30 degrees, feels like 19

That was the wonderful weather report I woke up to when I opened up weather.com at 8a. Love it.

Okay, so I'm almost done! Everything's coming together, so far so good - oh, except I'm having issues finding a third class for next quarter, but that's a different story. Right now I'm signed up to take a class on Marx, but apparently the professor is renowned as like *the* biggest bitch on campus - I was told that she is *never* nice. So anyway . . .

But papers: good! I'm giving a presentation this morning about my Cultural Policy paper. We have to tell the class about what we're writing on so they can ask us questions and give us feedback, in order to help us develop our ideas. Here's the brief topic statement:

" Using the Foucauldian definitions of morality, codes, and ethics, I want to examine how West Point’s Cadet Leader Development System seeks to create the code of a complete culture based upon a self-containing military morality. By enforcing this culture and having cadets internalize this morality, the military creates more reliable soldiers because their very identities and value systems depend upon Soldierhood / Warriorhood."

 "Foucauldian" refers to the French intellectual, Michel Foucault.

And here's my topic paragraph for my Latin American paper:

"For my term paper, I want to look into what kind of citizen Liberation Theology looks to cultivate within the context of the movement of the seventies, roughly. The French intellectual Michel Foucault uses the idea of an individualizing and totalizing power mechanism termed "pastoral power" in order to reflect upon modern power relationships. I want to see how Liberation Theology employed this kind of mechanism in building its movement. Specifically, I want to see how this type of power relationship in Liberation Theology encourages developing active citizens rather than re-active ones - meaning people taking initiative for creating the social circumstances they want rather than just fighting back because someone threatens or inflicts violence. However, how does its rhetoric acknowledge the politics of greater society and the role of the citizen once they overcome dire impoverishment?"

My TA for this class, Patrick, told me that he and Alma both really liked my proposal - which is saying something, because before class last night, she was going around to individuals and getting a little snarky about some of their topics (she's really particular about people writing what she considers to be meaningful and interesting papers about Latin America).

So these two things will define my existence for the next two weeks. Oh, except I'll pause a bit for Thanksgiving: Garfield and I are swapping families, so I will be heading down to the 'burbs tomorrow and staying at his parents' house for two nights. Garfield's not sleeping over at my mom's, but he is going to partake in my family's Thanksgiving dinner.

The Middle East ensemble had its concert on Sunday, and it was *amazing*. I started to tear up during one of the vocal solos and one of the wooden flute I-don't-know-it's-Arabic-name solos. It was a really beautiful concert. I'm loving this job! And my boss / the director, Wanees, is so appreciative of every single little thing I do, it's so easy to work for him. I got to design the cover of the program and also provide the photo for the posters we put around campus. The theme of the concert was music from Andalusia, so I provided photos from when my friend Megan and I were at the Alhambra this summer.

Okay, I have to go give my presentation now. I'll be home in 11 days! I can't wait!