Foreign Language Exam

The Graduate Student Foreign Language Exam will be given in the week of March 7, 2011 (the day and time to be determined) for students in graduate programs with a foreign language requirement. If you wish to take the exam this semester, please send the following information to Dr. Sandra Stjepanovic at sastjepanovic@mail.wvu.edu by Friday, February 18, 2011.

1. Your name

2. Language of the exam

3. Area of study (A text in an appropriate general area of study will be selected for you by a faculty member in the language area.)

4. Your department

The procedure for Foreign Language exams is as follows:

The student will read an approximately 250-300 word text related to his/her area of study and paraphrase its content in English. The answer will be evaluated by a faculty member from the relevant language area. The student will receive a “Pass” grade if his/her translation is coherent and reflects the gist of the original in a fairly accurate manner. Students will have one hour to complete the exam and may use a conventional dictionary (i.e., not a computer). Students should bring their own dictionaries.

Bored on a Friday

In case you don't make it to Colson Hall on Fridays, this is pretty much what happens. That's right: MFA students (Christina Rothenbeck, Lisa Beans, Danielle Ryle) pose like Charlie's Angels, which is not that easy to do, you've got to admit, during the winter in Morgantown. I doubt the Angels ever had to wear winter coats and lug backpacks full of 101 and 102 essays. So good work, Angels!

And speaking of Charlie's Angels, I just have to say that the women's locker room at the Stansbury gym is straight out of an Angels' episode. Maybe the one with the tennis match... in any case, the locker room is where the bad thing happens to Kelly or Kris.

Of course I watched the show whenever possible. My mom was not a fan—no surprise—so given my desire to watch and my mom's insistence that I didn't... well... that's pretty much everything you need to know. And yes: the Angels: very bad... one should most definitely not be a fan...

EGO Meeting/Last Lecture with Dr. Conner

All graduate students are reminded that EGO will hold it's first meeting of the new semester this Friday, January 28th at 4pm in 130 Colson.

Following the meeting (at 5pm) Dr. Pat Conner will deliver a last lecture entitled "Till Human Voices Wake Us." All graduate students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend Dr. Conner's lecture. Hope to see you all there.

A Very Snowy Day

Remember this book? Me too, kind of. And have I posted about it before? Maybe so. But such a sweet cover.

Anyway hi! And yes, it certainly is about time someone blogged. Sorry about the delay. But this semester is crazy-busy, as anyone will tell you, and it's only because of today's snow (thank you, snow!) that the blog is getting any attention at all.

But that's not because we don't care. It's just the Tenants are rather swamped what with the new semester and upcoming visits from job candidates and shoveling. Lots and lots of shoveling. Has this been a hard winter or what? And did you see the first snowflakes this morning? Huge! Prototype snowflakes.

So, how 'bout some news and, um, just some random snowy day thoughts?

~

Dennis Allen has been checking in from Sabbatical Land where, it turns out, good sentences are as hard to come by as they are in, uh, well, here. Especially when you have to write them yourself. But we know Dennis and we're pretty sure his sentence are way beyond good. So, yea! and keep writing!

Dennis is also your source for up-to-the-minute info on that wow-it's-just-getting-better-and-better PBS series Downton Abbey. I started watching, but I was with my parents at the time (terrible mistake #1) and then left the room ever so briefly (terrible mistake #2) and have missed a lot. Do you know about the Turkish envoy? And the trouble between Lady Mary and Lady Edith? And the limping valet who isn't married and isn't free to marry? What's up with that? And the cook is going blind, says Dennis. The evidence: she put salt on the dessert.

Of course we could have our very own show—Colson Hall—since, as everybody knows, we are nothing if not dramatic. It's a shockingly appealing idea, isn't it?

~

Um, alrighty (is that a word?), let's see... snowy day thoughts... well... on one hand, the snow is rather pretty (my dogwood looks especially nice in its snowy gloves)... on the other hand, can we get a plow or two and maybe some salt? I mean, really, this town and its roads. Thank goodness school closed for the evening.

~

I suppose now would be a good time to quote a snowy poem, but I can't think of any. Why don't you write one? Something to do when you finish shoveling. Here, I'll help you. Write 12-14 lines—unrhymed!—using the following words: snow, wire, blue, deer, address, river, wonder, and story. Remember, some words can be nouns or verbs, and yes, you can change tense and make plurals and etc. Oh and use either money or sugar: those two are always good for a little trouble.

Post your results in the comments section, 'k?

And enjoy the rest of your very snowy day.

Tip your sombreros to Heather Frese

Congratulations to MFA Creative Writing student Heather Frese, who was one of four finalists in Creative Nonfiction's MFA Program-Off competition.

Heather's essay, "Sombreros," will soon be posted on Creative Nonfiction's Web site. She'll also receive $50. More than 200 essays from 100 different MFA programs were submitted to the competition.

WVU in the top five of MFA programs? That's exactly where we belong.

Way to go, Heather!