One would think that if one had been without Internet as long as I was, had so missed blogging as I did, and who had promised oneself that one would get back in the saddle once my Internet service was up as I had promised, that they'd be a ton of new blogs on here.
And yet, there isn't one new blog here since we got our service back. Sorry about that, everyone. The truth is, I've just been running my butt off, and when I have down time I'm usually reading for class.
At the moment I'm plowing through In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, for English 310. Dr. Margaritis is assigning roughly 100 pages between classes (justifiably so, seeing as we have three other huge novels to tackle), which wouldn't be so hard except that this is a damn intense book. Beautifully written, but in order to fully appreciate it and understand it, you need to take the proper amount of time to absorb it. Unfortunately, that's not something I have much of these days.
In English 347 (young adult literature) we're reading a novel per week. This week it's Looking for Alaska, which I'm enjoying so far. There's definitely a quantity vs. quality thing between 310 and 347, seeing as Margaritis gave us four books over three months and Goebel gave us one per week. (Which is not to imply that the young adult books are bad, but they aren't "high" literature, and let's face it, they're for young adults). We've already read The Catcher in the Rye (which, oddly, I had never read before. I really liked it.) and Celine (wasn't bad, wasn't great. Officially rating: eh...). Alaska should be done by Monday. So, if you can't tell, I'm reading a LOT these days. As in, more than I normally do. Which is really a colossal amount of reading, if you think about it.
English 370 is a linguistics course required for my major. It's a little more scientific in approach, but it's still humanities-oriented. My kind of science class! Thus far we've learned IPA (the international phonetic alphabet. I was lucky- I learned it for voice and choir, so I didn't have to work terribly hard on phonetic transcription. That's when you take a word in its own language and write it phonetically so that any person, who speaks any language but has knowledge of IPA, can pronounce it) and are talking about speech disorders like aphasia. Aphasia is what brings me to the Internet right now- we have to hand in some research on it tomorrow.
So that's 15 credits right there. And then there's NCCM, which is keeping me pretty busy. Granted, all of it is optional, but I so love working with everybody and all of our activities that I'm there for a significant amount of time every day. It may come to a point where I have to opt out of some things, although I don't really want to. Weekly, it goes like this: CAST, my program, on Mondays, Advanced TOB (Theology of the Body, remember?) on Tuesdays, Wednesdays are a long haul: Daily Mass, Adoration, choir practice, and a weekly class called Catholic Foundations (which is FASCINATING! Tonight was a special two-hour explanation about everything in the Mass, led by the good Father Qui Tac. 'Twas amazing. We were all exhausted but jazzed at the end). Thursdays are daily Mass and women's group (which I had to bag last week, and maybe for the quarter- there's just so much else to do).
And on top of THAT, this week we also have a meeting for the high school Convention (we chaperon), the New Student retreat (I'm helping), and yesterday I was recruited to be on the fall retreat planning committee (I'm SO EXCITED to do that!) We're hitting Seattle on November 2nd for the All Souls Mass, and then we're headed to Bellevue for Convention.
And all of this is made slightly more time-consuming by the fact that I'm still adjusting to living off campus. Not to the freedom it affords me (I love that part), but planning ahead in terms of travel time, being at the mercy of the Whatcom County Transit Authority, bumming rides, and sometimes having to walk because the busses are too full (major downside of every student having a bus pass- they ALL take the bus. And they all live on Bill McDonald Parkway and get on before I do). I can't pull the get-ready-for-class-ten-minutes-in-advance crap that I pulled in the dorms. I do like bumming rides, but I feel bad, taking people put of their way on the way home. Maybe next year I'll live at the Siena house. Everyone there also works together; I'd just ride along every time. It'll get easier, since I'm still adjusting. I hear we're in for a bad winter, though, so I'm a little concerned that it may become more difficult before it gets better. This makes me look forward to the day that I own my own car...
So that's all that's up around here. Hopefully you've just gained an understanding of why there's so little time to blog! I'll get better about it soon; right now I'm just a little overwhelmed. Overwhelmed, but happy-- I have goals and projects and am working toward them, which is a hell of a lot more than I could have said for myself at this time last year. Man, what a difference a year makes. I love having so much to do.
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