Once upon a time...

there was a girl with a blog who ran out of time and ideas so abruptly that she couldn't recover the habit even when the time returned (if not the ideas).

Whenever I was too much of a perfectionist to correspond with family, my grandmother would tell me, "It doesn't have to be long; you just have to write something." I haven't really learned that lesson yet; I'm more like Elizabeth Bennet, disinclined to speak unless I can say something that will astonish the whole room. I may blather inconsequentially for a few weeks and see if I can write myself back into a more or less interesting and expressive frame of mind.

On the schedule for this semester: I am teaching Greek 102, with the same 8 students as last semester in 101. I am taking two Latin classes, one a survey of Roman literature, one on Horace. Both of them are a trifle intimidating at the moment because they are my first Latin reading courses beyond the intermediate level.

I am also taking a history of the Christian Near East, from the third century until just before the Arab conquest. Since Greek is going to be my primary research language for the PhD in Early Christian Studies, thus giving me more of an eastern focus, I need some historical context. I also need my secondary research language to be eastern, rather than Latin, so I'm hoping to get ideas about whether to learn Syriac or Coptic next year. The Latin will then probably slip down to tertiary status once I finish the MA in classics.

But yet! My goal in life is to be someone who can make interesting and non-geeky conversation at parties. I'm not sure how Syriac helps that.