Postcards, Poems, and Perils

Six weeks have passed in a flurry of budding friendships, new experiences, and new schedules. I am writing this as I am taking a break from a very large paper that is 45% of my grade and is proving extremely difficult for me. I love the professor's class, Contemporary British Literature, but this is becoming a challenge that I don't even know I can achieve. Thankfully, I have come together with my thesis and will be meeting with my professor in a couple of days about the paper. I really hope that this can release any stress I am having about this paper.

I just got back from my "October Break," and even though it was supposed to be a time for me to relax, priorities and stress from other sources besides school keep piling up. Life is not easy, especially at this time in my life, apparently. Things are going to be picking up again on campus starting tomorrow and it's back to my regular schedule. I am, of course, looking forward to another class with Dr. Novak, the newest professor on campus and one that I have become quickly fond of. The other day she invited me to her office and we had a interesting talk about politics (of course), society, and where the world is going. This blog is not for sharing my political opinions because I don't want to piss people off, but I do rather enjoy a good political discussion. During class last week, though, she did say something that depressed me (and probably the rest of the class). "I am really glad I am as old as I am," she said, "because then I don't have to see what this country will become." As depressing as that statement is, it's kind of true. I for one fear for the future; what will become of this country and what exactly will result out of this endless bickering between two ideals, two visions for this country? That is a question that will be pondered by me and countless others as the world moves on, I suppose.

Anyways, I threw in a poetry entry for Silverinkblot's (deviantArt) Color Poem Contest. It's been so long since I've written poetry that I thought I sucked at it. For a first try in a while, it was pretty good. I want to maybe try my hand at some more prose (for deviantArt contests generally) in the near future.

And now a couple of postcards from my ever-growing collection of postcards from Postcrossing. Right now I don't have the money to send any more postcards, but I have amassed a nice collection from the time when I did have the money for stamps. Here are three of my favorites:

South Germany, received September 30, 2012

This postcard I received from a woman named Sabine, who lives in Germany. She said that on clear days she could see the Swiss Alps, because she lives close to the borders of Austria and Switzerland. I love birds, so this is one of my favorites because of that. It's just such a crystal clear photograph that I fell in love with it.

Sent from Washington, United States, received September 25, 2012

This is one of my personal favorites as well, and the photo I took of it with the camera on my cell phone simply does not do it justice. Even though the sender was from Washington State, not Idaho, it is still a beautiful homage to autumn and fishing (the little shadow there is fly fishing in the Salmon River).

Sent from Belarus, received September 15, 2012

Even though this was sent from Belarus, this is a photograph of the Empress of Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution and World War I. The sender said that since she was born in Russia, she wanted to share this with me. With the empress Alexandra is her only son, Alexi, heir to the throne of Russia. However, Alexandra, the tsar Nicolas, her husband, Alexi, and the rest of her children were killed at the end of World War I by the Bolsheviks that were imprisoning them. I really enjoy postcards that force me to look up historical backgrounds and events of other nations; there are many things about the world that I don't know and I still have yet to learn.







With that, I should probably work on some more of my paper.