Semester Wrap-up

So, it's finals week here on campus and everybody's gone a little nuts. Some folks have less to do than others--sadly I'm in the others category here--but nobody's safe from the craziness. A couple of weeks ago UIC held the In/Between Conference, which was the first conference in a long time that hosted talks from both the literature and linguistics sections. Good stuff.

Now it's time to sit down and write. Easier said than done, my friends. Yesterday I managed to make red bean empanadas because I was trying to do work. That's what I do: when it's time to sit down and do work I discover 600 other things that I can be doing. A friend of mine with a similar affliction once told me that there are days when she'd rather scrub her bathroom than sit down and work. I don't know what the real problem is, but I'm told it's especially bad when thesis-writing.

On a different note, this week was the Chicago Latino Film Festival, and a friend of mine and I went to see Ella es el matador (She is the matador).

I'm not into bullfighting, but I learned something about (1) how bullfighting works, (2) why people like it, (3) how one becomes a bullfighter, and (4) how being a female complicates the process. I thought it was really well-directed--I'd recommend it.