Headaches

Today, I started studying for the GRE's and my brain exploded. 

Literally. 

OK, not literally. But it felt like it! It's been ages since I've had to think about math that requires letters like x,y, and z, and all of my advanced, educated vocabulary has gone out the door since I started teaching ESL and became adept at translating from normal English to simple English for my students. My vocabulary is shameful, pathetic, disconcerting, reprehensible, egregious…I'm practicing. Can you tell?

The writing part is not so much of a concern. Writing has always been easy and fun for me. I pretty much BS-ed my way through a lot of 300 level politics classes. But today's mediums of blogs and Facebook and Twitter seem to put a greater emphasis on the short and the shocking rather than well thought-out sentences with vocabulary of any sort of depth. I hardly think that prepares us for academic writing.

This means I need to study. Seriously study. Grad school is kind of a dream of mine. I'd like to get a master's in linguistics. And for the first time in my life it's something I seriously WANT to study. Back in college, getting a degree was less about knowledge I wanted to acquire than about figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. And now that I've kinda got some of that figured out, I KNOW what I WANT to know. And the only thing that stands between me and getting that knowledge is the GRE's…oh, and about $20,000 (but that's another story). 

So that means, it's time to get this brain in shape! Me and all these GRE study materials have a date at Mugg & Bean tomorrow. It's study time!

P.S. After writing this but before the time of posting, I did a little research and discovered that the university I am considering doesn't require the GRE's. Shew! Close call!

P.P.S. My neighbors seem to be having some type of competition. The ones to the left are blasting rap music and across the street they've got the Afrikaans music on full volume, and me and puppy here in between have got a headache. 

In my bag...

A little while ago, some blogs I read did this thing where they showed all the contents of their purse. While most of the purses on the blogs I read included things like "Chanel lip gloss"and "Gucci sunglasses" and "keys to my volvo," I think mine's still pretty entertaining sans Chanel and Gucci.

So here you are. A look inside my handbag today...

Clockwise from top left:

1. "Energy" hand lotion from Woolworths. Woolies is a kind of South African department store which also has a fantastic grocery section that I frequent. I love the scent of this lotion though. It's truly energizing!

2. "From Paris with Love" hand sanitizer from Bath and Body Works. I never leave home without hand sanitizer. You never know when you're gonna happen upon a soap-less, toilet paper-less bathroom. Hand sanitizer and tissues are staples.

3. Mary Kay lipgloss.

4. Listerine breath strips in cinnamon flavor. These are my replacements for gum since my current diet doesn't allow gum or mint anymore. Sadness.

5. Hard drive from the school. Why the heck am I lugging this thing around? What can I say? My bag doubles as a second office for the English Language School.

6. Sunglasses, wallet, cosmetic bag, random papers/receipts/prescriptions, keys. BTW, see how retro our keys are here? Love it.

7. Green grocery bag. One year my cousin gave all the ladies of the family these bags for Christmas. It was the best gift ever! Carrying a gazilion plastic bags full of groceries half a mile home from the mall is not fun. This holds a lot, is strong (can hold up to 44 lbs) and can fit over my shoulder. Plus it's good for the environment. Get one!

8. Three projector remotes. Seriously, my second office.

9. Phone, in my cute new Coach wallet I got for Christmas. Coach is an American brand that nobody outside of America really knows about. So it kinda makes me feel like a secret patriotic snob when I'm carrying it...and sometimes I like that.

10. Laptop charger.

11. Medicine case with just about every kind of a medicine you could ever need. EVER. Sick student on the bus? I've got medicine for that. Flu? Allergies? Fever? Headache? Indigestion? Broken arm? I've got something for that. OK, maybe not the broken arm. My secret solution for suspiciously "sick" students though are the "very strong green pills" from America (aka Advil gel caps - I cannot live without these).

12. Heat pack. A gift from Switzerland. Got this today and I can't wait to try it out! It's like a tiny reusable heating pack. Winter has come quite suddenly to Worcester. This morning I put on my space heater for a little bit. Freezing temps and no indoor heating means lots and lots of layers all the time. But somehow my bum is always cold. You can only put so many layers on your rear. I'm wondering if I can stuff this thing in the seat of my pants to keep my bum warm all day? Hmmmmm...