Explication of "Gulp"

Sorry, I shouldn't go round posting things like that without explanation and enlargement. If I could put such in verse, I would, both for my own practice and for others' enjoyment. However, I've forgotten everything I ever knew about heroic couplets and dactylic hexameter. Prose will have to do.

The reason for gulpage is that I've had a good look at my next semester, and it's gonna be a doozie. So what else is new? Every semester is a doozie for every student at PHC. Do I think I'm special? Priviliged? Cursed? Nyet. I think I'm normal, average, conventional. However, part of normalcy is the desire to elaborate upon one's position. I do not usually indulge in such, at least, not on the blog, but in this case it occurs that those who will be sharing a campus with me (Sarah, Stars, Domina, Twynkletoes, Spitfire, Thacia, Juno, Lady of Ithilien, Nausikaa, etc.) might like to compare notes, observe conflicts and conflations in social time available, etc.

So you see, my ladies, this is really all for you. :-) Now then, to it.

MWF. Eh. Well, Nausikaa and I share an 8 AM class, which is the best thing about it, 'cause it's the 20th century (which, I confess, I loathe) and Dr. Sanders (whom, I confess, I am disposed to fear). Getting up at such an indecent hour isn't my favorite either, but so be it. The rest of the day will atone. 9 AM I have blissfully to myself, and may use either for long QT's or for Tapestry work (if I am disciplined enough to have my QT before class), which I plan to continue throughout the school year. For those of you who don't know, I have enjoyed my job this summer more than sense or memory have words to express! I look forward eagerly continuing the Evaluations-writing over the school year.

10 AM Chapel, of course. Hi to everybody, but especially my row and Spitfire's row. How are you and haven't seen you in hours at least and that's a lovely blouse and WHERE did you get that awful tie!?! And so on. For the uninitiate, please find below a portrait of Spitfire's row.


And for the hopelessly uninitiate, please find below a few miscellanious portraits from my row...

Oh, and here's a random one of Don Pedro because I took it and I like it. He doesn't have a row, and looks as though he is wondering why not. ;-)

We will worship God in spirit and in truth (a highlight of any day), and then bind on cloaks and mufflers and hie we hence. 11-12 AM promises to be uneventful and studious in a back-corner-of-the-Dining-Hall sort of way. Sarah and Stars, we should perhaps reinstitute our MWF Dining Hall study sessions, since my mornings look as though they are going to be spent at Founders, excepting Chapel.

12-2 PM is devoted to Brit Lit I and Worldviews, two Hake classes. Then a break from 2-3 PM (enough time to get a late lunch from the "Dinning" Hall), and another Hake class--yes, I have three this semester. Am I not supremely blest?--my favorite of the day: Novel.

But if you've been paying attention, you might have noticed that I have four classes in one day, three days a week. Phew! Taxing? Yes. Unbearable? No; I know it is not; I had five MWF classes in my freshie fall semester.

Then there is the little matter of a 12-1:15 Topics in Philosophy class on TTh, with Dr. Smith, whom I have not sat under since my double stint in Rhetoric and Logic during freshie year. I look forward to plucking the gowans fine with him once more.

Of course my MWF schedule will mean either A) no lunch or B) a very late and scanty lunch. Since I don't eat breakfast, I have come rather to depend upon the midday meal. But that can't be helped either. It's a tidy schedule, though you may have noticed one peculiarity...

ALL of my classes are reading/time-intensive. Yessir, it looks as though I am about to be thrown back to my sophie days, wherein it was given me to inhale upward of 500 pages a week, with comprehension, mind. In them days it were Freedoms, Western Civ, Latin, Western Lit, and Philosophy. Now it will be Sanders' History, Smith's Philosophy, and three Lit classes. Who says that Lit students don't have to work hard knows not at all; I verily believe that we are required to read more, and with more careful attention, than the denizens of any other major. This is not a complaint, however--our reading load is self-inflicted and we love it.

Add, however, a weekly caregroup meeting (and Clarice is my new caregroup leader! Yay!), plus church involvement and responsibilities, roommate (Salve, Nausikaa!), friends, my Tapestry work, Ecce (eeep!), and the duties of a dorm-dweller, prayer meetings (thanks for the suggestion, Kirsten!), air hockey (Sarah and I are scheduled to play several times a week until I can beat her), editing papers, etc. etc. etc.

Phew! And that's if I stay out of the play, don't get involved in debate (sorry, Spitfire!), ignore Smudge (I hope I shan't have to!), and never play frisbee again. Well, the last wouldn't trouble me overmuch. The little white disk and I have never been on perfectly friendly terms from my want of practice with it.

Ahem... time to clarify my ravings, as Dr. Hake would say. Ladies, please attend. I am going to keep "at home" hours in my dorm room this semester. On Monday and Wednesday evenings, except between 9 and 10 PM, I shall be available for visits. I shall further endeavor to keep chocolate and tea on hand for my guests. TTh afternoons between 2 and 5 I shall likewise be available, though of course studying when not otherwise engaged. Which reminds me: Domina, Twynkletoes, Stars, et al., wouldn't it be charming to have a regular afternoon for walks into town? MWF I shall be in class until 4 PM, after which come exercise and dinner, but on TTh we might take a little... um... well, these days I call them "constitutionals." What think you?

Friday evenings and Sundays are devoted, under ordinary circumstances (that is, outside of paper-writing season), to worship and fellowship. In paper-writing season Sunday remains sacred, but Friday may have to go. We'll see. Now the schedule is complete, and I am eager to hear where the rest of you girls have pockets and gaps that can be filled up with pleasant time well and worthily spent. You know that I am always planning things too far ahead, but I thought it would be as well as not to have a basic schedule laid out, provided that I expect to be flexible. This is my beginning.

And, my dear Thacia, Nausikaa says that you must certainly feel free to leave things in our room or use it whenever it may be convenient to do so. :-)