Italy, Poetry, Etc.

Hmm, it's not been as long since my last post as I thought. Anyway, life's been quiet around here. I think it's just waiting to leap at me from behind a bush or something, because soon I will have more essays and coursework due. Oh joy!

I got my Creative Writing coursework back on Monday. My instructor said my "writerly appraisal" was good. So pretty much everything she said about not having to write an analysis was entirely moot, because I wrote an analysis anyway. I just stuck a little bit in at the end saying why I liked the poem and how I appreciated the language or something dumb like that. For my poems, she said mine were "tight and considered" and show "good understanding of key elements of the genre", but I needed to "take more risks" and use more imagery. I got a 65, which is apparently pretty good. The rubric says this means my work is "good/proficient", "stylistically fluent", has "maturity and some individuality", and "good control and invention in the use of language." Unfortunately, everything I've written in the past few weeks has been utter garbage, including the poem I submitted for workshop on Monday. My classmates (kindly) did not rip me to shreds or tell me to burn everything I've ever written, and I lived through it. It was a poem with potential, that collapses under it's own weight because some of the writing is weak. Anyway.

I am finally registered with the campus medical center (or centre, if you prefer). I had to go in this morning to meet with one of the nurses and answer some questions and let them take my height and weight and blood pressure. So that's done.

Monday night, after class, I went over to Catie's flat, ostensibly to discuss our plans for Italy. We didn't do much of that. I ended up sitting in her kitchen for a while, watching her flatmates play I Spy while we waited for our food to be delivered. It was...interesting, to say the least. Which I will do, because I am not being marked on my use of imagery or artful language in this post. Anyway, we've changed some of the specifics for when we're in Southern France. We're only going to spend one night in Marseille and spend three nights in Nice instead. As for Italy, after New Year's Eve in Bologna, Catie and I are going to split up for a few days. She's going to go down to Florence to meet her family, and eventually head down to Rome. I'm going to go to Venice, then Ravenna, and meet Catie back in Rome. It means I won't get to see Florence, but I've been dreaming of going to Venice for a long time, and I'm not going to pass it up just because Catie's sister has already been there and didn't really like it. I'm really excited to go off on my own, too. I mean, yeah, I'm scared out of my wits, but I'm terribly excited.

So that's been my life for the past few days. Not incredibly exciting, but there you go. I'm off to play with Flickr and read more at Journeywoman. I'll have pictures from Glasgow, Ruthwell, Carlisle, Housesteads, and Hexham up shortly--I'll be sure to let you know when I'm done!