End of Term Essays, Exams, etc.

It's less than a month before the end of the university semester, so the 3,000-word essays that I will need to write before October are beginning to be discussed in my classes and two exams are looming. Besides I am in the middle of a rewrite of a Spanish language essay.

I can't say I look forward to these academic milestones with great excitement. I am hoping to wrap them up neatly at the very beginning and at the very end of the summer holidays, so that university and leisure don't blur into each other in a psychologically dysfunctional soup leaving me exhausted, cranky and dull-witted next year.

That said, one of the essays will compare a neoclassical Spanish play with one of Molière's plays, and I'm excited about that since Molière is indulgent, fun reading to me.

But what I'd actually wanted to do during the summer is to forget university and work instead, since both Detrumpification and trying to offset Berlin's budget cuts are looking like increasingly expensive endeavours. Lately I've been economizing on mealtimes at university because I'd like to spend my weekly money ration on fixing problems, and I'd rather remain financially independent as long as possible. Today's splurge was donating to the Christopher Street Day parade.

Besides, I wouldn't mind having a steady income so that I can go off of my financial diet after 26 months of (mostly uninterrupted) unemployment. New books, sheet music, museum outings, new clothes, CDs, travel, magazines, sessions at the bouldering gym, concerts, etc. — it would be nice to splurge again, or at least enter stores and feel like I can theoretically buy things again.

Returning to the Christopher Street Day parade, the local evening news broadcast reported a few weeks ago that American companies that co-sponsor the parade have been pulling back this year due to political pressures at home. On the one hand I guess it's nice to know that American companies were supporting LGBTQ+ rights in Germany. On the other hand it's depressing that the companies let themselves be intimidated by a spiritual lightweight like the 47th president.

I watched Barack Obama's recent interview with a historian in Connecticut, in a YouTube video, and more or less agree with what he said: for wealthy and influential Americans who have been reaching out to him for advice about how to deal with various pressures from the current presidential administration, his message is that no one's forcing them to make Nelson Mandela sacrifices like sitting in prison for 28 years. (On another note, my armchair assessment is that Obama still seems seriously burned out and should probably not be spending so much time thinking and talking about his country's morally bankrupt regime until he feels better.)

To give credit to my last and deeply unlamented employer, despite their shortcomings, however, they're not shy about celebrating Pride Month on a certain social media job website.

Anyway, returning to the idea of a summer job, I've applied to do monkey work for an edition of Hannah Arendt's collected works, and I'm quite excited about it. Sending the application is something I'd probably do anyway, but I also like feeling that my father would have been intrigued and delighted by the opportunity and by my giving it a try. My more rational side admits that a 41-hour-per-month job that therefore stretches out to 10 hours per week will probably be quite a drain on time and energy that I need for my homework. That said, I've been calculating the cost and preparing to pay up, and there's little more one can do.

But I think that just sending one application to one job is not enough. I might look into working with pre-schoolers, since I like that curious, squawking, exploring age very much but am not sure if I have talent dealing with them. It's too long ago since I was an overbearing older sister to a kindergartner. So a practicum or mini-job should do.