Winter Break!

I've officially been on break for about two weeks now (aka, since my last paper was turned in) and so far it's been quite nice. The first week of break was busy with many holiday parties to go to with fellow grad school friends. This second week has been much slower with Christmas and all. Since your lovely blogger does not celebrate Christmas, that meant an evening of Chinese food and the new Sherlock Holmes movie (which I thought was really good!).

The semester brought me one A- and two As, giving me a GPA of 3.90 and a cumulative GPA of 3.74, which is a nice jump from my previous 3.67 GPA. Anything I can do to make myself more competitive for next year's applications is gravy!

Some more news. I was selected to present at the Texas A&M Graduate Conference in March! I will be presenting a paper I wrote as an undergraduate, which was about music and underground radio during Apartheid South Africa. It's a bit of a departure from what I actually study (Colonial America, to say the least), but it's a paper I was proud of and I figure it can't hurt to showcase whatever diverse interests I have. In two weeks I will be presenting at the Phi Alpha Theta Biennial Convention, in which I'll be discussing a paper on music and slave identity in the Antebellum South. This is much closer to what I actually focus on. Again, diversity!

As for next semester, it looks like I'll be TAing again as a replacement for my friend. Due to health issues, she can no longer TA so I am stepping up to fill her shoes. I love TAing, so I am looking forward to it. It will be for the same professor as I TAed for this semester and I know it will be a good Spring 2010 because we got on really well this fall and he said he'd have me TA again for him in a heartbeat. Good times!

The spring will also have me working on campus for about 20 hours a week, which will be great so I can save money for a trip I want to take after I graduate next December. Two research seminars, TAing, and part-time work will undoubtedly equal a great load of work that will be an immense challenge to undertake, but I will grit my teeth and plunge ahead because I can do it!