very slow Spanish, random phrases in Elvish (plus the Quenya alphabet), half the Arabic alphabet, and some random Egyptian hieroglyphs?

Not gonna work.

Seriously, though. I'm suffering from a bit of... how do I even describe this? "Language anxiety?" I don't know. But everytime I let myself sit around and think for too long, I start worrying that I don't know enough languages, or the right ones. Which is a competely valid worry, thank you very much. I keep telling myself I'm gonna really get down to work on my Spanish (I'm saving up for a Rosetta Stone program for Spanish, to help me practice and hopefully, get me beyond kindergarden level), and that I'm gonna try to teach myself Arabic/German/French (any of those, depending on what mood I'm in that week), but... urgh. Maybe I am worrying about it too much. Probably not though.

Anyway, I'm also looking at an internship at the Archaeological Department at Colonial Williamsburg, which I think would be... well. Pretty perfect. Colonial American and British History are my favorite areas of study, and I'm curious about Archaeology as a study... AND, the College of William and Mary is literally right there if I want to take classes and get some credits out of the way.

I'm also looking at internships at the Museum of the City of New York (where I saw a great exhibit on Dutch New York a while back), and at Mount Vernon (George Washington's home and plantation).

4. Knitting myself a sweater. It's the first time I've ever actually tried to follow a pattern, and it's coming... slowly, but well enough. I only work on it when I have nothing else to do (which is pretty rarely), so... yep.

Anyway.

Not much more to talk about... except... well. Okay. My friend Chris and I are thinking about getting a pet shark.

...yes. A pet shark. The ones we were looking at grow to 14 inches long.

In any case, I'm just thinking about it. It started out as just his pet shark, and I was gonna get him a tank for Christmas, but if we decided to share the shark, and split all the costs, it would probably be a bit more beneficial for both of us... and more fun. (Come on. Who doesn't want to be able to say they have a pet shark?)

Well, I'll keep you up to date on that. And... that's about it. I'll write again soon.

Love to all,
Tasha

Well...

...I know it's been a while. Sorry about that... it's odd. It's been long enough at this point that I can barely remember what's news and what isn't... I'll take some educated guesses.

Well. Best to go in chronological order, I suppose.

I'm now on an intramural soccer team! Well, I have been since late October, but anyway. My friend, Ellie, is the team captain, and somehow managed to rope me into it. It's a lot of fun, and I definitely don't regret it, but I'm awful. I mean really awful. Theoretically, I should get better with practice, but... well. We're not playing again until the Spring. I'll let you know should a miracle occur.

Last time I posted, I was about to leave for Princeton, I believe. My friend Brendon goes there, and he invited me to come up for the weekend, so I did, and it was really fun. We saw Illyria, which is essentially the musical version of 12th Night, so I enjoyed that. And... well, it was just really great to see Brendon. I'm forced to admit, however, that I was incredibly happy to get back to Baltimore. The place really feels like home to me now... I miss it whenever I leave, and it's always such a relief to come back. Princeton is a beautiful school (and of course, an extremely good one), but... well. I made the best choice for me.

My classes have been going as well as ever! I just turned in my final paper for Historic Preservation last week, and we'll be getting them back this coming Monday... I really better have gotten a good grade on it. I spent nearly all my waking hours for two weeks on that essay. Not that I'm complaining... it was really fun, to be honest. We got to choose a topic (within certain guidelines), and I chose to write mine on the differences between the Preservation movements in the United States, and the United Kingdom. ...actually, it ended up just being about preservation in the U.K., but since I got that cleared with my Professor, I'm not worried about that. I'm more worried about the fact that she asked for a six to eight page paper, and I handed in a full twelve pages...

I promised I wouldn't complain about that.

Anyway.

Anthropology is great as ever. I'm still enjoying English, and... well. I'll get to my Philosophy course later. I'm still doing very well in European History-- 93% average for the semester. The thing is... this is the first time I have ever, ever, been disappointed in a 93%. I had a 100% average for the entire semester, until I stayed with Nina at the hospital until some un-godly hour of the morning, and subsequently... well. "Bombed" is a bit of a strong word, but I took a test about an hour after getting back from the hospital. Not a very good idea. Especially since the test was on a movie that I didn't see, because I was at the hospital.

...I'm sort of hoping that if I just ace everything else that gets thrown at me in this class (which, although I don't want to brag, I probably will), I might be able to get back up to a 99%.

But that's not it... since we've starting moving into a time period that I'm especially familiar with (Protestant Reformation - French Revolution (which will not be covered in this class)), I've been noticing certain... things... that my professor does. Like try to cram the entire English Civil War and subsequent "Glorious" Revolution into half a class period.

... we spent at least three days on James I and Charles I alone in high school.

So, I'm sorry if this sounds bad, but... I mean, I really like my professor. And of course, I love the subject. But I sorta wish I was learning something new.

Okay, I know that sounded really bad.

Anyway! Speaking of classes, I finally got to sign up for my Spring semester courses! I'll be taking Intro to Art History (which covers pre-historic to medieval art), Modern and Contemporary Europe (which is the second half of my European History class, and covers from 1715 to the present day), American Society and Culture 1607-1876 (part one of two American History courses), Russian History to Peter the Great (part one of three Russian History courses), and Intro to Economics (which I'm hoping I can stitch to something else, since I've already fulfilled that requirement). I was planning on getting my math and language requirements out of the way this semester, but, of course, knowing my luck, I got put in the last slot for signing up. So. Both my math class, and my Spanish class, were both full by the time I got to them.

I am fulfilling literally no requirements outside my major this semester.

...yes, I'm irritated.

Well, not so much irritated so much as I am nervous. I shouldn't be, considering that half my requirements are done with already, and I have plenty of time to get to the others... but still. I can't help but feel a bit anxious.

And of course, there was Thanksgiving. I had a wonderful time as usual... It was great to be able to see everybody (well, almost) and have some down time at home.





I got myself a copy of Atlantic, by Simon Winchester, which was probably a bad idea, since I'd already started Citizens, by Simon Schama. Anyway. I'm almost done with Atlantic right now (I'll probably finish it tonight), and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. After being buried in piles of books about English landscape gardening (I'm not kidding), it's been nice to read something... well. Lighter. I put Citizens on haitus so I could read Atlantic, so I'll be getting back to that soon. So far, I've liked it, but... well. I'll get back to you on it once Robespierre is mentioned for the first time.

Now. Getting back to Philosophy... well. I just gave my final presentation in that class on Wednesday. I can't really bring myself to care how it went-- I'm just glad to be alive at this point. But, anyway, I no longer have to worry about that class! I'm practically done for the semester! So, I am incredibly happy with the knowledge that I will never, ever have to take another Philosophy class ever again.

And that... brings us up to today. I'm doing well, all things said. I went to an AIDS benefit concert last night, which was... well. It's difficult to say how I feel about it. On the one hand, it was really fun: Red Hot Blue (the school a cappella group) was great, and it was nice to just get out for a while. On the other hand... well. I never took the issue of AIDS lightly, but for some reason, I never quite got it into my head that it applied to me, and people I know... that's not quite what I meant. Hang on.

...there are those things one knows mentally, like "anybody can get AIDS," but... it doesn't quite sink in. Well... it sunk in for me last night. Nothing's happened, but at some point, a friend of mine popped into my head for some reason. I'm not sure why. But I started getting all teary-eyed and... okay. I right-out cried. I suppose I started thinking about what it would be like if something ever happened to him, and... I couldn't imagine how devestated I would be to lose him.

I told him that, after a bit of embaressed deliberation on my part, and... I'm really happy I did. Life is too short, and it could be even shorter.

I hope you're all doing well. My love to everybody,

Tasha