March: Irish Awareness Month

So... not many posts for February were there? :( I've been reading all these amazing blogs for the past two years and have always wanted to start one, but now that I've actually had one for some time I realize how hard it is to keep up with it! Things happen and I think "ooo I need to write a blog post about that", and I always forget when I sit down to the computer. But right now... I'm on spring break! And it is the busiest spring break of my life!

If you look to the right, you can see that I've fiddled with our blog a little bit and I've added book progress meters! Now I'll also be able to update what I'm reading for class and how far I am with it. I think I'm addicted to actually seeing progress made. Whenever I was little, my mom would give my sisters and I personalized lists with our chores for the weekend. Each list was specific to us, for what we were capable of doing. I was always a little jealous looking at Jackie's list (she's four years younger than me) because her things were always so much smaller. "Pick up stuffed animals off the floor. Dust the window seat." While my list included the dreaded vacuuming. Mary (three years older than me) always had something more advanced and harder to do, so I could always look to hers feel better about my own! Without the list I would wander around the house not really knowing what to do--my initiative developed later--but with the list, I got stuff DONE. I loved checking things off and looking at the crumply piece of paper at the end of the day that was covered in scratches: my work was complete. A finished list always meant freedom; each scratched off task was closer and closer to getting to play guilt free! (Of course, let's face it, a finished list for me was a rarity. Like I said, the initiative came along later...)

Up through high school I was incredibly disorganized. I always lost papers, turned things in late, and unfortunately had very forgiving teachers so I didn't feel any pressure to get anything together. In college, I found that pressure, rediscovered the list, and became the organized student I was meant to be! I have carried the practice over to grad school and it is so helpful. I've learned that I need boundaries and rules, and most importantly a list of things to do--otherwise I will wander around, flip through books, write something that doesn't make sense, and feel unprepared in class. The progress bars on the side are a sort of "list" for my books. As much as I love to see things checked off I love to see where I am on those progress meters!

If you notice, after this reading week is over, we'll dive into young adult fiction with Harry Potter and Twilight. Very exciting, and I think it will be a very polarized week. Most people will talk about how much they just loooove Harry Potter; Thursday, we will all hate on Twilight! For my Lost Worlds options class, I'm reading Pharos the Egyptian, because the Victorians were obsessed with ancient Egypt! And finally, the exciting news: Terry Pratchett is returning to have a special class with us. In order to have this class and discuss fantasy with him, he wants us to read three of his books first (clever marketing strategy if you ask me!) from his Discworld series. Incidently, whenever I've typed Discworld, it always seems to turn into Disco world.

Aaron and I are both busy putting together resumes, applying to jobs, trying to make as many connections as possible for being on the other side of the world in order to be able to further our careers when we get back home. Prayers are definitely appreciated on this front. I think I have paper topics figured out, which was a huge burden on my shoulders--I've been worried lately that I wouldn't be able to find a dissertation topic with enough time to research it while we're here, but the past few days a couple ideas have been rolling around in my brain and I think they fit together really well. I may or may not be doing a dissertation on the dime novels of the American west. How fun would that be??

For the next blog post, you'll hear from Aaron. I've sort of taken over this responsibility and I don't know how that happened! I'm not even very good at it (see February) ;) Love you all!