The last few days have been exhausting, but I did survive the Troike take-home exam, and I've just finished grading the English 102 essays! As far as the test goes, it took me over 7 hours to complete, but that was less than some of the other students in the class. I think I answered all the questions well, but I know we're all still uneasy as we await his feedback (and grades).
Grading the 102 essays took a good deal longer than 7 hours--they were research papers on a variety of topics, which made them interesting to read, but there were many different things I was trying to evaluate, which made it take a long time. (About 30 minutes each for 23 essays). But at least I'm totally done with them now. Next week, though, I'll be having individual conferences with the students, which means reading all the drafts. But, this assignment is shorter and more creative, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with.
Besides those two things, Mark and I went to a recital on Tuesday night and Mark played (unexpectedly) in a studio recital on Wednesday night. The percussion professor had a recital scheduled, but he had to postpone it, so the studio basically threw together a concert instead (many students were working on stuff for their own recitals, so he had volunteers sign up to perform one piece each last night). Mark still gets nervous about performing, but decided it would be good to take advantage of the opportunity to get more experience. He played one of the multi-percussion pieces he's been working on and did a fantastic job. The audience loved it (I think he got the loudest applause, but I may be slightly biased :-). At any rate, it was a fun concert and afterwards the professor took everyone out for pizza (even me!). It was nice to have some time to just hang out with people and not think about all the school pressures.
So, at this point, I've been able to cross a lot of things off my list, but now I'm moving on to the next things. My goal for the weekend is to write the first draft of the final paper for Dr. Troike's class, which is due at the end of April. (So I'd better get started!). I also need to finish reading the previous studies that are related to my project for Contrastive Rhetoric so I can get started on that. And, I've got to find some time to keep looking for a summer job. I'm still waiting to hear about one job through the writing program and I'd really like to get it, but I feel like it's a long shot. I just sent a follow up email about it and now I'm terrified that I'll get a reply that says "sorry, but everyone who has been offered a position has been notified..." I think I've said this before, but I hadn't realized how great it was to have the job at H-town for 5 years straight without really having to worry about it. I keep joking that if nothing else pans out maybe I can call them up and offer to work there this summer!
Well, I just wanted to post a quick update; I really should get back to work.
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