Last full day living at school

I can't believe it's my last day! I have a (very difficult) final tomorrow morning from 11-2 (I WILL be there the whole time), then I'm eating something quick and signing out. All my stuff will be ready to move. I just can't believe it's over! I'm a little sad, but I'm extremely happy to be going to home to enjoy the holiday season (it's really hard to do that here - they decided to put up the big Christmas tree and menorah about a week ago). Also, not so much anymore, but everyone has been super stressed about finals here. Not exactly the cheery holiday atmosphere.

Because I'm weird, one of the things I'm looking forward to most (besides seeing my family and Mike everyday, and quilting again all the time) is getting all my stuff in one place.

Case in point: Last night, my friends were taking me out for my birthday dinner at Cheeburger Cheeburger. I had brought all my pants home earlier in the week (though I thought I left one pair of jeans at school) - because I needed to get some stuff out of here. Of course there were no jeans! I went to dinner in sweatpants. Not really complaining, and it wasn't a big deal (it's not at all a fancy place), but having your things in two different places can be a issue sometimes.

I just got my last meal equiv coffee, and now I'm studying and packing. This is so weird.

Almost October?!

Is that real? Is this real life? Is September really over?

Yep.

It's comforting to me this year. I really do love college. I do! I do. But, this winter, I'll be home with my family and Mike, and I won't be leaving again. That really makes me happier than anything.

But for now, I'm really enjoying senior year. A lot more than I thought I would. Yes, there's a ton of work, and yes, my thesis is starting to take over my life, but I can't help but be happy living with the best floormate ever and seeing my friends all the time (the ones at college, at least!)!

Plus, the library cafe has pumpkin lattes.

I'm also SUPER excited about all the sewing I have coming up. I've been COMMISSIONED to make THREE t-shirt quilts, and I'm going to make more stuff for my etsy shop. I'm so excited. Plus, I have two really special projects that I'm going to start over winter break.

Plus, I love buying presents for people for the holidays, and I'm making some things too.

And in one month... I'll start playing Christmas music =D November 1st!

I hope to post again soon. I'm super busy but I'll be back!

Favorite sound right now: Coldplay, "Now My Feet Won't Touch the Ground"

Sight: "How I Met Your Mother" Season Two (and homework, right? Right.)

Taste: Chocolate chip cookies and milk =D

Smell: Nothing (that's good)

-Jess

Why I do what I do

As a historian, you're expected to gravitate towards a certain time period/event/person etc. to really delve into during your college career. If it was a true free-for-all, I don't think I would hesitate to become a Tolkien scholar (though I'm horrible at learning languages and would have a lot of trouble learning Elvish). :o)

Anyway, point is, as soon as I got to college, I took a course called "Music and the Holocaust" - and that's how I really got interested in studying the Holocaust and other genocides. I like the way Adam Jones, a visiting scholar to my school, put it: "we study genocide because we want it to stop." Plus, I feel connected through my Jewish heritage, and as horrifying and as dreadful it can be to study sometimes, it is what interests me most. That is what my mom asked me today after we watched "The Pianist" for the first time - why do I study the Holocaust?

There was one point last semester where I had just about had it. I had just started my internship at the Museum of Jewish Heritage: A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in NYC (teaching and giving tours to students grades 6-12), I was starting work on my senior honors thesis (more in a minute about that), and I was taking a class called "The Holocaust in Art and Literature." I remember I was reading a speech that Hitler made (after watching the propaganda film "Triumph of the Will") and I was just like - that's it. I had to put it all down for a weekend. And I realized that it's okay to do that... as long as we never forget about it and we keep coming back. It has become a true privilege to listen to a Holocaust survivor speak, which I have lucky enough to experience at least 6 times in my life. This is just one way to keep it alive, but there aren't many left. I feel like I am doing my part by bringing my experiences and pictures from Eastern Europe, as well as my research, to my future students, as a social studies teacher.

All of this suddenly came flooding back to me tonight after the movie finished. Since I got back from Europe (a Holocaust study tour, no less) in early May, I've been putting off my thesis work on gender in Holocaust memorials. I've been sewing constantly (my [almost always] relaxing obsession), and reading FICTION again (gasp) - but now it's time to get to work. I feel a lot better now after a two month break from thinking. I think I'm ready to go back to it.

This is probably a good thing because I met with my professor a couple of days ago, took out more than ten library books, and have a reading assignment on postmodernism to finish for her in two weeks.

-Jess

What I found while cleaning out my room, Part 2

I fondly remember teaching "school" when I was about... nine? I also wrote this when I was about the same age, in real school:

(...would do if I were an elementary school teacher.")

I set up school when we lived in a townhouse for a year, but when we moved to our new house, we had a white board and table in the (then) unfinished basement. Those were the good times :) I usually "taught" Sean, but I remember some of the neighborhood kids were involved sometimes. I really got a kick out of finding the notebook we used to use.

Oh, the irony (check out my comment on his work, to the left)

Art lesson - I had a way with words ("before you color stuff in"):

Sean was apparently extremely skilled in Phonics, Homework, and Writing...

Tee-hee. I was only preparing for what was to come, but then, it was sans red pen.

-Jess