Not much has changed since my last post, but I feel obliged to talk a bit about my trip to Bath. It rained most of the time, which was a bummer, but the city was pretty, if posh, and our couchsurfing host was helpful and friendly. There was another guy couchsurfing that night; he was seventeen years old and his name was Owen, which was weird. (For those who don't know, Owen is my newly-turned-eighteen younger brother.) Owen seems to be a more common name here, though, than in America, so maybe it's not that weird.
Anyway, we took a tour of the town, went into the old Roman public baths, drank two glasses of mineral water from the hot springs, ate some delicious cornish pasties, went to the Fashion Museum and the Jane Austen Museum, explored the park, toured a fully restored and authentic Georgian house, saw the River Avon (which is not the same as Shakespeare's River Avon).... et cetera. Pictures are up here.
Overall, the trip was pretty fun. Unfortunately, we were really tired on Sunday and wanted to head back early, and our couchsurfing host told us that if we pretended to be asleep on the train the conductor wouldn't be allowed to wake us up to check our tickets. This proved false, and I had to pay £40 for a new ticket. Thus, I am even shorter on money than I expected to be, but perhaps this is a lesson to me for cutting it too close. I get my loan money soon, and I still haven't decided what I'm doing over break.
Papers are dragging. I can't seem to keep myself motivated. Advice, anyone?
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
Thursday, 13 March 2008
The end is in sight.
Of classes, that is. Not of my time in London / the United Kingdom / the Continent. I only have one week of classes left, which means end-of-term papers are the order of the day. I have four 4000-word papers, all due on April 21, and I'm still hoping to get all of them done by the end of next week, so that I won't have to worry about them over Easter break.
Paper topics are as follows:
1. How Freud's definition(s) of the Oedipus complex can deepen our understanding of Hamlet.
2. How 'closure' functions as a stabilizer of gender norms in Twelfth Night and Gallathea.
3. How Shakespeare uses societal portrayals of the womb to redeem the scapegoat and condemn society in Othello, The Winter's Tale, and Coriolanus.
4. How the topic of childhood trauma is treated in David Copperfield and Silas Marner (and possibly a bit of Wordsworth's The Prelude).
…so, I told you my semester revolved around Shakespeare and Freud, right? No comment.
Anyway, speaking of break, I'm having a bit of a dilemma trying to figure out what exactly I'll be doing for the 30 days after classes end, before I have to be back in London to turn in my papers and meet my family for their holiday. My original plan was to fly with Nora and Jane to Stockholm for Easter weekend, then to meet up with Angela in Amsterdam, accompany her on her travels to Prague and Berlin, and then follow her back to Switzerland for a few days before heading to Madrid to meet Jane once more. We wanted to spend a few days each in Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, and Barcelona, and then fly to Paris for a few days before Jane went back to Aix, and I took a train to meet Angela in Bourges to finish up with a Gogol Bordello concert. That would put me at April 20th, at which point the time has come to fly back to London and turn in the papers that, with any luck, will be sitting in a neat pile on my desk by next Friday.
Sounds baller, right? Here's the problem: both Chase and U-M have screwed up a bit in the processing of my loan, the end result of which is that I won't receive the money until next Friday, leaving me very little time to buy tickets and make plans. I'm pretty sure that the plans for Spain are cementing themselves (though Jane is now thinking she might want to go to Rome instead of Paris), but I don't know if I'll be able to make the other things happen. And, after all, if I can't get my papers done in time, I might have to spend a bit more time in London working before heading out. I'm sure it will work out, but I'm stressing a bit at the moment.
On another note, Nora and I are taking a trip to Bath this Saturday/Sunday, and couchsurfing again, so that should be awesome. I've wanted to go to Bath for a while. Pictures next week!
xoxo.
Paper topics are as follows:
1. How Freud's definition(s) of the Oedipus complex can deepen our understanding of Hamlet.
2. How 'closure' functions as a stabilizer of gender norms in Twelfth Night and Gallathea.
3. How Shakespeare uses societal portrayals of the womb to redeem the scapegoat and condemn society in Othello, The Winter's Tale, and Coriolanus.
4. How the topic of childhood trauma is treated in David Copperfield and Silas Marner (and possibly a bit of Wordsworth's The Prelude).
…so, I told you my semester revolved around Shakespeare and Freud, right? No comment.
Anyway, speaking of break, I'm having a bit of a dilemma trying to figure out what exactly I'll be doing for the 30 days after classes end, before I have to be back in London to turn in my papers and meet my family for their holiday. My original plan was to fly with Nora and Jane to Stockholm for Easter weekend, then to meet up with Angela in Amsterdam, accompany her on her travels to Prague and Berlin, and then follow her back to Switzerland for a few days before heading to Madrid to meet Jane once more. We wanted to spend a few days each in Madrid, Granada, Sevilla, and Barcelona, and then fly to Paris for a few days before Jane went back to Aix, and I took a train to meet Angela in Bourges to finish up with a Gogol Bordello concert. That would put me at April 20th, at which point the time has come to fly back to London and turn in the papers that, with any luck, will be sitting in a neat pile on my desk by next Friday.
Sounds baller, right? Here's the problem: both Chase and U-M have screwed up a bit in the processing of my loan, the end result of which is that I won't receive the money until next Friday, leaving me very little time to buy tickets and make plans. I'm pretty sure that the plans for Spain are cementing themselves (though Jane is now thinking she might want to go to Rome instead of Paris), but I don't know if I'll be able to make the other things happen. And, after all, if I can't get my papers done in time, I might have to spend a bit more time in London working before heading out. I'm sure it will work out, but I'm stressing a bit at the moment.
On another note, Nora and I are taking a trip to Bath this Saturday/Sunday, and couchsurfing again, so that should be awesome. I've wanted to go to Bath for a while. Pictures next week!
xoxo.
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