Summer's Already Half Over -- Or Half Full?

I got my final grades for the two classes I took this summer; I got an A in The Power of Masks, and a B in The History of Western Civilization. I'm pleased as punch with both. Of course I take great pleasure in the A I earned in Masks, because I worked very hard on the M. Butterfly paper. I did some fantastic research on tranvestism, but ultimately decided not to analyze the presentation of tranvestism in the play. Maybe some other time. The instructor apparently didn't find me hard to read (yuk yuk), and gave me such lovely comments as "excellent analysis," and "this is clearly your voice here," and even "great." I got full points -- the second time ever, for a paper.

The B? Well, that's okay. How much can a girl memorize in four weeks, anyway? Plus, when I'm studying fascinating works by brilliant playwrights like Hwang, it's pretty hard to stay interested in things like the Carolingian rule and how the Holy Roman Emperors in Germany were always messing around with the Northern Italian economy. I like to have an overview of history, but to be perfectly honest -- all it does it help me form arguments about literature. I mean, the world is a text, after all. And I'm sure something from that class will help next semester when I'm wading through medieval English Literature. None will compare to Jeanne, but I do hope who ever teaches that class makes it interesting; if not, it's a snoozer. Actually, no, that's not right at all. I'm taking Modern English Lit this Fall, and Shakespeare, African American Poetry and Drama, and Cultural Pluralism (I think I chose the African Diaspora), and a class on Natural Disasters. Well, whatever the case, I'm sure have a small knowledge of the mighty bloodshed that has occurred in France and Germany and Spain and Portugal and Italy and Greece and Turkey and Russia and Israel and Persia...Well -- I'm sure that will come in handy someway, somehow. But seriously, people, the Children's Crusade? They say that it's where the myth of the Pied Piper comes from. So whatever happens, don't follow the man with the flute.