The year has really started. I had my first emotional outburst about what a bunch of bullshit it all is to a few of my cohorts earlier today after a particularly frustrating meeting. I find the whole thing sort of comforting; now I know everything's where it's supposed to be: I'm confused, shaken, and pissed. But I'm still two weeks ahead on my coursework.One peculiarity of my grad school experience is that, once again, I'm one of a very small number of europeanists. Anyone who's had the misfortune of talking to me about it for more than 15 seconds knows about my lingual issues. I've often wished that I gave two shits about American history so that I could just read everything in English. The problem is, and I'm 100% right on this, European history is so much more interesting. Of course, I could have done English (or Scottish, or Irish) history, but that, too, bores the crap out of me.
I made my very inconvenient bed, and that is where I'll inconveniently lie.
6 comments:
...just remember...you're not in that bed alone...
...sounds like we will be opening a bottle of two buck chuck when you get home...
...oh, and pesto says, "screw it, do it."
fondly,
your emotional brute squad.
Ah, but you've got your guy and a whole mess of puppies! Not be underestimated!
I think my post came off whiny, where I intended it to be more "doh!" I'm certainly not feeling self-pity, just the usual low-grade frustration. And this sure the shit beats working.
I only know English but I have a feeling I'm not getting out of this program without French. I've been putting it off, trying to find a way around it, arguing that I don't need it for studying Colonial and Revolutionary America...
but Lynn has been dropping not-so-subtle hints that I should put this in a "world" context, since that's what hip in history right now...and she keeps mentioning gender, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution in the same context when we talk about My Future.
C'est la vie?
Oui. C'est vrai. Je pense que tu deja parler francais...ce n'est pas le cas?
i feel your pain - went to the archive today. Latin kicks my butt. Even German doesn't seem hard when compared with Medieval and ESPECIALLY early modern Latin abbreviations and weird handwriting. inconvenient bed, indeed.
Well, at least I'll have (maybe) someone else (you) in the Readings in European History this spring.
When not muttering, "If this whole PhD thing doesn't work out I'm going to teach kindergarten... fingerpaint, macaroni pictures..." or "I should have majored in biology..." I wonder, why can't I give a flying rat about American history, or Spanish or Latin American (to use my Spanish)? Nope, I have to fall in love with European history. And could I continue with French... nah, it's Germany, religious conflict, and Genocide that peaked and maintain my interest.
C'est la vie. Das ist die Leben. Eso es la vida.
we do what we do because we love it. You can't be a historian and not also be a gultton for punishment :)
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