Hello all,
Wow! It’s
been quite some time since I’ve posted, probably the longest time I’ve been
silent on the blog since I decided to start writing regularly back in first
year… Forgive me, but final year has been utter madness, and this time I mean
it.
I am now
back in Bath after the Christmas break (ready-not-ready) for my exams after
spending the break writing my essays due after Reyes. I’m so ready to have my
Christmas break back, being at Uni means they are essentially fake holidays since
all the essays and exams come right after the break…that’s something I won’t
miss after graduating. But anyhow, I have managed to save some time to update
you all on my first semester back in Bath. It will take a few posts (this one
clearly being the first), as I don’t want to bore you to death but a few of you
have asked me if I was still writing, so there you have my lame excuse and long
awaited update.
Last time I
spoke to you I was in full swing with In The Heights rehearsals. Being involved
in an October production was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I
must admit it was really intense,
with rehearsals running 6 to 8 hours each day for a month (we were setting up an entire musical, mind
you). But, as when you do something you love, it felt like nothing and it went by
super quickly. Who would have said I’d enjoy being on stage, dancing and singing (what?!), so much. The best part of it is the people you
make friendships with during the preparation, and with In The Heights I’ve met
some new amazing people, so I am very pleased with that. I didn’t mind waking
up early to go to the Music Room at The Edge and learn the horribly complicated
harmony lines for Carnaval del Barrio
(thanks, Lin-Manuel, your music score certainly was complicated), or dancing
and drilling the 96000 choreo in the
Dance Studio until I was able to perform it on the go, it was all so much fun!
Show week was hectic though, as it coincided with the first week of term,
meaning I was up on campus until really late throughout most of the week with
not only lessons but also full runs, notes or extra rehearsals, and it certainly
took its toll. The show went great, with a lot of people praising our efforts
with the Spanish accents (believe me, getting Brits to speak like Latinos is no
mean feat), and we managed to sell out! I had a great time and I really do love
all the prepping that goes into shows and the atmosphere that builds up during
performances.
Unfortunately, the lack of sleep and exhaustion got to me on the
last night, which I barely managed to get through (although you wouldn’t tell
by the video recording of the musical), and I ended up just about making it to
PT presents before I gave up and had to go home. I was super bummed that I’d
missed aftershow and brunch as I was really looking forward to it and there
were a lot of returners and graduates that I hadn’t seen in over a year, but I
literally felt like I was dying, so I had to go. One to learn for the next
time.
Now, what about your
degree? I hear you ask. Yes, I’m meant to be here to finish my Modern Languages
degree, aren’t I? Well, this semester was tough but I really enjoyed it. During
Freshers’ we had out Final Year Inductions and it was super weird to see
everybody again; it felt like it was yesterday the last time we’d seen each
other but we’d all changed so much! The Director of Studies’ talk about final year only
managed to renew our stress and did not lie about the workload. Basically, this
year makes up for around 68% of my overall degree (no stress, huh?), which
means that I have to give 110% on any assessed work as it weighs a lot in
comparison to previous years. Professors have definitely raised their
standards, but I haven’t found it to be anything too, too unachievable. It was
hard at the beginning to get into the swing of things since I hadn’t done
proper work for over a year (I mean, my Erasmus in Italy didn’t really count as
work, I think we all agree), so I definitely struggled to focus at the start.
Fortunately, I’ve always been one for time management, organization and
prioritizing, meaning I’ve successfully managed to combine the work load with
all the different things I did this past semester, which you will soon
discover.
Concerning the actual content
of my lessons, I definitely think I chose wisely. The language seminars have
become far more interesting: oral lessons are more engaging and we are
separated in smaller groups which just gives us more of a chance to make the
most of it. We’ve had translation for the first time, which has been by far my
favourite language module – it shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of you given
my interest in pursuing a translating and interpreting career! Our teacher is
lovely and honestly, the change in teaching in final year is amazing: everybody
is comfortable around each other since we’ve known each other for so long and
the teachers are so much more engaging with us, it’s great! Translation is
sometimes challenging, particularly since the exam involved translating a
newspaper article and literary extract with no access to a dictionary, but I’d
really enjoyed it. We even got the chance to give interpreting a test run with
a two-way interpreting exercise set at a police office in which we had to
translate for both the police officer and the client in English and Italian.
Tough work, but I didn’t do too bad! Translation for French has the same
structure and teacher, but I have my exam next week so wish me luck!
The content modules last
semester were also super interesting and I found myself to be under the
overarching theme of feminism. I took Genre
et Politique for French which was definitely the best choice ever. I had had
my eye on it since we choosing modules back in April, but I had decided to go
for another more general module about French society in hopes of it being more
useful for my future. However, it ended up clashing with foil training and
since G&P fit nicely in my timetable, it was a match made in heaven. I am
so glad I switched! The content was super varied and interesting, examining the
status of women in different fields in not only France but other Western
countries. Sandra, the professor, was such an engaging lecturer and a lovely
person too, making sure to put in debates and controversial issues and to tailor
the lessons to our needs. My seminar group for that module was great – all French
and Italian gals- and we discussed LGBTQ+ rights, super interesting! And Sandra
even brought treats on the last lesson – so, so sweet!
The Italian module was Italian
Women Writers of the 21st Century with Adalgisa. I must say, despite
the lessons being quite lengthy and rich, they were super interesting. I have
to admit the books we studied were quite obscure, particularly the presentation
of my nightmares on Aracoeli by Elsa
Morante. It wasn’t bad because of the topic, which was really interesting
concerning mother-son psychoanalytical relationships, but because the novel was
hard to read and there was not that much secondary reading and we had problems
within our presentation group with some people not pulling their weight.
However, we also covered a lot of feminist theory of the 70s which was very
useful for my other modules and just interesting to learn about in general!
Because the class was quite small, there was room for debate and Adalgisa was
sure to encourage it. And I was also lucky to be able to discuss my essay topic
with Dad considering his field of study was also feminist writers… Quite the
win.
Finally, my third module last
semester was European Film. I don’t know why, but whenever I choose a cinema
module it never turns out to be what I expected. At least this one was better
than the one I took in Siena… We had lessons on Friday afternoon, not the best
time, but the lecture group was pretty tiny and there were a few film buffs in
there, so I didn’t feel alone haha We studied various filmic trends/genres in
European film history like Expressionism, Neorealism, Avant-Garde etc. However,
I found the structure quite stiff – we’d have an hour lecture on the topic,
then an assigned film to view and discuss the following week – and although the
different lecturers were clearly experts in their trends, it felt like there
was a slight lack of communication/interest from some of them which was a
shame. I did enjoy most of it though, so I’m still happy I chose it. I
presented on Paisà by Rossellini and
wrote my essay on Almodóvar’s representation of women (see the feminist trend
yet again?), both offering interesting topics to study.
That’s pretty much what my
lessons have consisted of this semester and I’m looking forward to the ones in
my next one as I’m taking Applied Translation Studies in Italian, Avant-Garde
movements of the 20th century and a lecture on Language, Power and
Society which sounds super interesting! I don’t have to write a dissertation
because it was optional for my class at least, meaning I decided I’d rather
have two extra content modules.
I have two exams next week,
French Translation and Italian language, but after those I will be a free woman
for a bit (lol jk I need to sort out my graduate life). I promise I’ll get a
few more posts to you, got so much more to update you on! Please bear with me!
In the meantime,
A presto!
Zoe x
Snapchat: zoeamma
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