Here are the haps:
I have been sort of overwhelmed since I got back to Toronto and on top of it I got sick, so this last week and a half has been simply marvelous :P
My courses this semester are as follows:
Old English II- We're translating Beowulf, which is really really exciting. I first did some translation from the poem for a class back in my junior year, but I'm not sure that should really count since I had no clue what I doing at the time. I've been sort of amazed and how much faster I can get through stuff. However, the flip side of this is that while I was translating a little over 30 lines a week back in undergrad, this class requires 300+ lines each week. It takes about 6-8 hours, which I guess isn't that terrible but still manages to be very time consuming. The prof for the class is incredibly excited over the material and is absolutely bursting during her lectures, which makes class time pass really quickly. I'm enjoying this class a lot.
Medieval Magic: Predicting the future and influencing events- As if I wasn't having enough fun with the Beowulf class, this class is shaping up to be a blast as well. The first class session was mostly about runes and the meanings of the various letters to an Anglo-Saxon or Norse audience, which was sort of hard to follow but was extremely interesting. This class is pretty much just the dream of anyone into arcane esoterica, but since its all being approached from an academic angle it doesn't veer off into any weird craziness. There is a certain kind of geekiness that really likes this sort of stuff, but I feel like the class is very far beyond appealing to that sort of appetite (I might be simply fooling myself on this point, as that same geekiness is very present in me). Dr. Orchard leads the class somewhat dialectically, so its a really comfortable format and very engaging. He can be a bit demeaning, though, if you're wrong in what you say. Oh well, such stuff comes with the territory. This class and Beowulf are vying very heavily with each other for which gets to be my favorite.
Medieval and Early Modern Inquisition- Yup, that's right I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition either, but here I am. I needed to fill up one more slot and this was one of the only classes that would fit. I was going to take Romance of the Rose, but as I do not speak French my ability to engage with the secondary scholarship would have been rather limited. This course is way too late in its scope to have any bearing on my studies, but it is at least sort of interesting and it justifies me running Monty Python lines through my head during class. Plus, if I'm ever talking to someone and they decide to be a ******** (fill in your favorite expletive) by attacking religion or Christianity about the Inquisition, I will at least have the facts readily at my fingertips.
Latin- Latin is Latin is Latin. We translated a few hundred lines of the 8th century (mock?) epic poem Waltharius over the past two weeks, and though I enjoyed the text a lot the course is still by far the most crazily time consuming class I have ever encountered. Granted, I know a lot more now than I did coming in, but I'm sort of starting to get exhausted.
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I also turned in my PhD application today...
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I would love to get in, but I am not exactly brimming with confidence over my chances. A lot of the people in my year are extremely competent, and in some ways I would even feel guilty if I got accepted over others. I hope that I will be here next year, but I'm trying to not hold that hope too dear and I am definitely not counting on it. Assuming I don't get in (and that is what I am assuming currently) I've decided that I will take a year off and make the round of applications again in the fall. I only applied to Toronto this year, partly because its my top choice and partly because the application process is just really time consuming. I also always feel guilty asking profs to sacrifice their time in writing letters of rec for me (guilt is sort of a hobby of mine).
I'll try to get some pictures up over the next couple of days. I'm going to do a series of all my major haunts up here...stay tuned!
4 comments:
Ah, I was wondering why I hadn't yet seen you this year. I'm pretty much taking the same approach as regards admissions. I have determined to go off and be a farmer for a year if I don't yet in.
That's a healthy approach, and I can say that with the clear eyes of one who was far less sanguine through the process (at least publicly).
I leave you, in regard to Latin, with the words of wisdom that got me through my P1 year, and which I'm trying to remember to apply now. "Alice, the term is not a sprint, it's a marathon." As someone who had extensive stress issues through her MA, culminating in a trip to the Seattle ER with an anxiety attack-- don't burn yourself out!
I suppose that adds another thing to stress out over. Oh well.
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