And there is really no reason for it other than me being both busy and lazy. In fact, right now I don't have anything exciting to post about, I just thought that it was about time to post again since Janie and Trudy have gotten back to theirs!
The main things that have been keeping me busy lately are school and looking at grad schools. I found another that I like in Boulder, Colorado. It's a museum studies program that is designed particularly for people with liberal arts majors in their undergraduate work (ie anthropology, biology, geography, history etc). The main benefit of the program would be that it is in Boulder and Dustin and I both love that area of Colorado. Another benefit is that is is three times cheaper than the archiving program I found in Denver, because that one is the most expensive archiving school in the country of the ones that I've looked at. Of course everything is very up in the air at this point. My main concern is in building up a good resume, including internships, possibly field school, volunteering, etc. I'm not too sure what the main thing that helps you get into grad school is, so if anyone can give me any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it!
So far, I am loving all of my classes at Texas State. Here is my schedule (Tuesdays and Thursdays):
9:30-10:50 Physical Anthropology
11:00-12:20 Magic, Rituals & Religion
12:30-1:50 Spanish III
2:00-3:20 Human Sexuality
3:30-4:50 Psychology of Human Diversity (aka Cultural Psychology)
5:00-6:20 (Tuesdays only) Physical Anthropology Lab
So you can tell I'm pretty busy. Thankfully, they are all very interesting classes so the work keeps me busy, but also entertained and engaged in thinking about lots of interesting issues. I don't know yet what my favorite class is, but I'm particularly enjoying a few of them. My physical anth class is taught by a lady from England who seems very young (compared to most of my professor's with a doctorate). She's really funny and I enjoy listening to her accent and British slang in class. I'm taking human sexuality with a teacher I had last semester. She is very nice, has very organized lectures, and makes things very easy to understand. Right now my favorite class is probably cultural psychology. My professor teaches the course in a half lecture style, half seminar style setup. This is really fun, as I haven't had any seminar courses so far, and I really enjoy it. It's also a good class because I know a lot of the stuff from my anthropology courses, so I have a better opportunity to think in a more detail about some of the info presented since they're concepts I've already learned. The professor seems to enjoy having an anthropology major in the class (I'm the only one) because he'll ask me the anthropological perspective on ideas so students can get an idea of factors outside of psychology that contribute to human diversity. Many of the psychology students just look at a situation and try to diagnose the problems and psychological/physiological disorders, when ultimately they could stem from culture, not disorders. It's still interesting to see the psychological perspectives, but coming into it as an anthro. major, I think that I have been taught very differently how to think about culture. For example, one major difference is that psychology includes animals as having culture, whereas cultural anthropology is completely against this idea. This cognitive dissonance causes some problems in how I view the readings in the text, but I try to keep in mind what will be on the test, not what my personal beliefs on the subject are. So, all in all I'm really enjoying this semester so far.
Other than that, not much has been going on. I changed my volunteering schedule so I volunteer on Mondays now instead of Thursdays after I get out of class. Oh, one BIG thing that did happen recently is that we went to Trey & Jessica's wedding on the 28th, and it was amazing. It was very small, less than 30 people, and very beautiful. Everything about it was really just perfect (I may be biased since we're close friends). My camera wasn't working too well (the flash) so all the pictures came out super dark, or I'd post them. We had so much fun dancing and eating and stuff, and then after the wedding we hung out with some friends until about five in the morning (a late night for us, indeed). But the hanging out all night was worth it, as Clark (the guy who officiated our wedding) came into town for Trey & Jess' wedding. He moved at the middle of July to teach theater to middle schoolers in West Orange, TX (right near the Louisiana border) and it was great to see him again! Anyways, we had a lot of fun.
I really can't think of much else, and this blog has turned out to be amazingly long for me "having nothing exciting to post about". I hope everyone is doing well, and that you have a great Labor Day weekend! Hopefully we can do a family get together soon. It'd be great to see everybody!
Friday, September 4, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Another Busy Week
It has definitely been another busy week, but thankfully it's the weekend. Summer two is almost over, and I'm very thankful for that. So far my grades are good, I've got an A in Spanish, but Cultural Anthropology depends on the next two tests I take. But hey, one and a half weeks and then I'll have a two week break before the fall semester starts and I go back to work as a sub. It'll be a good little break in between.
Other than school, I really haven't been doing much. Dustin has been busy preparing his portfolio and stuff. He had an interview yesterday in Seguin at their sixth grade center, and will find out some time next week how it went. I know he went in very confidently, and he has a very good attitude about everything, whether he gets the job or not. At this point I think I'm more nervous than him because I hate waiting to find things out. I know I need to be more patient, but it's hard.
This week we've been lucky enough to hang out with a few of our friends, something that's become a rare occurrence it seems. It's weird how over time your group of friends gets whittled down to only a few important ones. It's strange how people change over time and then all of a sudden you just don't know them anymore. I guess it's one of those things that you know is going to happen, but it's hurts when you realize that you're cutting ties with people who used to hold such an important spot in your life. But, I'm very thankful for the few people we do have. The main issue with most of our friends is simply that we just lead different lifestyles. Many of them are still on the path of working jobs in restaurants where they don't have a set schedule, whereas we're both home at nights and go to bed relatively early compared to everyone else. This means that the times we have to hang out always don't fit the other person's schedule. Oh well, like I said, we have a very few friends who we've been enjoying time with.
Last Sunday we went bowling with Jak, Trey and Jessica. Dustin bowled his best game ever, a 211. I also bowled my best game ever, a 147. While mine was not too great of an achievement, I was proud as my average is around 92. I was playing really well that night though, most of my games were above average. Hopefully we will keep bowling on Sundays, as it's really cheap: 50 cent shoe rentals and $1.00 games. (And I have my own shoes, so it's even cheaper for me.) After bowling we came back and played dominoes (except for Jessica, because she's a lot more tired now that she's pregnant, and has to be in North Austin at 8 in the morning because she's taking yoga teacher certification at YogaYoga).
We also went to the park a few times this past week: with Trey, Jessica and Arthur (their dog) one night, and with just Trey and Arthur yesterday while Jess was in yoga class. It's nice to get out and go walking, even though yesterday it was pretty hot and we were out there at noon. Hopefully we'll be doing the walking thing more frequently, it's something I'm interested in and Jessica expressed interest in it too.
Anyways, I have some reading to do and an outline to write, so I should probably go. I think I'll make an omelette for breakfast with onion, tomato and whatever else I have in the fridge. (Forgot to mention that I am REALLY excited about Egan's birthday party this afternoon! I don't see my family nearly enough, especially since summer school started, and I am eager to see everybody!!!)
Other than school, I really haven't been doing much. Dustin has been busy preparing his portfolio and stuff. He had an interview yesterday in Seguin at their sixth grade center, and will find out some time next week how it went. I know he went in very confidently, and he has a very good attitude about everything, whether he gets the job or not. At this point I think I'm more nervous than him because I hate waiting to find things out. I know I need to be more patient, but it's hard.
This week we've been lucky enough to hang out with a few of our friends, something that's become a rare occurrence it seems. It's weird how over time your group of friends gets whittled down to only a few important ones. It's strange how people change over time and then all of a sudden you just don't know them anymore. I guess it's one of those things that you know is going to happen, but it's hurts when you realize that you're cutting ties with people who used to hold such an important spot in your life. But, I'm very thankful for the few people we do have. The main issue with most of our friends is simply that we just lead different lifestyles. Many of them are still on the path of working jobs in restaurants where they don't have a set schedule, whereas we're both home at nights and go to bed relatively early compared to everyone else. This means that the times we have to hang out always don't fit the other person's schedule. Oh well, like I said, we have a very few friends who we've been enjoying time with.
Last Sunday we went bowling with Jak, Trey and Jessica. Dustin bowled his best game ever, a 211. I also bowled my best game ever, a 147. While mine was not too great of an achievement, I was proud as my average is around 92. I was playing really well that night though, most of my games were above average. Hopefully we will keep bowling on Sundays, as it's really cheap: 50 cent shoe rentals and $1.00 games. (And I have my own shoes, so it's even cheaper for me.) After bowling we came back and played dominoes (except for Jessica, because she's a lot more tired now that she's pregnant, and has to be in North Austin at 8 in the morning because she's taking yoga teacher certification at YogaYoga).
We also went to the park a few times this past week: with Trey, Jessica and Arthur (their dog) one night, and with just Trey and Arthur yesterday while Jess was in yoga class. It's nice to get out and go walking, even though yesterday it was pretty hot and we were out there at noon. Hopefully we'll be doing the walking thing more frequently, it's something I'm interested in and Jessica expressed interest in it too.
Anyways, I have some reading to do and an outline to write, so I should probably go. I think I'll make an omelette for breakfast with onion, tomato and whatever else I have in the fridge. (Forgot to mention that I am REALLY excited about Egan's birthday party this afternoon! I don't see my family nearly enough, especially since summer school started, and I am eager to see everybody!!!)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
General Going-Ons
So far, it has been a good week. Yesterday we went to see Harry Potter: The Half-Blood Prince. I will say that I don't think it was a good as it could've been. I definitely liked movies four and five better. They just cut some stuff out of this movie for what seems like lack of creativity and just plain laziness, though I will admit that it would've lengthened the the movie considerably had they done everything in the book. I will always be a bigger fan of the books than the movie.
In the past week, lots of changes about the future have been made. We have decided it may not be in our best interest to apply for the Peace Corps due to the cost we would have to incur. While this concept may go against the idea of such a program to begin with, I got an estimate on fillings and it would be $170 for each one. Considering I would need eight or more, it really doesn't seem feasible. So for now we've been focusing on what other plans we'd like to have for the future. Dustin is working very hard trying to get interviews in the area for a teaching position, but this has proven difficult with so many districts in hiring freezes, etc. Right now our plan is for him to keep looking for a job, and for me to keep going to school and working as a substitute until I graduate. After that we plan to look anywhere in the state of Texas for positions for Dustin. I've been thinking a lot about graduate schools and our goal is for Dustin to look especially for jobs in two towns where there are grad schools I'd like to apply to: Austin and Denver. UT has the only program in Texas for the field I am interested. Denver is a valid area of interest because we both enjoy Colorado and proximity to the mountains so much. I would hate to move so far away, but at the same time it seems like it would be a great adventure to undertake, and if I didn't enjoy living there, we could always move back. The catch is that I require Dustin being able to find a job in one of those places (or surrounding areas) before I will consider applying to either of them for grad school. I feel as if his career has taken a backseat to my education since I started seriously dedicating to school after he had already graduated. So, we'd like to both pursue our goals at the same time, a very important thing to each of us.
We're also planning on starting to save money as much as possible just to build up our savings account. We've been talking a lot about saving money to buy a newer car than what we have. Specifically, we like the Toyota Matrix, which seems both affordable and gas-efficient. Mainly we'd just like to have something with more storage capacity and, more importantly, more reliability than our current vehicles. I've found some good deals (under $10,000) on craigslist, so now the priority is on just saving money so we can make it happen.
A realization that has occurred to us recently is that there is virtually no possibility that we will be able to go snowboarding this winter like we usually do. All of our friends are at different places in their lives right now and the varying degree of funds has led to a breakup of the usual group. We considered trying to get other people to go, but then transportation became an issue. That was part of the motivation towards getting our own vehicle: if in the future no one else can go and we have a reliable vehicle, we can just go on our own.
While a lot of plans have been nixed lately, I think that the way things are happening is going to be in our best interest. Other than worrying about the future, I've been trying to keep up my 4.0 gpa in hopes of being able to actually get IN to graduate school later down the line. I also got to do my first volunteer work with the archives in the public library last Thursday. That was really a high point in my week. It made me realize even more that I'm really picking the right field for me. The lady assigned to the archives/historical section of the library does not really have an interest in it, it was simply a job she got handed, so she seems very appreciative that someone who actually cares is doing it for her. My job last week was to take documents that are on paper which is very old and falling apart and make photocopies of them in case someone ever needs to look them up. The documents I was dealing with dated between 1898 and 1960 and were membership forms for the United Daughters of the Confederacy in our area. It was cool to not only see the scrawling handwriting from back then and the different paper used, but also to read familiar names such as Craddock (the name of a street in San Marcos). The only thing that really breaks my heart is that I have to throw the original documents away after I've made copies. While I realize they aren't of much importance, especially just being membership documents that most people will never need to look at anyways, it just feels wrong to throw away such a neat piece of history. The coolest part was that the membership forms required women to trace back and "prove" they had members of their family that served in the Confederate Army. I had to try hard to focus on copying the documents and not just sitting down to read them all! All in all, it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back this Thursday very much!
I can't really think of much else to add about this past week or so, so I'll end here.
In the past week, lots of changes about the future have been made. We have decided it may not be in our best interest to apply for the Peace Corps due to the cost we would have to incur. While this concept may go against the idea of such a program to begin with, I got an estimate on fillings and it would be $170 for each one. Considering I would need eight or more, it really doesn't seem feasible. So for now we've been focusing on what other plans we'd like to have for the future. Dustin is working very hard trying to get interviews in the area for a teaching position, but this has proven difficult with so many districts in hiring freezes, etc. Right now our plan is for him to keep looking for a job, and for me to keep going to school and working as a substitute until I graduate. After that we plan to look anywhere in the state of Texas for positions for Dustin. I've been thinking a lot about graduate schools and our goal is for Dustin to look especially for jobs in two towns where there are grad schools I'd like to apply to: Austin and Denver. UT has the only program in Texas for the field I am interested. Denver is a valid area of interest because we both enjoy Colorado and proximity to the mountains so much. I would hate to move so far away, but at the same time it seems like it would be a great adventure to undertake, and if I didn't enjoy living there, we could always move back. The catch is that I require Dustin being able to find a job in one of those places (or surrounding areas) before I will consider applying to either of them for grad school. I feel as if his career has taken a backseat to my education since I started seriously dedicating to school after he had already graduated. So, we'd like to both pursue our goals at the same time, a very important thing to each of us.
We're also planning on starting to save money as much as possible just to build up our savings account. We've been talking a lot about saving money to buy a newer car than what we have. Specifically, we like the Toyota Matrix, which seems both affordable and gas-efficient. Mainly we'd just like to have something with more storage capacity and, more importantly, more reliability than our current vehicles. I've found some good deals (under $10,000) on craigslist, so now the priority is on just saving money so we can make it happen.
A realization that has occurred to us recently is that there is virtually no possibility that we will be able to go snowboarding this winter like we usually do. All of our friends are at different places in their lives right now and the varying degree of funds has led to a breakup of the usual group. We considered trying to get other people to go, but then transportation became an issue. That was part of the motivation towards getting our own vehicle: if in the future no one else can go and we have a reliable vehicle, we can just go on our own.
While a lot of plans have been nixed lately, I think that the way things are happening is going to be in our best interest. Other than worrying about the future, I've been trying to keep up my 4.0 gpa in hopes of being able to actually get IN to graduate school later down the line. I also got to do my first volunteer work with the archives in the public library last Thursday. That was really a high point in my week. It made me realize even more that I'm really picking the right field for me. The lady assigned to the archives/historical section of the library does not really have an interest in it, it was simply a job she got handed, so she seems very appreciative that someone who actually cares is doing it for her. My job last week was to take documents that are on paper which is very old and falling apart and make photocopies of them in case someone ever needs to look them up. The documents I was dealing with dated between 1898 and 1960 and were membership forms for the United Daughters of the Confederacy in our area. It was cool to not only see the scrawling handwriting from back then and the different paper used, but also to read familiar names such as Craddock (the name of a street in San Marcos). The only thing that really breaks my heart is that I have to throw the original documents away after I've made copies. While I realize they aren't of much importance, especially just being membership documents that most people will never need to look at anyways, it just feels wrong to throw away such a neat piece of history. The coolest part was that the membership forms required women to trace back and "prove" they had members of their family that served in the Confederate Army. I had to try hard to focus on copying the documents and not just sitting down to read them all! All in all, it was a great experience, and I look forward to going back this Thursday very much!
I can't really think of much else to add about this past week or so, so I'll end here.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Final excerpts from Mistress of the Vatican
(All of the following quotes come from Mistress of the Vatican, written by Eleanor Herman.)
"Roman etiquette was cruelly precise. The host or hostess showed the greatest respect by waiting outside for the guest's carriage to arrive, an honor usually reserved for royalty or the relatives of popes. A fairly well respected visitor was greeted at the bottom of the stairs. A visitor of so-so importance would find the hostess at the top of the stairs, mumbling apologies for not being able to come down. "(p53) <--- I'm very glad this is still not a common practice. If it were, I would never visit anyone, as I have no patience for waiting!
"On June 10, 1630, the pope decreed that effective immediately all cardinals were no longer to be called 'Most Reverend' as they had been for centuries, but were to be addressed by the more honorable 'Your Eminence,' and were to take precedence immediately after kings. Feeling outranked by this title, European princes claimed for themselves the title of 'Highness' instead of 'Excellency'." (p88) <--- I just thought this part was interesting because I never knew why kings were called "Your Highness". This may seem silly, but I always thought it was because when they sat on the throne they were literally higher than everyone else. :)
"The rivalry of France and Spain had so infiltrated Roman society that even clothing reflected one's preference. Women showed their support for France or Spain by the side on which they wore their hair ribbons--on the right of the head for Spain, on the left for France. Men showed their allegiance by the color of their stockings--red for France, white for Spain. The position of the feathers in their hats was also indicative of political preference--right for Spain, left for France. Even the cut of one's beard had huge political significance."(p113) <--- I am wondering it this is to whom we can attribute the side ponytails of the 80's? :) Maybe not, but these silly rules would certainly have gotten me in trouble were I to have lived in that society. I simply don't care enough to pay attention to hair trends or hair etiquette.
"There were two signs that a pope had been elected--the bells of Saint Peter's would ring out in jubilation, and carpenters would demolish the masonry that blocked the windows of the loggia overlooking Saint Peter's Square. The tradition of sending smoke out of the Sistine Chapel chimney after each scrutiny was not instituted until 1903."(p138) <--- I've always wondered why they used the smoke to signal a pope's election, but is does sound easier than the ways they did it in the past. At the conclave I remember seeing (the past pope's election) I remember thinking, this smoke thing is a crazy tradition. It must just be one of those long-standing things that they've done forever and thus see no need to change, but I guess I was wrong.
"As the droves of papal children proved, it wasn't sex that bothered the church; it was marriage, with its rights of inheritance of ecclesiastical property. Mistresses, male lovers, and bastards posed no threat to the prosperity of the church, as they had no inheritance rights. And so the word celibacy came to denote lack of marriage, rather than lack of sex. Morality became a bit twisted when sex without marriage was deemed a lesser sin than sex within the bonds of holy matrimony, as the Lutherans were quick to point out."(p176) <--- While I've always known the Catholic Church to support celibacy before marriage, I didn't know this piece of info. It just seems interesting to me. Really, many of the hypocrisies of religious systems are interesting to me.
I had many more quotes picked out, but I realize that some of my readers are not as interested in the eccentricities of the Vatican and the Catholic Church as I am, so I will stop. I will say that it was a great book, and very eye-opening in the fact that it reveals the corruption of church members to be nothing new. On the contrary, corruption dates back as far as can be studied. After all, we are all human.
I will post as soon as I have begun a new book. I have a few from the library but have not yet decided which to read next. I'll keep you updated! :)
"Roman etiquette was cruelly precise. The host or hostess showed the greatest respect by waiting outside for the guest's carriage to arrive, an honor usually reserved for royalty or the relatives of popes. A fairly well respected visitor was greeted at the bottom of the stairs. A visitor of so-so importance would find the hostess at the top of the stairs, mumbling apologies for not being able to come down. "(p53) <--- I'm very glad this is still not a common practice. If it were, I would never visit anyone, as I have no patience for waiting!
"On June 10, 1630, the pope decreed that effective immediately all cardinals were no longer to be called 'Most Reverend' as they had been for centuries, but were to be addressed by the more honorable 'Your Eminence,' and were to take precedence immediately after kings. Feeling outranked by this title, European princes claimed for themselves the title of 'Highness' instead of 'Excellency'." (p88) <--- I just thought this part was interesting because I never knew why kings were called "Your Highness". This may seem silly, but I always thought it was because when they sat on the throne they were literally higher than everyone else. :)
"The rivalry of France and Spain had so infiltrated Roman society that even clothing reflected one's preference. Women showed their support for France or Spain by the side on which they wore their hair ribbons--on the right of the head for Spain, on the left for France. Men showed their allegiance by the color of their stockings--red for France, white for Spain. The position of the feathers in their hats was also indicative of political preference--right for Spain, left for France. Even the cut of one's beard had huge political significance."(p113) <--- I am wondering it this is to whom we can attribute the side ponytails of the 80's? :) Maybe not, but these silly rules would certainly have gotten me in trouble were I to have lived in that society. I simply don't care enough to pay attention to hair trends or hair etiquette.
"There were two signs that a pope had been elected--the bells of Saint Peter's would ring out in jubilation, and carpenters would demolish the masonry that blocked the windows of the loggia overlooking Saint Peter's Square. The tradition of sending smoke out of the Sistine Chapel chimney after each scrutiny was not instituted until 1903."(p138) <--- I've always wondered why they used the smoke to signal a pope's election, but is does sound easier than the ways they did it in the past. At the conclave I remember seeing (the past pope's election) I remember thinking, this smoke thing is a crazy tradition. It must just be one of those long-standing things that they've done forever and thus see no need to change, but I guess I was wrong.
"As the droves of papal children proved, it wasn't sex that bothered the church; it was marriage, with its rights of inheritance of ecclesiastical property. Mistresses, male lovers, and bastards posed no threat to the prosperity of the church, as they had no inheritance rights. And so the word celibacy came to denote lack of marriage, rather than lack of sex. Morality became a bit twisted when sex without marriage was deemed a lesser sin than sex within the bonds of holy matrimony, as the Lutherans were quick to point out."(p176) <--- While I've always known the Catholic Church to support celibacy before marriage, I didn't know this piece of info. It just seems interesting to me. Really, many of the hypocrisies of religious systems are interesting to me.
I had many more quotes picked out, but I realize that some of my readers are not as interested in the eccentricities of the Vatican and the Catholic Church as I am, so I will stop. I will say that it was a great book, and very eye-opening in the fact that it reveals the corruption of church members to be nothing new. On the contrary, corruption dates back as far as can be studied. After all, we are all human.
I will post as soon as I have begun a new book. I have a few from the library but have not yet decided which to read next. I'll keep you updated! :)
I finally finished my book
I know I have not been posting excerpts from my book, because I barely have time to read it. This means that I end up staying up until around 12:30 am every night to try to get some reading in. It also means I am pretty tired sometimes during class, so I should probably stop doing it and try to form a schedule that allows for reading at least an hour a day.
Today will be our second go round at volunteering at the library. The volunteer coordinator has insisted several times that we not come to help with the ESL class, but just help with the computer class. I assume that this stems from the fact that the computer class is her project whereas the ESL class is run by someone else who isn't an employee at the library. Unfortunately, I actually enjoy doing the ESL class more, but I do understand that there's an excess of volunteers for ESL and a deficiency of them for computer classes. This is because on average only 1 to 3 people show up for the ESL class, whereas last week in the computer class we had about 10 to 15 people. Fortunately though, the coordinator also arranged for me to come in on Thursday evenings to work with the local historic librarian who will be giving me 'projects'. I am not sure yet what these projects are, but am excited to be working in this area as it's a field I'm pretty interested in. When I applied to volunteer I wrote on the form that I'm considering archiving/preservation of culture as a graduate school option further down the road, so this will be a great opportunity to get some experience in the field, as well as earn volunteer hours.
Dustin heard from a friend that we should definitely apply for the Peace Corps soon, as some of the people in that person's staging group have been waiting over a year and a half for an assignment. I'm trying to graduate in December 2010, and it takes a bit longer for couples to be accepted and receive assignments, so I'd agree that we probably need to get on top of that. Unfortunately, they also require that you cover your own medical checkups and dentist visits to get up to par before they will accept you. This worries me, as I know most of my teeth are cavity-ridden. I did not take care of them so well as a child. Dustin's friend said he spent over $1000 to get into the Peace Corps (in medical expenses). I said we better get insurance, because my mouth is going to cost $1000 alone to fix. Maybe an overexaggeration, but it's not something we can really afford. If the benefits of the Peace Corps weren't so great, I'd say we should just take the $2000 we'd spend on medical care and move out of the country on our own. At least that way we'd get to choose where we are sent. But, that's not the point, I guess.
Other than that, not too much has been going on (aside from school). I'm in Spanish II and Cultural Anthropology this semester, and so far it is going well. My Spanish II profa is new to Texas State and does not yet seem to know exactly what we are supposed to be learning, but I'm hoping that she'll get better with time. I feel like we do more game-playing than learning, but perhaps we're learning through the games? (If so, I haven't noticed yet.) It's a bit disappointing. Luckily though, my anthropology professor is probably the best professor I've had. He takes deadlines very seriously, refuses to give extensions, and holds people accountable for things (all of which seem to be greatly lacking in other classes I've taken). He's lived on four continents and has extensive experience in linguistic anthropology. It's a very interesting class that challenges pretty much every belief I have, which I'm okay with, but some people in the class seem to be having a hard time with. Today, for example, we debated whether Victor of Aveyron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_of_Aveyron) was human or not. There were four others who chose to be in my group, and we won the debate hands down on the position that because our study is based on culture and hinges on the idea that culture is what makes us human, not biology, Victor was not a human (at least for the purposes in which we were studying him). I think most of the other group had such a hard time (and some of them got very angry about it) laying aside the belief that if someone is homosapien-sapien they are classified as human. I understand their protests though, it's very hard to look at someone who is physically almost identical in structure to yourself and objectively say that, based on a certain criteria, he is not human. It offends our humanity, but cultural anthropology is not about personal opinions. It's not about what cultures are right, wrong, weird, normal, etc. It's about understanding cultures from the point of view of someone who lives in them. By taking an outsider's view, we can learn nothing useful about a cultural group.
Anyways, I've typed a lot and not even gotten into the book excerpts I wanted to post. So, to prevent myself from forgetting to type them in this blog, I will type them directly after I post this one. (I'm returning the book to the library tonight.)
I hope everyone else is having a great week thus far, and continues to do so.
Today will be our second go round at volunteering at the library. The volunteer coordinator has insisted several times that we not come to help with the ESL class, but just help with the computer class. I assume that this stems from the fact that the computer class is her project whereas the ESL class is run by someone else who isn't an employee at the library. Unfortunately, I actually enjoy doing the ESL class more, but I do understand that there's an excess of volunteers for ESL and a deficiency of them for computer classes. This is because on average only 1 to 3 people show up for the ESL class, whereas last week in the computer class we had about 10 to 15 people. Fortunately though, the coordinator also arranged for me to come in on Thursday evenings to work with the local historic librarian who will be giving me 'projects'. I am not sure yet what these projects are, but am excited to be working in this area as it's a field I'm pretty interested in. When I applied to volunteer I wrote on the form that I'm considering archiving/preservation of culture as a graduate school option further down the road, so this will be a great opportunity to get some experience in the field, as well as earn volunteer hours.
Dustin heard from a friend that we should definitely apply for the Peace Corps soon, as some of the people in that person's staging group have been waiting over a year and a half for an assignment. I'm trying to graduate in December 2010, and it takes a bit longer for couples to be accepted and receive assignments, so I'd agree that we probably need to get on top of that. Unfortunately, they also require that you cover your own medical checkups and dentist visits to get up to par before they will accept you. This worries me, as I know most of my teeth are cavity-ridden. I did not take care of them so well as a child. Dustin's friend said he spent over $1000 to get into the Peace Corps (in medical expenses). I said we better get insurance, because my mouth is going to cost $1000 alone to fix. Maybe an overexaggeration, but it's not something we can really afford. If the benefits of the Peace Corps weren't so great, I'd say we should just take the $2000 we'd spend on medical care and move out of the country on our own. At least that way we'd get to choose where we are sent. But, that's not the point, I guess.
Other than that, not too much has been going on (aside from school). I'm in Spanish II and Cultural Anthropology this semester, and so far it is going well. My Spanish II profa is new to Texas State and does not yet seem to know exactly what we are supposed to be learning, but I'm hoping that she'll get better with time. I feel like we do more game-playing than learning, but perhaps we're learning through the games? (If so, I haven't noticed yet.) It's a bit disappointing. Luckily though, my anthropology professor is probably the best professor I've had. He takes deadlines very seriously, refuses to give extensions, and holds people accountable for things (all of which seem to be greatly lacking in other classes I've taken). He's lived on four continents and has extensive experience in linguistic anthropology. It's a very interesting class that challenges pretty much every belief I have, which I'm okay with, but some people in the class seem to be having a hard time with. Today, for example, we debated whether Victor of Aveyron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_of_Aveyron) was human or not. There were four others who chose to be in my group, and we won the debate hands down on the position that because our study is based on culture and hinges on the idea that culture is what makes us human, not biology, Victor was not a human (at least for the purposes in which we were studying him). I think most of the other group had such a hard time (and some of them got very angry about it) laying aside the belief that if someone is homosapien-sapien they are classified as human. I understand their protests though, it's very hard to look at someone who is physically almost identical in structure to yourself and objectively say that, based on a certain criteria, he is not human. It offends our humanity, but cultural anthropology is not about personal opinions. It's not about what cultures are right, wrong, weird, normal, etc. It's about understanding cultures from the point of view of someone who lives in them. By taking an outsider's view, we can learn nothing useful about a cultural group.
Anyways, I've typed a lot and not even gotten into the book excerpts I wanted to post. So, to prevent myself from forgetting to type them in this blog, I will type them directly after I post this one. (I'm returning the book to the library tonight.)
I hope everyone else is having a great week thus far, and continues to do so.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I apologize
For not being a better blogger. But since I don't think anyone but Dustin reads this anyways, I guess it's ok. Besides, I've been really busy with school this week. I put some thought in to transferring to UT but don't think I'm too serious about it. Now is probably not a good time to go switching things up again. It's not that I dislike Texas State really, it's just the old "what's in a name" thing, and UT definitely has a better name for getting me in grad school than Texas State does.
Yesterday Dustin and I went to volunteer at the public library for the first time. We had a blast! From 5:30 to 6:30 we helped people (mostly older people) learn to use the internet/Microsoft word/etc. There were some really neat people including a 90 year old woman named Adelle who was really funny. I helped one lady sign up for an online dating site (she said that's the only reason she wants to learn computers) and an email address. Then, from 7:00 to 8:30 we helped with an ESL class. Only one student showed up and there were six volunteers there to help her, but it was still really neat. Basically, we just talk about commonplace things like current events and discuss them with the students. The student yesterday was Felicitas, and she actually speaks English pretty well considering it's not her native language. We taught her a few new words like what it means to "bother" someone or be "bothered" by something. Also, she learned fireworks and sunburn when we all discussed our 4th of July. She was very neat and seemed happy when she learned that Dustin and I would be coming back next week. We plan on doing both the computer class and the ESL class every Wednesday. Doing so will allow us to accumulate 10 hours of volunteering at the library each month, which is a good start on preparing to apply for the Peace Corps. The volunteer coordinator at the library also mentioned she may have a project for me working with a historian since I am interested in cultural preservation and archiving. Hopefully that will pan out. If not, I may apply to volunteer at the LBJ Museum in town as a docent or maybe even helping with the archives there. We are signed up for a volunteer orientation at the animal shelter on the 21st, which I am very excited about. It will be the perfect thing for days during the school year when I can't get a substituting position for a day and have nothing better to do. I hadn't volunteered in a while before last night, but it was a good reminder of how great it makes you feel.
On another note, this past Tuesday was our second wedding anniversary. Dustin and I went to Aquarena Center and did the glass bottom boat tour which was very neat. Then we went to Pluckers and ate way too much food which resulted in a three hour long food coma/nap. Then we woke up at 9:00pm and invited a few friends over to hang out. We all had a really good time. It was a great day!
The book I'm reading has been going well, but because of the length of this current blog, I will be posting excerpts from the book in a seperate blog later today. I would really recommend Mistress of the Vatican to anyone with interest in history, the Vatican or Italian culture during the late 1600's and early 1700's. It's a fascinating look at what life was like back then.
Ok...I think this has gotten long-winded enough, so I'll bid you all farewell for now. (And by all, yes I mean my nonexistant readers as I haven't really let anyone know that I have a blog yet because I'm not sure how well I will keep up with it.)
Yesterday Dustin and I went to volunteer at the public library for the first time. We had a blast! From 5:30 to 6:30 we helped people (mostly older people) learn to use the internet/Microsoft word/etc. There were some really neat people including a 90 year old woman named Adelle who was really funny. I helped one lady sign up for an online dating site (she said that's the only reason she wants to learn computers) and an email address. Then, from 7:00 to 8:30 we helped with an ESL class. Only one student showed up and there were six volunteers there to help her, but it was still really neat. Basically, we just talk about commonplace things like current events and discuss them with the students. The student yesterday was Felicitas, and she actually speaks English pretty well considering it's not her native language. We taught her a few new words like what it means to "bother" someone or be "bothered" by something. Also, she learned fireworks and sunburn when we all discussed our 4th of July. She was very neat and seemed happy when she learned that Dustin and I would be coming back next week. We plan on doing both the computer class and the ESL class every Wednesday. Doing so will allow us to accumulate 10 hours of volunteering at the library each month, which is a good start on preparing to apply for the Peace Corps. The volunteer coordinator at the library also mentioned she may have a project for me working with a historian since I am interested in cultural preservation and archiving. Hopefully that will pan out. If not, I may apply to volunteer at the LBJ Museum in town as a docent or maybe even helping with the archives there. We are signed up for a volunteer orientation at the animal shelter on the 21st, which I am very excited about. It will be the perfect thing for days during the school year when I can't get a substituting position for a day and have nothing better to do. I hadn't volunteered in a while before last night, but it was a good reminder of how great it makes you feel.
On another note, this past Tuesday was our second wedding anniversary. Dustin and I went to Aquarena Center and did the glass bottom boat tour which was very neat. Then we went to Pluckers and ate way too much food which resulted in a three hour long food coma/nap. Then we woke up at 9:00pm and invited a few friends over to hang out. We all had a really good time. It was a great day!
The book I'm reading has been going well, but because of the length of this current blog, I will be posting excerpts from the book in a seperate blog later today. I would really recommend Mistress of the Vatican to anyone with interest in history, the Vatican or Italian culture during the late 1600's and early 1700's. It's a fascinating look at what life was like back then.
Ok...I think this has gotten long-winded enough, so I'll bid you all farewell for now. (And by all, yes I mean my nonexistant readers as I haven't really let anyone know that I have a blog yet because I'm not sure how well I will keep up with it.)
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Yesterday I started a really great book...
called Mistress of the Vatican, The True Story of Olimpia Maidalchini: The Secret Female Pope; the author is Eleanor Herman. I found it on the "new book" shelf in the library. I haven't devoted as much time lately to reading as I had been doing while I was substituting, but since summer school has given me a pretty busy schedule, that's not surprising. Also, I was finishing up John Adams by David McCullough which took me a while, but was an awesome book.
Finishing John Adams motivated me to read more historical nonfiction. So, I was very excited to start this "scandalous" book, Mistress of the Vatican. Well, I'm only fifty-three pages in so far, but it's seriously riveting. It took all my will power last night to put it down and go to sleep so I could be up for school on time. The thing about this book is that it has so many things about women in it that were just commonplace back then (1600-1700's). In fact, I found so much of it interesting that I started marking my favorite passages (and thoughts on them) so I could post them on here and encourage any readers of my blog to either check the book out themselves or just think about these passages:
"In the thirteenth century, Saint Thomas Aquinas.....declared women to be 'misbegotten men,' inferior by nature and therefore incapable of leadership.....The Latin word for woman--femina--was said to have come from fe for 'faith' and minus for 'less,' since women were thought to be too weak to hold and preserve the faith." (p13) <-- This one is, in my opinion, really too silly to even say anything about... "A father had very limited choices as to what to do with his daughters. And the reason was this: throughout history, women's lusts were considered insatiable, in contrast to the lethargic sexual desires of men. The daughters of Eve, if they were allowed to run free, would rape all the men and dishonor their families." (p18) <-- I will say, I've never thought of running free and raping all the men, but then again, I don't live in the 1600's. Good thing my dad didn't feel this way though, or I think my sisters and I would have led much more miserable existences. "Saint Peter, it was believed, would only allow the religious to enter the pearly gates of heaven with barely more than a glance at their habits and a satisfied nod. It was the worldly he was on the lookout for, and these he would question rigorously. Turned away with only a tantalizing glimpse of Paradise, many would be forced to seek out that other place. For this reason, many of the most noble, wealthy, and worldly sinners insisted on being buried in the habits of nuns or monks, perhaps with the hope of fooling Saint Peter as they hurried by, the nun's veil or monk's cowl pulled over their faces, racing for the gates before the stern gatekeeper realized who they really were." (p19) <-- Wow, those must have been really 'righteous' rich people who wanted to truly honor their God....As if in their belief of his divine power they thought they could slide one over on him... "But water was not generally drunk. Given the stomach-wrenching bacteria that leached into the groundwater from the nearby outhouse and the ever-present animal waste, water was looked upon with great suspicion. Most Italians drank wine, often with just enough alcoholic content to kill the germs, generally about 2 percent. This low alcoholic content was fortunate, given the amount of wine the average Italian drank every day--two liters. Such wine often soured quickly, but even rancid wine had important uses--it was handy in washing down horses and mules and removing grease stains from wool and velvet clothing." (p32) <---I really wonder what the horses and mules thought of this? It also makes my opinion of Italians in the 1600's different. I mean, I've seen so many movies of people in those times just being constantly drunk because all they drank was wine. "The outer garments of wool, silk, satin, and velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread and edged with fur would have been ruined by water. These were cleaned with wine, hung out in the courtyard overnight to air, and beaten with brooms to get the dust out." (p33) <---Hmm...perhaps I should consider a new method of cleaning my clothes, but I suppose they aren't made of such fine fabrics and wouldn't fare well. "A little chapel was made to honor the saint (Agnes) under an arch in the decaying amphitheater, which in time became the tiny Church of Saint Agnes, located a few doors from Olimpia's new home. Those who still venerate Agnes's purported skull today must be aware that something is remarkably odd about it, since it is the skull of a seven-month fetus. But some legends are just too good to let facts interfere with them." (p43) <-- Really just thought this was interesting and wonder what the real story might be behind it. Methinks I will look this up for future blogging of random info to feed your head... "The rich few lived in sumptuous palaces, gorged themselves to vomiting at banquets, rode in the finest carriages, and wore satins and silks embroidered with gold and pearls. The poor fretted over the number of ounces in the brown bread they bought on the street, a small loaf called the pagnotta. The price was fixed at one bajocco, which might translate into a penny, but the weight of the bread was determined by papal decree.
When Rome enjoyed peace and plentiful harvests, bread 'rose' from its usual eight ounces to ten or twelve ounces. The poor survived well enough, working where they could and having just enough to buy bread, lettuce and a little oil as salad dressing. But whenever Rome and its surrounding countryside suffered war, drought, flood, or epidemic--or when the pope withdrew Vatican bread subsidies to give the money to his greedy relatives--bread 'fell' to six or even four ounces. Then the poor starved, dying on the street in a disheveled heap of ribs and rags." (p49) <-- This just seems really crazy to me that the bread would differ depending on how the Vatican wanted to price it. I mean, I knew they had complete and total authority, but wow...."let's let the villagers starve so my cousin can get a kickback?" Seems like some of the greed we see today has been around forever...
So, there you have it...If I could, I would type the whole book out for your enjoyment, but I'm sure that's against the law or something. So let me know if you have opinions and I promise I will try to do a better job keeping up with my blog from now on....
Finishing John Adams motivated me to read more historical nonfiction. So, I was very excited to start this "scandalous" book, Mistress of the Vatican. Well, I'm only fifty-three pages in so far, but it's seriously riveting. It took all my will power last night to put it down and go to sleep so I could be up for school on time. The thing about this book is that it has so many things about women in it that were just commonplace back then (1600-1700's). In fact, I found so much of it interesting that I started marking my favorite passages (and thoughts on them) so I could post them on here and encourage any readers of my blog to either check the book out themselves or just think about these passages:
"In the thirteenth century, Saint Thomas Aquinas.....declared women to be 'misbegotten men,' inferior by nature and therefore incapable of leadership.....The Latin word for woman--femina--was said to have come from fe for 'faith' and minus for 'less,' since women were thought to be too weak to hold and preserve the faith." (p13) <-- This one is, in my opinion, really too silly to even say anything about... "A father had very limited choices as to what to do with his daughters. And the reason was this: throughout history, women's lusts were considered insatiable, in contrast to the lethargic sexual desires of men. The daughters of Eve, if they were allowed to run free, would rape all the men and dishonor their families." (p18) <-- I will say, I've never thought of running free and raping all the men, but then again, I don't live in the 1600's. Good thing my dad didn't feel this way though, or I think my sisters and I would have led much more miserable existences. "Saint Peter, it was believed, would only allow the religious to enter the pearly gates of heaven with barely more than a glance at their habits and a satisfied nod. It was the worldly he was on the lookout for, and these he would question rigorously. Turned away with only a tantalizing glimpse of Paradise, many would be forced to seek out that other place. For this reason, many of the most noble, wealthy, and worldly sinners insisted on being buried in the habits of nuns or monks, perhaps with the hope of fooling Saint Peter as they hurried by, the nun's veil or monk's cowl pulled over their faces, racing for the gates before the stern gatekeeper realized who they really were." (p19) <-- Wow, those must have been really 'righteous' rich people who wanted to truly honor their God....As if in their belief of his divine power they thought they could slide one over on him... "But water was not generally drunk. Given the stomach-wrenching bacteria that leached into the groundwater from the nearby outhouse and the ever-present animal waste, water was looked upon with great suspicion. Most Italians drank wine, often with just enough alcoholic content to kill the germs, generally about 2 percent. This low alcoholic content was fortunate, given the amount of wine the average Italian drank every day--two liters. Such wine often soured quickly, but even rancid wine had important uses--it was handy in washing down horses and mules and removing grease stains from wool and velvet clothing." (p32) <---I really wonder what the horses and mules thought of this? It also makes my opinion of Italians in the 1600's different. I mean, I've seen so many movies of people in those times just being constantly drunk because all they drank was wine. "The outer garments of wool, silk, satin, and velvet, embroidered with gold and silver thread and edged with fur would have been ruined by water. These were cleaned with wine, hung out in the courtyard overnight to air, and beaten with brooms to get the dust out." (p33) <---Hmm...perhaps I should consider a new method of cleaning my clothes, but I suppose they aren't made of such fine fabrics and wouldn't fare well. "A little chapel was made to honor the saint (Agnes) under an arch in the decaying amphitheater, which in time became the tiny Church of Saint Agnes, located a few doors from Olimpia's new home. Those who still venerate Agnes's purported skull today must be aware that something is remarkably odd about it, since it is the skull of a seven-month fetus. But some legends are just too good to let facts interfere with them." (p43) <-- Really just thought this was interesting and wonder what the real story might be behind it. Methinks I will look this up for future blogging of random info to feed your head... "The rich few lived in sumptuous palaces, gorged themselves to vomiting at banquets, rode in the finest carriages, and wore satins and silks embroidered with gold and pearls. The poor fretted over the number of ounces in the brown bread they bought on the street, a small loaf called the pagnotta. The price was fixed at one bajocco, which might translate into a penny, but the weight of the bread was determined by papal decree.
When Rome enjoyed peace and plentiful harvests, bread 'rose' from its usual eight ounces to ten or twelve ounces. The poor survived well enough, working where they could and having just enough to buy bread, lettuce and a little oil as salad dressing. But whenever Rome and its surrounding countryside suffered war, drought, flood, or epidemic--or when the pope withdrew Vatican bread subsidies to give the money to his greedy relatives--bread 'fell' to six or even four ounces. Then the poor starved, dying on the street in a disheveled heap of ribs and rags." (p49) <-- This just seems really crazy to me that the bread would differ depending on how the Vatican wanted to price it. I mean, I knew they had complete and total authority, but wow...."let's let the villagers starve so my cousin can get a kickback?" Seems like some of the greed we see today has been around forever...
So, there you have it...If I could, I would type the whole book out for your enjoyment, but I'm sure that's against the law or something. So let me know if you have opinions and I promise I will try to do a better job keeping up with my blog from now on....
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