So.

DeMattos handed out the essay portion of our exam... which is due next Friday.

HEY GUYS, I HAVE A 4-PAGED PAPER AND A 5-PAGED PAPER IN ADDITION TO THE TWO 5-PAGED PAPERS I HAVE TO COMPLETE.











s-sob.

Good thing I already posted my hiatus ._.


EDIT: Priority of the papers and writings and shit I need to get done.

- the 4 reading reports (MUST BE DONE AND TURNED IN BY TODAY)
- the 5-paged French paper on le flâneur (TRY TO HAVE IT DONE TODAY AND-OR EARLY IN THE MORNING TOMORROW)
- the 5-paged English paper (HAVE DONE BY THIS WEEKEND AND EMAIL IT WITH LOADS OF APOLOGIES TO JUNGMAN, ilu jungman dun hate me ;;)
- the presentation on the French education system (HAVE TO HAVE COLLABORATION WITH MY PARTNER DONE AND READY FOR THURSDAY)
- the 4-paged French exam paper (MUST BE DONE BY NEXT FRIDAY)
- the 5-paged French exam paper (MUST BE DONE BY NEXT FRIDAY)

... guys, if you can't find my body, it's under all the literature texts. You'll probably find me clinging to a surrealist poem by André Breton. sob.
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So. Yeah, like I thought, my schedule is already messed up. This is what I get for trying to sleep through the cramps and pain and you can bite me if you don't like the tmi.

In other news, I did read the French articles I have to present today in class. I even highlighted... a lot. Mostly important things. Hopefully I won't suck too badly when I speak it in French (because the articles are in English). But I'm sure I'll do fine. They're short, anyway. And it'll be awesome to get these out of the way so I can just focus on the 5-paged paper on the flâneur I owe DeMattos.

... I'm still staring at my icon going, "Awww, he's so cute."

Ftr, the icon comes from the art in this video. Yes, I realize a lot of people frown and disapprove of this kind of thing in the fandom community but I am one of those people who say if you put it on the internet, it's free game to play with. Besides, I plan to credit the video anyway because it's wonderfully bawwww-ish and all.

Beyond all of this. I've actually cheered up considerable since my last entry. I guess I just needed food, rest, and time for the pain to lessen. Which I've done and has happened! So yeah.

Idk, I feel like babbling a lot right now. ♥

Oh, I should probably also mention that because of caffeinic I've been taking very basic German lessons at LiveMocha.com. Which probably isn't as good as having actual lessons but I'm mostly trying to get my foot in the door. I'm also signed up for Russian, Japanese, and Spanish--the Spanish so I can review things that I haven't gone over in over a year.

So yeah. Fun stuff. I feel very lively compared to last year--hell, compared to a couple of months or weeks ago. So... who knows? I guess I am getting better. ♥
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I think I've been too burnt-out with posting to actually post anything. I blame the CFUW event XD

In any case, things have been going kinda smoothly. There's some bumps in the road known as my sleep schedule that's been disrupting things a little but it's nothing to really stress about. I'm done with my midterms (sob, that French Lit one suuuucked) and now have a 5 to 10 page paper to have done by the 17th and also two presentations to have ready soon-ish.

Thankfully Mardi Gras is soon. I think.

Lemme go check the calendar.

... oh boo. That's not till the end of Feb. Oh well. No break for me quite yet.

But I can get it all done. Jumping through one hoop at a time \o

And I just got done talking with Dr. Dolly who seems happy for me. This is a good sign. It means I'm not fucking up too badly in her class! Otherwise she would use that :( face and that disappointed voice, sighing and going, "Jazz... I know you can do better."

"Je sais, j'essaie, Dr. Dolly. :<"

Aaaah. So much to do. This quarter needs to end and then I can look forward to new classes \o

Ah well.

... note to self: drop the Chem class officially tomorrow. And also look to see if the racing forms are out. >.> Yeah.


EDIT: Bad news. The only Spanish course offered next quarter is one that requires prerequisites in 301 and 302, which I do not have. ... orz. Looks like I might actually have to drop it to a minor if I can't get the courses during the summer.

But I want my cake and to eat it too :<

OMG, FOLKLORE STUDIES. EEEE. DO WANT.
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I fail at updating mostly because I do that thing where I go, "I should update and tell people about this because fuck yeah" but then get distracted by something else.

I've been very ADD-ish this week. Also tired. Even though I've been getting 5-10 hours of sleep depending on the night--YES, I AM STILL SLEEPING AT NIGHT.

But my history books I ordered came in! I was so gleeful yesterday because in French we discussed politics (and I've come to realize that I really do like discussing things that normally make people twitchy when people aren't up in arms about them--politics is one of them) and then band and ahaha...

See, I'm in my possibly second-to-last year of university and I'm finally getting the stuff I've been wanting for the past three years. Discussion, readings, philosophy, seeing how this became that and why, reading and understanding the influences of the past... just stuff that actually, these days, get ignored a lot.

I love this kind of stuff. And maybe last year I seriously considered dropping my foreign language majors but... definitely not happening. Might actually drop the Spanish but I'll see what happens in the Spring in regards to that. But still... French with English and History minors? Happiness. Keeping Spanish as a major would just be icing on the already awesome cake.

I love how all my subjects are interconnected, even. You can't have one without the other. Or... well, you could, but you miss a lot of the subtle nuances when you read Voltaire and other authors, for example, in English other than their original language.

... I'm just kind of happy and content with where I am even if I have no fucking clue what I'm going to do with my degree still. That'll come when it comes time to make a decision.

And since I was bored in French class again, I wrote this bit of nonsense:


Pour plus qu'un moment, il y avait silence.
--Puis, les cries des autres qui ont trouvé la fin dans la mer.
L'homme écoutait avec plaisir aux sons de l'avenir.

Ce que temps restait, c'était avec mystérie.


... once again, I should never be allowed to write things in French.

Anyway, more updates later!


EDIT:

62

( Countries I named. )

... I wanna try again!
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So I went to bed around 8PM last night... you know, for a nap.

... I woke up at 6AM.

I apparently needed the sleep?

Anyway, beyond that, orz... this weekend is for studying. Tonight, however, is where I chillax and celebrate the fact that I have attended all my classes this week. Fuck yeah.

Also, I shouldn't be allowed to scribble in class. I get very nonsensical things which is why I'm posting them even though they suck.

Warning: the writing in French has no point to it and sucks worse than my English writing.

( Scribbling en français )

... I shouldn't be allowed to write stories in French ever.

And for my horrible guilty-pleasure pairing:

( ... I'm such a terrible person sometimes. )

Uhuhu. Yeah, I still suck at writing and am horribly out of practice with it, but hey. I like doing it and that's all that matters really. I mean, I'm no professional and I doubt I ever will be so... yeah.

Also, ahahaha, should really stop writing these kind of things in my French classes. I... have no idea.

... I love everything right now |D
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So. Sitting in French Lit today, we were going over Boule de Suif which of course I failed at reading. So discussion caught me pleasantly off guard. (Note: Yes, we really talk back and forth in French and English like I have written.)

DeMattos: "Alors... so. The story was written...?"
Everyone: "..."
DeMattos: "... 1880. And now we run through questions of When, Where, and Who. Quand est l'histoire?"
Everyone: "..."
DeMattos: "..."
Someone: "1870?"
DeMattos: "Oui, pendant...?"
Everyone: "..."
Someone 2: "... la guerre?"
DeMattos: "..." *gestures to continue*
Someone 2: "... contre la Prusse?"
Me: *PING'D IN THE RP SOUL-ANIMAL*
Someone 3: "Wasn't it like the Germans?"
DeMattos: *makes a face and moves hand around in a "sorta-kinda" fashion*
Me: "Non, c'est la Prusse."
Someone 3: "But aren't they like German?"
Me: "Well, they're Germanic but not the same nation?"
DeMattos: "Ah... the Prussian were German, mais... ..." *EXPLAINS THE DISORDER OF THE GERMAN STATES AND THE UNIFICATION OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE*

And then we went into talking about the story which is all a critique on the classes and how they're viewed. But it does take place during the Prussian occupation of the French regions of Lorraine and Alsace and thus has a Prussian who gets Boule de Suif, a prostitute who originally didn't want to but was pressured by the others (mostly "les gens respectables", aka the higher-classes) in her traveling party because the Prussian said he wouldn't let them leave if she didn't, to sleep with him. And... yeah.

Hahaha~ I love getting ping'd like that. I was trying not to grin the whole time because FUCK YEAH Prussia! T-though yeah, bad image in French literature.

I also love how DeMattos mentions that there's a story where a French woman had syphilis and knew she was going to die, so she slept with as many Prussians as she could to spread the disease. Oh you, France.

And of course, it's partly because of the Franco-Prussian War, where-in Lorraine and Alsace (basically France's financial backbone at the time) were taken by Prussia and afterwhich Prussia forced France to pay 5 million (or did he say cinq mille, in which case it was 5 thousand? I CAN'T REMEMBER) francs in gold, that France supported the Treaty of Versailles where the same thing happened--but to Germany--after the First World War. From how DeMattos explains it. And yeah, remember, that's just partly.

Oh, history, I love you so hard when you start making sense to me. ♥
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So my good deed of the day: I was walking back to the dorm after getting some food in the caf and on the walk next to Woodard Hall there was a student ID. Since I've lost my wallet here once and left my ID in the bookstore once, I figured I'd do the the girl who lost her ID a favor and picked it up and... turned around and went to the Tech Express and left it with them.

Whenever people lose things like that on campus, people are always told to go there. And if not, she'd have to go get a new one anyway and she might give her name and someone will recognize it as one of the lost-and-found IDs and... yeah. Not a good thing to lose on campus so I hope she finds it there.

Beyond this, I have so much French to read.

Articles
- class struggle in France
- colonialism
- prostitution in the novel

Literature
- Hernani par Victor Hugo*
- La Chartreuse de Parme par Stendhal
- Le Père Goriot par Balzac
- Madame Bovary par Flaubert
- Boul de Suif par Maupassant**

Other Things
- "Les Djinns" par Victor Hugo (already read but need to look over again)
- Baudelaire (his biography)

* Lesser priority but still priority
* Very much priority

And this all has to be on my Reading Report that I turn in next week on the 16th. So. Yeah. Thankfully, we went over Le Chartreuse de Parme quite a bit today. Yet another one of those infamous French "rocks fall, everyone dies" romance stories. Seriously, from the time of the Middle Ages on up, the French at least from what I know love to have tragedies. Kind of interesting to make note of.

In addition to those readings I should actually get around to reading Richard II like I should have already been doing. I love my Shakespeare class so much. Last class, we went from the history of gardening to Roman war ranks to Virgil to Plato and then connecting it all to Shakespeare's use of imagery regarding gardens and how they reflect the monarchy and how a king should always maintain order in the kingdom.

It was so amazingly in depth and this is the kind of education I've always adored. I love being shown how things lead up to each other and pieced together. I mean, there are times when the class was probably going, "So where is he going with this?" but it all had a point, as random as it seemed and... I think I'm going to take his class in the Spring. It's a linguistics course in a way. History of words in English and such. And... I need another English course credit to finish off the hours I need to get a minor in the subject (because I failed that last English class I took...).

In addition to all of this... ahaha, you guys know how sometimes when you write fics or RP characters, you learn stuff and then you find yourself going, "I haven't done that in ages! Why not?" Well, I've been listening to classical music since a thread I did last night. Ahaha~ And someone has been linking me to fanart with Gilbo and Fritz and baw...

But yeah. I feel very much like diving into all this all at once but good lord. That's a lot to read and do. Thankfully, I can listen to music while reading. Hilariously, the music I'm listening to is like... from a century before the literature I'm reading. Ahaha~

And yeah. I feel very content right now.
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So I forgot to do this yesterday, so I'll do it now while I remember.

Things that made me smile yesterday:

+ Shakespeare class. Jungman is such a wonderful professor, getting in-depth with the history of the time of Shakespeare. Also, the story of how the theaters were being tossed over to the other side of the Thames and, after dismantling their theater to move it, the group Shakespeare was with bought a plot of land owned by the Queen and essentially stuck it to the Puritans in charge of the city and stayed in central London. Very amusing facts from history~

+ An elder woman sitting next to me in Chemistry helped me out by pointing out charts and graphs in the book that helped explain better what the professor was talking about.

+ I'm still giddy that I'm able to pronounce French better.

+ Band. In general. Music. I adore. ♥

+ achan_hiarusa helping me out with the confusion I got from Chemistry~

+ The 12th Detective Conan movie. ... did I mention I was loving music very much yesterday? Because this movie definitely supported the "I love everything musical" feeling.

+ George Lopez. Because his show always manages to make me laugh for some reason or another. Ah ha~

Aaaand, I think that's it.

Today's still happening so I'll probably do a post about the happys of today later.

For now, I leave you with some French:

( 'Les Djinns' par Victor Hugo )

... why yes, I did totally write that all out myself. I kind of have to read it and analyze it for my class on Monday. So~

Also, if you want the English version, you can find it right over here.

... I adore the ending of the end of this poem, but the English version doesn't really do it justice, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just picky since I prefer the originals of things. ETA: I might be tempted to do a more exact English translation of this poem, though. The English version by O'Sullivan really doesn't do it justice, I find.

Anyway, that's my educational literature post for the day. Or something. \o
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Because of recent personal low moments in the "I am happy" levels (i.e., been failing at being able to say that for a little while), I'm going to be doing the following meme:

1. Post about something that made you happy today even if it's just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for a week without fail.

...

Well. To start off, even if the day is still young:

+ the weather channel said that there was a possibility of snow today (more than likely, it'll be the wet, soggy kind). This made me giddy as all else. ... until I shared the news with some classmates of mine who scoffed and basically said, "It won't be real snow like in Minnesota (because I have relatives there and know what it's like)."

But remained cheerful despite this because zomg possibility of winter weather~

+ More French history in French lit today. I r happy history buff who, yes, had to relate everything to Hetalia because I'm easily amused like that. (For some reason, I had the running commentary of Arthur going, "Five Republics. Think you have enough?" with Francis responding, "Oh, I'm not sure... certainly not as bad as how many monarchs you've gotten rid of, non?" and... yeah.)

+ Relating Shakespeare with my French studies. Because we were reading an excerpt from Madame de Staël's De la littérature considéré dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (abbrev. as De la littérature) involving the tragedies of Shakespeare and the difference between English and French literature.

+ My speaking of French is a lot better thanks to that phonetics course and I will probably be happy about this for a while.


... wow, this thing does cheer me up.


ETA: + Watching House be an ass.
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So. Because I am a brilliant person, I end up leaving my school ID (also the only means to get food from the caf) at the bookstore this Friday and didn't notice until Saturday.

This means that I went the whole weekend surviving on two or three things of ramen.

... yey.

Also, I smartly decided to watch cooking shows Sunday night. Emeril, some American Iron Chef, some other Food Network show...

Needless to say that I was (still am, actually, gonna go eat here shortly) hungry. And had nothing to eat and no money to get food. ;o;

Luckily, I recovered my ID this morning and got a quick snack before going into my French class with DeMattos fully prepared! I read Madame de Staël's biography as well as François-René de Chateaubriand's biography and Le Mal du siècle, which is an excerpt from his work René (which I just read a summary of on wikipedia and wtf that ending).

Read all of that and we didn't even touch on any of these things in class today DX

Oh, well. I'm pretty prepared for when we do go over them in class. STAYING ONE STEP AHEAD, BOHAHAHAHA!

Also, I have 2 articles I have to read and then present to my class, so people on my flist who have knowledge of French: aidez-moi, s'il vous plaît? I'll probably write a post on them whenever I get around to them.

Also, am out of hermit more, sort of. I'm feeling kind of detached from the internet and, in relation, RPing. So... I think it'll get better once I get everything all balanced out. I seem to go through phases on this. It'll pass~ It'll pass~

And now for a meme!

Your Spiritual Number is Five

You bring adventure and change to people's lives. You are willing to challenge your friends and push them to grow. Right now, your life is about figuring out where to direct your energy. If you're not careful, you can become too unreliable or flighty. You need the perfect project. You live a free form life - which allows you to be very innovative and a great problem solver. Rules, schedules, and structure practically destroy you. You have to do things your own way.

... eeeeeeeeeeeh.


EDIT: Corndog, fries, chicken creole, and a salad later, I feel more alive. Not full, really, but no feasts after a famine and all that.
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Je pense que le cours de français avec mon prof DeMattos soit un cours difficile. C'est parce que je réfléchisse au dernier cours avec DeMattos ce printemps et... oui. Paranoia~ Paranoia~ Tout le monde me voit~

... if that makes any sense at all.

Yes, basically, I'm flailing about my French class with DeMattos this quarter. It is scarily like the class I nearly bombed in the Spring and... I really hope to do better in this class. I plan to actually do my readings and get all my assignments done on time but... yeah. I dunno. PARANOIA!

Orz...

I should probably get some food so I can not feel sickish at the thought of it being like last year. Orz orz orz...


ETA: ... my icon makes me want to write some FrancisArthur fic... taking place during the Norman invasion and Francis is teaching Arthur French (because we all know from the kink meme that that kind of thing is hot).

And now I worry what my parents will think if they read this post--OH WELL.


ETA 2: 2:18PM - Well, it's official. I am crazy. *continues to ponder studying the beginnings of her fourth foreign language*

Currently I have: French, Spanish, and Japanese. Note that I do not claim to be fluent in any of these, just that I know some of them and could probably get by in a country with the first two languages. Japanese I mostly can read hiragana and understand some of it when it's spoken to me. Couldn't write it or speak it for beans, though.

... orz. Some day, I will be an eclectic knowledge of foreign languages. Or something.

On my list to get around to studying some day: German, Russian, Gaelic, Greek, Latin, Italian, Chinese, Korean... Need moar languages. Yosh.

I'm also amused when my friend Patrick claims that Southern!US!English is its own language. Also, l337. *snerk*
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