Mini-sojourn in Milan

Visiting Milan was, as the Irish say, grand! We slept in Shannon Airport Wednesday night, because the first bus on Thursday morning would not arrive in time for our flight. We played banagrams, a game like scrabble that I highly recommend and each did individual reading or writing that we had for school. Upon our arrival in Milan, we went to find our hostel and then to find sustenance. However, the latter proved to be quite difficult, as Italians eat dinner late at night and the restaurants were closed. We found an outdoor cafe enclosed by a walled tent of sorts and ordered a pizza to split. After spending the weekend in Italy, I now know why that seemed odd to the waiter. When going out for pizza, everyone gets their own, and I'm not talking about miniscule personal sized pizzas here. Each person eats the equivalent of a size small pizza in the States. The crust is very thin, so we thought perhaps it wasn't as filling, and Mary and I decided to do as the Italians on Friday night and each ordered a pizza. That definitely wasn't the case... We both got 3/4s of the way through our pies and had to stop. When we hadn't eaten for a while and wanted the check, the waitress asked, "Why don't you mangia?" in a broken Ita-glish. She looked confused, but my stomache was the really puzzled one, wondering why I was forceably beating pizza into it. We were physically uncomfortable for hours. I have no clue how Italian women stay so thin, because they really do eat carbs all the time. Everywhere I looked, thin, beautiful women carrying slices of pizza for lunch on the go. Maybe that's the key, if you eat pizza while walking in stilettos you burn more than you consume. I'm guessing it doesn't exactly negate the pizza... We trekked over an hour on Friday to see The Last Supper, but to our dismay, you have to book tickets in advance and they were booked until the end of November. It was ridiculous, as no where was this "booking" advertised. They only allow groups of 25 into the room with the painting. I appreciate the necessity to preserve the extremely old work of art, but, please, put this information up on a website or on the tourist maps. Saturday, Mary and I went to an outdoor market for some bargain shopping. I could liken the experience to riding the 4/5/6 during rush hour. Despite the crowd, I managed to get a nice present. We then rushed into a store after being followed for over 10 minutes by an incessant Italian man attempting to get us to go out with him, which I'll neglect to detail, as it makes me extremely angry. The rest of the day was spent traversing the entire city, finding new neighborhoods, and more Milanese shopping and dining. Sunday morning, after much confusion as to how one enters the walled park, Mary and I visited Leonardo da Vinci's horse, a 24-foot tall, 15 ton, bronze horse built according to da Vinci's engineered plans. Leonardo built a clay model, but French soldiers destroyed in for target practice and his sculpture was never actualized in bronze during his lifetime. It was so beautiful and just awe-inspiring because of it's sheer size. It was time to leave Italy after seeing il cavallo, so Mary and I walked to the bus station to meet up with Sarah and Michelle. We had our last meal, yet another mozzarella and tomato panini, before departing. Yet at the airport, we decided it was necessary to have Italian gelato one last time before we left for Ireland, and I chose gelato con brioche- a pastry sliced open and filled with stracitella gelato. Mmmm. I loved visiting Milan, but my attempts at the language were laughable, as I'm so used to French pronounciation. I did, however, get to yell my authentic-sounding "statzeze" at the creepy stalker, but would have done just fine without that experience anyway. I mumbled "oh marone" a lot, in attempts to feel as if I were speaking the native language. Being there made me want to learn Italian; I am happy that I didn't study abroad there, only because of the inevitable weight I would have gained as a result from pizza, paninis, and gelato.

Contemplation of future career paths...

The majority of last week I was engaged in self-debate about my post-graduate plans. I'm no longer certain I've the passion to get a PhD in English. I know I could definitely do it; that isn't the issue. I'm just not sure if that's the only career path I would want to follow. This past year I was so certain that all I wanted to do was go to graduate school right after graduation in order to get a PhD so I could remain in school as a professor. As much as that seems appealing to me, I'm just not sure if it's because I'm comfortable in school and hesitant to enter the real world. I don't want to run away from something without first trying it. I've always been a very interdisciplinary person as well, and I'm not overly thrilled with the idea of specializing in one minute area of literature. I love learning about the history, social, and political contexts of the novels I'm reading, and I know that's obviously part of the study of English, but I tend to find myself more interested in the philosophies of movements than in the actual written texts. Moreover I feel as if I want a more active role in society than that of a teacher and scholar. Obviously teachers have an invaluable role, that of imparting knowledge, but I want to help people actively, and feel as if I'm accomplishing other goals besides making others understand my knowledge. Upon thinking about the study of English, I caught myself wondering about its actual meaning. Besides my shared interest with colleagues, and perhaps, eventually students and scholars, what does it matter or mean? How will writing scholarly articles on long-dead authors and literary movements advance contemporary society? (I mean not to bash academia at all in this entry, as I regard it highly and still hope to someday enter the field; I only wish to log my personal questions and hesitancy about this career option.)
This brings me to my current debate. Would going to law school allow me more of an active societal role? Upholding the standards of the justice system, maintaining civil rights, reforming education, ameliorating immigration policies, perhaps I could have a hand in all of these if I were to obtain a J.D. instead of a PhD. Here is where the logic comes in to play, as it must in the field of law: only 1 in 5 new English PhD holders are offered full-time positions, and in order to get one of these positions, it is said that one must attend a top 5-10 school. Obviously going to a prestigious law school also aids in obtaining a highly-sought position as well, but law seems to open up more doors; I could be a lawyer, judge, government official, and, if it turns out I actually did want to be a professor or university administrator, even work in academia as well.

Clearly it isn't enough to debate this with myself and reach a decision based solely on my initial feelings and internet articles I read entitled, "Why you Shouldn't Go to Law School;" (yes, most of the articles I've found are in the negative.) I'm taking two courses that will not only prepare me for the LSAT and law school, but, more importantly, help me to figure out if I would love the field. I'm taking an honors political science workshop course, Constitutional Law: Civil Rights, and Logic, in the philosophy department. Besides these two courses, I'm taking Latin102, Advanced Poetry Workshop, Post Colonial Literature and The 20th Century Novel. It's definitely going to be a hefty course load, but that's not a bad thing! I'll only have 2 courses left in my English major after this semester, and will hopefully be able to double major in American Studies. I also have big breaks in my schedule, which will allow me to have an internship, if I am hired for one of the four I've applied for, and toil away, tutoring in the mathematics lab. Let's not forget working for the theater as well! Even though ushering and tutoring don't pay very well, I love those two jobs and it'll be very difficult to give them up if necessary. It's good that ushering is so open; I can work whenever convenient for my schedule, and the tutoring center obviously knows we are students and they work around your classes. The four internships I've applied for are as follows: Part-time proof reader for a law firm a block away from my apartment building, editorial intern through the NY Historical Society for the Encyclopedia of NYC, editorial intern for Columbia University Press, and curatorial/ research intern for the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I'm not betting highly on any of the positions, as they will most likely be going to graduate students, but I'd really like to work in the law firm because
a) I would see what being a lawyer really is like
b) it would take me two minutes to walk to work and
c) it pays $14/hour
Nevertheless, I don't want to jinx any thing. I'll have two jobs waiting for me at Pace if no internships workout. I'm leaving for Milan tomorrow night and wish I knew how to say more in Italian besides 'shut up chatter-box,' 'thank you,' 'how are you, ' and 'hello.' Oh Marrone.. (There's another!) I need to remember to look up, 'Can I use your bathroom...' Too bad Romans don't speak Latin anymore!

Why, hello November. Aren't you early?

This month is definitely sneaky. I think it's because I'm always so busy looking forward to Halloween, I forget it's also the last day of October. I can't believe I've lived in Ireland for two and a half months. This past week was rough, emotionally and physically. I got sick Tuesday night into Wednesday and went to the doctor on campus on Wednesday morning. There's nothing like being ill to make one lonely. I'm very needy when I'm not feeling well, and having no one to comfort me was difficult. I've made great friends here, but they aren't Julian or my mother. I may be gluten intolerant, which is bad because I love cereal far more than the average person. I love bread, but limit it from my diet because it's not healthy in large amounts. But cereal, that is something I will be very sad about losing if necessary. Frosted shredded wheat have a special place in my heart. As a result of my ill health, I also had to miss the Tilly & the Wall concert I was looking forward to, and for which I had already bought a ticket. By Friday, I was feeling well enough to go to a Halloween party, thankfully, because I love dressing up. I went as Juno, but I couldn't eat any of the candy or pizza. I'm proud of myself for that willpower.
Today I've been attempting to write my literary theory paper. It's on the expansion of the English literary canon in relation to different theories. I keep getting far too side tracked from it, but it isn't due until Thursday. My Latin test went well on Thursday. I have an 18th C. Literature exam on Monday; I'm planning on writing on The Rape of The Lock. The English department doesn't have classes next week because of exams, but I still have Classics, Latin and Jazz. I really wish I had a keyboard in my room. It's rather difficult to make myself walk 30 minutes away to practice.

This month is going to be jam-packed. This coming week is devoted to school and that following weekend will be laid-back. However, the next weekend, I'm off to Milan. The week after, I will receive essay titles for my second lit crit paper, and plan on knocking-it out that weekend... Then Julian will be here!! I'm trying not to look forward to the end of the month too much, as I'd prefer to take each day as it comes and not wish for time to speed up. But how can I not be anxious for his arrival? We're also going to Nice, which will be rather nice.

no guacamole

For dinner tonight, I was going to make myself some guacamole. When I cut open the avocado, however, it was not ripe enough. With no other ideas, I just decided to caramelize some onion in olive oil, and see what happened when I threw in diced tomato; I then decided to add in garlic. It was pretty much a hot version of non-avocado guacamole. Adding a little more olive oil and letting it sit on the heat, the tomato became more of a tomato paste. I cooked up some cous-cous and mixed in my creation. It was fabulous.

UCC, Killarney, Inis Meain and Paris

Nicho.Le.Monade presents the photographic highlights from her travels thus far!


University College, Cork:

the old back gates, before the school outgrew the original campus




















the president's office



















the main quad, which includes some classrooms, hello hogwarts!















the student center, where I usually gravitate for tea
and reading after class



















the O.R.B, where many humanities classes are held,
including my Latin course















Killarney:


one of the lakes in Killarney National Park






























ruins of Muckross Abbey




















This tree grows in the center of
the ambulatory, where monks in the
sixteenth century took walks.




















sitting in an entrance to the ruin



















our spot for lunch



















the driveway leading to my future home














the back view of Muckross House














We found a little ruin off in the woods.




















I was really excited about it and climbed
up on the wall for a photo.



















Killarney is stunning.


















































Coole Park:





















Inis Meain:

on the ferry leaving the mainland



















the sun setting over the Atlantic














abandoned tea kettle



















just in case people don't remember
they're on an island. . .

































close-up of the famous rock-walls









































































a curagh, traditional island row boat














thatched roofing






















































































Paris:

the tower from across the seine












































































random tree house



















l'arc de triomphe



















the obelisk



















Dans Le Louvre:






















































I was hiding my arms to mirror Venus,
but you can't see them anyway.




















I took a picture like this when I was 11. The
only noticeable difference, sadly, is the length
of my hair.














a view out of the window



















Winged Glory



















We were there early, so there wasn't
a huge crowd.



















Notre Dame de Paris



















La Musée D'Orsay:

It used to be a train station, and you can go up
about 8 escalators to the top.


































Mr. Bean made her famous, in my humble opinion.
(My professor also mimicked Rowan Atkinson today;
it was spot-on and hilarious.)















There were so many beautiful Degas paintings.