Boring Post

It's been awhile since my last post, I realize, though it's been difficult for me to muster much creativity or focus for writing. For various reasons, I haven't been in the most cheerful of moods recently. I also can't help but feel that this past week was kind of a "lost week" in terms of getting things done...

French is going fine. It has never been a burdensome class; amazingly, there are just two weeks remaining, plus whenever my final exam will be scheduled (probably the first week of August). I am actually mildly excited for the exam as a test of my newfound abilities. (I know. That's twisted.) I haven't been doing a ton of work on my other languages, though.

Reading for second-year exams is also going slowly, I have to admit. I am enjoying my current book quite a bit -- it's Peter Brown's biography of Augustine of Hippo, a classic in the field. I specifically chose it because I thought reading a biography would be a nice way of easing into the reading load, as opposed to, say, diving straight into Aloys Grillmeier's 624-page Christ in Christian Tradition. (That was my initial stroke of brilliance. It took me about two weeks to come to my senses.) What makes the book fun is that it reads almost like a novel at points. Nevertheless, no matter how relatively fun it is, let's be honest: when I come home from school in the evening, am I going to be more inclined to read a scholarly book about Augustine, or am I going to watch episodes of House Hunters or Frasier?

Yep. It's going slowly.

Setting realistic expectations for myself has never particularly been a strength of mine. Add to that the usual ebbs and flows of any grad student's life, and you have a rather discouraged Sarah. I have to keep reminding myself that these slumps don't last.

I am still very much appreciating my summer and determined to make the most of the second half, however. Hopefully, that means you'll have something more interesting to read soon!