Procrastination, thy name art BLOG!

So I have a presentation tomorrow, and since I am blocked, I thought a little blog post might help me get more into the writing mood.

It has been awhile since my last post. I've been very busy with my schoolwork over the past two weeks, but I am less than three weeks away from the Christmas break, yippee! I have to start thinking about decorations for my house and what gifts to buy people (and where to find the money for said gifts), but right now I am focused on trying (operative word: trying) to finish the essays that stand between me and my well-deserved break. I am cloistered here behind an impossibly large stack of books and copied articles that are just begging to be read, appreciated, and cited. Great. I think I may be up late tonight working on this, but the outline and intro are already done, so at least that's a start. My presentation is on early modern woodcuts in Chaucer General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Hmmm...

Well, I suppose that's enough self-indulgent blathering on about things no one really cares about except me... Back to "work..."

My Blog Assignment

So remember my first post, where I mentioned that this blog was part of an assignment for school? The assignment report is due tomorrow. I guess I've gotten over my writer's block... Sorry if some of my posts were a bit long! So I am reflecting on the process of the writing and the reception of this blog, and it would be REALLY helpful if some of you who have been reading could tell me what you've thought of the blog cummulatively. Have you enjoyed reading my blog, or have you just done it out of obligation, because I told you it was for an assignment? What would you have liked to see more of, or less of, for that matter? And possibly my most important question to you: do you feel as though you know me better as a result of having read my blog for the past six weeks? If so, why? If not, why not?

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks for reading. I know I'm not really that interesting, but I appreciate your participation for the sake of academic inquiry! I may continue to post, but perhaps with less frequency during essay-writing time...

My Milestone Anniversary and Hallowe'en

It's been a crazy weekend! Thursday was my 10 year anniversary with my boyfriend, so we decided to go to Niagara Falls for an overnight trip. It was really great. I had a lot of fun. I always think that the touristy-ness of it is quite funny, though. Most of their tourism centres around providing different angles for looking at the falls. Really, how much can you get of them? You can see the falls from the path around them, you can go behind them, you can take a boat right up to them, you can take a helicopter ride over them, you can look at them while riding in a carriage driven by horses, you can even get eat your dinner at a fallsview restaurant or choose a fallsview hotel so you never have to stop looking the falls! "Let's see the falls from this angle, and then this one, and then this one...!" I'm sure the locals are sick of looking at them. I also think it's interesting that people come to witness the sublimity of nature as represented by the falls, but then they get a very manicured, built up area, catering to the tourism, and witness the falls in ways that would indicate a human mastery over nature (especially "Journey Behind the Falls" for which engineers designed tunnels leading tourists to areas where they can go behind the water). But I guess that's enough cultural analysis. Peter and I did have dinner at a fallsview restaurant, and we saw the falls from a ferris wheel called the Niagara Skywheel. The next day we went horseback riding, made a forray out to niagara on the lake, where I bought a hat from "Beau Chapeau" and had my picture taken with a statue of George Bernard Shaw, and finally we got a tour of a winery called Pilliteri Estates (and a little tasting, too). Here are a few pictures:

It was a really beautiful anniversary. Horseback riding through the niagara escarpment was probably one of the biggest highlights of the whole trip. I recommend it to everyone!

Yesterday was Hallowe'en, and I usually like to dress up as some sort of literary figure. This year I chose Alice in Wonderland. It was a great costume. I'll spare you the pictures on this one... My favourite comment with regards to my costume last night: " OMG! You're Alice, right? That was, like, my favourite movie of all time! I LOOOOOVE your costume!" This was spoken by a girl dressed up in a cat lady costume. Rather than explain that I am a literary scholar and that my choice of costume was contingent upon that, I just smiled and nodded.

Today I was wedding dress shopping with my sister. She looked absolutely stunning in all of her dresses. I can't post any pictures because we can't let the groom see! But take my word for it: gorgeous!

Needless to say, it has been a very hectic weekend! I have a presentation due on Monday about the historical significance of images in manuscripts and early printed editions of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Joy! I've done all the research, but I need to write the presentation. So the rest of my weekend will be occupied by that! I guess I'd better get right down to it!

Pumpkin Picking, CFP's, and Upcoming Assignments

So I decided to take yesterday off and go pumpkin picking with my boyfriend. It was awesome. We went to a little farm just outside of Woodstock, ON called Birtch Farms. There were pumpkins everywhere. This doesn't have anything to do with being a grad student. It was just fun. Well I guess that's not entirely true. The hayride was punctuated by a narrative about apples (the farm was also an orchard), and being an English grad student, I couldn't help but be over-analytical. They had wooden tableaus of apple related stories all along the hayride, geared towards the kids. Guess what the first apple story was? Yup, you guessed it. Genesis: Adam and Eve. After this, the next tableau was William Tell, a story I'd never really heard. I was surprised to discover a biblical intertext in that narrative. Very Isaac and Abraham-esque. Except fate seemingly takes the role of intervening force, and not God. Very interesting. Then, we came across another tableau of Snow White. Well, all the kids started going CRAZY and were literally climbing over the adults just to get a peek. Disney wins again. I also think it's interesting that Snow White functions as an analogue to the Genesis story, but I think that this academic pond has already been fished out... Too bad. Here are a couple of pictures from our day:

It was nice to have a break, but I have a lot of things to do, and a lot of assignments coming up! I joke with my friend that, that beacuse I am so busy, all I get to eat is perogies and pizza pockets. She laughs, but there's truth in jest, you know. The same friend also sent me a bunch of CFP's for the ACCUTE conference. I want to go, but I am so bogged down right now, and the abstracts are due on or before November 15th! Plus I have something due every week until the end of term, starting this week. And tons of grading consistently coming in. I guess I get back to reading. I have a busy seven weeks ahead. *GROAN*

Teaching Grammar (Zzzz...)

It’s Thursday again! Yes! I just finished teaching. Today’s lesson: grammar! My students were overjoyed. Can you sense the sarcasm just dripping from my narrative voice? I had one student, who, hilariously, was sitting directly to my right, literally put his head right down on the desk and go straight to sleep. He was sitting right BESIDE me! In my experience as an undergrad, the best way to sleep in class is to find the perfect angle at which you are the least noticeable and then practice resting your head in your hand so that when you close your eyes, it appears as though you are merely pondering the oh-so-interesting contents of your book. Or, just wear a baseball cap. But to place your head directly on the desk and doze off directly beside the course instructor without even the vaguest attempt to camouflage what you’re doing, practically drooling on the TA’s textbook, is just flagrantly disrespectful. Even the way he was sleeping reflected laziness and a lack of effort. At least try to pretend like you’re not sleeping! Also, in my experience, the best and most heart-attack-esque way of waking up someone who is sleeping in class is merely to use the verb “to sleep” in a sentence. So mid-sentence, when I noticed this student sleeping, I used the sentence “Sleeping in class, my notes were not sufficient for the final exam” as an example of a dangling modifier. I stared at him as I said it, and he woke up with a start. For some reason, when sleeping in class, students are oblivious to everything except the word sleep. It is as though they’ve programmed their brains to respond only to this word. It’s hilarious. I had a hard time containing my laughter. I’m not normally in the practice of humiliating students, but in this case, he was sitting right beside me, and if I let him away with it, I may lose the respect of the other students. I then instructed the students that if they really must sleep in class, perhaps it would be best to sit in a place other than right beside the instructor!

I guess that’s all. I have to go update my participation grades record now!!!

Ein Prosit!

Well, yesterday my family came down from the GTA for Oktoberfest. They stayed the night. My house is full of empty bottles and dirty glasses. I guess I have to clean again... urgh! It was a fun time, though.

First we went to St. Jacob’s where my family shopped (and I browsed, since I am a grad student), and then we went out for dinner. I wanted to take them to Wildcraft, but when I called and they said it would be about a 1.5 hour wait, so we went to Ennio’s instead, which was perfect.

When we were finished eating I tried to call a cab, but no such luck. It’s impossible to get a cab on the closing weekend of Oktoberfest! I suggested, since our ‘festhallen’ was on King street, that we take the # 7 bus to get there. Well, what a scene my family made on the bus!!! Most of my family is not used to public transportation, having had cars since the time they were legally able to drive. Some of the highlights, in quotes:

- (as an express bus passed): “Why isn’t he stopping? What a jerk! What does he think we’re waiting here for?”
- (after 5 minutes of waiting) Is this bus EVER going to come?
- (as we enter the bus, frantically) “How do I pay?!!!
- (sitting on the bus, with many bus regulars) “I can’t believe I’m on the BUS!”
- “It’s like a ride at Canada’s Wonderland!”

SO embarrassing. Other riders similarly headed to Oktoberfest events began to chat up members of my family, presumably because they were immensely entertained by their lack of bus-taking prowess. So at least that kept them entertained (and occupied) for the duration of the ride.

When we arrived at the ‘festhallen” which turned out (unbeknownst to me) to be a tent (family response: “OMG, it’s a TENT?! They BETTER have indoor plumbing!), we entered and claimed a hightop table. Almost immediately, two weird guys started hitting on my Mom and my Aunt. One was missing his two front teeth and smelled quite foul. He also had difficulty remembering any names, and just called us all by my sister’s name for the entire duration of the night because he was so drunk. The other, presumably weirdo #1’s buddy (though we weren’t sure if they were friends or just bonded due to mutual weirdness), was creepily trying to photograph us surreptitiously all night. *Shudders. They colonized our hightop table. My Mom and Aunt did not want to surrender the table, to which my response was “good god, they really don’t know how to shake one, do they?” Give up the table, it’s not worth it! My cousin, sisters and I gradually moved over to the neighbouring table, which was pleasingly occupied by cuter, more socially graceful men. My Mom and Aunt soon followed, and the two weirdoes got scared off by the other men (yes! Operation: successful!). The new, nice guys kept commenting on how cool it was that our moms were out partying with us. I think it’s cool too :D

In closing, it was a great girls’ weekend, and I have just one thing left to say:

“Ziggy, Ziggy, Ziggy, Ziggy,
Oy, Oy, Oy!”

Ein Prosit!

Just Some Random Things Happening in My Life

So this past week has been Oktoberfest. I decided (on my usualy Thursday night forray out with my friends) to visit one of these "festhallen" to see what it was all about. It was quite fun. We had lots of beeer and polka-ed until 1 am, when they kick everyone out. I am tired today...

I have my family coming to visit me this weekend. We're all going out to Oktoberfest together, since they've never been. This means I have to clean my house. Great... It's not that messy, but I have other things I need to be doing!

As a grad student, I worry about my health sometimes, mainly because I drink too much, eat the wrong foods (due to ease/speed of preparation or acquisition), and don't get enough exercise or sleep. So I am trying to turn over a new leaf. I went to a bikram yoga class yesterday. For those of you unfamiliar with bikram yoga, let me "enlighten" you (pun very much intended). Bikram yoga is much like regular yoga, except it is done in a room so hot that it rivals the deepest pits of hell. The room is literally heated to approximately 44 degrees celcius. Not only are you expected to stay in the room for 90 minutes, they want you to be active and do yoga. Hmmm. It feels good afterwards, but mainly because you come to appreciate being in a normal temperature. When you exit the room, you feel a relief like nothing else you can experience. It's good for me, and I shouldn't complain about it. I will probably go back. I am a glutton for punishment. Hence, I am in grad school.

Speaking of grad school, I met another grad student the other day who was still working on his OGS and SSHRC applications (HAHA!) and he was telling me about a dream he had about said external funding agencies. He dreamed that SSHRC and OGS were PEOPLE and they had singular, personififed identities. I thought this was hilarious. He said it freaked him out a lot and then he woke up. I told him that maybe he had just been reading too much allegory. Only an English Literature grad student would find that joke funny. It cracked him right up.

So I am working on a book review for Rawi Hage's new novel Cockroach. I suppose I'd better get back to it, since I told them I would get them somthing today, and I still have 150 pages to read! Maybe I can read and vacuum at the same time...