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Last night, Margaret and I went to see Pericles: The Prince
of Tyre. Ashley went with the other RAs in Wheeler because Jason Frank, a RA on
the second floor, was Pericles. Pericles is one of Shakespeare’s plays that
isn’t performed too often, so I really wanted to go (I have this goal to see
all of Shakespeare’s plays performed at least once). I was most certainly not
disappointed! Everything was spectacular. Professor Isser did a brilliant job
directing the play. In one particular scene, there are several suitors
competing in a triathlon for Thaisia’s hand. The Fenwick Theater is kind of
small, so staging such a scene is difficult. In order to adjust to the space,
the suitors were running and “swimming” in slow motion. I can’t really explain
it, but it was hilarious.

Today is already Friday, and that means two things. Firstly,
it’s payday! Secondly, it’s the weekend! The combination of money and free time
is dangerous. Margaret and I will probably go back to Providence and splurge a
little bit (just a little bit, though!). Anyway, this past week really flew.
Whenever Tuesday hits, life becomes a blender – everything goes by so quickly
that it’s difficult to discern one day from the other. But, for right now, I’m
just going to enjoy the weekend!  The invalid is doing somewhat better; Ashley is refusing to use
crutches, though. On Wednesday, I wouldn’t let her go out of the room until she
used the crutches. While I was walking to my 1:00 class, I saw that she had
discarded the crutches right by the side of Wheeler. I’ll admit that it was
funny. Okay, so it was hilarious. I just hope that her ankle will heal soon.

Medieval Philosophy is evolving into a continuation of FYP. In FYP, all of our classes sought to answer Tolstoy’s question, “How then shall we live?” In Medieval Philosophy, we’re battling that same question. One of the students in my class actually posed that question verbatim. In the class, it’s not just analyzing the viewpoints of medieval philosophers; instead, we’re applying the same arguments made by Augustine, Aquinas, Echart et al to modern life. For example, yesterday, we dealt with the problem of evil and predestination. Of course, it didn’t help when Professor Manoussakis gave an example using cheesecake; I could only think about cheesecake for the next five minutes. Then I realized that there were far bigger issues to attend to than my cheesecake craving. Interestingly enough, the class has come to the conclusion that some of the medieval arguments are still valid in the modern era. I just love how the FYP theme didn’t end with my freshman year.

In other (less academic) news, Ashley sprained her ankle last night while playing volleyball. Well, we think and hope it’s just a sprain. She actually may have fractured it. So, in addition to being a roommate, I have morphed into a nurse as well. Let’s just say that I now know why I’m not a Pre-Med student!

I survived one of my busiest weeks ever. My medieval literature essay and my Oxford study abroad application were both due this past Friday. I can’t believe that my study abroad application is finally finished and out of my hands. I also can’t believe that this semester is almost finished. Exams begin in a little more than a month. Let me reiterate that. A little more than a month. Even though this semester has been one of my busiest due to my classes, activities, and job, I’ve enjoyed it all. Speaking of classes, no I still haven’t decided what classes I want to take next semester. This could be a bit of problem considering the fact that enrollment is in a week or so. Hm. Back to the drawing board on this one.

I don’t think that I finished any work this weekend. On Friday, Ashley, Katie, and I went to Providence Place Mall on the free shuttle. Katie is going to Senior Ball with her boyfriend, and she wanted the two of us to help her pick out a dress. I think the three of us did rather well, if I may say so!

I can’t believe that I’ll be back home in two weeks for Thanksgiving. My parents are renovating the house, and I’ve been told that I won’t recognize my room. I’m not entirely too sure how I feel about this. My room was painted a nice purple for the longest time (see (!), purple has always been my favorite color. Just another reason why I was meant to go to Holy Cross.), so it’s going to be different to see any other color on the walls. Honestly, the color of my room is the least of my concerns right now. I have two research papers that I should probably start sometime soon because they’re both due before Thanksgiving break. I’m going to use this calm week to get as much work finished as I possibly can!

I’m not really sure why professors made papers due this
week. The campus is humming with election news from both sides. You can’t walk
anywhere without hearing “McCain” or “Obama.” Even the library isn’t quiet. I
actually had to leave tonight because some students became involved in a debate
two carrels down from me. So, while think it’s great that our campus is so
charged for the elections on both sides, I am beginning to wonder if it’s at
all possible to move Election Day to the first Saturday of November. Not only
would it help out college students, but more people might be able to get out
and vote! Or maybe I should’ve factored Election Day into my planning for this
week…

Oh, yes, just a quick shout out. This morning at Kimball, we
played American History trivia to select jobs in honor of Election Day. My
fellow blogger, Melissa Browne, was the first one to guess the Lucetania when I
asked for the name of the ship that helped draw us into World War I.

I’m getting anxious simply because everything is due between
now and Thanksgiving. Research papers, term papers, exams, applications…it’s
all adding up. The odd thing is that I’m enjoying all of the work. Professor
Manoussakis loved my topic for my Philosophy research paper (The influence of
Augustine’s garden scenes on the structure of the Divine Comedy), and I’m
actually excited to write that paper. I’m currently writing on the absence of
compunctio in the Divine Comedy (I really cannot escape Dante!), and, again,
I’m loving it. I just wish that I was a tad more focused on writing the paper
than checking the election results every five minutes or so! So, while the work
is really piling up, I’m still loving it. I know that’s an odd thing to say,
but it is most certainly true.

 

You have got to be kidding me. It’s already November!? First semester of sophomore year is going way too fast. Where are the brakes on this thing?

In other news, the campus celebrated the most anticipated holiday of the year with much fanfare. Yes, the entire campus was bedecked in revelry for the most glorious holiday…the end of Daylight Saving Time. Oh, an extra hour of sleep is such a glorious luxury! Although, the sun set today at 4:30ish. When I left the library at 5:00 tonight, it was pitch dark.

Oh, yes. Halloween was also a lot of fun. Ashley was on duty, so we all stayed up until three o’clock in the morning watching scary movies. I was tricked into watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I really need to stop listening to my friends when they tell me that a horror movie is good. If I can say so, my group of friends had some really creative costumes. We always try to have a “be what you aren’t” theme. Ashley was an indie kid, Katie was Pluto, and one of my friends, Andrew, was a nudist on strike. I decided to dress up as white trash. It was really a hilarious night!

As much fun as this weekend was, this upcoming week isn’t really going to be that much fun. My study abroad application is due on Friday, as is my Medieval Lit. paper. The Oxford summer group is going to try to get back together for a dinner sometime this week. I’ve been talking with one of my friends who is currently abroad there, and our conversations have just cemented my desire to go back there for next year!

Oh, yes – a Classics plug. If you have the time, go and visit the following Web site . The Classics department has been working a palimpsest of one of Archimedes’s treatises, and it was finally published. Many of my friends worked on it, so I’m quite happy to see that they’ve been part of an influential accomplishment during their undergraduate careers!

When I sat down in Dante’s Classical Sources on Thursday, Fr. Howard placed a box of cornflakes, a container of raspberries, and some napkins on my desk. Everyone in the class was extremely confused by the mini-breakfast adorning my desk, so Fr. Howard asked if any of us knew what type of berries he had given me. We all exchanged blank stares, and Eric poignantly replied, “Dante berries.” Fr. Howard then informed us that raspberries are also called Garden of Eden berries, and he thought that raspberries were an appropriate meal for me because I’m deciphering the last four cantos (including Dante’s entrance into the Garden of Eden) of the Purgatorio. And this is just one reason as to why I love the Jesuit experience! Come to think of it, raspberries actually are somewhat formed in the same way as Dante’s Mount Purgatorio…

Anyway course enrollment booklets were distributed to all students on Friday. I can’t believe that we’re already at the halfway point of the semester. Next semester’s courses were actually posted on-line at the beginning of the week, so Carrie and I got a head start. I thought that I had planned next semester perfectly, and then I found out on Friday that I was accepted into the College Honors Program. While I’m excited about that, my acceptance threw a monkey wrench into my plans for next semester. One of the requirements of the Honors Program is that I have to take two honors program seminars, and one of them must be taken in my sophomore second semester. So, at the moment, I’ve whittled my courses to six or so. One of the honors seminars offered next semester is the Ideological Destruction of Art, and Professor Ellen Perry will teach it. I am going to wake up at 6:30 a.m. on enrollment day just to make sure that I will be in that seminar! By the end of next semester, I will hopefully be finished with my common area requirements and my readings courses for my English major. Bah! Why does Holy Cross offer so many amazing courses?! 

This weekend was Family Weekend. While my parents were unable to attend (don’t worry; they’ll be visiting in about a week or so!), I wasn’t an orphan. My friends’ families graciously adopted me for dinner on Saturday night. I spent most of my weekend working in Kimball. Why, you ask? As an incentive to work this weekend, we were paid time and a half. While the dollar is now stronger against the pound, I really do have to start saving now for a year abroad! So, even though my family couldn’t make it, this weekend certainly did turn out all right! Oh, yes, except for the fact that I haven’t really finished any of my readings or applications. Hmmm…about that…

Until next time!

When I tell people about my proposed concentration, usually blank stares greet me back. Inevitably, someone will ask, “What are you going to do with that?” Well, Fr. Howard made an excellent point today as to why Classical and Medieval Literature is still important to know in the modern world. We’re just arriving at the Malebolge in the Inferno, which is where the fraudulent, both simple and treacherous, are punished. Fr. Howard pulled out a copy of the New York Times from September 29th and read an article that discussed the fraud and greed that have wreaked havoc on Wall Street. He then said, “Doesn’t this sound like Capernus?” It most certainly did. The very events that riled Dante are still occurring in our modern world. Literature is just a different expression of the same human experience, and that’s why I love it so much.

In other news, I submitted my College Honors Program application today. Now that that’s out of the way, I really don’t have any major projects (other than a couple of scholarships) for the next week. My class schedule is extremely different from a majority of the students on campus. Typically, the week before Columbus Day weekend is laden with tests and papers. However, that was last week for me, and now I just have to read. I guess that I’ll be taking over a lot of shifts for my Kimball Captain friends who need some extra studying time.

Speaking of Kimball, “Guess The Juice” didn’t go so well. Sean forgot who picked what mixture, so we really had no way of proclaiming a winner. I think that the next game is going to be ABBA karaoke. When “Dancing Queen” started playing on the radio, nearly all of my workers (including me) began to dance and sing along. Just another proof that old cultures have an odd way of permeating the subsequent cultures!

Today, I had a marvelous food escapade. As first-year students, we weren’t allowed to use our dining dollars at Crossroads until 6:00 p.m. during the week. Because of that rule, I didn’t really explore all of the options that Crossroads has. Tonight, I needed to get something quick to eat, but I didn’t want my staple from Crossroads (a chicken parmesan sub, if you were wondering. Yes, I do know that it’s probably terrible for me, but it is oh so delicious!). There’s another part of Crossroads with which I had never experimented before tonight. Oh, my eyes were opened to the divine jewel that the Deli and Salad station is! You can design your own sandwich or salad, and you have your choice of artisan breads, amazing fillings, and luxury salads. For instance, I had a baby spinach salad with mandarin oranges, chicken, walnuts, almonds, and poppy seed dressing. Words cannot express the dances my taste buds were performing. I am going to have to mention this jewel on my tours now! Good-bye, dining dollars…

Speaking of Epicurean food adventures, I have a funny story about work at Kimball. Every morning, the captains assign jobs to their workers. Well, simply assigning or asking for personal preferences becomes extremely boring very quickly. So, I decided to have a contest for job selection. The challenge? Kimball Pick-Up Lines. Every worker had to create a pick-up line related to a Kimball job. The example I gave them was, “I have to use my hot gloves to ‘catch’ you.” (‘Catching’ means taking the dishes out of the dishwasher, so we have to use thermal gloves because of the hot temperatures.) Well, that game didn’t go over so well. One of my workers (and a freshman year blogger!), Melissa, looked at me, and asked, “You do realize that it’s 7:00 in the morning…right?” Oh well. I thought it was fun. Tomorrow, I’m planning to do “Guess the Juice.” Ah, the power that a Kimball captain wields is fantastic! Muwahaha!

Memo to self: Do not drink coffee. It makes my blog entries simply ridiculous. 

I feel like I woke up on September 17th and went to bed on September 28th. I literally have not stopped moving since my last post, which explains my lack of entries for the past week and a half. I had a Medieval Literature paper due last Friday and a midterm in Jesus and His Contemporaries this morning. In addition to all of my classwork, I’ve been extremely busy between Kimball, and Liturgical ministry. I’m still working on my College Honors application in addition to a couple of scholarships here and there.  It’s not that the workload is unbearable here, but you definitely have to make decisions about what takes precedence. Unfortunately, I don’t think Professor Juilfs would’ve accepted my blog as an excuse for a late paper!

Classes are continuing to go well and still as much fun, even if I have a lot of work. Like I’ve said before, it’s really not even work for me; I just enjoy everything that I’m reading. In Dante, we’re finally delving into the Inferno. Fr. Howard has figured out that if we continue to read twenty pages a day without taking any breaks (“Because Dante didn’t take any breaks writing it!” Fr. Howard once said in class.), we’ll be able to finish the entire Divine Comedy. In Medieval Literature, we’ve finished our Anglo-Saxon era, and we’re now into the Romance era. We just finished The Lais of Marie de France, and we’re now reading , and we’re now reading Yvain.

Last week was Jesuit Heritage week on campus. To celebrate, there was an Amazing Race around campus to find various points of Jesuit importance. This always falls on a day that I have to do something else! Otherwise, I would’ve been all over it. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it in one of my remaining years (okay…that was scary. We’re not going to talk about that anymore!). All the Jesuits were even more prominent than they usually are on campus, and it was just a great week for the entire community to come together and celebrate our unique Jesuit heritage.

I know that I have written about them in a while, but I swear that I still have friends! Everyone in my group is also extremely busy (so it’s not just me), but they’re all doing well. Carrie and I had a repeat of our review sessions right before we handed in our literature papers last week. Last year, we always had a tradition of reading each others’ papers, so I’m glad that we’re continuing that this year! Rooming with Ashley is still going really well. She’s an amazing RA, and the floor loves her (which is always good!).

This past weekend, my parents and sister flew into Boston to celebrate my grandfather’s 80th birthday. Practically all of my dad’s family was there, so it was great to see them all. Because we live in Georgia, it’s difficult to see them all, so I’m not kidding when I say that I haven’t seen some of my aunts and uncles in nearly three years. It was a really fun night for all of us, and it was also nice to be off campus for just a weekend. I definitely love Holy Cross, but I needed to get away from all of my work for a little bit!

In good news, my camera decided to stop being fickle, so now I finally have some pictures for your viewing pleasure! Beware – tt’s an odd assortment.

Until next time, which will definitely be more often, I swear!

Whenever I begin any of my readings, I feel like I have entered a time warp. To give you an idea, my most modern source is Beowulf. My carrel in the library probably looks similar as some Medieval monks’ – St. Augustine’s Confessions, The Aeneid, the Bible, and “Beowulf.” Despite the time lapse, I’m loving every minute of all of my classes, and each class dovetails with the other. For instance, we’re learning about how St. Augustine’s Confessions completely changed philosophy and marked the end of Classical philosophy. Having read The Aeneid is a benefit because it allows me to see the distinction between Classical and Christian ideals.

In addition to classes, everything has instantaneously become hectic.  Kimball continues to go well; all of the freshmen workers now have a grasp of what jobs they like and don’t like. It’s really going much smoother now. Lastly, all of my applications are going well. This semester is extremely busy, as I’m applying for the College Honors Program, Study Abroad, and the Washington DC semester, in addition to several outside internships and scholarships. Ah! Normally, I’m not this busy, and it’ll all be over by mid-October.

Well, I’m off to attend the 43rd Hanify-Howland Memorial Speech, which is going to be presented by John Ashcroft!