Word counts and window cleaners

Hello all!

This is the time where Sheffield students snap out of their reverie and partying ways (or at least the international students do) and start the hard work. The library suddenly is always full, computers are in high demand, and the flats are suprisingly quiet at night. This is when the essays are set. (They say set, not assigned.) In my American lit class, the questions were just emailed out to our Sheffield accounts (which I barely check) and not a word was said about them in class. Luckily a girl mentioned it and I ran to look at my email. Yup, I have an essay due next Tuesday by noon. Not to exceed 1500 words, including footnotes, or I will be up for review and can fail for not folling the rubric restrictions. These Brits do not mess around. My essay so far is crap. Whatevs. I just want to get it in.

To give you all an idea of the work assigned here, I will give you the work I was supposed to have done this weekend:
Read Women in Love-D.H. Lawrence: 542 pages
Read Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man-James Joyce: don't know pages, but long and dense
Read Scarlet Letter-Nathaniel Hawthorne: pages unknown, but sort of long
Start paper for Early American lit.
Do weekly WebCT (Blackboard) assignment.
Come up with 6 questions on Scarlet Letter.
Make notes on role of water in Portrait.

This wasn't even a bad week. Just a normal one.

I only read part of Portrait, did the 6 questions for Am Lit, and finished Women in Love. Oh well. I just started the paper today. I am hopefully going to be done by Friday night/Saturday morning, as Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and my roommates are planning to go all out. Three of them are Irish, so its a huge deal to them.

My plans for the week:
homework
homework
paper
hangouts
St. Patrick's Day madness
final spring break planning/booking/prep
clean room
do laundry
freak out

A week from today George is coming to visit me! He gets in Wednesday morning while I am in seminar, so it will be an exciting run up the hill after to see him. I am really looking forward to it. It will be nice to have a face from home around.

Today the window cleaners came to Taptonville. Liz and I sat in the kitchen and laughed as they cleaned the kitchen windows of the opposite flat and James skittered around trying to avoid them. Karma does exist, because while I was changing my pants, the cleaner came up to my window. Luckily he didn't see anything, I had finished. Thank goodness. So lesson learned: if window cleaners are here, remember to shut your blinds.

It is beautiful here in Sheffield. The weather has taken a huge upturn. It has been warm spring days for awhile, with the sun warming your hair and everything. I've been able to wear just a light jacket! Hopefully the weather will stay nice and George and I will be able to go out into the Peak District for some "hiking" as they think of it. It really is just extreme walking.


The attitudes of British kids towards school is hard to identify. They always go out (like 5 nights a week, no joke) and claim to have never done the work, but they are lying. The kids in my classes have been really insightful and made good points. I can't keep up. They look at different things in their analysis as well. In the States we seem to do much more character analysis and close reading, while here there is a lot of talk about theory and the literary tradition pieces are a part of in the classes. It is hard to adjust, but I think it is making me at least aware of these different ways of looking at literature.

Love and kisses to all my dearies in Chicago.

Me