April Showers...

The month of April is finally upon us and it is extremely difficult to believe my fourth year in university is almost over! save four pending final exams...

What's your April like? Well, so far mine involves a lot of rain and gray skies with random outbursts of sun and 12-16 degrees of warm humidity.  Also, I have four final exams to complete between the 7th and the 19th, and then this school year will be over.  It seems like only yesterday I was blogging about the start of the year and the classes I was so excited about taking...Now, with many essays over and done with, many marks to be celebrated and some still to achieve, final exams to study for, books to read/re-read and lecture notes to figure out, I find myself nearing the end of quite a wonderful, stressful, ultimately enjoyable journey.  So much work still to do and fingers crossed, I have achieved the GPA (Grade Point Average) that I require to remain in my program (ps don't EVER let yourself get put on program probation because it sucks!!).  Here's hoping!

I hope the rain goes away soon because it puts me in such a sad mood, and I am even more unmotivated than usual (hehe).  It also makes my hair frizzy and going around on campus with wet shoes is just annoying.. plus the humidity seeps into all the buildings making classrooms damp and sweaty feeling..eww

My first exam is for Postcolonial cultures: theory and practice, 4 days after that I will be writing the final for my Jane Austen lit class ( So sad to see it end!! XOXO Dr.J.K), a few days later is the final for modern British lit and im asking myself " who has an exam at 2 in the afternoon?" but such is life... my final of final exams on the 19th is also at 2 pm for native American lit and in our final lecture today the prof whom i absolutely adore (mad props to ya, Rick!) invited everyone to join him at our campus pub after the exam is over- So Awesome!! He's the coolest prof ever! A trip to the pub to chill with epic profs and have a last big to-do is a great way to end the term off on a good and happy note..

My goal til the end of April is to maintain my sanity (or whatever is left of it..) and finish the year off with my dignity and academic reputation intact! Wish me Luck.. I'll post again around my first exam, feel free to e-mail me or comment, I'd like to hear whats going on with you!   

XOXO
Cris

The Month of March.. Would I Rather Have Essays or Snow? I don't Know Which Is Worse!

I've been absolutely swamped with papers since st. patty's day - as you can tell from my lack of posting.. but I only have one more to write before the term ends and then it's on to exams!

I wrote an essay for Native American lit which I handed in today and I hope to do well on.. Fingers Crossed..

Yesterday we had this freak snow fall.. yeah.. nearing the end of March.. supposed to be spring and flowers and birds chirping and nice weather all up in here, but no! We got more snow! because that is what Canada is all about!

Seriously though.. I was just about to put my boots away and prep myself for flats and sneakers again when BAm! SnowFall Warning 15-20 cm of snow for my area! Grrr! And then guess what? Today the sun was shining and everything started melting but ofcourse its still -11 with the windchill so everything thats melting is flash freezing!! Great! So not only did the university campus get covered in a nice white blanket again but then it turned into a puddle which then turned into a frozen lake...

I took some pics of my house being attacked by snow.. I thought it might interest any of you who have it better or worse.. Enjoy :)

XOXO
C

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Hello all!  Just a quick message for today.. I'm currently sitting in one of the university libraries attempting to write a rather large paper over the next 2 and a half hours, quite a task by all means..  I thought I'd let you know about the St. Patty's day festivities that are going on around campus.  The campus pubs are full-up as it were, with the graduates club having admitted over 200 people from 11am-2pm and hoping to exceed that amount three-fold from 2pm onward when it becomes a 19+ only venue.  I have been sitting in the library since 3:30 trying to write and being completely envious all those select few that are enjoying a fun, stress free afternoon in the pub..   The undergrads pub I have not been around to check out but im certain it must be busy as they will admit almost anyone- exactly why upper year undergrads visit the grads pub instead of that one hehe.. 

If my paper turns out any good, I might consider posting it but here are the basics of it... Im discussing women in colonial and post-colonial societies focusing on domesticity, gender inequalities of labour, women powerless and silenced, women who come to represent the nation and the mother=hood symbol under dominant make colonisation circumstances... if any of this makes sense to you then e-mail me and i might send you my paper or post it if there is a popular demand (which i doubt highly :( oh well cant always hope for the stars)...

so pretty much ive got to finish this paper, and then over the weekend begin another one which is due on Monday which i am waiting to start because i am a terrible  procrastinator...

Thanks for reading... as always.. This would be soo easier if I had a magical homework fairy to help me.. again wishful thinking.. *sigh*

XOXO
C

Some Thing Random..

I was shown a website through a classmate in the Modern British Literature class I am taking this semester and I thought it was absolutely wonderful! The  website is called Hark, a vagrant and on it you will find all types of comics about history.  I was drawn to it because the classmate poasted the link for us called 1980's Business Woman which fit perfectly with the play we were reading by Caryl Churchill called "Top Girls" -

So check out here:    

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=297

 As I sit waiting for the bus to come at 1:30 so I can go onto campus I came across this great comic about characters from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice - among other Jane Austen related comics, which are great for the Austen lover or those currently caught up in Austen Mania these days- though my mania is absolutely course related ( the Jane Austen Lit class im taking is soo great!) Anyway, please check out this link as well!    

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=176

I think these comics by Kate Beaton are absolutely fantastic and it is no wonder that she is Canadian!! Please check out the About section of her website and I hope you will all enjoy reading through the comics as much as I have!  As always, feel free to drop me a comment on here and/or e-mail me at bilichc@hotmail.com. Thanks A Bunch and Have A Great Monday!!

XOXO
Cristina

Poetry... What Does It Make You Think?

In my modern British Literature class we have been studying various authors, many novels and countless pieces of poetry.  As such I have had to analyze many a stanza this year.  I am submitting an assignment that is worth very little, just for bonus marks really, which has to do with a poem entitled "Anorexic" written by Eavan Boland.

I'd like to share this 300 word essay type paragraph with you along with the poem itself so that if you chose to do so you may analyze it yourself and let me know what you think of my critique.  Please don't be too harsh on me though :D  Remember to comment on here or e-mail me whatever responses to have to this piece of poetry and/or to my simple analysis. 

The question that was asked of me in this assignment was:  

Focusing on  Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic,” discuss how the speaker makes use of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. How and/or why does the poem rewrite Genesis? (Keep it in mind as you read the poem..)

Anorexic by  Eavan Boland

Flesh is heretic.

My body is a witch.

I am burning it.

Yes I am torching

her curves and paps and wiles.

They scorch in my self denials.

ow she meshed my head

in the half-truths

of her fevers

till I renounced

milk and honey

and the taste of lunch.

I vomited

her hungers.

Now the bitch is burning.

I am starved and curveless.

I am skin and bone.

She has learned her lesson.

Thin as a rib

I turn in sleep.

My dreams probe

a claustrophobia

a sensuous enclosure.

How warm it was and wide

once by a warm drum,

once by the song of his breath

                                   and in his sleeping side.                                   

Only a little more, 

only a few more days

sinless, foodless,

I will slip

back into him again

as if I had never been away.

Caged so

I will grow

angular and holy

past pain,

keeping his heart

such company

as will make me forget

in a small space

the fall

into forked dark,

into python needs

heaving to hips and breasts

and lips and heat

and sweat and fat and greed. 

My Assignment was to answer the above posted question about how the speaker uses Genesis and

 how and or why the author the author has re-written the story of Genesis. It is as follows:

Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic” and the Myth of Genesis

       In Eavan Boland’s “Anorexic,” the speaker makes use of Genesis, the first book of the Bible to equate this myth with the ever present history of female repression in society.  The use of language in the poem strongly alludes to the story of the fall and the original sin committed by Eve in the Garden of Eden.  In the lines “thin as a rib” and “in his sleeping side” it is shown that the speaker is envisioning their self as the rib out of which God created Eve, going back into Adams side.  The woman/rib wants to go back to the man, to have the thin bone renter the body as a way of changing the past and allowing women to become sinless again.  The author uses the lines “sinless, foodless” to describe the thoughts which accompany anorexia and as juxtaposition for the rest of the poem pushing forth the myth of women being held responsible for the “fall of man” due to eating forbidden fruit.  The author uses specific language to present the speakers wishes to forget “the fall/ into forked dark, into python needs” and to renounce the “hips and breasts and lips” that make her the embodiment of temptation and sin.  Boland in a way rewrites Genesis using the eating disorder Anorexia as a means to cast off the female body therefore ridding the female self of Eve’s original sin.  If she can become non-gendered then there is no temptation and man will not fall from grace.  This rewriting also demonstrates the universal and ever present self loathing that females are taught feel by religious dominator's as well as the struggle women have always faced to re-attain their equality with men that could only happen through the erasing of Original Sin and the replacement of the rib into the body.      

Works Cited: Boland, Eavan.  "Anorexic" Selected Poems.  Dublin: Carcanet, 1989. Print. 

So Please let me know what you all think of both the poem and my small analysis.. I know it isn't perfect or much of a piece to read but it will do for my TA and I hope it will do for you.  Feel free to comment on here and/or leave me an e-mail if you'd like to discuss it in further detail or you have something negative to say  

( because I would appreciate it if you did criticize me in private.. thanks :D). My e-mail address as always is   bilichc@hotmail.com

XOXO

C

Just Another Manic Monday...

I was walking around on campus and I didn't realize how terrible Mondays are for people - students in particular- until I looked around and saw all of the somber dreary faces and heard the slow shuffling feet moving about around campus.. Some people just can't survive after the weekend! My classes of approximately 70 students were at about half capacity today even a little less.  Insanity.

We just got back from reading week.  It was completely uneventful for me thought I managed to purchase and read 3 non-school related fiction novels (yay!) and meet with a few friends that I haven't seen in a long time.  It was mostly unproductive though as far as school work is concerned... I feel like such a bad student because I barely lifted a book and I only opened my notebook at the end of the week to check my schedule so I could plan my Sunday night sleep time accordingly (wow homework fail on my part)...

After it snows on campus everything looks lovely and white and sparkly... you saw the pictures! But after the temperature heats up a bit, the sun comes out and everything melts, followed by gray skies, rain and more melting of snow and frozen ground the university campus takes on a muddy soggy appearance and turns into a giant puddle. The appearance of small lakes has become something to be expected when you are walking around the campus grounds post snow and during the melting days of rain and sun- and yet students everywhere forget to wear rubber boots and water proof foot gear (shoe fail!).  The grounds, walkways, and the buildings entrances and hallways also become messy, dirty, wet, muddy - basically disgusting.. and students do not care about it, they will walk anywhere in muddy shoes, even smearing the dirt onto the backs of chairs in lecture theaters just waiting for that unknowing person to rub against it as they pass or put their coat directly on top of it.. eww *shakes fist in anger at student ignorance and bad hygiene*

Anyway, I thought I would show you all a few shots of the giant puddles on campus today- they were so large and treacherous that entire pathways were blocked off with yellow wooden caution horses and orange pylons. So enjoy these images!  Don't forget I appreciate any and all feed back on here, drop me a comment or e-mail me at bilichc@hotmail.com

Beside the tree on the right is a caution horse that became partially submerged.. insanity

Where did the path go? It just disappeared! You can see the caution horse on the father side of this water mass- the other one is beside the tree on the right.. it became a part of the lake :(

 Good Night All - please comment!!

XOXO
Cris

It's Midterm Time!!!!

 I know I should be studying right now, because I totally have a midterm at 3:30 pm tomorrow but I wanted to post because I haven't in a while and I apologize..

I'm sitting at my computer fighting the urge not to open up a tab on firefox and watch The Nanny on youtube but it is very hard ...

must.
resist.
will
power.
decreasing.
AHHH!

Besides my midterm tomorrow afternoon I also have an early morning eye doctors appointment!! WOOo! because I need to get my vision checked as it seems to be getting worse and worse lately... I'm getting tired of having to squint through my lenses to see the signs, black/white boards, and peoples faces which are 20 feet away from me! I have glasses so I can see.. but they are so not helping right now. I don't want to get new frams though, because I'm in love with my current ones, so I hope they can replace my lenses and not damage my frames... after the appointment I have to rush to school for a 2:30 class on the literature of everyone's favorite 18th century british novelist- Jane Austen!! such a great class.. I got an A- on a paper I wrote for that class which discussed Jane Austen's ideal masculinity in Northanger Abbey using the character of John Thorpe and making a small comparison to Henry Tilney to prove that the ideal masculinity is everything which John Thorpe is Not... I know.. craziness, but hey I got an A- and there were only 2 A grades given out of the entire 200 student class!! Go Me! I should post it so you can all read it.. maybe next post.. hmmm..

... right, back to the Native American lit midterm.. ugh..   

My lovely sisters just came in and they brought me a chai tea latte!!! So Tasty!! and yesterday I went to the store and bought a large box of my favorite candy :D

Now i'm plunked in front of the screen with my latte, my nerds (so appropriate!) and my midterm review, obviously not studying right now (have been studying since 4pm this afternoon thought).  I decided I'd take a moment to express my self creatively before I go crazy...

So here are some pictures for you to enjoy..  Pray for me tomorrow from 3:30-5:30 while I write my midterms.. I'm going to need all the support I can get.  Well I wish you all a good night and I hope you will be thinking of me fondly while you are all enjoying your wonderful afternoons and I am stuck identifying terms and making comparisons of themes in native literature to native poetry and novels.. :(

I love the class, I am just so lazy right now and I cannot wait for next week.. Reading Week! The university student's much needed "February" (march) Break! It's almost here, just 48 hours to go.

XOXO
C