History, Music, and Badminton

I need nothing more to make my summer satisfying. So, now that I'm interning at the New Castle Historical Society, and I've got the musical gang back together, and I have my own badminton net, I'm finding it difficult say what could make me happier. Maybe if I was getting paid for any of those things. Though there may be some money-making in the music area... but I'll get to that in a bit.

Most importantly, I'm now officially an intern at the New Castle Historical Society! (On a less important, but somewhat interesting note, I keep writing "soviety" instead of "society." I suppose this is what Russian/Soviet History class does to people.) I'll be mainly transcribing documents (the Clarence Page diaries to be specific), though I'll also be helping the resident Historian sort through surveys and maps, as well as helping to prepare educational programs. So, that's what I'll be up to Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays... On Fridays, I'll be working with the Archivist, putting together a slide-show for a fundraiser in September. I am really, really excited about this. Of course. The Society has a website here, if you are interested in taking a look at it: http://www.newcastlehs.org/

Well, that's the most important bit, I think. In other news, following a recital on the 12th (this past Sunday), it was suggested that Daria and I should start playing in actual public. As in, "let's go play at the Dragonfly Cafe and see what happens!" I actually think it could be a good idea... I'm justifying it to myself by saying that if we make any money, we could donate it to an anti-fracking organization. Anyway... it could be fun. All that remains is to get Daria on-board with it. My Mum and I were also thinking of spending the 4th of July up in Cold Spring with the rest of our singing group-- there's this tunnel that leads from the river-side of the train tracks to the town-side of the train tracks that Mum and I experimented with when we were there for Memorial Day, and... well. The acoustics are fun. I don't need much more of an excuse. Again, all ideas... we'll see what happens.

Also, I've finally managed to order all of the books I will need for Cambridge! I have to wait another week or so for them to come, but as I'm still working on the first book, I'm fine with the lag time. All in all, things are starting to look up...

More to come at some point!

All my love,
Tasha

Myers, Briggs, and Holmes

I've been slacking off. Again. It's probably expected by now though, so anyway.

A lot has been happening over the past few days... weeks, actually, I suppose. I sat down thinking: "Finally! Time to write! This is going to be such a long post!" and now that I'm actually trying to write it all down, it seems like there's nothing really worth mentioning. Whenever I call my parents, or I come back to New York, and I get asked what has been going on, I have to respond: "Not much," because that's all I can say that really makes any sense. Things happen that seem very dramatic at the time, but by the time I get around to relating them, they're just more of the same story: I love class, I'm doing well, my friends stress me out more than my work does, I forgot to eat for three days, and now I'd like to sleep, please and thank you. It's all rather dull... but that's everyday life. And I like to think that while Professor Sheller continues to bring 19th century tailor's shears and tea sets and other such things into class for me to examine for two hours straight, everyday life won't be all that dull.

So yes. About the last two weeks specifically... well. Not much specific to say. I'm getting ready for a craft fair that should be taking place this Friday. Hopefully I'll earn some extra cash from it... that would be really nice. I'm just hoping people buy things at all. There was another craft fair last week that my friend Jenny was selling scarves at, and she managed to sell four of them. We were all quite amazed, as it's really impossible to get college students to buy anything that costs more than five dollars, and Jenny was charging fifteen... but anyway. I have hope. And very little else, but that's enough to be getting on with for now.

My classes have been going very well, as usual! I've just finished all my midterms, and should be getting some grades back over the next two days. Of course I'm nervous about it. I always am, no matter how well I do in the actual class. I keep getting the feeling that I could have written more, or that I could have included or explained more things more clearly... I cannot think about it. I really cannot afford to be worrying about things that I don't need to be worrying about... and yet, I do. Am I surprised? No. Am I frustrated with myself anyway? Yes. Rather.

Anyway.

You know, that paragraph started out very cheerfully, and ended very... not-cheerfully. I didn't mean for that to happen... as I was saying, my classes have been great. Of course, they're the reason I'm here, but I've also been feeling lately as if they're a safe haven from everything else that's been going on. People are complicated... yes, I know we all know that, but... wow. People are complicated. I tend to think of myself as somebody who doesn't really need other people around all the time... actually, most of the time. And yet, I attract people that need other people around them all the time, constantly. One can see the problem here... I make friends with people who need me around more than I need them around. And that sounds really horrible, but I don't mean it to sound that way... I love and enjoy my friends. I really do. Anybody could tell you that. It just happens to be that my best friends are people who are equally in need of time to themselves, and equally capable of entertaining themselves.

The nature of relationships at college just doesn't seem suited to the way I interact with people in general. I've met people who, overnight, will start calling me their best friend and spouting "I love you!"s like I don't even know what. I'm sorry. But my best friends are people who I have known for years. A few late-night study sessions does not give one that title. And I firmly believe "love," like "hate," is a very strong word, and a word that one should only use when one really means it. I am capable of having low-key, casual friendships, you know... not every friendship needs to have the intensity of... something very intense.

Sorry. I felt the need to vent about that. It's just that only about three people here seem to get that. And it frustrates me when I find myself in a situation where there's a lot of drama and anxiety, just because myself and the other person involved don't share the same idea of what friendships should be.

I need to put out a guidebook: How to Deal With Your Natasha Gross 1.0 or something like that. (For those of you who don't know, it would probably read something like this: http://typelogic.com/intj.html. Some of you may already know the story of how my Art History professor had us take the Myers-Briggs test earlier this semester... if you don't, that's pretty much how that went. Usually, I'm not one to put much faith in these personality test things... I think the most useful thing I learned from psychology in high school is that anything, if it is flattering and general enough, will be perceived as true. To be perfectly blunt, I think the whole personality type thing is simply another way of shoving people into boxes, which I thoroughly disaprove of, and my opinion is not helped by the fact that the tests themselves are almost always very general, and rather inaccurate. I happen to think that this one is very interesting, however, and I have to admit I'm impressed with how well it described me. With some people, it completely misses, but... anyway. This has been a very long parenthetical statement.)

Anyway, I've been burying myself in my work as a result, and I've come to the conclusion that this is how things should be. I don't need to be socializing... just give me a book and an essay to write, and I'm happy. And speaking of books and essays, I just finished re-reading The Sign of Four for my European History class. Yes, that's The Sign of Four, as in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, as in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I'm not sure how to get across just how pleased I am that this is required reading... it's how we're meant to be studying Victorian culture. Really, it's just an excuse for me to curl up with Misha, a cup of tea, and a whole lot of late 19th Century trash literature.

A worthy use of time, I think.

So I shouldn't be complaining as much as I am... I may have people problems, and I may worry too much about everything, but I get to read Sherlock Holmes for class. And I'm not currently in Libya or Japan. ...I really wish I could say something about those situations that somebody else has not already said. It's just amazing what has happened over the past two months. Frightening, really. But things like this happen all the time, and I never hear about them... it is interesing what the media chooses to cover, and what the superpowers choose to get involved in, and what they don't. That being said, my heart goes out to everybody suffering right now, whether the BBC talks about them or not.

My love to all,
Tasha

ps. I feel the need to mention this to everybody: one of my best friends is in circus arts, and is (in addition to being an all-around extraordinary person, both in terms of personality and intelligence) a fantastic performer. Here's one of his videos, if you are interested in seeing what he does...

Trevor:  I can't wait to hear what L'École de Cirque de Québec says. No matter how it turns out, I cannot say how in awe I am of you, or how proud I am to call you my friend. :)

Visits and Papers

Well, it's been a long few weeks... I really dislike February. It is the shortest month of the year, in terms of actual days, but I don't think any month manages to drag on for this long...

Thankfully, I've had plenty to keep my spirits up. The weather in Baltimore gets warmer sooner than it does in New York... which I'm less happy about in autumn, but at around this time of year, it's wonderful. There's a bit of a shorter wait for spring. I've also been very happy with how my classes have been going (for the most part). My first paper for American History had me a bit nervous, as I very unwisely assumed I could leave it 'till the last minute, and I didn't think I did as well on it as I could have... to be honest, I thought it was awful. I just got it back last Thursday, and --surprise of surprises-- I got an A on it.

I'm starting to think Karia has a point when she tells me to calm down about these things. (Actually, I've been hearing that from a lot of people recently. They may have a point.)

I also got back my first paper for this semester of European History the other day. It was really fun to write-- the premise was a bit more complicated than this, but essentially, I got to blather on about the Enlightenment for 5-7 pages. Of course, being that the Enlightenment is my favorite time period, and I've managed to keep everything I learned about it in high school stuffed in my head, I had a lot of material to work from... so,  yes. My paper is ten pages long. And I could have written at least five pages more. And I'm definitely not going to let it get to my head. In any case, Professor Fraser writes really detailed comments, and for papers, she actually types out a separate page of comments. Personally, I think this is a brilliant system-- I wish all the professors would do that. But anyway. I now have a page of what is, essentially, her going on about... well. Here's what she said:

"Comments:



Natasha, this is excellent- not only for a first essay of the semester or for the level of analysis I expect for this introductory class, but as a proper historical essay that succeeds on a much higher level. You write very well, using clear, concise prose, and your analytical observations are astute and sophisticated. Your attention to chronology in these documents and how they compare to each other is very good, and you have shown an understanding of these documents that far exceeds my expectations at this level. Well done! I sense that you have even more going on in your brain than you could fit on the page, so throughout the semester, something you can work on is achieving even more succinctness and clarity with your arguments and examples. History writing can be particularly challenging because there is always so much we can include! I have no problem with the length of your essay here, but I think you can also work on conciseness and precision- and practicing the always difficult decision-making process about not only what should be included, but also what can be left out. I almost hate to give this grade on the first assignment of the semester, lest it indicate there is no room for improvement, but this really is very well done. Keep it up!


Grade: A "

Yep... I'm happy. Historic Preservation and Russian History are going just as well, though I wish I could say the same for Art History. It's not that I'm doing badly... I just don't have quite the same level of enthusiasm for it as I do for my other classes. I'm sure it's just the way this professor is teaching it, and that I'll be a lot happier once we get to the survey part of the class (where we actually learn history), but right now, we're just going over all the theoretical stuff. There really is a certain type of person who is cut out for it. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm one of them.

Ah well. I honestly cannot complain. Too many good things going on to be able to grumble because I have one class I'm slightly frustrated with.

Daria, my sister, visited the weekend before last! It was great to see her again... unfortunately, it turned out to be a really busy weekend for me in terms of work (both for class and for, you know, actual work), so we couldn't do anything interesting... I feel really bad about it. But I suppose that's the way things happens sometimes... next time, I'll have to make sure I have a enough free time to go around to museums and such. We did manage to get to the Paper Moon Diner, after a bit of an adventure in wandering around Baltimore at 7.00 in the evening, and Daria finally got to meet Kaira and Ellie, so I'm happy about that at least. (By the way, if you're reading this Daria: Kaira and Ellie say "hello.") We also went to see a friend of mine play at the Gopher Hole (the bar/coffee shop of Goucher campus), which was really fun. And... that's about it. I'm a very boring older sister. (Sorry.)

Speaking of work... I've been looking to get another job, since I'm now only working at the stables on the weekends, and at a really inconvenient time too. I wouldn't mind that, if it were a job that was actually helping my resume, or my major, or my education in general, but... well. Feeding horses doesn't do any of those things. So I'm looking into getting a job at the library for next semester (or for the remainder of this one, if possible). If I do get a job for this semester, the hours are likely to be a little odd, as the library is open 24/7, and nobody really wants the 3am-6am shift... but if it gets me time to do my work on the weekends, I'm happy.

Anyway... that's about it for now. It's been pretty dull around here, to be honest. I've been rather slowly working on A History of the English Speaking Peoples, by Winston Churchill. I'm about halfway through Volume II (so just around the Spanish Armada), and I'm hoping to read The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, after Volume III... so I'll be needing book suggestions for this April-May. Ideas, anyone?

My love to all,
Tasha

ps. I've had a lot of Edward Elgar running through my head lately as well.

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.

"In a hole in the ground..."

Today, I was wandering through the library, looking for a certain journal for a research paper, when I came across what I shall now refer to, forever, as the Tolkein section. You can imagine what that means. I picked up The Hobbit just out of that kind of "Oh, I love that book! I'm gonna pick it up for no reason whatsoever!" feeling one gets when one is in a library or bookstore, and sees a book one likes just sitting there. I opened it, read the first line, and promptly began crying.

I don't know why that happened... perhaps I'm more homesick than I thought I was. That first line always reminds me of the Wesners' house, and... well. The Wesners themselves. Especially Sam and Amanda. Badminton. Music. All those things.

My friend Trevor called me yesterday... we didn't talk about much, as we follow each other's blogs and therefore don't really have much news for each other, but it was just wonderful to hear his voice. It's surprising how much I can just miss the sound of another person's voice.

So... I dunno. I just thought I should share that. There have been so many great, wonderful things going on, but I have promised myself that I will be keeping you up on all the... well, not-so-wonderful things that happen. So there you are.

Tasha

Autumn.

When I walked out the door this morning, it was rainy, chilly, and overcast. I actually had to wear a sweater for the first time this year. And I am so, incredibly, happy about all this.

It's been about 90 F all week, until today. It's been... urgh. I don't hate warm weather. I really don't... it's just that it shouldn't be 90 F in late September. Really. Maybe I'm just a spoiled New Yorker, but I don't believe in this whole not-getting-cold-until-mid-October thing. Nina, of course, is the complete opposite: she has lived in the South her whole life (she's immediately from Texas, but originally from Louisiana), so she's been quite happy these past few days, and now that it's getting chilly... well. It should be interesting.

So, anyway, I'm in the best mood I've been in since the week began: I have a sweater and corduroy pants on, there was hot cereal at breakfast, there are leaves on the ground, I have tea, and I can finally listen to Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! on NPR. Things are as they should be.

Well. What's been going on this week... ? Not a whole bunch, outside of homework, etc. And I haven't even really had that much homework this week... most of it has been reading (which I can do reasonably quickly, of course), which has given me time for other things... like "helping" Nina with her Chemistry/Biology/strange English class work. And doing a bunch of outside reading... I have started way too many books: I just finished two books on Gothic Cathedrals (which are really interesting... I don't know why, but I seem to be going through a phase of odd fascination with them), I'm still working on Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, and I've just started That Sweet Enemy, by Robert and Isabelle Tombs... it's essentially a book on the history of the relations between France and Britain. It's a really interesting perspective on the history. I'm very much used to seeing British or French history through the lens of American history, and how they relate to the U.S., etc, etc...

But anyway. I've finally been able to understand what on earth is going on in my Philosophy class! We've moved on to our next book, which (in my opinion), is far better written, and seems more relevant to what I thought the class was going to be about in the first place. The first book (the one I was having trouble with) was Fact Fiction and Forecast, by Nelson Goodman, and we are now reading The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn. I suspect that I like Kuhn better because he's a) actually talking about the history of science, and b) because we just started the book, and I haven't had a chance to dislike him yet.

I've also discovered that I can get the New York Times every week day on my way to class (for free!), so as a result, I've been spending more time than I'm sure is healthy doing crossword puzzles and underlining important-looking-things (yes, that's how I read newspapers: I read, underline and annotate. I blame every English teacher I have ever had). I also have earphones now, so I can listen to NPR while I'm doing my homework... it makes me feel very much at home.

Well, Jeremy has just brought some mango. I'll take a break here, and write more later if I can think of anything.

I hope you're all doing well,

Tasha

ps. A completely unrelated note: there are these great chairs by the library computers. They're really completely unexceptional except for the fact that they have wheels, and they're really fun... I know I sound childish. You'll have to forgive me for that today.

pps. On a more adult note, I've been thinking about taking German next year (after I finish my requirements for Spanish next semester), and I was just wondering what you all think about that... advice is always good.

Soon...

... just a few days before I leave now. It just hit me this morning that I was really going to leave. I'm still adamant that I'm not nervous, or anxious, or feeling any other kind of negative emotion about going to school, but until today, it never really sunk in for me. I think it must have helped that I realized that one of my best friends is leaving on Wednesday.

That was quite the wake-up call. I've really got to get seriously packing.

Today has been one of those lovely days where we've gotten these cycles of 5 minute rainstorms followed by dazzling sunlight... it's especially nice right now, as it's getting later, and the sunlight looks more and more golden. I'm not particularly good at describing what is so attractive to me about all this, so you may just have to go with me on this one. Rain seems to bring out greens in a rather deep, vibrant way, and at this time of year, there's so much green around...

Anyway. I just got back from getting my hair cut. Yes. Again. I know I said I wanted to grow it out more, but, to be really honest, it wasn't looking that great, and I was getting bored with it. So. It's not that much shorter now... just past my shoulders, and with shorter pieces in the front... I'll have to take a picture and post it.

In the meantime, I've been finishing up all the books I've started over the summer. I finished Undaunted Courage, by Stephen Ambrose just last week... It really is a fantastic book-- one of my favorites (this was my third time finishing it in full).  It's essentially a biography of Meriwether Lewis, but it just as well could be a piece on the entire Core of Discovery. I finished Simon Schama's A History of Britain this morning-- another fantastic book (or set of books, rather), but I may be slightly biased by my history geekiness. Yeah... don't mind that. I read Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew W. Pham, for school summer reading, and to be perfectly frank, I didn't much like it, so I'll skip over to The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, as most of you probably already know. I got it for my birthday... it's one of those books I knew I had to read to be considered a proper American, but I somehow never got around to it until now. And now that I have read it, I can say that I wish I had read it earlier. It's a really wonderful book... and I'm now working on The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follett, which is another one of those books I've been meaning to read for a while. So, when they came out with a TV series based off of it, I knew I had to get on it. I refuse to watch the series until I finish the book, so, don't expect to be talking about that for a while... I'd hoped to have finished it by the time I left for school, but that doesn't look likely.

Well, no doubt I'll have more interesting things to write about very soon. Until then, my love to all,

Tasha