Ooh, Blogger's posting format's changed

I guess that's a sign that I've been away too long. Also it now apparently defaults to the default font setting for this browser, which I set as a joke as Tengwar about two years ago. And then promptly forgot about. I was a bit surprised when I started typing just now, but it's fixed now.

Well, the time-turner thing didn't work out but I'm managing anyway, slowly and linearly. Only two more final exams to do, one tomorrow and one on Friday, and then I am free! Free to go home and bake cookies with my siblings and read books to my baby sister who's not such a baby any more and watch The Avengers again with my brothers (one of THE best movies ever, by the way) and get back into proper dance training again and prepare to go to Comic-Con! It's my first time going and I'm extremely excited.

My proposal presentation, in what I still consider to be a not-so-small miracle, actually went well. I even won an award for best Arts and Humanities presentation. Hopefully this means the worst of this whole project process is behind me now, because honestly these past few months have been slow, agonizing torture. I've never had a worse academic experience.

In other news I am also going to be posting my creative writing a lot more over the summer, I hope. I've signed up for Camp Nano, no idea what I'm writing yet and maybe I'll just use it to finish The Outlaw's Hand, but I dunno. Also I'm back to practicing my drawing. And there's many, many books I want to read--the rest of the King's Assassin series, the first Gormenghast book, a Kate Elliot novel, the rest of Wives and Daughters, Great Expectations, and much more. In short--bring on summertime, I can't wait!

Done!

I've actually survived finals week yet again! I still find it hard to believe . . . I guess the Doctor is right, we humans really are capable of amazing things ;)

I'm utterly exhausted, so I'll leave you now to take a quick nap before getting all my packing done. I got three hours of sleep last night and three the night before, so I'm pretty wiped out. And I leave on the plane early tomorrow morning, so all that packing that I've been unable to do due to being busy studying? That needs to be done pronto.

I wrote nine pages of essay for my last English exam today, six for yesterday's exam, and two for Tuesday's. That's a lot of essays in a very short amount of time. My wrist still hasn't recovered. Oww.

One Down, Four to Go

I have completed my Russian 202 course, what a relief! The final exam went pretty well. Now I'm studying for my exam on Dante and Arthurian legend, which is tomorrow--And this studying is MUCH more enjoyable than studying for Russian, I can tell you that much!

A new trailer for "Inception" was released today. I've been wanting to watch this movie ever since I saw the first teaser, and it's just looking better and better with every trailer and poster. I hope it's as excellent as it seems, because this new trailer? AMAZING.



I didn't even really like "The Dark Knight", so that's not a factor here--this film just looks like it'll be intelligent, mind-bending, well-acted, and--what makes me most happy in this age of film adaptations and tired sequels--original. Exciting!

A Day in My Life, Dec. 17

I originally thought this would be a boring day to talk about. Finals week is winding down, and all I had planned for today was studying and work.

Luckily for you all, however, I am extremely bad at sticking to plans, especially when I'm the one who made 'em. So--here's my second installment of 'A Day in My Life'!

This morning I had to get up at six-thirty to go to the university with my grandmother. Some days this week I've had exams late in the day, and so have been able to sleep in and ride the bus to school, but today my Hawaiian Studies exam was scheduled for 7:30 in the morning. Luckily it was a take-home, group exam, and since my group and I work well together I'm pretty confident we got an A. I was out of there by eight-thirty.

Now, I would have liked to have just gone back to the apartment then, but I couldn't, because I was scheduled to work at my library job from 4-6. So instead, I had almost eight hours to kill. Planning to use that time by studying for my Physics final tomorrow, I walked to the school library and found a nice and quiet alcove to study in. Or, well, to sleep in. I was really tired.

Yeah, I ended up sleeping for a little over an hour, and had really strange dreams. I know that I dreamt that I was watching "The End of Time", and that it was entirely about people asleep in an enormous library, which shows you how exhausted my imagination was! 

Erm, once I woke up I realized this was no good, so I left the library and found a bench under an enormous tree. I don't know what type of tree it was, but it's really big and beautiful, with a bright green, feathery canopy that looks like lace with chips of blue sky peering through the openings. I studied there for a few hours, broke for lunch, and then studied some more. My steely resolve to study non-stop did crack at one point and I then spent over half-an-hour playing solitaire on my iPod (Terpsi) while listening to the soundtrack of "Devdas", but all-in-all it was a productive day. I didn't even watch any episodes of "Primeval", can you believe it? Although really it wasn't as hard to avoid as it might have been; the show lost a little bit of its grip on my heart after *spoiler* and *spoiler*. I still love it for the most part, but feel that some elements of the story could have been executed much better.

I also went back to the library to see if they had the actual novel version of "Devdas" (they do) and "The Witch in the Wood" by TH White (they do), and after finding the books and getting all excited about them I left them on the shelves despite the protests of my bookworm heart, because after all I'm heading home on Saturday and don't trust bringing library books with me on a trans-ocean flight. Something to look forward to in the Spring, I guess. I also found a book on the book sale rack that I thought might be interesting. It's called "The Enchanted Cup", I think, and is a retelling of the story of Tristam and Isolde. I didn't buy it though, because I had no money with me. And besides, I don't know if it's any good.

I did find a children's anthology of poetry that Sir Walter de la Mare put together, though! And I read it all, too--it was a nice break from studying and stress. De la Mare is one of my favorite poets, have you ever read his "The Listeners"? If you haven't, you must go read it now. I've got it memorized. Anyway, the poems he chose were fun to read, and he wrote notes to go with them explaining them to his young readers and encouraging children to really engross themselves in the poetry and giving tips on how to enjoy poetry (read each poem aloud slowly; savor each word; envision what the poet is describing and compare it to the reality, if you've seen the reality, etc.). It was really interesting. I particularly liked this line of his that I copied out in my journal right there in the library so that I would remember it:

"Whatever you admire you look at with all yourself in your eyes; and your love for it adds to its beauty."

Isn't that in itself a beautiful saying? He was explaining the merits of poetry, and I certainly agree with him on this. That's why it's possible to read so many poems about the same subject--the sea, for example, or a songbird, or rain--without getting sick of them, because each poet loves the subject in a different way, providing a different lens for the reader to look at the subject with and appreciate the subject through. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

And this quote was just thought-provoking:

"When I was seven I loved rhymes and jingles. When I was fourteen I thought I hated poetry, partly perhaps because I had been made to learn it for a punishment. When I was about fifteen I suddenly realized that when the poet Homer said that his great hero, Achilles, in his rage went out 'black as night' he meant black as night. It was like a flash of summer lightning over a lovely country of hills and forests."

I puzzled over this. What exactly does de la Mare mean, do you think? What is the discovery inherent in the line? I thought perhaps he meant that he suddenly understood the power of the words, that Homer could have said 'black as pitch' or 'black as coal' but instead chose 'black as night' for a purpose. That led me into an interesting musing on the meanings of words and word choices when describing things--do we really think about the words we choose, or do we just write 'black as night' without considering the implications and beauties of the word 'night'--all its airy coldness and sparkling dark--, and not stopping to think if we want to evoke the earthy coarseness of 'coal' or the shining thickness of 'pitch' instead? Perhaps I even got the entirely wrong impression from what de la Mare was saying! I'd love to hear what you think about it.

Anyway, musings aside, I did finally go to work, and did my job (which today was mostly sitting behind a desk and being bored and studying to fight the down-time). Today was only the second time that I've been the one to close up the place, but I enjoy shutting everything down, I've always liked cleaning things and putting things in order and putting things away. It's somewhat meditative. Tomorrow's my last day of work this semester, but I'll be back next semester, thank goodness, because the people I work with are awesome!

After that there's not much to tell. I returned to the apartment about six-thirty in the evening, studied some more, chatted with my family via video Skype (I love Skype!!), and stressed just a teeny bit. I also ate a couple squares of Cadbury Caramello, mmmmm!

Now I'm lying on the floor of my room, which is where I sleep, and am trying to: A) Not think about my exam tomorrow, and B) Not think about all the packing I'm going to have to do tomorrow! I'm such a procrastinator, alas.

It's really hot and humid right now, my ceiling fan's going, and I'm exhausted. I am also excited about finally going home for Christmas.

And . . . yeah, that's my day! I'll try to write up another post tomorrow, but probably will fail because I'm going to be BUSY! Merry Almost-Christmas to you all!

"It is the deep breath before the plunge."

Yep--my last weekend before finals week, and then after a whirlwind of exams I get to board the plane and return back home for Christmas! I'm about to do some studying--Russian and Physics, with a little Hawaiian History thrown in for good measure--but I thought that before I do I'd do a quick checking-in here at the old blog. 

I'm really, really tired, so I might crash during my study session, because I stayed up until two in the morning making my parents' Christmas gift. I won't say what it is just yet, but perhaps I'll post a photo of it later. And then for some reason I woke up at eight o'clock this morning. My internal clock has a sick sense of humor, I guess. Anyway, I have a headache and am not enjoying it.

I just finished watching "The Pianist", a film I've been meaning to watch for over a year and just never managed to . . . Anyway, I liked it. Very powerful. Very sad, but very powerful.

I might not post again until I'm back home, so if that is the case, I bid you all a farewell from Hawaii now. Have a merry Christmas and New Year's, everyone! I love Christmas, don't you?

Farewell, sweet earth and . . . Pacific sky?

Freshman year is over, everyone! I'm going home!

This time tomorrow I will be . . . let me think . . . well, it'll be a different time, a different place, a different everything. I do get a little melancholy thinking about it, oddly enough, but at the same time I am so delighted to be going home to my family. I'll be able to spend the next three months doing nothing but reading, writing, art, dancing, cooking, sewing, going on walks with little children, being crazy with my crazy siblings, watching Star Trek again with my dad and maybe my mom and maybe my brother (heh heh), chatting late at night with my parents while doing the dishes and things . . . ah, bliss. 

I will think of Hawaii fondly, though. The place really is beautiful; it's a whole different world. There's this huge sense of community in Hawaii that the mainland really doesn't have; a feeling of cultural unity that is a little intimidating even as it's admirable. I have learned a lot here: about the classroom environment, about getting things done on time, about bus travel, about cockroach mafia, about how Waikiki isn't an island (oops), about myself. I will definitely miss the libraries here, and Zippy's, and the small scale of everything which makes it so easy to move around independently without a car. I wouldn't say that I'll be looking forward to coming back--home and family are too dear to me for that--but I will say that once I'm back, I won't be sad to be back.

As it is, my summer plans are filling my mind with glee at the moment. The only set work I really need to do is exercise; I'm going to be on a heavy exercise schedule for the National Irish Dance Championships in July. Ah, I get to dance again! I am looking forward to it A LOT right now, but I probably won't be feeling so enthused when I actually am in the classroom . . . I predict a lot of pain for the first couple classes, and then I'll get back into the swing of things and it will be okay.

Today I finished the last of my exams, a ridiculously long but boring English exam. I mean, two essays? Two? To be written--along with other things--in two hours? Yuck! My fingers were cramped by the time I finished, and I very nearly nodded off during my second essay. I guess I need to handwrite more. But assigned essay topics, on books I'm not particularly fond of *coughJaneEyrecough* always put me to sleep anyway. I think I did a good job; I guess I'll just have to wait and find out if the professor agrees with me. I don't know that he will; his grading is really messed up. But he's the professor who wasted about eight classes just showing us random Youtube videos, so I'm not really valuing his opinion very highly anyway. And I hope he doesn't read this blog . . . or if he does, that he doesn't realize I'm talking about him until after the exams are graded. *Looks around nervously*

Tomorrow I leave for the airport extremely early. Six o'clock, I believe, but the plane actually leaves at 8-something. I should be actually able to watch the 'wrinkled seas' doing their 'crawl'ing, but I'm not sure yet if the thought pleases or terrifies me. (If you know what I'm quoting, you get a cookie.) Oh, and get this, Linden: Next Saturday they'll be showing Inkheart on the plane! Why couldn't they have shown it this weekend, huh? Instead, they're showing some lame-sounding movie. But I guess it's just as well, because then it'll be easier to ignore. Y'see, I hope to get a lot of writing done on the plane--a lot of writing. Most specifically, The Three Sons of Cwendor writing, but hopefully some novel too. That's going to be my focus. If it doesn't get done, well, that'll be because I fell asleep, because I'm amazingly exhausted at the moment. 

And still not quite packed. Oops.

I guess I'll write more later. Next time you hear from me, I'll be back home, probably sprawled on the floor of my room or sitting at my beautiful desk, next to my enormous bookshelf, with the dragon kite swinging above me and a baby on my lap. I'm even looking forward to seeing Lathspell again! If that ain't homesickness, I don't know what is ;)

Farewell for now, and good night! 

(PS- I hope all you fellow Tolkien fans forgive the butchering of Beren's song. It's bad. I know.)

Monday of Finals Week

After studying obsessively all of Thursday, all of Friday, and all of Saturday, my brain gave up on me. I guess it just had enough and abandoned ship, because I suddenly came back to my senses late Sunday night and realized that I had just spent the last five or six hours watching Doctor Who and Star Trek episodes. Six hours of quirky science fiction . . . my brain must have really needed that catharsis. 

As to the exams themselves, I have now completed two--my Russian test (could have been worse) and my first English class' exam (a six-page essay I just sort of frantically scribbled during the allotted time. Thank goodness I'm fairly good at frantic scribbling. It was like an SAT flashback). Now all I have to worry about is my last English exam (piece of cake!), History exam (no problem!) and Economics exam (. . . help?). 

And about preventing any further science fiction binges from sabotaging my studying further.

Speaking of which, I plan to go watch the Star Trek movie tomorrow . . .