As a Master's degree should only take about 2 years, I have to start looking ahead already for what I want to do post-MA. Here's the question: will I know enough of what I want to do to get me into a PhD program, or do I need to consider a second MA before moving on to the PhD?
Financially, a second MA is a terrible decision. I need to plan out my next 3 semesters very carefully to get into a PhD program with enough under my belt. Therefore, I need to compile a check-list of things I need to look into before papers and projects start weighing me down:
- Check out CUNY to beef up my German knowledge to "academic" level. If I can handle it, maybe also attack French. ;)
- Look at next semester's courses for JTS, Columbia, and Union (maybe even NYU and petition to take some classes there?)
- Buy those books on Ugaritic! Just waiting for the second half of my loans to be deposited...
Why is it especially loud this morning? Everything keeps echoing through my window!
Last night Katy and I went to a talk at a synagogue in the middle of Chinatown (ha), coincidentally on the topic of our group project for Bible class: Wisdom Books. The panel was more about his translation of the books of Job, Proverbs, and Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes for those who don't read the Bible in Hebrew). It was still fascinating and I still got a page worth of notes for our project. A little bit of elbow rubbing on my part got us his email address in case we have questions for him. *SCORE* Katy did some elbow rubbing herself and schmoozed with a Jewish artist who made a series based on this professor's translation of Genesis. Katy is now seriously considering using this woman as her subject for her final paper in Feminist Jewish Art! Go us! Which reminds me, I need to send him an email thanking him...
Today I'm going to lunch with my Hebrew class to one of our classmates' apartment! Apparently her upstairs neighbor is the new player for the Nix! haha. I have no idea who that is because I don't follow basketball at all. But I am really looking forward to it!
Tonight Simon has finally planned out the dinner he promised he would make for us! A tasty Indian dish, apparently! He even made cheese and yogurt yesterday for the dinner. Sounds promising!
It's no unknown fact that living in a city as large and [dirty] as NYC brings with it a number of little critters. For instance, rats in the subways (accompanied by signs in the subways warning passengers of the rodents), cockroaches, and mice. We have now experienced all three.
Rat in the subway [check]
Cockroach in Danielle's room [double check] (saw it once, successfully killed it the second time with the help of a fellow neighbor - thank you, Andrew!)
Mouse in the kitchen [check]
This final experienced occurred last night. Right after hanging up the phone with my family, I walked past the kitchen towards the living room. Of course, I turn my head and glance in the kitchen - just in time to see a little furry vermin scurry across the counter top and over the stove. I emitted an audible shriek, jumped sideways away from our doorway, and glanced back in. No mouse. I requested a flashlight and began the search under the fridge, oven, and behind the oven. Ewwww...it was so gross behind that oven! No wonder the mouse was there!
I scrubbed the counter and stove top and began a furious search through all our drawers and cabinets to make sure no little mouse turds were in existence. For now we're safe. Katy was freaking out because she's never experienced a mouse in the house. I'm ready to take this cute little guy down. Even though our heat has been officially turned on and the little guy has the right to find a warm place to live, it will not be in OUR apartment! The hunt begins with the informing of our RA and the request for some [non-lethal] mouse traps!
LET THE HUNT BEGIN!
I made some chocolate chip whole wheat pancakes for my roommies + Simon after our group run this morning! They were super tasty! Danielle made some fruit topping for them, too! Be on the lookout on DARK Meals for that tasty morsel!
The cool air is really starting to get to me while running. It's only 50 and I think I need to get myself a face mask already! It felt like my nose was burning and was causing my windpipe and lungs to burn. Stupid cold. Though I got much further today than I have so far! :) So did Katy. She kicked our butts today!
Katy, Rachel, and I are working on a joint project together for one of our classes on Wisdom Literature in the Bible and its Near Eastern parallels. Pretty cool. It'll be a simple project mainly because we're supposed to just improve upon an already established Wikipedia entry. The page is horrible but we're going to make it awesome!
I need to start thinking about my final project for that class, too. It's either a final paper/project or an exam. Um, yea, I'll take the paper, thanks. I never understood why people preferred exams to papers. At least you know with a paper that you're 100% correct because you get to look it all up in books! I prefer writing papers to studying any day. I think I might try to do something with the Dead Sea Scrolls or other apocryphal manuscripts, just so I have an excuse to go into the rare book room and look at all the awesome books and manuscripts up there. *dreams*
I've registered myself for the ASOR conferences in Atlanta this year! $220???? I'm becoming a member after I get the rest of my loans deposited into my account and purchase my plane tickets. No more of this expensive registration! And then I can present papers at the conferences, too! *squeeeeeeee* Luckily, I don't have to get a hotel by myself. Marcella's going too! Yay! I'll have a buddy! We have a staff meeting for Gezer while we're there, too. One of our staff also sent out an invitation for us all to go out and party it up one night. whoop whoop! We all started teasing one of our staff that he was going to pick up the tab for us all. haha.
One of my fellow Zebrew students (oh, "zebrew" is the old name for the bottom level of Hebrew...Hebrew Z, or "Zebrew") invited us all to lunch at her apartment on Tuesday. Totally in on that. That was so sweet of her. We're all becoming good buddies in that class. Better be, we're spending 6+ hours together in class a week.
This weekend there's an Israeli Queer Cinema Festival and we're hoping to get enough work done to go check out some of the films! That'll be cool.
On another note, my iTunes shuffle playlist has been bringing up a lot of my German music. I wonder if it's telling me to work on my German some more. Hmm....
The other day we were emailed the final exam schedule. All I took note of was that the only two classes I have exams for were scheduled for the same day: the first day of the exam schedule. Hellz yea! Then yesterday I looked at it again. Yea, they're scheduled for the exact same time. Stupid.
So I went to the registrar's office to sign up to reschedule, and the only day available for make up exams is Dec 23rd! I went to talk to the lady in charge of the exam schedule to see if there were any other arrangements I could make. If I could talk one of my professors into letting me take the exam with another Hebrew class, then I could still come home way earlier! yay! Now to have a chat with Nadav....
I just bought my round trip tickets to go visit Stuart in Japan!!!!!!!!
I'll be in Tokyo January 6 - 15th!!!!!! OMG I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY STUART!!!!!
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