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.