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School is good.
4 Nov 2016 10:36 pmI chose the icon because I had that phrase tattooed on my arm about a month ago. Here's a picture of when it was fresh. I should take an updated one now that it's healed.
Since I last posted, I've mostly focused on studying, lots and lots of reading, oh god the reading in a humanities program. We're on our 4th novel in the literature seminar, plus all the other readings for our other classes.
I decided to accept the grant to go to Germany next summer, and I'll be spending June in Hamburg and the first half of July in Dresden. If I can have a bit of couch, I'd like to spend a few days in Berlin before I head home (though I may have enough of the grant left over to get a room if I have to). The GI in Hamburg says that out of legal reasons (!?!) we cannot use the internet connection in the homestay apartments, which means I'd only have internet access from whenever I get to the GI (noon, say) until 7 pm when they close, and I'd be in class 1-6 ish. So, uh, no. But they have a guest house with private apartments for 700 Euros for the month, where there's wifi to use all day, but it's way more expensive than the homestay (which is still like 500 Euros.)
So, if any of you know anyone in Hamburg who's looking for a one-month WG-mate, put us in contact. I made an ad on WG-Gesucht and have gotten 4 responses...which are probably all scams, because the first 2 refused to Skype and both want me to pay them in advance (which is against the TOS). The other 2 have really garbled English and German, so I'm guessing also scams.
I went to my first conference as a grad student! We hosted WILA, the workshop on immigrant languages in the Americas, and I met a lot of neat people, including the guy who wrote the textbook we're using in History of German (who was also our professor's thesis advisor), several of the current grad students in that program, and a very friendly, happy Norwegian dude who sings in 2 bands (and I bet it's death metal, because a) Norway and b) he's so happy). It was nice to be able to talk to other people who are interested in linguistics, because I am currently the only student in the department (out of 7) who is a ling person. It's depressing.
So anyway, while I was helping clean up one evening, I talked with one of our profs, and I mentioned that I felt a bit adrift, like I don't know what I should be doing to get the most out of grad school or how to figure out if I want more grad school after this. We talked about that some, and her experiences in grad school (where they had a bigger, PhD program, so the environment was different) and how they had workshops on things like writing CVs or submitting papers to conferences. I asked if she thought we could implement that here, and she suggested that I ask my peers.
So I messaged our facebook chat and had a few in-person conversations before deciding to send a Google survey to everyone. The short version is that most people are interested, and I may be presenting the results and a proposal at the faculty meeting next week (if it's ok for me to attend, because I'm not the grad student rep; I need to ask on Monday).
While I was reading for History of German for Tuesday, I learned about a sociolinguistic approach to historical linguistics, Sprachgeschichte von Unten, and I may have said, "holy shit, this is amazing" and looked up the references in our library and previewed the ones that we had ebook access to, then ordered one of them because a seller on Amazon had a used library copy for $20. (It usually retails for $200.) It's coming from the UK, so I had it shipped to the house.
Speaking of ordering things, I ordered 3 fall dresses from ModCloth because they had a sale on dresses and I had store credit from returning a top that really didn't fit at all. After the sale, I got them for $30 each--almost half price!
On Monday, I get to register for classes. I'm required to take Seminar in German Literature (this time: the Metropolis in German Literature, which sounds interesting but because I can't take literary criticism seriously, I will probably hate it anyway) and Seminar in Linguistic Theory (Syntax, and I'm told the professor rocks). I have 1 placeholder class (3 hours), 3 hours of masters research (for the reading list), and an elective. I'm taking Old Icelandic, because I can. I'm also taking 4th semester Russian, though I'll probably switch to an audit for less stress and because I can't get credit for it anyway (because it's an undergrad course). I'm TAing 2nd semester German, which might be my fall real teaching assignment. It'll be helpful, because I'll have a lot of lessons and materials prepped.
I'm probably submitting a poster to GLAC, the Germanic linguistics conference in spring. It's in Austin this year, but I'll have to miss 2 days of classes right before the end of the semester (like, it's the 20th-23rd of April, and our last day of class is the 26th). But if I tell the professors in advance, maybe request extensions if necessary... IDK. I need to talk with the linguistics/German prof sometime this week...I should email him.
Right. I should get some sleep. Tomorrow is groceries, laundry, cleaning, and working on my microteaching that's due on Tuesday. After I finish that, I need to look over some secondary literature to come up with ideas for a 10-page paper for literature seminar, and also read the second half of the current novel and a couple essays by its author. Plus I need to decide finally on an 'authentic material' for my final project for teaching seminar (due Tuesday).
All the work. So much reading. The glamorous life of a grad student!
Since I last posted, I've mostly focused on studying, lots and lots of reading, oh god the reading in a humanities program. We're on our 4th novel in the literature seminar, plus all the other readings for our other classes.
I decided to accept the grant to go to Germany next summer, and I'll be spending June in Hamburg and the first half of July in Dresden. If I can have a bit of couch, I'd like to spend a few days in Berlin before I head home (though I may have enough of the grant left over to get a room if I have to). The GI in Hamburg says that out of legal reasons (!?!) we cannot use the internet connection in the homestay apartments, which means I'd only have internet access from whenever I get to the GI (noon, say) until 7 pm when they close, and I'd be in class 1-6 ish. So, uh, no. But they have a guest house with private apartments for 700 Euros for the month, where there's wifi to use all day, but it's way more expensive than the homestay (which is still like 500 Euros.)
So, if any of you know anyone in Hamburg who's looking for a one-month WG-mate, put us in contact. I made an ad on WG-Gesucht and have gotten 4 responses...which are probably all scams, because the first 2 refused to Skype and both want me to pay them in advance (which is against the TOS). The other 2 have really garbled English and German, so I'm guessing also scams.
I went to my first conference as a grad student! We hosted WILA, the workshop on immigrant languages in the Americas, and I met a lot of neat people, including the guy who wrote the textbook we're using in History of German (who was also our professor's thesis advisor), several of the current grad students in that program, and a very friendly, happy Norwegian dude who sings in 2 bands (and I bet it's death metal, because a) Norway and b) he's so happy). It was nice to be able to talk to other people who are interested in linguistics, because I am currently the only student in the department (out of 7) who is a ling person. It's depressing.
So anyway, while I was helping clean up one evening, I talked with one of our profs, and I mentioned that I felt a bit adrift, like I don't know what I should be doing to get the most out of grad school or how to figure out if I want more grad school after this. We talked about that some, and her experiences in grad school (where they had a bigger, PhD program, so the environment was different) and how they had workshops on things like writing CVs or submitting papers to conferences. I asked if she thought we could implement that here, and she suggested that I ask my peers.
So I messaged our facebook chat and had a few in-person conversations before deciding to send a Google survey to everyone. The short version is that most people are interested, and I may be presenting the results and a proposal at the faculty meeting next week (if it's ok for me to attend, because I'm not the grad student rep; I need to ask on Monday).
While I was reading for History of German for Tuesday, I learned about a sociolinguistic approach to historical linguistics, Sprachgeschichte von Unten, and I may have said, "holy shit, this is amazing" and looked up the references in our library and previewed the ones that we had ebook access to, then ordered one of them because a seller on Amazon had a used library copy for $20. (It usually retails for $200.) It's coming from the UK, so I had it shipped to the house.
Speaking of ordering things, I ordered 3 fall dresses from ModCloth because they had a sale on dresses and I had store credit from returning a top that really didn't fit at all. After the sale, I got them for $30 each--almost half price!
On Monday, I get to register for classes. I'm required to take Seminar in German Literature (this time: the Metropolis in German Literature, which sounds interesting but because I can't take literary criticism seriously, I will probably hate it anyway) and Seminar in Linguistic Theory (Syntax, and I'm told the professor rocks). I have 1 placeholder class (3 hours), 3 hours of masters research (for the reading list), and an elective. I'm taking Old Icelandic, because I can. I'm also taking 4th semester Russian, though I'll probably switch to an audit for less stress and because I can't get credit for it anyway (because it's an undergrad course). I'm TAing 2nd semester German, which might be my fall real teaching assignment. It'll be helpful, because I'll have a lot of lessons and materials prepped.
I'm probably submitting a poster to GLAC, the Germanic linguistics conference in spring. It's in Austin this year, but I'll have to miss 2 days of classes right before the end of the semester (like, it's the 20th-23rd of April, and our last day of class is the 26th). But if I tell the professors in advance, maybe request extensions if necessary... IDK. I need to talk with the linguistics/German prof sometime this week...I should email him.
Right. I should get some sleep. Tomorrow is groceries, laundry, cleaning, and working on my microteaching that's due on Tuesday. After I finish that, I need to look over some secondary literature to come up with ideas for a 10-page paper for literature seminar, and also read the second half of the current novel and a couple essays by its author. Plus I need to decide finally on an 'authentic material' for my final project for teaching seminar (due Tuesday).
All the work. So much reading. The glamorous life of a grad student!
