What a week, blog! I’m really getting back into the swing of things here on campus, and not a moment too soon (one could argue that it’s a little late, given that there’s only one week of classes left in Term 3, but I’m choosing to be grateful it happened at all)!
I haven’t exactly stuck to the letter of my last blog post, but I’ve certainly made some changes for the better. My work has been turned in sooner, my emails have been answered quicker, and I’ve even started preparing for finals! This term I have a final paper for both classes and then a final exam for my Tolstoy class, but before I can get to those I have to finish my final short essay for my history course, which is due tomorrow morning and I currently have about halfway done. Our topic is a controversial German monument, and I’ve chosen to write about the Silent Library, which commemorates the book-burning of May 10,1933 that is often seen as the Nazi regime’s first real act of violence. In my research I’ve been finding a lot out about Berlin as a vessel for memory and book-burning and censorship in general, which has been super cool. I’m crazy fascinated by the intersection of censorship and the spread of misinformation and where we should draw the line- I actually did a quarter long project and ten page research paper on it in high school, and it’s the reason I signed up for “Hoaxes and Conspiracies”, the First Year Writing course I’m taking next term- so none of it has really been any sort of pain to learn about.
Yesterday was my first time working for my new job! I was supervising the adherence to COVID-safe procedures at the Sexual Health Educator’s Sex Carnival in Freeman, a dorm over on East Side. Unfortunately, the Condom Races only pulled one or two participants, but on the bright side there were no safety risks to deal with and I pretty much got paid to do my homework next to a table full of condoms, which isn’t the worst gig in the world. I have my next event on Sunday- Blanket Making with Wellesley for Boston Children’s Hospital! Hopefully that one will have a better turnout.
On Saturday I have exciting plans- Anastasija and I are hoping to sign up for the One Direction Spin Class a fellow Pom resident is hosting! The flyer says they’ll be playing “No Control”, and who am I to turn down such impeccable taste? This is also a step towards my newly established goal of being more active. I’m trying to get back into my first term habit of taking long walks.
This morning I arrived to my Russian Lit class at 9:57 to find all of the lights in the chapel off and a recording of gunshots playing from Professor Hodge’s computer at the front of the room, and while this was a very strange way to start class, it turns out there was a simple explanation for all of it (work crews fixing the lights, a Beethoven piece that just so happens to have a gunfire interlude in the middle), and I have to say that class by lamplight wasn’t that bad (check out the header image)! I’m not sure exactly how, but that introduction seemed like a bit of a metaphor for how crazy this semester has been so far. Here’s to a successful last week of classes next week!
Sending you joy,
R