I just finished what I picture as being the hump of the semester.
This last week, we had two essays due, one on Tuesday — the same day as a midterm exam we had — and one on Wednesday. They weren’t particularly long, but the one on Wednesday was the first real substantive work it feels like we’ve done to prepare for our thesis and required a lot of reading through the state of the art before we were able to write it.
All this reading (16 citations in my case) was alongside preparing for the exam, writing the other assignment, and keeping up with the daily assigned readings which have pretty much kept pace with the ~100+ pages assigned for each class.
This isn’t really where the frustration mentioned in the title comes from. I knew that grad school would be an intellectual challenge, obviously, but my god am I ever frustrated with the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day! I really cannot find a balance of school, relaxation, and play!
If you follow my art instagram, you know my posts have been few and far between and even my posts here have been infrequent! It’s been really challenging for me to try to find time for these artistic outlets because after reading a 60 page chapter of a political science textbook or a 40 page article, it is nearly impossible to resist the temptation to just lie in bed, veg out, and play Mario Kart on my iPhone (thank god I left the Switch at home otherwise… whew, I don’t even want to think about it!)
But, the more time I spend in school the better grasp I feel like I have of finding some way to achieve the things that I value and that interest me alongside doing what I need to do to prepare for class.
In traveling news, I’m going to Prague and Vienna in December! Skyler and his family are coming to Europe to go to Budapest, Prague, and Vienna for a family vacation. Unfortunately, I’ll be in class for the Budapest part (which sucks because Budapest is really high on my list of places I want to visit while I’m here) so I’ll just be joining the journey partway through. I’ve never been to either city before though so I am freaking pumped!! Honestly, I’ve spent basically no time in Central Europe ever. I’ve been to Berlin, if that even counts. Because of that, I can’t wait to expand and finally get to go! And I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
Also, I’ll be spending Christmas in Andalusia with my roommate and her family and I am equally excited because southern Spain is another place I’ve never been! I’m a bit bummed that it definitely will not feel like Christmas but, hey, it doesn’t snow in Barcelona so it’s not like it would feel much like Christmas here either!
Speaking of Christmas, I think the spirit is seeping into my bones because something overtook me today and I had to draw this cute, chubby cherub.
(You can check out my art instagram here).
Happy almost Thanksgiving to all my Americans!
fakestginger 