#celeztialstudies

(Summer Study Challenge) 8/22/2020: Imagine that you could fill a swimming pool with anything except water and swim in it. What would your pool be filled with? 

This is giving me too many flashbacks from competitive swimming, so I’ll stay away from the pool if it’s cool with you. ;) 

Nineteen credits and two honors seminars sure do hit you kinda fast, don’t they? I’ve started blocking out my days schedule wise and I’m loving it so far. It feels so much better than the pomodoro method for me. I’m usually allotting an hour and a half to each subject and an hour to do these posts should I have the time to do them. As you can see, I don’t post every day on here, and probably won’t. This semester is busy, busy! 

The first two days of classes went pretty well, and my internship is off to a great start. I’m enjoying my classes so far, but I still have two more that haven’t met yet. Also catch me trying to learn Latin myself - the textbook went straight to verb conjugation and I respect that but I have no idea if I’m doing any of this right. 

Hope you’re all doing well. Steady on! 

Just a little life update from me.

Because I’ve finished university, this blog will be archived. I’ll keep all of my posts and might pop in periodically but I’ll be logging out and focusing on my job.

I didn’t achieve massive popularity or notoriety on Studyblr, but it - and all of you - got me through some tough times in education, from my GCSEs in 2015-16 right through my A-levels and my degree. I’ve learned so much from studying and from this community, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you so so much! I couldn’t have made my way through without you.

(Summer Study Challenge) 8/17/2020: Favorite seasonal fruit to eat during summer?  

Interesting question! I had to look up what was actually in season ahahaha - blackberries look like the most appealing thing on the list. I still do enjoy some blueberries from time to time - but sometimes they’re too sweet! The vegetables were actually sounding a lot better to me. I love carrots - one time when I was a baby, I ate so many carrots that my skin turned orange hehehe. (Don’t worry, I’m good now). 

Finally got all my school supplies and I thought I would show you guys what I have! School starts on Thursday (8/20) at my university and I’m taking 19 credits - more than I’ve ever taken before in one semester hehehe. I also landed an internship on Sunday! I’ll be tutoring in First Year Comp - which I’m actually pretty nervous about. I’m not much older or more experienced than the students I’ll be tutoring, but I’m going to give it my all. I appreciate being thrown into the deep end. (Also look how pretty my Origins of the English Language textbook is). 

Have a great start to the school year, everyone! Love you all! 

(Summer Study Challenge) 9/3/2020: How have you prepared to return to school/university?

I feel like I did as much as I could have done, but nothing is quite turning out how I had planned. Some things are better than I expected, some things are not as good. It’s the nature of every semester, but especially this one. I think it’s important right now to take things one day at a time, learn how to adapt, but don’t feel rushed or like you need to be performing 100% every single day. We will get through this together! 

That said, boy... this semester has been hard. I ended up having to drop a class (which made me feel really bad at first, but it’s actually no big deal - I’m way ahead on credits anyway) because the work from my internship was just too much. Things are much more manageable now, but I am still very busy. I apologize for being somewhat inactive on this blog for the past few weeks. I see all of your lovely posts! I’m just incredibly busy and tumblr usually isn’t my #1 priority... 

I’ve decided this semester to write down all of the funny things I hear my professors and friends say. I’m going to keep a list and revisit it when I feel down. You can catch one quote in the right photo from the Oxford online seminar I attended this week. I’m taking some wonderfully difficult classes this semester which just makes it incredibly fun. I’ve got an honors seminar called “Sex, Race, and Victorian Science” and it is so fun to be the only lit major in a room full of science majors. It’s like... my favorite place to be (also the Victorian period is so wacky and interesting...). I think my favorite class this semester has to be my radical pedagogy class. It’s three hours long at the end of a very long day, but I always feel refreshed coming out of it. (Also I’m taking a class on Hamlet and its Afterlives, and... shhh... but I hate Hamlet. It’s theatrical whiplash. There I said it hehehehehe fight me. Am I still doing an intense research project on it? Yes). 

Steady on, everyone! I’m sending the best of vibes your way! Valete! 

(Summer Study Challenge) 8/6/2020: Book you’re currently reading? 

It’s a bit of this weird mix between articles and parts of books I need for research - so nothing in terms of actual books at the moment. That will change in a few weeks for sure - content will get more relevant once school actually starts. I’m one of those people who needs a proper academic break over the summer holiday. 

Decided to watch a lecture from Jonathan Bate called “Shakespeare’s Politics” and I wasn’t expecting it - but I learned so much about Roman political values and the translation of those values into Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. It made me think about how those values, particularly Ciceronian values promoted in his De Officiis, could be translated to the English history plays, particularly the H6 cycle and how/why these values are accepted or ignored in the way they are. It’s quite hard to draw a line between villains and heroes in 2H6 especially, and what is considered to be good isn’t necessarily what is most effective for government. 

In short, these are ideas that just came to me right off the bat from listening to the lecture, but it’s got me pumped to finally be taking Latin this semester. I think out of all my classes, I’m most excited for that one. I’m going to learn so much. (I also added a spread in the back of my journal for online lectures I should watch and books I’ve checked out from the library/borrowed from other people. I think I’ve just fallen in love with a color scheme hehehe). 

(Summer Study Challenge) 8/5/2020: Do you read a lot over the summer?

I don’t really! I think I get so tired of having to read for school that I forget what it’s like to read for pleasure, so I kinda... don’t. It’s definitely something that I need to work on for sure, especially as I eventually want to get into academia. That said, I do read a lot during the school year, so maybe it balances out? I’m not sure. 

That said, I was reading some articles from some Victorian children’s periodicals the other day that I forgot to post, so I’m using these for my catch up post. I started working at my dining room table because it has infinitely more space than my desk - the lighting might not be the best for pictures though. It’s a compromise. 

I did a project last semester on Prince Hal (Henry V) in Victorian children’s periodicals, but found that the results about Henry VI were also equally as interesting. Authors tend to revere both kings, for different reasons of course. Henry V is revered for his journey from plucky and mischievous boy to valiant king, while Henry VI seems to be valued for things that seem a bit more innate - his patience, his introspection, his dedication to long standing English institutions, such as Eton. It’s interesting because these two kings are often pitted against one another - one is good, the other is not (at least that’s a prevailing narrative - as they’re often judged by their ability to hold and lead government and not much else). I picked out a passage with some interesting language, as you can see in my notes. - I suppose the question is whether all these values can really live inside one boy (or child) or whether they are truly contradictory... 

(Summer Study Challenge) 8/3/2020: Ultimate Summertime Song?

What is summer without a little Rock Lobster? My brother recently reintroduced me to that song and he doesn’t strike me as the type of person who would listen to that song, but here we are. 

So my favorite opera ever - The Rake’s Progress - is up on the Glyndebourne YouTube channel this week, and I was just reminded why this is my favorite opera of all time. As much as I go off about Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte, The Rake’s Progress is truly an opera for the emotional thrill seeker. Every one of W.H. Auden’s words is rich and decadent and really brings these rather flat, parable type characters to life in a very profound way. (If that makes any sense?) 

I finally figured out my schedule today too. Thank you so much to everyone who gave me some advice on that post. I settled on taking a 400 level English course from a professor I’ve had in the past and really liked! I’m taking two Honors seminars in this semester as is, so the graduate course might have been overdoing it. School is coming up very fast! I’m so excited to be posting more relevant content on here hehehe.