Return to Millwood

So. It's been nearly a month since I got back. First things first, I suppose: finals went well, and my grades for the semester came back: As in American History, European History, Russian/Soviet History, and Historic Preservation, and a B in Art History. And yes, I made the Dean's List for the second time. So, I'm considering my first year of college a decent enough success, overall. 

I got back to New York late on May 12th, just in time for Rebz' prom on the 13th. She looked absolutely beautiful, as always. Went to her concert the next evening, and the next week or so was spent catching up with the high school friends who had gotten home by that time. Brendon had to leave again quite soon, as he is studying abroad in Japan for two months over the summer. Other than that, I've been spending most of my time desperately applying for any job I can get an application for, and writing to all the historical societies from the city to Dutchess County, as my plans for Ireland fell through. It's been discouraging, to say the least, but I'm still waiting to hear back from a few places, so... in the meantime, I suppose I'll keep bothering people. the New Castle Historical Society is looking pretty promising, and I've gotten calls from the Bedford Historical Society, as well as the Briarcliffe Historical Society, but I don't want to get my hopes up. Cambridge is still a plan, thank goodness. My sister got into a program at Oxford for the month of July, so the family (minus Nick) is going to pick her up on the 31st, and between then and the time I need to be at Cambridge (the 7th of August), I'll be vacationing with them. We'll be mostly in the Cotswolds, and after that, my family is going their own way for the rest of their vacation while I'm in class. 

Speaking of Cambridge, I've just gotten the list of required books I'm meant to read before taking the classes. There are thirteen of them. Books, I mean. If it weren't for the fact that I now have to order them from the Cambridge bookstore, and wait for them to arrive (or preferably find them at the local Library or on amazon.com), I would be the happiest person in the world. At the moment, I'm about half-way through "Anglo-Saxon England," by F. M. Stenton. It's going more slowly than I thought it would, but that's because I'm actually reading it-- not skimming it. The thing is, I actually know essentially nothing about the period between the re-call of the Roman troops to Rome, and the Norman conquest. So... it's proving really fascinating, of course! I'm just hoping that I'll be able to get through the rest of the books at a rate faster than 100 pages per day. Oh... by the way. The classes I'm taking are: 

The Making of England: Kings and Conquests, c. 600-1066

The Norman Conquest

England's First Heresy: John Wycliffe and Lollard Texts

English Radicals and Revolutionaries, 1376-1414

Anyway. It hasn't been all work, of course... 

My mum and I went to Stonecrop Garden in Cold Spring for Memorial Day... 

...and then walked around Cold Spring itself for a while. 

...and for a while I was really perturbed by this clock, painted on the window of a clock shop. The roman numeral for 4 is written as "IIII," and not as "IV" as I know is the correct way... I'll get to the rest of that story later.

Okay, so Rebz and I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art the next day (and I was very honored to be the first person to take her), and started wandering around the European Decorative Arts wing... and behold:

...again with the "IIII."

... and again. But anyway. More on that in a bit.

A piece of sculpture we came across in the Byzantine Art section, if I remember correctly... someone had carved their name into it in 1836. 

...yeah. The clock thing was really irking me.

Swagger portraits! (Yes. That's actually an official name for them.)

When/if I ever have money... I want this tea set.

We also went up to the rooftop garden, which was really lovely... it was actually the perfect day for it. Very warm, but too much so, clear, and very sunny.

...and we walked along Central Park back to Grand Central...

...but anyway. After agonizing over the "IIII" v. "IV" thing for two days, I finally looked it up... turns out that's just the way clocks are. Really anti-climactic end, but... whatever. Supposedly it has something to do with the symmetry of the clock face.

Yep. 

As you can probably tell, things have been moving really slowly so far... so if I don't post again until August, it's not because I'm forgetting to: it's because I actually have nothing to write about. Though I probably will. 

All my love,

Tasha

Fort Sumter and little French songs

Hello again!

Well, it's 12 April: the day the American Civil War began, with Confederate forces firing on Fort Sumter. I'm very pleased with the timing: I had American History this morning, and I had to give a presentation on antebellum presidents... anyway. Supposedly, the only casualty on the 12th was a horse, and three Union soldiers died on the 14th when a cannon misfired during the surrender ceremony.

Anyway.

I spent the weekend in the New York, so I could see Rebz's senior musical, which was amazing, as expected. It's her last in high school, and I couldn't imagine myself missing it... so yes. Rebz: I've told you before, but really. You have such fantastic talent. I'm sure the Ursuline theater program is going to miss you greatly, and you are going to be such an asset to whichever college you chose. I also got to see Trevor, as well as Ben, which was... well. I had almost forgotten how easy it is for certain people to make me laugh.

Speaking of theater and of French-speaking friends... last week, Goucher had students from Marseille over as part of the French Theater program. I didn't get to talk to them much, as I'm not in the theater program, and I don't speak French (cue feelings of inadequacy), but they seemed very nice. An acquaintence of mine from my American History class in bilingual (her father is French), and she got the job of giving the students a tour of Baltimore, via the Collegetown Shuttle. Perhaps not the best way to go about it, but still. Anyway, the entire group of them were on the shuttle while I was taking it to Penn Station, to catch my train to New York. Half of them were sitting in the back, improvising these odd little a capella songs... I really wish I had recorded them.

We also had GIG on Friday: that is, "Get Into Goucher" Day, which I suppose is something like Spirit Week is in high school, except we've managed to consolidate it into one day (thank goodness), and it involves a lot more watching drunk and high people do stupid things. At least, in my case. I may be the only one who does that. Anyway. It was surprisingly fun... there was a big barbaque lunch, and lots of good music, and the dance department got to show off... not bad for my first GIG. Apparently, its a lot more fun when it's not raining torrentially and all the events happen outside.

Moving on... I register for classes on the 14th, and I am... well. I'm really excited. Of course. I can only take 18 credits (that's the limit for all non-freshman students), and with all my other scheduling issues, it may get quite complicated. But I've got a list of classes I want to sign up for, and a list of classes I can take just in case I can't get into one, or a few, of those on the original list.

Original List:



HIS 235: The American Revolution


ANT 275: Language Myths


HIS 220: Imperial Russian History (Peter the Great to the Revolution) (Taught by my current European and Russian History professor, who I'm hoping will be my advisor once I declare my History major.)


HIS 241: The Vietnam War


AST 110: Astronomy






Alternatives:


PSC 111: Theories of Citizenship (aka: pre-requisite to every Political Science and International Relations class ever. Grr.)

ENG 241: Archival Research Methods


MUS 101: Music Theory


MUS 182: Piano


(or MUS 183: Organ, or MUS 184: Harpsichord)


HIS 254: The Jews of Russia
SP 130: Spanish


So, of course, I'll write up my new schedule here as soon as I've finalized it on the 14th.

That's about it, really... nothing very interesting to say. It was 80F yesterday, and very sunny, so the entire student body of Goucher spend the day outside on the quad, getting either pleasantly tan (as in Kaira's case), or turning into a tomato (as in my case). Heh... I'm not really that burned. I actually tanned a bit, for once! I have a really pale strip of skin where I left my watch on... it's sort of amusing.

Anyway, I'll write again soon, when I know more about my plans for the coming summer/fall. Until then, my love to all,
Tasha

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.