I don't know why I am all of a sudden posting in the morning instead of at night, but I am ...

So yesterday I found out that:

"Dear Ms. Atkins,
It is my great pleasure to inform you that you have been awarded third place by the 2007-2008 Selection Committee for the Jack Kilfoil Memorial Scholarship in History. The entire committee agreed that this year’s application pool was the most competitive that it has been in years, so yours is a great honor. You will soon receive an award of $300 in recognition of the quality of your research, your overall academic performance, and your commitment to the field of history."

This makes me happy for a couple of reasons...

1) It was a competitive applicant pool, so it does mean something... They had 23 well qualified applicants, I really wasn't expecting anything at all, Most of my department seems to take their studies seriously, I only know of three people who are content merely passing all of their classes, most history majors seem to work hard for their grades.

2) She mentions the quality of my research in her email. I always worry that my research is insufficient, this reassures me that it isn't as bad as I think it is.

3) My friend Chris got a scholarship also, he tied for fourth place. I am glad he got one as well, it means we will both be going to the party on Thursday, I will probably be more at ease if he's there and I can harrass him.

At my luncheon on Wednesday, I learned that if I edge a little out of my comfort zone, I can mingle, although it does help to have someone you know with you. I did not know that I was going to have to talk to university big wigs or have to go stand in the front with my professor as she got her award. She told them all of my future career plans and my trip to Russia, and the President of the Emeritus Faculty Association (I am a new employee of the association :) ) came up to me afterwards and was telling me that I should get to know the Russian historian on campus. I was told that by at least 3 people. I tried not to laugh. Finally, the professor I was with told someone that I have a good relationship with "the Russian historian" already. Several people also teased me about working with our French historian but not planning on studying France, this is where I get to point out that I will most likely be studying the Imperial period of Russian history and the Ruusian elites were almost always more likely to speak French, or German than they were to speak Russian. I have heard that Nicholas II and Alexandra used French when at home.

I did, however, have a very tasty sandwich and some more of the good fruity tea I had last week. The lunch that they served was the best on campus food I have had to date (at least as far as official functions go)

We are almost done with The Sorrow and the Pity which is good, because, I don't really like this film, nor do I truly get why we are watching it.

I have to finish typing up my paper on gays in the 20s and 30s.

It is really my last assignment of the semester, which makes me sad. I then have 4 finals 1 next Thursday, Two the monday after and one the Tuesday after.

Then I am done until the first week of June! When I start summer clasees! I will be taking Natural Disasters as it is one of the options for one of my Upper Division GEs. I am trying to find another course to take so that I can pull financial aid and not have to pay the moneys out of my pocket... I think I am going to take dance perceptions, it is like a historical look at dance through the viewing of films...

Okay, I need to go so...