Sometimes I forget why I'm an English major

My first week of notes in English 100, a class which "focuses on the question of 'the literary.'" What does that even mean?

After three hours of lecture and an additional hour of discussion, I still can't answer that question.

ENGLISH 100- Week 1

Techné
• art, graft, skill
• technology
• code for which most translation is available

Theoria
• a looking at, viewing, beholding

Theorema
• a sight, a show, a spectacle
• origin of theater, theory, etc.

Literary Theory
• uses models of other sciences to identify, understand, analyze its own object
• the proper object of theory is its own failure
• under a double comparative that says
o face language or everything you say about it will be chatter/gossip
o however much you try to face language, you’ll never be linguistic enough- whatever you say will be a flight from language

Trivium
• grammar
• logic
• rhetoric

Quadrivium
• arithmetic
• geometry
• astronomy
• music

Poetics (formalisms)
• based on grammatical models of language
• interested in framework/structure of text
• general laws and principles behind particular literary phenomenon
• its object is literary discourse
• ex: Aristotle’s Poetics
• problem is how you deal w/ meaning
o attempts to “grammartize” meaning


...sometimes I wish my English professors would just lecture in ENGLISH.

I met God at Starbucks today

This morning, I woke up at 7 AM. Definitely not my ideal time to wake up in the morning (not even close), but jet lag or overexhaustion or sickness or some of all of the above has made my sleeping patterns irregular and left me feeling just a little out of touch each day since I've been back. Today, just like any other day, I was determined to make the most of those last hours before I had to wake up for my first day of school, and I tried everything to go back to sleep. I prayed boring prayers that usually put me to sleep (sorry GOD), I read some C.S. Lewis (which I hoped would mentally stimulate me to exhaustion), I got up and checked my Facebook and e-mail (when do I ever not?), but eventually 9 AM rolled by and I gave up the fight. With an hour to spare, I decided to go to Starbucks to do my devos.

Tonight will be our first small group meeting of the quarter and of 2009. As excited as I am, I am also a little nervous as usual. This time, I am nervous because I have this vision for our group this quarter but I can't quite put it into words. I want my small group to feel the same excitement and passion that I feel about this vision, but somehow, when I share it outloud it seems to lose its effect.

So this morning in Starbucks, I journaled and prayed about this. Then I started reading. I decided to start on the book of James, since I want to teach out of this book this quarter. Without really knowing why, I began to copy down these verses into my journal...

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Halfway through, it hit me: this is the exact vision that I have for our small group. When I had no words, He gave me the Word to show me.

This quarter, I want my girls (and myself) to truly live out our faith instead of simply remaining stagnant and comfortable. I want us to be challenged and stretched. I want us to embrace trials and difficulties as opportunities for growth instead of simply seeing them as hindrances. Through these times of testing, I want us to come out stronger and bolder in Him, that we would be broken down and rebuilt in HIS Likeness.

My top destinations

I just got home yesterday and I am already dreaming about...

Vienna, Austria

Athens, Greece

Boston, USA

Budapest, Hungary

...and some places I want to revisit in the near future.

Bangkok, Thailand

Tokyo, Japan

New York City, USA

Barcelona, Spain

If only I had millions of dollars to go anywhere I wanted...

Jetlagged & rambling

I am home again. Somehow, the feeling of coming back to my own room after weeks of being away is still so strange and unfamiliar to me. I don't know if I'll ever get used to it.

The excitement of being in a foreign place is gone now... but by being away these past couple weeks, I think I'm starting to see how easy it is to fall back into the same robotic, comfortable lifestyle here in Irvine. I remember when I first got to Korea, Monica was taking me around and she mentioned how "the Korean lifestyle is so indulgent--everything you do is to satisfy yourself." Right when she said that, I remember feeling sorry for Koreans... however, I realized, how is that different from what I do everyday in Irvine? And now, how are we supposed to live in a way that isn't self-indulgent? Is it even possible to be happy and live selflessly at the same time?

Leaving

I am leaving Korea today. I can't believe three weeks have already gone by.

I miss it already!