Spring...and essays.

The warm weather is glorious. There's been much taking of walks and other such activities. For me, there has also been much writing of essays.
First of all, for literature I just finished reading Milton's Paradise Lost. Now I need to write an essay on it. There was an interesting point I thought of. At one part, all the devils in their new home, Hell, are having a meeting regarding the creation of the world. Satan says something about the humans who are about to be created. It reminded me of last year reading Dante's Divine Comedy. In the Inferno there is some discussion about the "foresight of the damned." The idea is that those in Hell can see into the past of earthly events and into the future, but are unable to know what is going on in the present unless informed by someone else. Thus, when Dante speaks with the damned, they often ask him about the political state of Italy. Back to Paradise Lost. Satan, by mentioning the people about to be created, demonstrates just that foresight. He can see into the future, and into the past, but can he see the present? It is to be doubted.

Another Essay I'm writing is for the Jane Austen Society of North America essay contest. The prompt this year is: 

Examine a single Jane Austen novel or several and show different ways characters engage with their culture, views, mores, or living conditions.  How does participation in their world affect each character’s development?  You might look at how a character approaches material culture, physical or emotional space, interpersonal relations, social class, wealth, or gender.  You may consider elements of Jane Austen’s world that have inherently negative or positive influences on characters and events in the novels.

I'm doing my essay on Emma. Emma is the only one of Jane Austen's heroines to be a member of high society and not in need of any money. The novel treats a lot on class distinction. Think of Ms. Bates, the argument with Mr. Knightley regarding Harriet Smith and her potential marriage to Robert Martin the farmer, Mr. Elton's ill-bred bride, the Coles' party, Jane Fairfax's obligation to become a governess. There are so many examples in Emma of how her view of the world is shaped by the society she lives in. There is an essay at the JASNA site about the possibility of Emma being the novel about "ordination." 

I also just finished an essay for my French midterm, which was comparing the writings we have translated of Victor Hugo and Jean de la Fontaine. It was quite easy to write!

And now the 70° weather is calling to me. Off I go!

Language

At the end of my sophomore year I'll have seven high school foreign language credits. Now what?

Something tells me the AP Latin test is coming up soon...

I might take dual-enrollment college-level French next year!

Wintery-ness and school-ish stuff

Snowstorms, extremely low temperatures, whiteout conditions...looks like South Dakotan winter is back. That lull of warmth and very little snow over Christmas was strange indeed.
We've been slowly getting re-accustomed to the school year, which has been more difficult than usual with almost a week of schools letting out early and starting late. Tessie has had comparatively little school homework to do, but for homeschoolers snow days don't exist! We save our days off for when we actually want to be outside.
All of my classes have restarted except writing and French, which begin next week. Soon I'll have to pick another novel to read in French. Also Latin was cancelled on Thursday due to the weather, surprise surprise. But I'm trudging along through book II of the Aeneid all the same.
During the slight gap of school-not-being-on-full-force-but-break-is-over, what else would there be to do but read? I am rereading The Rosary by Florence Louisa Barclay, and also listening to Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey again for some new insights. I always like books better the second time around. (Or the third, or fourth...)
Apart from reading, I've been doing a lot of writing as well. One of my New Year's resolutions is to write for at least 30 minutes daily (because, as my writing teacher puts it, writers sit in the chair and write!). My goal is to finish the first draft of the book within 2015. I'm also dabbling a bit in my other story (remember Sebastian and Antonio?), trying to come up with the perfect way for my two protagonists to meet. I still don't really have a plot yet for that story...but I have a while to decide, as I'm focusing on Helena right now.
Ah, what else is there to say? We've been mailing lots of packages to siblings who forgot half their possessions here (it seems like) and talking to others who accidentally took stuff that wasn't theirs (namely Claudia, who is inaccessible by post in Morocco)!
Also I've been having some reeeeeealllly strange dreams lately. One of them involved living in L.A. and traveling to London by train in 3 hours. Weird.
That's all for now. I think.

Christmas!

We are having a lovely Christmas!
On Christmas Eve Tessie and I cantored for the first time for the 6 pm Mass. Then Mom, Isabel, Gus, and Thomas joined us and we sang in the choir for caroling and 9 pm Mass. Afterwards we got pictures in front of the Church's huge tree.

A lady from Church made my dress--isn't she talented??

Then we came back to a light meal (mostly made up of cookies and pies) and there was a lot of toasting going on. Mom and Dad went to bed and everyone else boisterously cleaned the kitchen while singing Christmas songs at the top of our lungs. Some people stayed up to watch a movie, but I went to bed.

Next morning we all got up early so we could do breakfast and presents before Gus and Emily left for Kansas City to have dinner with Emily's family. It was tons of fun as usual, with some pretty cool gifts! I won't go into details, but you can see the whole story here. We saw Gus and Emily off and played some games, and just hung out. Then one of Dad's colleagues came over for Christmas dinner, by which time we were all more than a little tired (and I was getting sick). But we still had fun, and later we finished the movie that everyone else had fallen asleep watching the night before. 

Today we are planning some art, shopping, visiting with friends, and relaxing. Patrick also left for Lincoln, NE to see his friends there. So here we go with the rest of Christmastide! (Which I would like to remind everyone lasts until February 2.)

Merry Christmas! 

French Midterm

This week was our French midterm. Instead of having an exam, we had to write a 3-5-paragraph composition en francais. It was actually rather fun! Here's what I wrote:

Les Voyageurs Visitent

J'habite en une île abandonnée avec mon frère. Nous sommes venus ici il y a huit ans. Nous voudrons aller ici après les mortes de nos parents. Je n'ai pas vue les autres personnes du tout sauf mon frère depuis trois années. Personne jamais vient ici. Mais un jour, mon frère courut à moi, disant qu'un bateau etait arrivé sur le rivage. Trois hommes ont debarqués et ils ont venus à nous. Ils dirent que leur bateau avait fait couler et ils avaient ramés ici rapidement. Ils eurent besoin de reparer le bateau.

J'offris cuisiner un repas pour leur. Passepartout, un valet, m'aide et le gentleman, Phileas Fogg, dit sure s'aventure : le tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours. Elle sembla impossible à moi, mais je n'ai pas parlée rien. M. Fogg avait fait un pari avec ses amis, et il etait parti à Londres le même soir. Mon frère a ri ; l'affaire etait ridicule ! Je crois que Passepartout etait d'accord. L'autre homme, un marin, dit du bateau et son fuite. Après ceci, je et mon frère disons sur nous-mêmes et notre vie. Nous sommes Americains, alors nous disons sur Amérique.

Après avoir mangeants le repas, mon frère montra leur l'île. Le valet Passepartout a été très fasciné, mais son maître, Phileas Fogg, a été assez impatient. (« Le calendrier ! » Il dit souvent.) Le marin etait ennuyé, je crois. Les hommes ne surent pas du tout sur la vie en une île. Nous leur montrâmes comme cueillir les fruits à les arbres.

Finalement, le jour prochain, une êquipe vinrent à l'île avec un bateau pour les voyageurs. Ils offrirent nous emmener aussi, mais nous avons declinés. Nous aimons notre île petite. Nous avons parlés « au revoir » à les voyageurs et fîmes un signe de la main pendant qu'ils sont partis. La visite des voyageurs etait amusante. 

French class

In French III we are reading novels in French this semester. At the end of the semester we will write a book report in French. My classmates and I discussed what book to read for a long time, because we wanted to read the same one to make for better discussions. We threw around many ideas, including La Tulipe Noire, Les Trois Mousquetaires, or Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Dumas, different works by Jules Verne, etc.
We finally decided on Friday to read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. In French that is Le Tour du Monde en Quatre-Vingt Jours. 

I'm excited for this year's French class! I think it will give us good practice reading French and translating in our heads. So far I'm only on chapter one. It's a bit challenging, but that's what classes are for, right?

Now to tell you...

...why I haven't been blogging lately!
The reason is that
(a) I was preparing for the school year
(b) I was helping Isabel get packed for college
(c) I was camping for Labor Day weekend
(d) then I started school

So ha! I have excuses!

For Labor Day every year a bunch of families get together and rent cabins at the diocesan retreat center. Then we all have "Family Camp," in which we stay there from Friday to Monday! There is a pool, volleyball courts, a lake to canoe, fish, or paddleboat, there's always a campfire, a little hiking trail with the Stations of the Cross, a cute village church, and gorgeous views. We all wish we could live there. Anyway, more on that plus pictures in my next post.

I started school on Monday. I am doing:
Geometry (my teacher is really funny)
AP Latin (I was doing that all summer!)
French (we are reading novels this year)
Understanding the Scripture for religion
Conceptual Physics (which I haven't started yet because the book just arrived today)
British Literature (currently reading Beowulf)
Fiction Writing (doesn't start until the 18th)
The Rending of Christendom (history of the Protestant Reformation; doesn't start until the 24th)
Poetry (starts on Tuesday)
and, of course, Piano and Voice!

Among other things, I read a lot of Agatha Christie over the summer. My two favorites so far are Murder on the Links and Murder at the Vicarage. Next on the list is Sad Cypress. 

Oh, and church choir started up again as well. We had our first practice of the year on Wednesday.
As you can see, I'm a busy girl this year! But I still have time for the things that really count, namely, going to Adoration on Thursdays, reading, and writing. (What more could you want??)
I'm planning my next novel, and just added two new characters, plus I just added a plot twist to my current novel!
So yeah, that's Maria B-H: 2014-2015 edition.
Hope to expand on some things soon, we'll see how the week plays out.

Our Trip: Casablanca

After a hectic plane ride and a very long wait in the Passport Control line at one in the morning, we arrived at Othman's parents' house. When we got there, I was astonished at how many people had stayed up to greet us.It was so nice of them!
That night, Claudia's friend Allison and I went to sleep at Claudia and Othman's apartment. It is small, but very cute and colorful. By the time we got to bed it was nearing four in the morning. 
The next day was the Moroccan wedding, so there was lots of bustling around. My aunt and uncle and cousin and their German friend got there, so that added to the chaos. Finally, though, we all made it to the wedding in a school bus. 
For some reason I had not the presence of mind to bring my camera to the wedding, so I have to photos from that night. I hope to steal some from other people and post those. Basically, it was a very long and fancy ordeal. We got there around 6:30pm and left around 3am. Yeah. Anyway, it was really fun to have that time to talk to the relatives, etc. Good food, too. 

Brenna and Thomas

There were these two adorable little girls there, this is three-year-old Alyssa.

Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue

There was a lunch the day  after the wedding, and these were the place settings.

We had lamb.

And for dessert, a semi-circle of ice cream!

Allison and Uncle Dave took an "old fashioned" selfie with my camera...

...And then Alli and I did one.

The next day we went to see a huge mosque right by the water. It was built for the last king for his birthday.

It had a lovely view of the port.

The doors were enormous. 

We went to their beach house the next day, and it was gorgeous out. 

A completely unedited photo.

...And the day after that, someone came and did henna for us.

It's made out of a plant mixed with water. You let it dry on your skin and then rub it off, and the designs appear in orange and stay on for a few days.

There were flowers everywhere as we drove around.