Or at least, that's how close I am to my PhD if you think of it as seven years. It could be longer, but I'm being optimistic. Anyway, I'm done with my first semester of grad school as of last night, and I got an A on my largest seminar project! No word yet on the other two; I just handed in one paper yesterday, and my other professor is doing our grades from Cairo.
Right now I'm attempting to make banana bread for the Christmas party this afternoon, and I was reminded of how annoying it is to try to bake for the first time in a kitchen that's not your own. I mean this is mine now, but I don't know where Phyllis keeps half the stuff, and I couldn't exactly call her at work to ask. For example, I could not for the life of me find the Pam spray. It's possible that she doesn't have it and uses lard or something instead--she's pretty old-school Italian when it comes to food. I'm sure she wouldn't approve that I used soy milk in the recipe, but that's the only milk I have, and I was not buying regular milk just for 1/4 cup. Hubbard had whole milk in the fridge the last time I was in New Haven, and I skipped Cheerios rather than come into contact with that. Once you've gotten used to the thinness of soy milk, regular milk seems freakishly thick.
Oh, apparently I haven't quite learned my lesson when it comes to what to expect from Dr. Hall--she was in her office yesterday, so I thought I'd ask her about the comprehensive exams for next fall and whether there's any kind of reading list that I could start thinking about. Her response was "No. In fact, don't read anything! Just look at all the pictures!" This was of course accompanied by her patented Cheshire cat grin. Sigh. The other girls and I are going to start a study group next semester. The way past classes have done it is that each person takes a professor and goes to them for an idea of what they're going to include in the exam, and then does research and compiles an image list, and then we combine them. Jasmine told me last night in the car that it's a good idea to choose a professor who's not in your area, so that you really research the crap out of it. For me, that would probably be modern/contemporary or 19th century (blech).
And if the seven-hour comps exam was not enough to look forward to, the prelims for the PhD are actually two days of exams, and then an oral exam. At least I have something to say back to Jen every time she reminds me that grad school cannot be that hard because I don't have to take the bar. Well, the bar is only one day, biotch! Alright, I'm not going to seriously contend that law school is easier than art history grad school; I'm pretty sure it's harder. They're very different, though--law school is all about memorizing laws and precedents, while grad school is all about forming new ideas and arguments.
Finally, as of last evening I'm the new treasurer for the grad student organization...whoot. Lol. Me, Agnes, Juliet, Nicole and some other girl I don't know who's in the Arts Administration program are the new officers. Juliet told us a very amusing tale of being in Harold Bloom's bedroom, completely stoned, last New Year's at a party thrown by his son, whose nickname is apparently "Bloomie." Harold Bloom, obviously, was not present. Anyway, all hail the new regime!
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