Scenes from the 1st Half of a Week.
Feb. 6th, 2008 03:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sechan19So, I am under strict orders not to worry about my upcoming language certification exam. My adviser was quite adamant on that point this morning when we met before my classical Japanese class. She reiterated that I must not stress out about it, and solemnly swore me to obedience on that point. So, we'll give that a try. I will still be practicing translation skills with my new Nelson's Kanji Dictionary as much as possible in the next two weeks (because I don't have enough to do already), but I am endeavoring not to freak out over it. So there you have it.
In other news, my presentation for the Ritual and Death seminar went fairly well. (This is the course I'm taking with my adviser that is hopefully going to generate an MA paper.) She was tough on me throughout the presentation, which was awesome, forcing me to go really deep with my thinking. I liked that she was so involved and serious about it; so not about to let me slide on anything. That's the kind of guidance that is really going to train me to be the best I can be. And at the end she congratulated me on finding a lot of complimentary visual material for a segment of readings that - at best - offered slim pickings. So I guess, I can walk away pleased about my first big powerpoint and drum roll presentation.
I met with the methods seminar professor yesterday to talk about a variety of things, including the anxiety I'd been feeling ever since things in my life went so horribly wrong. He was tremendously supportive and helped me to gain a bit of equilibrium. Basically, he reinforced what I had been trying to tell myself all along--that no one would hold it against me if I wound up needing to take a little extra time to deal with my recent losses--and did it well enough that I'm actually beginning to internalize it.
So, hopefully, I'll be able to press on. I still need to finish some readings, write a short paper for Japanese, order the Grad Expo paper panel sessions, practice for the language exam, and try to put together coherent plans for my two seminar papers (which involves extra-seminar reading). Oh, yeah, and I'm probably having folks from the first-years cohort over for dinner on Sunday. And off I go again.
In other news, my presentation for the Ritual and Death seminar went fairly well. (This is the course I'm taking with my adviser that is hopefully going to generate an MA paper.) She was tough on me throughout the presentation, which was awesome, forcing me to go really deep with my thinking. I liked that she was so involved and serious about it; so not about to let me slide on anything. That's the kind of guidance that is really going to train me to be the best I can be. And at the end she congratulated me on finding a lot of complimentary visual material for a segment of readings that - at best - offered slim pickings. So I guess, I can walk away pleased about my first big powerpoint and drum roll presentation.
I met with the methods seminar professor yesterday to talk about a variety of things, including the anxiety I'd been feeling ever since things in my life went so horribly wrong. He was tremendously supportive and helped me to gain a bit of equilibrium. Basically, he reinforced what I had been trying to tell myself all along--that no one would hold it against me if I wound up needing to take a little extra time to deal with my recent losses--and did it well enough that I'm actually beginning to internalize it.
So, hopefully, I'll be able to press on. I still need to finish some readings, write a short paper for Japanese, order the Grad Expo paper panel sessions, practice for the language exam, and try to put together coherent plans for my two seminar papers (which involves extra-seminar reading). Oh, yeah, and I'm probably having folks from the first-years cohort over for dinner on Sunday. And off I go again.
