Francais n'est pas facile.

This is how I feel right now.

Demain je fais un examen de francais. Je n'aime pas les examens.

My biggest accomplishment today: 

Although this just means I've been cleared to start submitting my personal statement, letters of recommendation, GRE scores, resume, and transcript, I still feel excited about being a bit further on the road to graduate school!

Trombone Christmas!

Today was the RMB trombone section's Christmas party! Since it's finals week, not everyone was able to come, but it was still really fun. Stephanie made hot chocolate and tea that tasted like apple pie and fancy coffee (I had a mug of each), and Jackson made really good sugar cookies. I made stanz using stuff Stephanie bought. :) Of course there were games, but I was able to get out of playing most of them. ("Chelsea doesn't like games. We don't know why." <--- bound to happen when my namesake feels this way about games.) The bad thing was that I ate cereal for breakfast and lunch, so I knew this sugar-fest would end badly for me. Luckily, Stephanie gave me some of her leftovers from buffalo wild wings. I felt pretty guilty about eating it...but I knew I'd end up sick if I just ate junk all day. Tomorrow I get to eat at Petra with some friends; I'm excited because it's a cool local place, and I want to eat at as many of those as possible before I graduate and move away!

I have one more final left. It's for elementary French, so I'm not concerned (but I'm still studying). I'm pretty happy with how this semester has turned out...I feel like I learned a bit, and I'm excited for the semester to come, especially since I decided to take two German classes in the spring. It's weird to think that I only have one semester left at the U of A, but at the same time it seems like graduation will never get here! I'm also excited to have a month off from school - I'm looking forward to watching tv, reading, spending time with my family, and working on graduate school applications. And getting my biannual haircut! I'm super excited for that...like most collegiate girls that I've talked to, I only get my hair cut during school breaks, so it happens about twice a year, generally around the same time I get my teeth cleaned (which is happening on Monday!).

Stress/stressee/gestresst

The only good thing about being a bit stressed is that I can say that in 3 different languages, and I feel so pretentious even typing that phrase. "Helllllo, darling. I'm Chelsea, and I speak not one, but THREE languages, although the third is a little rough." *holds long fancy cigarette holder* *looks around, realizes there is no cigarette* "I'm applying for GRADUATE study in International Relations." Doesn't college bring out the annoying in all of us. But as least I'm not the worst person. According to 30 Rock, graduate students are the worst.

The best thing about today is that is marks the end of my International Relations Seminar! IR Seminar, where I learned that I should not be a theorist. (I think IR theorists get too bogged down in wording and then look up and are surprised that stuff is HAPPENING in the world. There's simply not time to slowly analyze every situation! This isn't history!) Basically, I'm against the academic/practical divide in the discipline, but I have no ideas on how to fix it. I'm not in a position to fix it either.

Anyhow, with that class being over, I've just got 3 exams between me and a month off from school! 1 tomorrow, 1 Tuesday, and 1 Friday. A nice amount of time between each to study. My concert band audition is also tomorrow - I am a bit nervous about that, but if I don't make a concert band, at least there's always taking another German class!

I've been thinking about the Holocaust a lot lately - a side effect of taking a course on the subject, I suppose.  What if the only reason it matters (to the world at large; everything matters to someone) is because we want it to matter? We want to believe in the fairytale triumph of good over ultimate evil, and believe that even though horrid things can happen, humanity can survive. We want to believe that humans can learn from their mistakes (although we clearly haven't). I really don't know...that's just the nature of the problem.

Half-birthday!

This afternoon I realized that today is my half birthday! I'm 21.5 years old today! To celebrate, I made soup for dinner and watched some Doctor Who before revising my IR paper. Party hard, right? I think I'm about to go crazy and have some ice cream now.

I'm so ready for this semester to be over. All I want to do is read and watch movies, but I need to revise papers and write a paper and study. Luckily, I can see the end! This will all be over oh so very soon, and I get precisely one month off before going back for my final semester as a undergraduate! And in the break, I get to apply to graduate schools! Fun fun, thinking bout fun.(Rebecca Black is right. I do know what it is.)

I also got to cite an article FROM THE FUTURE today while working on a paper. The article came from the International Herald Tribune, and the date was Nov. 29, 2012. So I guess you could say that my predictions about how the Greek crisis will go tomorrow are completely accurate. Also, why is there still a paywall on the NY Times's website when I'm logged into the UofA library system? I feel like the YOU of A should spring for the group subscription for all of the students. Ten articles a month is definitely not enough.

In unrelated news, I've been watching way too much Parks and Rec lately, as per usual. I'm becoming concerned that Ben Wyatt's character is giving me unrealistic expectations for my life...but then again, fiction has been giving me unrealistic expectations for life since 1991. Why won't this website let me put the pictures found here directly on this blog?