Grad School breakdown

First semester is over and done! It was pretty hard, harder than I expected. There was a ton of readings- maybe 300 plus pages a week, plus writing, all with my 40 hours a week job. The classes were pretty quality, I think. Even though the same people talked every sessions (and yes, I was one of those talkers) each class seemed fairly lively and interesting.

Any problems I had seem to be with the pacing- sometimes I felt like we were going too fast, or too slow, over the material. Or I felt like what I wanted to talk about did not get addressed, or not in a helpful way to me. But this was the minority of the experience.

Writing my papers was also an interesting experience. One was fun, and flowed basically without much prompting- the challenge was editing for coherence. The other was very dry to me, but probably more logical and cohesive. I remembered how much I like to write. 

Downton Abbey meet & greet!

I had the great opportunity to go to the screening of the new season of Downton Abbey, a new Masterpiece show on PBS (and Thirteen :). Downton Abbey is sort of a brushed up and sexified version of Upstairs Downstairs, of the Jane Austen oeuvre. There's unrequited love, and awkward situations, and talk of women getting the vote!

The event was quite fun, as you got to see the cast in modern day attire. I got a few autographs and was pleasantly surprised by how nice (and good looking!) the cast was. Although they did seem smaller in person, which is always kind of funny. I can't wait to watch the next season, and enjoy the escapism.