Quatre Jours de Vacances

This is the fourth day after the last day of university, which have proven unexpectedly adventurous.

It turns out that my family will be moving to Berlin, Germany, in three months. The proposal was made just the day before yesterday. I like the idea very much. I like Berlin, and I've been wishing to return to Europe. The main problems are logistical, especially financial. But I'm ready to work -- whether it be cleaning houses or translating or whatever. Yesterday I started to have a strong feeling that this move would turn out very well for me, and that I will be happy in Berlin.

Besides taking part in discussions on this topic, I've also been doing many other things. I'm pursuing my Italian; today I learned some expressions with "buon" ("Buon viaggio," "Buona pasqua," etc.). Then my father has been reading the History of Western Philosophy to me. It's well-written, witty, concise, and interesting, so even I who know next to nothing about philosophy don't feel like the ignoramus that I am, and understand what is being discussed. So far we've read about the Milesian school, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus. I've admittedly forgot all about Xenophanes' ideas, but I'm absorbing the information well overall. Thirdly, we play Beethoven's Variations for cello and piano, and movements from Beethoven cello sonatas. Of course I make a lot of errors and I should listen more to how Papa plays the pieces (e.g. the ornaments, which I tend to play as meaningless appendages), but it's enjoyable and I am improving. I've also been washing the dishes quite a lot, generally hearing music in the laptop and not minding it at all -- also because my parents and one of my brothers help.

My bedtime reading is currently Moliere's L'Avare. Perhaps I should read it at a different time, because I've barely been responding to its amusingness. The last three days I've also been watching the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report. Yesterday evening I watched the end of the film 13 (?, with David Niven). I thought it was interesting how dark it was and at the same time still human, though the way the woman forgets about her children was unrealistic and off-putting. The film's absurdity was of the solemn sort, and the film clearly had a point -- to show the strength and inhumanity and danger of superstition. I wonder if it was a satire of the Roman Catholic Church. On a side note, the castle where it was set really impressed me; I hope to see more architecture of that impressive sort once I'm in Germany. It even had a moat and drawbridge!

Finally, I should mention that most of my grades have been posted already:

German 310: 84%
Classical Studies 204: 69%
History 120: 58%
Economics 102: 37%
French 221 will be a fail; I know that much.

I just found out the History and Economics marks; the former was a huge shock to me. I'd been expecting about 70-75%. Oh, well. That's what I get for not writing the first essay, and for not speaking in my tutorial or doing some readings on time. But I still say I don't deserve such a low mark! I did learn huge amounts, pay attention in lectures (going to at least 90%), invest a lot of time into my readings, and find everything interesting.