February "vacation"

This week, New York public schools are on vacation, but I still had to go to classes at the college. Because of the break, my program held the master's project presentations on Monday, Presidents' Day. We were to attend all presentations, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. It was horrendous, but we were all relieved to be finished.

The whole thing was a joke, actually, because our professor decided not to have us write papers, so all we had to do was give a 10-minute powerpoint presentation. I'm not really complaining, because I was happy not to have more work to do, but I guess I feel a bit like a fraud, getting a master's degree from doing so little. Maybe I just resent the fact that my professor didn't feel like grading a bunch of papers; how could anyone tell if we really did any research if we didn't submit our data? I'm sure most of us did, but there were some sketchy presentations. The torture I went through on my 120-page thesis for the Chinese literature degree made me feel proud of myself, for sticking with it and learning self-discipline. Getting this degree does no such thing--such is education graduate school; at least it will be useful for a career in elementary education.

Last week Shane came to New York for Valentine's Day. We had a nice dinner in the neighborhood and went to see The Barber of Seville at the Met. Sitting in the cheap seats was like flying economy class--we could hardly fit our legs in front of us. And it's quite an inane opera. We were also pretty tired, so we left after the first act.

The next day, we drove upstate for Shane's nephew's first birthday. We stopped in Albany to pick up his sister Alana, but we were quite early, so we sat in a cafe where I made most of my powerpoint presentation for Monday. We drove up to Rochester after picking up Alana and stayed at his parents' house. Saturday we helped Shane's sister Joleen set up for the birthday party. Being quite an introvert, especially around lots of people I don't know, I didn't have a grand old time, but it was OK. I ate a lot of food and played with the dog and a couple kids.

Afterwards, Shane and I went back to his parents' house and played violin. For Valentine's Day, I got Shane some sheet music for violin duets--one a collection of easy pieces and the other a set of 12 easy Mozart duets. It was really fun! After getting back to New York on Sunday, we played some more, and he's taking the music back to practice.

The rest of my week has been laid back. One class was canceled. I've been knitting, crocheting, and reading a Spanish novel (in preparation for my certification tests this Saturday). Last night, I went with my friend Kristianna to see a Broadway show called "In the Heights," which is about my neighborhood, Washington Heights. It was pretty fun, and I got the tickets cheap through the university. It was also lovely to spend time with Kristianna, who is preparing to move to Albany at the end of the month.

This morning I went to Chinatown to get a haircut. I haven't had my hair cut in almost a year, when I was visiting Julia Sapir in Albuquerque for spring break and we went to an Aveda Institute to get super cheap haircuts last March. I have a Japanese hairdresser I love downtown, but the salon is pretty expensive--$80 for a haircut. So I searched online and found good reviews for cheap Asian haircuts at a salon in Chinatown, where it cost me only $28 for a shampoo with scalp massage, cut, and blow-dry/style. Score! I love my hair right now. It's a bit shorter than I'd have liked, because I am still trying to grow my hair long, but now the crazy split ends are gone, and there is actually shape to it, so I'm happy.

Once I get new batteries for my camera I'll post some photos of the Rochester trip, my knitting, and my haircut, heehee.