Gopnik Revisited

Those of you who read my previous blog, B is for Betsy, will remember the passionate affair I had with Adam Gopnik's writing.  Long dormant, it has awoken again, inspired by a piece on Babar that he wrote for the September 22 issue of The New Yorker called "Freeing the Elephants".  My interest was especially piqued by this comment about how literature reflects the temperament of three cultures and their corresponding great cities, cities I have come to consider my own.

He writes:

In London, in children's books, life is too orderly and one longs for the vitality of the wild; in Paris, order is an achievement, hard won against the natural chaos and cruelty of adult life; in New York, we begin most stories in an indifferent city and the child has to create a kind of order within it.

The rest of the article can be found here; I highly recommend it.

Clear as Mud

The past week I've been home has been both incredibly frustrating and wonderfully clarifying, in terms of what I'll be doing for the near future.

Here's what I don't know for sure: when I'll leave the states. My passport - and visa - should arrive today or tomorrow, allowing me to fly to London on Saturday night. Until it comes, though, I'll be on tenterhooks. My accomodation plans have also been turned topsy-turvey; Emilia and Jess weren't able to find us a decent three-bedroom flat in the area we wanted. Tentatively (although this will be figured out for sure later this morning) I'll be living in a room in Jess' current flat in West Kensington, which is being vacated this weekend. I'll be subletting it for four months, giving me a base from which to locate a studio apartment for myself for the last six months of my stay in London. Cross you fingers for me that this all works out!

Luckily, I do know more about my course. There are 10 MA students in Medieval Studies, and each of my graduate level classes will include 4-6 of my peers. I'll be taking Beginner's Latin, which will be supplemented later in the semester with a class on reading medieval Latin; Identity and Power, 400-1200; and From Cloister to Classroom: Monastic Scholasticism. If I have the time I'll also audit Old French, although from what my professor said I probably won't because of the workload of the aformentioned three classes plus preparation for my dissertation.

That's all I know - or not - for now. Hopefully the next time I write I'll be in London!

Situation Normal: All F****d Up

I had an adventure yesterday.

I gaily tripped onto my British Airways flight at 6:50pm on Monday evening, slept like a rock until landing at Heathrow at 6:55am Tuesday morning, went through customs - and was detained.

You see, I had applied for a visa weeks ago, but as I forgot to send in a supporting document was denied the paperwork.  I assumed that since I was coming back within three months I'd be fine without a visa; turns out I was wrong.  Heathrow immigration detained me for ten hours before shipping me back home to the US.

So now I'm back in DC, reapplying for my visa and waiting to fly back to Engand (which will hopefully happen the weekend of the 27th.)

Oy vey.

Take Two

When I was in middle school, the theme - or inspiration, if you will - of one of NCS' Writer's Day cathedral services was "Take One."  Curled up in piles around the cathedral, our skirts tucked around our knees and our bare feet pressed against the relieving coolness of the marble floors, floppy bluebooks and number two pencils in hand, we girls wrote stories and poems and scribbles about Take One.  Most entries, I believe, touched on movies or the theater.  One memorable finalist story had to do with the sign over a bowl of Halloween candy.  I can't remember what I submitted; it's likely that, as I'd done before and would sheepishly do again, I didn't turn in my bluebook and, instead, crumpled my scratchings in my hand, embarrassed by what I had committed to the page.

Many of you read my Parisian blog - the account of my exultant, breathtaking, whirlwind seven months in Paris as a student and explorer.  (For the curious or nostalgic, here it is: B is for Betsy.)  That, my friends, was Take One.  This is Take Two.

For those of you who haven't been in the loop, welcome; let me catch you up.  In late January 2008 I decided to begin looking into graduate programs in England.  It was contrary enough to everything I had said I wanted that it took me nearly a month to tell family and friends that I had, in fact, applied to four Master's courses at various universities in the United Kingdom.  Four months - and one very frustrating application complication - later, I was admitted as a MA student to University College London in Medieval Studies.

I don't know much about the program; I haven't received information beyond what is listed online.  I do know, though, that I am thrilled to go back to school to study what has always interested me most.  Obviously, I'm also over the moon about being in London for a year.

My accommodations are still up in the air, though I know I'll be living with two other girls, Emilia and Jess.  Emilia and  I did several choir exchanges ten years ago, and reconnected via Facebook.  She responded to the desperate "Help!" message I emailed out a few weeks ago; it turns out that she and her friend Jessica were looking for a third for their new apartment - sorry, flat.  We're hunting in northwest London, relatively close to UCL's campus, and we're trying to be close to Paddington.  I'll let you know what we - well, they - find!

So.  Take Two.  A second European city, a second degree, a second amazing experience.  Wish me luck!