Winter Update

It seems that it's time for me to face up to the fact this this blog is updated seasonally... not much of a blog, I guess. Nonetheless, here are some pictures from the past few months. It should be fairly easy to distinguish Chicago from Curacao, sadly.

[Pictures, in order: me and Lexie in "3 Jews and an Atheist do Christmas"; Sara, Julia (home from China, yay!), Meg, and me having an Arlington/YHS reunion; Amy, me, and Britney... oh wait, that's Sarah (haha) hanging out; Ben and me celebrating Chanukah with the family; the view from Ken and Ellen's in Curacao, followed by Mom and me in Curacao; and a few snowy pics from Chicago, the first is of my apartment building and the second of the park across the street.]

A few words about Fall Quarter, since it's long since past: with much angst and indecision, I finally ended up taking Religion in 20th Century America; Theorizing Religion; and Intro to Religion and the Human Sciences (required). All of the classes served their purpose well--I got to consider issues of narrating the near-present in 20th c. America and did research on the development of Muslim political organizations; I benefited from having some theory shoved down my throat; and really enjoyed my required class, which explored approaches to the field/study of religion and asked important questions like, What the hell are we all doing here anyway? Though many of my peers resented having to take this class, I found it to be precisely what was missing from my education at Harvard. I continue to regret the trend toward overspecialization in academia and feel that background--or, more precisely, common ground--enabling scholars of different traditions and perspectives to communicate is falling by the wayside.
Enough on that rant though...

Unfortunately, Hyde Park is no Cambridge and though I love my apartment and its proximity to school, I long to live somewhere with more stuff. Everyone (uh mostly) is nice and wicked smart, so you know... I'm making some friends, hanging out.

Okay, on to the joys of the Quarter System: classes ended right after Thanksgiving and finals were over the following week... it created for much chaos, though I was home by December 10th with a month of vacation. Fabulous. I read the last Harry Potter, followed by other less good literature, and spent a lot of time with family and friends. It was great to see Sara, Meg, Julia, and Mindy--the first time we've all been in the same place in years! Following Christmas, my mom and I left to spend a week scuba diving in Curacao. Needless to say, this was wonderful. However, less than 36 hours after arriving home in VA, I was on a plane back to Chicago.

And this pretty much catches me up: I'm halfway through Winter Quarter and work is piling on (likely the reason for the blog update--what I really should be doing now is writing a paper). This quarter I'm taking Modern Arab Monarchies (Family, Religion, and Power); Israeli Politics and Society; and Intro to Historical Studies and Religion (required). I chose classes this time around with much less anxiety, basing my decision solely on what was interesting. Though perhaps not the most sensible method (in terms of PhD aspirations), I find myself much more content with what I'm doing in the present.

All the rest: Chicago has been snowy and frigid--today's high is 3 degrees!--and I think I have a permanent winter cold. I've been doing copious amounts of baking, as running the oven keeps my apartment warm and banana bread just makes everything better. My new year's resolution to remember why I love running is off to a rocky start, though I'm determined to make 20 miles/week. I finally got over my it's-not-possible-stance and got on board with Obama. I manage to leave Hyde Park on occasion--going this weekend to my first and absolutely amazing modern dance performance downtown with my friend Genie--but mostly I'm closeted away in the library. Speaking of which, it's time for me to sign off. I'll be back... in a few months or so.