Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Today Merits a Blog Post

An animation of the enlargement of the Europea...
It's obviously been much too long since I last updated this, but I find myself constantly exhausted at the end of each day with never an end in sight to the list of things I need to do, BUT today was a particularly good day, and I'm on a writing role at the moment, so I decided to post an update.

In my Zoology class, we have finally moved past the boring stuff (cell theory, mitosis/meiosis, heredity, etc.) and we're actually learning the names of the different phyla of animals. Fortunately for me, this part is easy because it's all a bunch of big words that no one else has a clue about, but my love of etymology is really paying off there. Today, we learned about Mollusks, which included everything from snails to clams to squid.

After that, in my International Studies class, Dr. Guy Whitten, director of the European Union Center for Excellence, spoke to our class about the mechanics of the EU, something I was woefully uninformed about until today. I accompanied him and Dr. Greenwald to lunch at the little Asian café down the street and further discussed European politics with them.

I was feeling a bit tired from having woken up for my 8 AM class today, so I did something I don't normally do and took a 30 minute power nap before finishing some Russian homework and rewarding myself by sitting out in the beautiful sunlight and breeze simply reading for pleasure for the 45 minutes before my Russian class, something I have not done for far too long.

I've found that when I don't engage in some kind of artistic activity for too long, I just feel out of sorts and constantly anxious or guilty. I guess this is a sign to what part of my particular vocation is, but after Russian class today, I uncharacteristically put off doing my homework until later tonight-- since it has to be done anyway-- and spent an hour and a half continuing to revise another 50 pages of my manuscript. I've been receiving lessons from Holly Lisle's How to Revise Your Novel course since mid January, but despite having lesson 12 waiting for me, I am still working on painstaking lesson 2 because of the many weeks I have not touched it. As tedious as some of the process is, I was feeling particularly inspired after reading some fiction today, and I felt especially accomplished after making a huge leap of progress. If I could keep up that pace of 50 pages per day, I could finish lesson 2 within 5 more days and finally move forward, so we'll see.

Finally, I unexpectedly ran into one of my many wonderful little groups of friends from St. Mary's when I went to  get dinner. When I think about where I was at this time a year ago, it's hard to believe how far I've come, sometimes, and I couldn't imagine transferring somewhere else after having met such great Catholic people my age here. I'll be sad not to see them next year when I live in France, but it has been exciting planning my year stay over there. I just recently got my classes approved, and now I need to research airfare and more about the city of Caen where I'll be living.

I'm about to head to choir practice for Holy Thursday's mass, and on Friday, hopefully I'll be able to meet with Fr. Brian McMaster for spiritual direction/vocation counsel, and then I think I will be home for the Easter weekend.

I'm feeling pretty on top of my work at the moment, it was a beautiful day, and I made some progress on the writing front. It was a good day all around! Winter is gone... spring has finally come!

God bless you as we enter this Holy Week and Easter season. :)
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2 comments:

  1. You have no idea how much I miss you!!! Reading what you wrote makes me realize how truly special and gifted you are! France? What a great experience for you. What an amazing life is awaiting you! God bless you continuously.

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  2. Coming in a bit late here, but just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year. Noting your proposed meeting with your priest and your choir practice: My protestant religion suits me fine, but there is a lot about Catholicism that are deeply appealing, such as a celibate clergy and the art of the cathedral. Such beauty!

    Now, Happy New Year!

    PS: Some day, someone should explain to me about power naps.

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