(no subject)

[abka]

I did end up getting my book from the Library of Congress last week and then gave a reasonable presentation. The originals of the magazine I'm working on (Zenit published in the 1920s in Zagreb then Belgrade)are not in DC, they're at the New York Public Library and there are reprints in LA (Getty), Iowa, and Yale. If the NYPL librarian I emailed gets back to me (address courtesy of my awesome advisor) I will be heading to New York some time mid-next-week for a few days. Anyone around?

I also schlupped through another 5-page history paper (we effectively have a 5-page paper due every two weeks on a different topic, they are sucking up all my time this semester.) I thought it was okay, but the other woman in my class who I'm becoming friends with (partly because she lives in a sketchy area and I give her a ride home after class and we talk in the car) said it was good and that the guys in the class thought my last paper was the best one given that week. Yay!

This means I've been neglecting Rembrandt class. This was particularly clear when Monday he asked everyone their paper topics and I didn't have one yet. That's today's task. It would be good to know what I'm doing before the trip to New York next week since there will probably be relevant things at the Met. Busy, busy.

Friday Rinna (Finnish woman from history class) came over to watch the debates. She is working on a PhD in history, specifically former-Yugoslavia and contemporary Serbia so she talked to Denis who sort of participated in the conversation, but he doesn't follow a lot of Serbia news and politics. It was nice to have company. This weekend a bunch of Williams students were down for a Whistler class fieldtrip so we had 2 houseguests Sat. night and 1 Sunday. I tagged along Sat. and Sun. mornings (I miss Williams and Marc Simpson) but mostly had to work on dumb history paper on the revolts in the Habsbug Empire in 1848-49, thrilling stuff.) It was good to see some of the second-years though. It's so weird to see people weekly for a year and then never again. Speaking of, Saturday we went to Mindy's good-bye party. So sad losing Mindy, but glad she's off to better things. I had to leave early to pick up (by then drunk) houseguests, but Denis stayed late.

Tonight my parents are arriving for the weekend. I'm slightly stressed that I will not have enough time to work, but it will be good to see them. Saturday we're going to the new Museum of the American Indian and then to a play at the Kennedy Center (Old Golden Pond with James Earl Jones, sounds a little quiet, but okay.)

Comments

[toran.livejournal.com]

I just want to take this moment to point out that Indians were not called that because Columbus thought this was India. They were called that because it was a derivation of the Spanish word "indios" which means natives.
Also, that stuff about the Hapsburg empire sounds awesome. I know almost nothing about the old Austro-Hungarian empire and kind of wish I did.

[abka.livejournal.com]

If you're looking for a reasonably interesting straight-up history of the Habsburg Empire (that's not too long), Alan Sked's "The decline and fall of the Habsburg Empire, 1815-1918" is pretty good.