St. Louis

After all this paper work I treated myself to a little two day trip to St. Louis, Missouri/Illinois. After a three and a half hour train ride, we, Julia, Ludmila and I arrived and walked all the way downtown through city gardens to our hotel, which was right at the Mississippi River next to the St. Louis Arch, the gateway to the west. After checking into our room, we went up the 192m high arch in a little tiny cubicle, spent hours in the museum, walked through old St.Louis and walked along the river...I almost felt like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn...there was just this atmosphere...somehow..

Back in the hotel, we had a little adventure as at 2.30 at night the alarm went on and we had to rush downstairs in hour pj's just to find out that someone pushed the alarm on purpose and for fun...After an hour we were finally be able to sleep again! It's interesting however to find out what people where for sleeping purposes....

Next day...after a nice breakfast, we visited a church close by and walked back to the Amtrak station to store our luggage. With the Metro we then went to Forest Park and as we had almost 20 something degrees outside we had a beautfiful chilaxing day in the park, close to the water and the St.Louis Zoo...

A wonderful experience....

St.Louis Arch...we were right on the top!

this was the little tiny cubicle!

Paper Marathon

Projects:
Paper on Gardening as a Place of Seduction: Done
Presentation on the Influence of the Golden Books: Done
Paper on the Reinvention of the Naughty Child in Dahl and Hoffmann: Done

Still to do:
Paper on Hair as a Gender Code in the Medieval Ages
Response Paper to Werewolf Imagery
Abstract on Hair
Second Life Project about Gardening and Seduction
Draft about Hair and Concepts of Reality
Final Exam Children's Literature

It is a well-known fact that even though you are sick, the work is not done for you. After happily and kindly sharing my bad cold with my entire floor, I have been in a state of no sleep, tons of coffee, nervous breakdowns and writing, writing, writing to finish my two big critical papers...and I made it somehow. Sometimes I am impressed and little shivers run down my spine by all the work I have done this semester...I cannot believe I have made it so far!

November

Music of the Month:
Quando sento che mi ami - Jose Carerras, Sissel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMRnd-gacBg&feature=related

Shenandoah - Sissel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5grgB-dV2o

November has come and my stay at Illinois State, Normal, Illinois, USA is almost over. Realizing that there are less than five weeks left is scary. My eyes are filled with tears and I can't eat thinking about a life without these amazing people I have met and which have made it into my life and into my heart, which have been added to my identity puzzle, completing myself.

I have almost forgotten how emotional the last weeks and soon days are in this in between state, this grey zone between sadness of leaving and happiness of arriving. My heart is beating fast and I try not to think about it but its almost impossible.

Life is about coming and going, and I hope that our ways will cross again soon!