Emerging From Beneath the Pile...

When I don't write on my blog for a while, it's usually because of one of two things: either I have nothing interesting going on in my life or I have too many interesting things going on in my life. You can probably guess what this past lull has been due to: too many things!

This past week has been reading week and it's been nice to have a break but also a little annoying. Nice because I managed a quick visit with my family and I did lots of sleeping. Annoying because my body didn't like coming out of a super stressful three week period into... nothing. With no plans or definite committments, aside from doing homework, my body kinda crashed on me. But I did get a few good days of work done, although there is a lot more to go.

The end of January and the beginning of February were two extremely stressful weeks for me. The undergraduate Classics club at school usually puts on a conference, which takes about six months worth of work to put together. I was on exec last year, but I'm not this year. However, the exec fell asleep at the switch and, with barely three weeks to go before the conference, the department secretary sent me and another girl a desperate plea for help. So, in just about two and a half weeks, I did six months worth of work and organizing, while slowly sinking beneath a pile of school work. What made it all the more stressful was that the un-planning of the conference was merely a symptom of larger issues on the exec and it really felt like I spent two weeks trying to push cows through mud. And oh, yes, I had already committed to giving a paper at this conference.

So I certainly earned my week off, and I needed it, too, to get caught up. I have a Latin midterm looming and I'm not keeping on top of my Greek as well as I would like and I have a paper and presentation due mid-March, another conference paper for the beginning of March and .... my summer to plan for.

I think I posted back in December about winning a province-wide scholarship contest. I applied to go study in Athens over the summer and had my heart set on it, hoping to visit Turkey and Italy another time. I mean, there are so many things to see and study that it's impossible to do anything comprehensive in a month and still have it meaningful enough. Well, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do a study tour of Turkey came along and I have decided to take that up (PROVIDED that I get the necessary approvals.)

This study tour is run by the university department in which I will be enrolling in the fall for my MA. It's a three-week tour of Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean coasts, and it's definitely something that it would be extremely difficult to try to do on one's own. (A lot of good archaeological sites aren't readily accessible. They're usually well off the beaten tourist track, which explains why they are such good sites!) I will have two on-site presentations to do, a final exam and a final paper; in return, I will get credit for a graduate level course.

I have hemmed and hawed about this decision for two weeks now, although it feels like it has been much longer. The Athens programme is fantastic, but I won't know until later in March if I even get into it, and because it's run through the States it is also a bit more expensive. And it runs every summer, so it will be there next summer and the summer after and the summer after that.... You get the idea. So I have opted for three weeks and Turkey (followed by a personal week in England!) this time around. I have had myself mentally prepared for Greece for a while, but now that I have decided in favour of Turkey I am getting really excited. They are both good choices, I just hope that I made the BEST choice. Choices are scary!

The other scary choice I had to make was regarding grad school in the fall. I haven't heard yet from my first choice university, but I did hear right away from my second choice university. And on further investigation, the second choice is actually the better for me. So this was a little less scary-- even though it involves a lot more time and money!

However, having decided on Turkey, it means I have to have my stuff packed and moved into storage by the end of April because I will be living at the farm this summer. (Spending a third or a fourth of your summer overseas makes it hard to get a decent paying job.) Remember how I said I would never move during exams? Well, looks like I'm doing it again! At least this time half of my stuff is already in my parents' basement, so there's that much less to pack. But once I start putting stuff in boxes, this tiny place will fill up FAST.

Ah well. Now that the summer is decided (pending final approvals by the Mac powers that be and whatnot) and the fall is decided I can finally make a plan of attack. Don't expect to hear a lot from me between now and June, though-- just when I though I was emerging from beneath the pile of stuff I'm getting sucked right back in.....

Favourite Fun Sites

Lolcats
http://icanhascheezburger.com
This is my all-time favourite time waster website. If you like cats at all and haven't seen this site, you are living a deprived life. You can upload and create your own lol pictures and view pictures others have made. Some are lame, but most are hilarious. There are even some non-cat pictures. If you login (free, no name or private info) you can vote on thousands of pictures. Only the highest voted pictures make it to the front page.

Photoshop Disasters
http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com
Self explanatory: advertisements, magazine pics, etc that have been bungled.

Cute Overload
http://www.cuteoverload.com
Pictures of cute animals. Especially stoats.

FAIL Blog
http://failblog.org
Perfect for anyone who enjoys laughing at other people's failures, but not in a mean way.

The "Blog" of Unnecessary Quotation Marks
http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com
How NOT to use quotation marks-- usually with humorous consequences.

Engrish.com http://www.engrish.com
Engrish Funny http://engrishfunny.com
These two sites contain lots of humorous mis-translations. Some are funnier than others.

Pundit Kitchen
http://punditkitchen.com
This is the political version of lolcats. It was really great during the recent American election. Like lolcats, you can make your own lols using the many photos on the site.

Once Upon A Win
http://onceuponawin.com
If you weren't a child in the 80s, this site is retro. If you were a child in the 80s, this site is a walk down memory lane. All the awesome things from our youth!

Bad Parking
http://badparking.wordpress.com
Exactly what it says. Photographic evidence of atrocious parking.

Cake Wrecks
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com
I recently discovered this through a friend on Facebook. Hilarious examples of how not to decorate cakes.

Ugly Overload
http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com
When there is too much cuteness in your world, spend some time gazing at the uglier side of nature. Be careful if you're eating lunch-- you may loose your appetite. Unless you're Grissom from CSI.

PostSecret
http://postsecret.blogspot.com
Sometimes I like this site, sometimes I don't. The secrets are sometimes sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes disturbing. I'm not so keen on the disturbing ones. But it is addictive. New secrets go up on Sunday; old secrets are not archived, so if you don't check it out you lose out. This became a huge internet hit and there's a lot of social commentary there. Anyway, check it out and maybe send in a secret of your own.