Napoleon's Feet - a graduate student's step(s) between the sublime and the ridiculous

TWENTY THREE

Sep 7th, 2007 3:45:09 am - Subscribe

it was six thirty by the time i got home from school. the undergrad lecture in the early afternoon, followed by more reading, and my evening seminar. it felt like an especially long day because of how much i actually got done. but i feel like the weight of the week is what is exhausting me. next week will be longer and will require words from the pen, which is a bit terrifying. this week i've read (nearly) three books and over four articles, corrected over seventy undergraduate paper assignments, and laundered one load of clothing; attended one faculty-graduate pizza party and had one too many at bear's on the other end of campus last night. it was a bit seedy, but the beer was fine and i felt at home, among new friends. that was last night. today im looking forward to a friday free to work on my presentation for next week.

today's discussion about a monograph regarding the German homefront during WWI offered little in the way of conversation about war. politics, class, gender. these are all central themes to the work. i was itching to discuss the battlefront - or at least the relationship between home and battlefront - , which never happened. i will be directing discussion next week and my selected monograph shifts the focus back to the battlefront. today's wasn't the easiest of discussions, i might add. i know how i am, though. it typically takes me a discussion or two to feel comfortable and to participate in full and with confidence. my friend picked me up when i got home and we got milkshakes at the chocolate moose to celebrate a week just about done.