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Lasselanta_Inya
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Name: Megan (Meg)
Metro:
Gender: Female
Interests: All things international (yes, that includes traveling!), reading, tracing my family roots, anything related to Scotland, traveling, having adventures, animals, films of all kinds (except horror), Classical music, Jane Austen, traveling, Italian food, spending time with friends and family, shopping, shoes, traveling, education, snow, tigers, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, traveling, chocolate, baking, tea, Miss Manners, taking photos...and did I mention traveling? ;)
Occupation: University Adjunct/Lecturer
Industry: Higher Education
Message: message me
Member Since:
2/21/2005
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| Ciao, i miei amici! Again, it's been an age since my last post but I 1)found some time to squeak in an entry (mark this day on the calendar...I got up EARLY today!) and 2)have something interesting to write about. Guess where I am right now? I'm currently living for a month in Florence, Italy! (Firenze, Italia for all you Italian speakers.) BGSU professor (and my advisor) Dr. Lara Martin Lengel organized a "Communication and Culture in Italy" workshop for the summer. BGSU has a partnership with SACI - Studio Art Centers International - in Florence so the "hookup" for organizing a class was really easy. Compliments of SACI, we're all living in Florentine apartments right near the historic city center; I'm sharing a place with 3 of the other grad students from BGSU. We're probably the farthest out as far as location goes, but I can walk to the SACI classroom buildings in about 10 minutes...and with the amount of pasta, gelato, and other carbs being consumed, a little walking never hurt anyone! I'm in love with Florence, the city itself is so beautiful and the artwork that "lives" here is amazing. I'm taking an art history course in addition to the Communication and Culture workshop, so our professor has been taking us all over Florence on class days to see firsthand the masterpieces of the Renaissance elite. We've seen works by Ghiberti, Michelangelo, Raphael, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, and da Vinci, just to name a few. Actually, the main SACI building is actually home to one of Leonardo Da Vinci's original sketches - a study for one of his paintings of baby Jesus, Mary, Elizabeth, and baby John the Baptist. I was walking down the hall one day to speak to the Dean about missing a few days of classes so I can scoot up to London/Edinburgh for a weekend to do some research and passed a wall of old drawings...and found the da Vinci. I almost fell over! The art history course also organizes day-long weekend excursions to neighboring Italian towns/regions so we can see famous art outside of Italy. The first weekend we went to Fiesole (Fee-ae-so-lay) to look at Roman ruins and a small museum of Roman and Etruscan artwork, then this last weekend we took a trip to Ravenna on Saturday to look at the Byzantine mosiacs. On Sunday I went with the non-art history group to Siena because the weekend the art class goes is the weekend I'll be in the U.K. Amazing, amazing stuff. I promise I will post pictures of my adventures as soon as I can, but I didn't bring my laptop with me and my camera doesn't seem to get along well with Italian computers. Silly ethnocentric little thing... I have to scoot now, I'm leading class today (culture shock and Italian/American cultural differences) so I need to set up. Hope life is treating you all well, I look forward to sharing more Italy stories soon. :) | | |
| As you may have heard, I adopted a cat this past weekend from the Knox County Humane Society in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive - one way - to the shelter, Google's original driving estimates were waaaaay off. Anyway, after several hours at the shelter interacting with the hundreds of cats there (I wish I could have adopted them all!) I settled on a short-haired black male who seemed like he definitely needed a home. Call me softhearted, but I think I picked the scrappiest cat from the shelter - Merlin (formally Muffin...that had to change!) is about 12 years old, has had 5 teeth extracted so he's slightly toothless, is about 2 pounds underweight, and has a notch in his left ear. We had a veterinarian appointment this morning and I have the sneaky suspicion that the vet thought I was slightly nuts for accepting such a "charity case." Oh well. Merlin had been in the shelter for about a year and a half after his "family" dumped him off after they found out their new apartment didn't allow pets. Though I know sometimes there are extraneous circumstances, people who dump their pets make me so mad!!!! I don't believe any cat should have to be in a shelter (and for 18 months!) especially in the twilight of their years. Merlin deserves a home where he could be spoiled and have his own space and sleep in a sunbeam for as long as he wants. He has that with me, and I'm hoping with his new diet mixture of canned cat food (easier to eat for Mr. Toothless) and dry cat food he'll be able to pack on the pounds. Our new vet says Merlin could stand to gain 2-3 pounds, which is a lot for a cat who currently weighs 6.6 lbs. He's kind of grungy right now and could stand a bath, so with that and an specialized diet I'm hoping to see a lot of improvements in him. Merlin's really cranky with me today because 1)he hates car rides in his temporary cardboard carrier (Mum and Dad are bringing the better one in October), and 1)he ESPECIALLY hates car rides that end in vet visits and shots, so I'm not going to try to stick a camera in his face and take pictures just yet. I think this weekend my friend Megan and I might try to tackle the bath situation, so perhaps I'll do a photo shoot afterwards when he's clean and fluffy. Well, I'm off to work on a journal report for my COMS 600 class - I'm not used to APA style formatting so it's taking me forever to write! Merlin sends his regards and thanks to those that have expressed interest in him - please note that those regards are currently being sent from under my bed...he's having a bit of a pout. Hope you're all having a great day! | | |
| Wow, I'm a horrid Xanga blogger. It's been ages since my last update! Oh well, I finally had something that was worth writing about: my move to Ohio. Yes, I have left the beautiful land of hills, trees, lakes, and cheese to venture to Bowling Green, OH. For those who don't know, I've started working on my M.A. degree in Communication Studies at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). I've been down here for almost three weeks now: a week of moving in and setting up, a week of grad school orientation and teaching assistant training, and a week of classes. It's been a blast so far, I especially love teaching my section of Interpersonal Communication Studies 102 (aka "Intro to Communication Studies") on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. My class consists of 21 students - 12 sophomores and 9 freshmen - 15 men and 6 women. After we decided on Wednesday to never use the department-provided video lectures ever again (zzzzzzz!!!) the class has really taken off. I think they enjoyed my demonstration of the three different models of communication on Friday...it involved Koosh balls and candy.  The three classes that I'm taking are pretty interesting, too, even if I am reading more now than I've ever had to read for a class before. (Did you notice the title of the book I'm currently tackling? Ewwwww...) Welcome to grad school, eh?
This afternoon I took some pictures of my apartment that I thought I'd share. Here's a brief walk-through of my new place. Please enjoy...and I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend!
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| Hmmm, what better way to procrastinate against what I am supposed to be doing than to write on my xanga? Thought I would post a poem that I wrote almost three years ago, I have Scotland on the brain again!
Ah, the pirlin' Heiland braes,
Lalland wids, skook'd glens.
Bonnie Scotland haes become
The steid A feel like A belang.
You get bonus points if you know what the Scots words mean! ;) OK, off to be productive! | | |
| I received the strangest e-mail in my inbox today, a notification from Xanga politely reminding me that someone (actually, two someones) had written in my guest book. Pardon me? My guest book? I, who have no Xanga site, am receiving posts in my non-existent guestbook? Hmmmm, something strange is going on here. Curiosity getting the best of me, I decided to check it out and found that I do indeed have a Xanga site...though I never intended to have one. I guess one can create an account without having a page assigned to her, but the minute one signs her sister's guestbook then Xanga grabs hold and creates a site for the unaware guestbook-signer. *Sigh* Oh well, I couldn't disappoint the lovely people who have already subscribed to my page (empty as it was) so I decided that writing one entry won't hurt anything. Posting on a regular basis, however, does not look promising because of time limitations (my MSN blog is sorely neglected during the school months). Once the semester starts up again (next Monday) I'll barely have time to sleep - much less write - if last semester repeats itself. The joys of being a senior! I'm sorry, too, to report that my infrequent posts will not be as eloquent as those of the authors, illustrators, and artists who share this wee Xanga community with me but I'll try. If I ever start sounding too research-paper-like please let me know!
OK, so a Xanga is supposed to be an online diary of sorts, correct? I'm new at this! I suppose the few of you who are reading this will know who I am and that I'm back at school, so I won't bore you with those details. I will say that my J-term class, Introduction to Yoga, was going splendidly until today. It's quite a relaxing pastime, yoga, until one's back decides to go out; then it's a rather torturous activity. Yes, that's right, my stupid sprained back decided to make itself known again today, suddenly and painfully screaming at me as I completed a simple Rabbit pose. The Rabbit isn't even strenuous, it focuses on breathing! My back made it through last week's Pose of Tranquility (tranquil my foot - see something similar http://www.victoriayoga.com/images/professional_photos/plow.jpg ) but gave in to a Rabbit. Sad. Needless to say I called in sick to work and spent the day camped out on the couch in our living room, alternated between ice pack and heating pad, and thanked God for Aleve. I will admit that my back has been worse, at least this time I can sit for short periods of time, but I really would prefer if it didn't get any more irritated than it already is. I'd really appreciate prayers from my loved ones directed at my back because I MUST complete this yoga class in order to graduate: UW-RF has physical education requirements. Thank you!!!
Hmmm, what else is going on in my life? Ah yes, I've started reading Emma. It might take me a while as I do not get a lot of free time to do pleasurable reading, but I think I'm hooked on Jane Austen. Mum and I watched Pride and Prejudice again over break (the BBC version with Colin Firth); I do believe I'm looking for a Mr. Darcy. Hee hee. There are some fantastic websites that I have discovered (http://www.austen.com and http://www.pemberley.com) that are feeding my new addiction. I've found myself curling up at the computer with a cup of tea, Tuscany: A Romantic Journey CD (love, love, love the "Con Te Partiro" by Sartori!), and my Austen websites in order to relax after yoga and work. It's a very nice way to unwind!
Oh! I should probably explain what my screen names, for those of my readers who aren't fluent in Quenya (one of Tolkien's elvish languages, but I figure those who are reading this already know that!) Lasselanta (or lasse-lanta) means "leaf-fall, fourth season of Imladris" and Inya roughly means "female." I figure its most basic translation can be "Autumn Girl" which is appropriate because autumn is my favorite season.
OK, my back is informing me that I've sat long enough at this computer, time to go lay on the floor again with my trusty ice pack. I'll try to write as often as I can, but like I said, once spring semester classes start I'm not sure how often that will be. Cheers! | | |
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