School Days
I have a weird reading palette at the moment. In one minute I'm knee-deep and uber-excited about 11th century paleography, and the next I'm poring over the breast-feeding book.
This week going to school has been weird. I think I get really psychologically down about the commute to Baton Rouge, facing it going and coming. I sort of drag through the day. But this past Monday and Wednesday, I've ended my days on pretty positive notes.
I was so depressed about school stuff on Monday. I hated going to classes--they were all boring, and I feel like I should be having a fantastic time and getting all I can, because this is my last semester of classes ever! But no, my Renaissance survey is basically review...which is okay, it'll fill in a few history gaps here and there, but for the most part, been there. Unfortunately, I had to drop to the readings in Medieval history seminar, which I was looking forward to as the most fun class, and Medieval notation is fun, but there's a disparity of backgrounds, and since this is my 3rd year here, I'm the most experienced in the class. I'm definitely learning, and it's getting better.
In fact, class yesterday was getting me more pumped. I love getting a page of a facsimile (a photo of the original) of a manuscript and figuring out what the script is saying, figuring out the musical notation, what kind of book it is, etc. It's like detective work and gives me such a rush. It's more exciting each time I take a seminar like this, because now I have previous seminar's experience, and I can do that much more each time. For instance, I figured out how to read a lot of writing like this SOOO exciting!
Monday evening I had a good chat with my advisor that helped me put some direction into projects that have been flailing a bit. An inspiring chat does wonders for me. I'll be sad when I'm not the student anymore.