Happy Spring, blog! We’re in the thick of it here at Wellesley, with only three days of class left in the term, and as all endings tend to do, this week has been making me think about the future, from the very near to the very far.
Tomorrow is yet another one of those beautiful days where two different dining halls are serving chicken tenders, meaning that I get to have chicken tenders for both lunch and dinner, not to mention that Lulu is serving onion rings again at late night- I’m totally over the moon!
On Saturday, Anastasija and I are planning to make the trip down to Roche Bros- a grocery store in the Ville- to stock up on provisions for a picnic! So far, the list consists of a baguette, some cheese, Slim Jims, and some kind of cake.
My final essay for War and Peace is due on Tuesday morning, and I have to admit that as of yet I’ve spent more time binging the BBC adaptation of the novel than actually working on my essay. In terms of accuracy, the series isn’t the best, but it’s so entertaining! Still, I need to get my act together and start going through the novel in the next couple of days so I can pound out two thousand or so words on the Christian concept of kenosis and the Greek types of love and how those relate to Tolstoy’s comparisons of Natasha and Pierre’s relationship to her previous engagement to Andrei. For my German history class, I’ve got a couple of books on the cultural impact of the Red Army Faction and how they should be regarded in the collective memory given their status as a militant domestic terrorist organization and their impact on art and culture in West Germany during the 60s and 70s. That essay isn’t due until next Saturday, but I have a proposal due tomorrow and a presentation on my research on Tuesday, so while I’ll probably wait on the actual writing of the paper until reading period begins, I’ll probably spend most of this weekend switching between the pages of War and Peace and the pages of my RAF ebooks. I also can’t forget about the final exam for my Tolstoy class, which I’ll probably use as a “break” around the thousand word mark in my history essay.
I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this on the blog yet or not, but I’ve had yet another shift in my plans for my major- what will hopefully be the last of them- and I’ve become really interested in the idea of majoring in History, maybe with an English minor. I was originally signed up to take Comparative Politics alongside my First Year Writing course next term, but I’m going to keep my eye on Contemporary Problems in Latin American History during the Add/Drop period to see if a spot frees up. I’ve also been thinking a little about my classes for the fall semester, and how I want to start my sophomore year. My original plan was to take French 201 and 202 next year to finish up my language requirement- I took four years back home, so I was able to skip the first level based on my placement test results- but today during class Hodge dropped that he would be teaching Russian 101 in the fall, and as someone who struggles a bit with learning languages, having a professor that I really enjoy and know I can learn from would be a huge help. It would also be really, really fun to have Hodge for another class, especially for a full semester, and I can’t say that the possibility of taking language classes in the Russian department hasn’t been in the back of my mind this entire term. We’ll have to see how it all pans out, but right now it wouldn’t surprise me to find out I graduate Wellesley with four semesters of Russian under my belt- add on the Russian lit class I’m taking this term and you’re one credit away from a full on minor in Russian, which sounds totally awesome in a completely terrifying way.
I’ve also been looking forward to this summer. I know that for me, Wellesley will probably not be the end of my academic career, and graduate programs aren’t always quite as awesome about financial aid as undergrad, not to mention having to pay for food and housing and transportation and maybe even a dog and just generally being alive not in the dorms, so having a job and making money to save for my future is really important for me even this early on in my academic career, because I have a lot I need to save up for. I spent this afternoon updating my resume, and tomorrow I’m setting aside about thirty minutes to an hour to just apply to summer jobs. There are a lot of places back home that haven’t opened seasonal applications yet, so it’s something I’ll be coming back to throughout the term, too.
I hope this spring has been treating you all well so far- the weather here in Massachusetts has been beautiful, and the sun is still up when Anastasija and I head out for dinner every night, which is a huge plus! The warm weather out my window might mean an adjustment to the Snuggle Cave to let the sun in; I’ll keep you updated.
Sending you joy,
R