Categories: phd
Tags: blog, Sibiu, prayer, Romania, concert, fieldwork
Date: 28 May 2007 13:58:07
I posted on the SoF Prayer Thread yesterday that I felt like the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz, and requested some prayers for courage. I could really do with a placebo "Badge of Courage" like the one the wizard gives to the Lion at the end of the film! Basically, I was feeling really nervous about having to phone a contact *again* - she'd emailed me to say she'd call on Friday and then hadn't, and so I thought I'd have to phone her today. At this point in my research, with no data of my own, I need these contacts an awful lot more than they need me, and so I was starting to flap a bit (Shurely not - Ed) and assuming that they would feel nagged and pressured by me, when there's nothing in it for them. Anyway, around about the very time I posted my prayer request last night the selfsame contact texted me and asked if we could meet today. So my faith in God's sense of humour remains intact, though sometimes I do wonder if he's having a bit of a laugh at my expense (and why not, it's too easy. I'd probably do the same, if I were God). Anyway, if any of the Brits are around in about an hour's time (3pm your time) and want to say a quick prayer that I make a good impression and good things happen and whatnot, then that probably wouldn't go amiss.
I do realise that having blogged lots about culture and arty stuff I am giving the impression of being somewhat at leisure. That's not really the case - it's just that it's easier to show photos of interesting things on stage than to keep talking about research and stuff I'm reading which is not particularly bloggable. I'm getting into reading now, it means that I feel much more productive, and also has given me a lot of stuff to think about which will be incorporated into my interview design, so that's good.
I haven't abandoned the culture entirely though. Yesterday evening I went to a choral/orchestral concert at the Evangelical Cathedral, it was Bach's B minor mass. As a music graduate I probably shouldn't admit this, so don't tell anyone, but (*whispers*) I'm not actually that mad on Bach. I enjoyed bits of the concert (though I didn't think the soprano or mezzosoprano soloists were that great, and it did go on a bit), I'm glad I went, and some of the choral singing was really beautiful. But try as I might, Bach just doesn't do it for me the same way that other *big* composers do. OK, let the flogging commence.
[In other news, I learnt today that a low-budget Romanian film about illegal abortion at the end of the 1980s has just won the Cannes Palme d'Or (it's called, in English, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days"). Amazing that something so relevant to what I'm studying has won, and good as it means that I can probably justify getting the DVD when it comes out and charging it to research expenses :D ]