The whirling world
(title courtesy of Mr. T.S. Eliot--see how well-trained I am? I must cite everything!)Zack, I had no idea about any of that! Please continue to post news as you get it. If CCCU isn't using CMRS, what program do they now have? (Did this happen recently?) Are they still going through Keble? Also, is Katie overseeing this other organization or CMRS? This is all very interesting...
It is Saturday afternoon and the sky is slightly overcast. I'm listening to the latest from Joseph Arthur (Our Shadows Will Remain--great, great album!) and procrastinating...
My current project has consumed most of the autumn: I've been transcribing interviews from the footage my sister Deborah shot this past summer in Colombia. She's making a documentary (for her BFA thesis at Emerson in Boston) on the crisis of displacement in our fatherland. It's been an exhausting but incredibly rewarding ordeal. She's in the editing process now (final product due towards the end of spring) and I've been able to help out by typing all the interviews and then later translating them into English (her partner in the project doesn't speak Spanish). We have great hopes for this little film. She eventually wants to be able to channel aid to a couple different organizations who are working to improve the quality of life for Colombia's displaced (basically, refugees of the civil conflict).
Have I mentioned how proud of her I am?
Meanwhile, my little marginal existence continues. Christina Rossetti wrote to her brother (the dashing, electric Dante Gabriel), "Beautiful, delightful, noble, memorable, as is the world you and yours frequent, I yet am well content in my shady crevice--which crevice enjoys the unique advantage of being to my certain knowledge the place assigned me..." I feel this exactly. I've found contentment with my books and tree-filled backyard. Now I only have to figure out what to pour my life into...
My immediate plans involve applying to a couple of masters programs in the UK--namely, the Univeristy of Leeds. I've finally recognized that this is my next step, but I'm not altogether sure about where I go from there. More school and the PhD route to become a professor? Or do I return to the good ol' US of A and try to get a job teaching the vibrant, scattered high-schoolers of America? Nevermind the fact that the thought of teaching *anything* scares the hell out of me! But after all these years of internal and external wandering, I've realized that I love literature so much I am willing to dedicate my life to it...(especially since I learned that publishing isn't for me).
So. It's either that or the Peace Corps.
posted by amcorrea @ 12/11/2004 06:22:00 PM
9 Comments:
Paid? Money? Huh? ;)
Nope, it's strictly volunteer. I see it as my personal investment in the success of the film--my small part. So it's all good (but she is figuring a total "wage" sum for me in their grant application).
Yes, I will most definitely keep you posted. The closer I get to applying, the more panicky my thoughts get. (On top of that, I'm reading a book called Eliot to Derrida: The Poverty of Interpretation, which is basically a big steel needle in the soapy bubble of current lit critical theory. I have a lot of ambivalence about the way things are going now...but am I cut out for high-schoolers?? No clue.)
Matt is very kind--tell him hi back! (And overtherhine.com is the place to be... :)
Peace Corps sounds great, and not a bad thing to do as a 'back up'. Your sister's project is quite impressive as well. When it all comes together let us know how to find it (unless of course it gets a wide screening?).
Hey Ana Maria: so this is totally random, but the last time I saw you, you were dating a certain friend of mine named Bob. I am assuming since I have not heard anything about him, he is out of the picture. Wondering about that one. Any details? You were definitely an interesting couple, but I can imagine you wanting to punch him in the neck after one or two political conversations. haha. Ah, ORU gossip. How I do not miss it...
Ah. Well. I figured this would come up at some point, so I might as well address it here:
He broke up with me five days after Christmas in 2002. Other than that, I really don't feel like I'm in a good position to talk about it, which is why I haven't said anything before (Chelsey). But he's currently wrapping up his first semester of law school at the University of Minnesota.
That said, thanks for asking, Julie. I am really appreciating your words here in this electronic house. Actually, do you remember Molly Gill? She's also at UMN, on her way to completing her last year. Your reply to Zack sounded like something she'd say. :)
Here is the follow up on my earlier CMRS news, which anyone intereted enough could have picked up the same way I did (CCCU web site and Google search for CMRS). The Council program has a new building in Oxford for the CCCU students, who all now study at Wycliffe Hall with Alister McGrath, who is not only smart but 'Evangelical'. As I mentioned before, they have 'visiting student' rather than 'affiliate student' status (or something) which allows them far more extensive access to the Bodleian, as well as certain 'faculty libraries', apparently. CMRS is not defunct, as I incorrectly implied earlier, and our good friends Alun Thorton Jones, Philpott, and Nigel Frith are still giving monologues about beer and the art of the English garden, making non-Latin/German/Gothic/Romansch speakers feel small and stupid (while noshing on Diet Coke and Cadbury fruit and nut), wearing flamboyantly festive vests, and corrupting the young and impressionable students who come there (who they may be, I have no idea). The rumors about Stan Rosenberg moving back to the States, to be replaced by our former Junior Dean and JCR supervisor Katie, come from an ASP faculty member, but there is no indication of this change on the web site. Certain new decorations by Mrs. Feneley and Nigel (no doubt featuring nude depictions of world mythology) are soon to be showcased on the web site. Cheers!
Thanks, Zack!
My best friend actually had her Oxford CCCU experience at Wycliffe Hall with Alister McGrath back in the summer of '97, I believe. (She inspired me to apply in 2000.)
P.S. My only encounter with McGrath was when Nicole and I happened to be standing behind him in line at the little grocery on North Parade.
Random geeky factoid: North Parade Street was the battle line between royal and parliamentary forces in the English Civil War. So, if you were at the 9 to 9 or On the Hoof you were with King Chuckie and the gang; but those inhabiting the Indian Restaurant (name escapes me) and number 10 Canterbury Row were obliged not to adorn themselves with finery or decorate their churches, and had to wear rather silly helmets into battle. I was a History major, don't make fun...
Wow, I had no idea.
(I wonder if this explains the water balloons?)
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