School Stuff

I am taking two classes this term: Classical and Medieval Literary Theory and Folklore and Myth of the British Isles. Both of my teachers are mildly spastic, but both are seriously fun. My Literary Theory professor can recite Homer in the original Greek, and he does so at the slightest provocation. Greek is a nifty language, but it doesn't send shivers down my spine the way Old English does. This professor has also decided that the class needs to memorize at least one line in Greek, so he has assigned one from The Odyssey. We have to memorize the beginning of the Sirens' Song. It's actually pretty nifty. The reasoning behind this move is so that we can understand the hypnotic rhythms of Homer's poetry and thus understand why Plato felt that it was so dangerous. More on the power of words later, I think.

I have had my other professor before. She is an expert in ballads of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and she also knows something of medieval history. She tends to use music and pictures along with the literature in her class, and that really opens things up for me. We listened to some Irish music yesterday, and she emphasized how the tune wound around a steady drone, much as the ancient Celtic thinking wound around and around with the cycles of the year.

Both classes should be fascinating. I really need to learn how to scan poetry, though. I haven't had a lot of literary theory, which seems odd to me as an English major. Shouldn't we have had some of this in our earlier classes? It makes me feel a bit behind, which means that I'll just have to pick up that skill on my own.

In other news, Alex and I are back to working on eating healthy. We're doing pretty well so far, but I have learned that I need to eat more carbs. Protein and vitamins are all very well, but it's the carbohydrates that provide the energy. If I don't get enough of something, I'm hungry an hour later. Balance seems to be the key. We have also set aside certain days in which dessert is acceptable: Valentine's Day, my birthday, his birthday, our anniversary, etcetera. Other than that, we're trying to avoid desserts and sweet snacks. On the other hand, we do allow one small sweet per day. This amounts to one chocolate, one small cookie, things like that. That way, we don't feel deprived, but we're not adding a lot to our calorie count.

Time to go and meet arianadream.

Addendum: EW! *does girly just-found-something-icky-by-surprise-ew-icky dance* I was sorting through my sweaters that need washing, and I found something furry-looking on the floor. I thought it was probably an odd dustbunny, so I picked it up to throw it away. It felt soft and fuzzy and very strange for a dustbunny, and as I glanced down I noticed that it was a dehydrated mouse body.

EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

I dropped it, washed my hands really well, then picked it up with some toilet paper and threw it away. On my way to the garbage can, I showed the deceased to Loki and scolded, "Do not leave these around where I can find them!" Loki just looked calmly at me as if to say, "What are you gibbering about, crazy human?"

Dead little mouses are not good things to find when you want to do laundry. Also, mousie fur is very soft. Poor mousie.

EW. *scrubs hands*