Sandra's Journal

Yes, I know I haven't posted in many months (last entry is in 2008, eek!). And yes, I know I haven't even checked my Friends Page to see the updates of my LJ friends. I know. *hides under a rock*. I know it's no excuse, but I have been extremely busy...

I'm not going to recall everything that happened to me in the last semester, though. Suffice it to say that I got involved in some very nice projects, including.... translating a book. Yes, a book. I don't think I'm allowed to say which one before it gets published, though... Anyway, we're working on the next volume now (it's a fantasy series with 11 volumes published, and I joined the translation team at the fourth volume), which means I'll constantly be busy for a long time now... But I don't complain, it's fantastic!!! :D

I've got big plans for this summer as well. First of all, my favourite of them all - the Admission session at my Faculty! I'm part of the organization committee as a student representative again, so I'll get the chance to work with my teachers again and help the candidates with their applications... :) It's a lot of work to do, but it's fun and rewarding!

Then I'll be abroad for two weeks - going to Poland for a summer school in generative linguistics, which I'm really excited about... Hope to finally get a more detailed idea about what my diploma paper will be about, hehehe...

Other than that, I'll spend a week at the seaside with a friend (for free! bless the government for free student vacations!), then I'll have to find something interesting to do for the month of September... Of course, I'd love to get round to editing some vids and/or writing some fanfiction... (ideas have been lurching in my head for a long time... until they will die down in the end, unfortunately...) Oh, by the way, my first LotR fanfic was nominated to the MEFAs... Thanks, rakshathedemon! :) I have a lot of ideas, but to be honest, I'm a little afraid that I'm not going to be able to write in the same tolkienesque style that I managed to use the first time... anyway... I'd need a beta too, *hint, hint*! 

Well, that's enough rambling for today... Hopefully the next post won't be a year from now! :D

Winter holiday started! :) Two weeks without school, then two more weeks of normal courses and then the examination period... Oh, well... But that was not what I wanted to post tonight - I wanted to write a little bit about this year's charity campaign organized by the ASLS. My Faculty's student organization collects clothes, toys and money from students, teachers and other sponsors and then donates them all to an orphanage. This year we thought about somethig special: we created hand-made Christmas ornaments and sold them in the Faculty for fund-raising. We painted globes, made folded paper stars and even origami-style trees! But the most successful were the decorated candles. Here are a few (the last one was made by me):

 









When I get the picture we made with the children, I'll post some here as well. It was touching and somehow sad at the orphanage, but I'm glad I was able to take part in this. The name of our campaign is very suitable - it does bring a SMILE to so many people (not just the kids who received the gifts, but also to us who made them!)


 

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted (I should do that more often!). I was so busy and taken with everyday things that I didn't even have the time to check out my friends' LJs... Or even read fanfiction. I'll get round to it one day. I hope so.

I'm three weeks into my second University year and enjoying every moment of it. We have some very interesting subjects this semester for both English and Latin. We'll be studying Victorian and Augustan literature respectively. As for practical courses, for Latin we're studying Plautus, Catullus and Seneca. Very cool! Not to mention we're taking an introductory course in Old English! :) I'm even attending some Greek tragedy courses that I shouldn't take (and probably won't get credits for). And of course there's the linguistics part: the syntax of root clauses for English and historical phonetics for Latin. Sounds extremely promising! :)

I've also started to tutor online at eduFire.com. It's a great site if you want to teach or learn a foreign language or do test prep. I really recomend it. And not just because I'm a tutor there - the community is surprizingly warm and friendly! I spend outragiously long on the forums, but it's worth it! :) Here's my eduFire.com profile: http://edufire.com/sandraronai :D

The Ovid anniversary I was posting about (I think) is in less than three weeks, so we'll have some intensive rehearsals. I almost managed to master Latin poetry declamation (just the hexametre and pentametre!) but I'm still very nervous about it!

One more good news is that, now that more friends from the Arpino contest are in Bucharest (they came here to study, just like me), we'll be able to hang around again and hopefully meet for a big _Mafia_. I'm dying to play that game again! :)

Don't know when I'll get round to posting again, so... until then, all the best to everyone! :)

Saw this meme in lindahoyland 's journal and thought to share one of my favourite LotR quotes. It's from The Steward and the King (page 963 in my precious one volume 50th Anniversary edition). The drawing is by Ellaine and it's called Darkness will not endure. No copyright infringement intended for either the book or the picture. :)
 
When you see this, post another LOTR quote in your lj. Character is your choice, pic is optional.





'And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and light leaped forth...'

Well, my first thought was to say: Faramir! - I'm currently developping a renewed obsession with LotR... 

But then I thought further back and decided I'd rather be stuck on an island with.... dr. Daniel Jackson, the way he was in the first two seasons of Stargate: SG1... Of course, he wouldn't be the most skilful at survival at that time, but I'm sure we'd manage... And we would have a great time, I'd get to learn a LOT of things about archaeology and civilizations and languages... I would never be bored!

Plus, whenever Daniel gets lost, the rest of SG1 come and rescue him... so no chance of spending the rest of our lives there... :) :(



I liked the prompt, but stay tuned for pictures and rambling about my trip to Tunisia! :)

First of all, a few words about Professor Slusanchi's funeral - it was a very beautiful and solemn ceremony, with a lot of important academics there... and not only academics! As the Professor was involved in the transation of ecclesiastic literature (and was also a very faithful man, apparently!), the service was officiated by a representative of the Patriarch (as in, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church) and His Beatitude himself sent a funeral speech. And I was very surprised by the fact that a former President of Romania was there as well!!! As a mere first-year student, you can imagine how extremely insignificant I felt, but I'm glad I was able to go at least to the religious service... May Professor Slusanschi rest in peace!

I was sad about his death, but I'm much more worried about my own Dad, who's not doing well either. I'm not going to ramble about his medical state, but he's sick, and it makes him moody and irritated... :( The worst thing is that we can't do anything about his condition, if the medication has no effect... Hopefully it will. I don't want to write more about this... :(

On a happier note, the Admission is going great, it was a very busy period for me, with 6 to 12 hours spent at the Faculty, with no weekends and getting up relatively early, but I REALLY enjoy what we're doing! 

And the very good news is that.... *surprise, surprise*.... I'm going on a trip to.... Tunisia! What's more, I'm not paying for it, either! :P It's a kind of reward from the Ministry of Education, for the prize I gained last year in the Ovidian Latin contest.... :)) I don't know all the details yet, but it will be between the 6th and the 13th this month, and the trip presentation I got looks exciting!! :) I really hope I'll be able to see the ruins of Carthage and the other relics of the Roman era, they're more important to me than the Arab civilization or the beaches and nautic sports! :)) If I don't manage to post again before leaving, here's my official promise to: 1. take lots and lots of pictures and 2. write more details after I get back! So long now! :)

I'm still in shock. My Latin syntax teacher, Professor Dr. Dan Slusanschi, is dead. He was only 65. He passed away yesterday after being in intensive care for a week. Nobody at the Classics Department knew. I was told today when I came to the Faculty and I still can't quite believe it. I can't help remembering his lectures, his sayings or the day of the last exam. That day, I had a longer talk to him, and, besides warning me to take care in whom I put my trust ("Young lady, the world is full of rats"), he invited me to contact him and ask for help if I ever wanted to edit any studies or translations from Latin. I felt honoured by his trust in my potential and it breaks my heart to think that, if I do publish something, my work will be greatly diminished without his advice!

He was one of those special people that impress you not only by their extensive knowledge and expertise in their field, but also by their personality as human beings. I always felt overwhelmed in his presence and found it a tremenduous priviledge to receive one of his kind smiles whenever I said something right. Tall, well-built, with large glasses and a thick beard, he was the embodiment of The University Professor. His CV  (http://www.unibuc.ro/en/cdcv_danslusanschi_en) is too breathtaking to quote, but I think that, apart maybe from the Dean herself, Professor Slusanschi was the most outstanding academic personality that I had the chance to meet. I can only thank God because I was among the very last generation of students who had the opportunity to learn Latin syntax from him!

May he rest in peace! 

... and extremely satisfied about my work at the Faculty! :) After a full week, I can say this: no matter how stressful it is, or how tired I come back home, I truly enjoy what I'm doing. It's much, much more than a simple job. I learn a lot of useful things and get to practice my abilities (from people skills to focus and memory!) 

Plus, I have the chance to work side by side with my teachers and other older graduates and the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed. Some of the teachers have even asked me to call them by their name! I get to know them better and discover what wonderful people most of them are! Oh, today I found out that (at least) two of my teachers are big, big Stargate fans! *Wow* to that! :))

Of course, there's a lot of work to be done, and dealing with some angry and uncooperating parents can sometimes be difficult. My main task up to now was to inform the candidates about the various combinations of languages they can study and help them fill in their forms. But I've done other things too, from phoning Professors home to taking out the garbage... :) The most important thing is that I'm enjoying myself, I love the company and the tasks themselves as well. I know I will surely miss these times after all is finished! :) 

Just a very brief update to say the meeting / briefing / training today went great! :) The general atmosphere within the Committee was much more open and relaxed than I thought it would be (although at one point there were around 20 teachers in the room and just one student - me!) and I never felt out of place, which is very important for me...

 I feel extremely excited about my responsibilities for the next days... But I will need luck, so do keep your fingers crossed for me!

There have been many things happening since I last posted (including celebrating my 20th birthday! Writing my age with a "2" instead of "1" still feels strange), but I'm not going to write about them, but about the most exciting event of this summer: the Admission session of our Faculty!! :)

No, I'm not sitting the exam again. This time, I'm on the other side - I'm representing the students' association I belong to in the Organizing Comittee! I've dreamt about it ever since one of my teachers confirmed I will be there, and you can guess how excited I am about it all!!! It's very nice that the Faculty employs students to help with this (except the actual correcting of the papers, we'll be involved in practicly all the stages of the process - and it's more complicated than you would think!) and I'm really glad I'll have the chance to work side by side with some of my teachers... 

It all begins this Monday and it will last for about a month - first a week for receiving the application forms, then the actual exam (23rd of July), the correcting, making the list with the results and so on... Tomorrow we have a meeting / briefing / training where we will hopefully learn all we need to know... I'm looking forward to it, and to this month of working for my Faculty; I've earned money on my own before, but this will be my first job (full time and for a whole month). I'm so happy about it! :)