Back to Work

Back in London and back to normal. All the guests have left and I am blissfully solitary. I love my friends but I also like a bit of time alone. Plus I have reading and course work to catch up on! Acting as tour guide was like a full time job and I went from being one and a half novels ahead of the class to one novel behind! Yikes! I have to get started on my essay also which is due at the end of the month and my presentation for theater class is due around that time also. For The Rise of the Novel I would like to write on the topic of either how the novels deal with women and marriage (the professor hinted that this was not going to be on the exam and would be a good topic to cover in the essay because we're not allowed to overlap material from the essay in the exam). I am also interested in the question that deals with how the novels are particularly English - though I'm not sure I'm qualified to talk about how "English" the novels are I'm interested in the qualities that make something "particularly English" and I feel it's part of the cultural and social experience I am trying to learn about here and would be beneficial if I explored the topic in context of the novels.

One thing I've thought about, if I could address any topic on the novels, and not just the ones assigned would be how London is portrayed in the novels. A few of the novels don't deal with London at all, or rather mention it in passing, but Moll Flanders and Fanny Hill take place exclusively in London. I'm fascinated at how differently London is portrayed and yet how similarly. In Fanny Hill the "inside" is shown - the inside of brothels, the activities that take place behind the curtain. Fanny is only twice described outside of a house or inn or brothel or shop. Moll Flanders is a woman out on the town. She's described seeking her fortune just about everywhere in London. At the same time, London is a place of sin and crime and low morals. It's a place that corrupts. I could definitely write an essay on this, if only it were one of the approved topics!

I've finished a rough draft of my creative writing drama piece, which I'm writing about the kids that stole the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey. For creative writing I just have to edit the drafts of the first prose piece and polish up the drama. My writing log is pretty much finished and it's supposed to be informal anyway. I'm surprised at how short the semester is. We've just a few more weeks of class before Easter holiday and after that is examinations!

I fly to University of Delaware on Thursday after class. I went to an earlier session of my Friday Rise of the Novel class that I will be missing today. I've been accepted to UD, Georgia Tech and the master's program at Cornell. Given that I have two schools willing to pay for me to go there I think I'm going to turn down Cornell. Especially since Georgia Tech is just as good for Materials Science. I haven't heard from Washington or MIT, though I don't expect to get into MIT, I'm emailing Washington to find out when I can expect an answer. I have to decide by April 1st. I have no idea what to choose. Geogia Tech is a more established prestigious program, but UD is up and coming. They have a lot of new funding for alternative engery research and an NSF Fellowship program that allows students to take classes in public policy, economics and alternative engery technologies which also provides an extra 15k/yr on top of the graduate student stipend. I feel like I could stand out more at UD, be a big fish in a little pond. However, I don't know that for sure and even if I'm a littel fish at Georgia it's going to stand out on my resume that I went to Georgia Tech. They have more professors to work for and more resources. Being more established means I wouldn't be starting a project from scratch. There would be people there who had the experience and the equipment to work on what I was interested in and there are connections with solar industries and start ups in Atlanta. Minor considerations are the warm weather and my friend Sejal is working for Manhattan Asc. in Atlanta, while UD is close to Philidelphia, New York and Washington D.C. My mom's routing for UD but I'm not really sure why. Oh well, have to get back to reading.