I'm definitely getting sick. Earache, headache, sweating and freezing alternately, mucous and coughing. I picked a relatively good time to get sick (assuming it's a 3 day cold) since I turned in my first projects and the next one isn't due for a few weeks, and I only have class tomorrow and work tomorrow and Friday. Of course I have a lot of research to do for my presentation next Wednesday but that's relatively easy on a sick person, as it involves lots of sitting still.
I'm exhausted. Haven't been sleeping well (finding it hard to sleep at night and sooo tempting to stay asleep in the morning) and I was damned lucky today because my alarms didn't go off and I woke up anyway, even if it was later than I was intended.
Class was tough today, and my presentation was ok, although it was embarrassing how much trouble I had with the French translations, when Mara didn't seem to have nearly as much of a problem. For instance there was one word that would ONLY translate as root, no matter which of the sentences I typed in, no matter what I clicked on trying to find options...so I was saying this, but that it clearly supported the mast, and Dr Pulak said, "oh yes, that's the mast step" so that was highly embarrassing. Also, as I was walking up to the front he said this was one of his favorite shipwrecks and I involuntarily said, "Oh God" (I hope he didn't hear me) because my first presentation wasn't great because I tried SO hard to make it different from his hourlong lecture on the same ships so I wouldn't bore the pants off him and everyone else, and then this one I retranslated the articles like three times and still couldn't figure parts out, so I was afraid of letting him down again. But he seemed to like it, and nodded and was quite pleased with the extra research I put into the rigging (that research was a blessing because it was in English!! I see now what a trial it is to be unilingual in this profession, and need to improve my German, reconstitute my Portuguese and see if I can acquire competence in any others in all that free time I have) so I'm hoping that will weigh in my favor.
At least there are now a couple of French words I don't think I could forget if I tried - carene (there's an accent on the first e) which means hull, coque which means hull (I tried to see if there was a difference between the two but couldn't find anything), virure which means strake, and barrot, which means beam. I also had one hell of a time trying to translate surbarrot, so I did sur by itself and got a list of twelve words, so when I talked about them in my presentation saying it could mean "above" "across" "over" or other things so it was some kind of beam or framing anyway, and Dr Pulak kindly explained that here it meant overbeam and they were used to keep the ship's integrity since there was a huge hatch in which to place storage and the lack of beams there would weaken the ship too much for oceanic crossings. (I swear that was not in the article, or if it was, Google Translate and I need to have a little talk.)
You can see why it's imperative for me to learn (re-learn...) other languages.
As further evidence that I am 100% insane and should probably be locked up, I decided to do my 616 final project (basically extensive line drawings and drafts of ships of our choice) on the VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships, and my 615 final paper on the reasons for the decline for the VOC in the late 18th century. Of course, in one way it's very sensible to research both projects on "the same" subject, but I did just suffer through a project in French and now I'm doing a gigantic project in which some of my resources will quite likely be Dutch and just as difficult to translate.
I got home and had the last of my bread and bacon and onion spread for dinner, had a lovely nap, and then finished Sense and Sensibility (I have made a resolution to only read stuff I haven't read before during the week to help improve myself), which made me feel marginally better about my "love life" (or lack thereof). Pride and Prejudice is next - it's a collection of Jane Austen's most popular works - so I think I'll switch to Frankenstein next because I don't know if I can stand another 6 hours reading of misunderstood intentions and thwarted love right away.
Still not tired, even though I had a cup of noodles to soothe my throat and chest, so I might just snuggle up and watch models get slaughtered on Law and Order SVU instead of going to bed right away. I have decided to be utterly delinquent and EAT LUNCH AT HOME before going to campus for class and work instead of going in early to research. The warning signs my body is giving me are just too much for me to overlook (I remember getting bronchitis 3 times in 2 1/2 years in California for ignoring my symptoms) and I'm going to try and lie still a little more, even if I do have to read while doing it.
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