So another semester has started and man, did it start with a vengeance. Homework from the first two days consisted of reading over 150 pages, answer questions and do research on research topics related to translation, plus then still read another entire book on which I had to write a book review for the following week. Needless to say my social life did not exist. From the time I woke up until the time I went to sleep I was reading, taking breaks only to cook food and drink coffee...even then sometimes with the book in my hand. "If this is an example of how the semester is going to be," I thought, "I don't know if I'll get out alive..." Fortunately though, yes, although this semester is going to be killer, it seems maybe the first week was an exception. Or maybe now I've just realized how to manage my time better with all the reading? Or maybe I'm just kidding myself. Either way, I'll make it, even if barely, but I'll get through.
Interestingly enough, this semester I start to work on my thesis, for which I have chosen a 400 page novel written by a Costa Rican feminist during the 1940s. The book is riddled with metaphores on the oppressed situation of women during the era which I think would be very interesting to analize. We'll see. I have spent this entire week reading the book, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Luckily we didn't have classes this Saturday due to it being Mother's Day here in Costa Rica, so I was able to forget all the other homework and focus my attention solely on reading the book and deciding if it will work for my proposed thesis. Fortunately I only have to translate about 80 pages of the book, so I get to select my chapters, but in the future I would love to translate the entire book...maybe for publication??? Anyway, here I go getting ahead of myself....I think I will really enjoy my classes this semester. Theories of translation might be the only exception...its not as interesting as Translation of Technical texts or Translation of Literature, but I guess in the end, just as necessary. Of the four professors I had last semester, two are the same and two are new this time around. The two I know were both my least favourite from last semester, but now I'm realizing I think it was more for the subject than the professor...
Yesterday which was Mother's day, I went to visit Nela in Barva and to have lunch with her and all of her sisters and their families. It is a tradition I remember from when I was here in 2007, every Mother's day the whole family goes over to one of the sister's houses for lunch, coffee and cake. I hadn't seen the whole family in a while since I moved to my own apartment in Heredia so I first had to deal with all the "welcome back to the family" and "how have you been, how's life" questions. In the end though I had a great time seeing everyone again, and the cake...well yum...
Other than spending my time doing homework and having zero fun, I'm super excited that the NFL is about to begin again. It is honestly the longest wait ever from the end of one season until the start of another. The Bears lost their first preseason game to the Bills, not great, but then again it is only preseason. I get such hell here for going with the Bears "they're such a bad team, why not support someone that has a chance of winning?" But really I mean I learned to watch and understand American football watching the Bears, I'll be loyal until the day I die. But other than the escape this NFL season will bring me, and the few games of Liverpool that I will be able to catch the next four months are going to consist of a lot of boring homework....here's to the life of a grad student....
