"The Complete Maus"

Ok, so I know I haven't really written in a while. It's been crazy and I've been working on my RP study for my Dog Blog.

Anyway, a little fact that you might not know about me. World War II has always been my favourite war. That sounds a little weird to say. What I mean is, it is the war that has always interested me. Even when I was little I would read books on the German Camps and what America did to help. I think we I was 5 I asked if we had any relatives who went through the holocaust. Ah...I was so much more enthusiastic about learning when I was little. Maybe if I pretended I was 3 again I would find joy in sitting down with an encyclopedia and just reading. It's something I'll look into.

Back to the topic at hand.

My English course for this semestre is called 'Controversial Classics.' We're reading books and plays that were thought controversial when they were first published, but are now considered classics. We're going into detail about why there has been this flip of opinion by the public. This week's lectures are about a graphic novel.

It's "The Complete Maus" by Art Spiegelman.

Spiegelman wrote and drew this novel to tell the story about his father and mother who were Auschwitz survivors. It's a really compelling book and I highly recommend it if you are or ever have been interested in WWII.

Feeling All Grown Up

Is there anything out there that makes you feel more grown up than dealing with the bank? Well, perhaps the birth of your child, but I'm not that grown up just yet. Yes sir, the two things in my life that actually make me feel grown up right now is looking for a house to rent next year and dealing with the bank. As you know, I've been looking for almost a month for a place to rent next year that will allow pets so I can raise for GDB UK. Today though, I actually had to go into the bank and sit down and have a meeting. The only problem is, banks make me terribly uncomfortable.

Honestly, I'm not sure why they do, but I hate going in there. I hate talking to the tellers even when they're very nice, I hate dealing with my money (I think we should go back to the barter system), and I hate sitting there listening to them tell me things when all I really want is a simple account. You can keep your fancy schmancey stuff, I just need a place to hold my money. I swear, if there is such a thing as past lives then I must have been someone who lost all their money in the Stock Market crash and ended up going from a mansion to a card board box. I just don't like the feel of banks. But I did it! Yay for Erin! I successfully opened a savings account (yeah, I feel so grown up), and got them to resend my online password which has evidently been lost in the post. Now that that is all dealt with, I feel...well like I need to scrub myself. Again, banks...don't like them all that much.

In other news!!!!

Guess how much Erin spent on school books today. :P Is the answer far more than any student should ever have to? You bet kiddo!

November 3: Never Do Art History

This is the pile of books I brought home from the library yesterday. I should have had 3 more, but one of them was larger than the largest book in that pile and I couldn't find the other two. I'm thinking about going back today to get the larger book and pick up a book I had reserved, but that one's not due back until 11:59 tonight so that one might not be in just yet.

The moral of the story is to never take an Art History calss. It's a lot of fun, but the books are ginormous. You should see some of the folios they have over here. I swear some of them look like they're heavier than me. And they told us that we were more than welcome to take the folios out of the library...if we had the upper body strength.

Anyway, these books should help me write my Art History essay, my English essay, and my Linguistics essay. All due next Tuesday. YIKES! But hey, only 1000 words! Who do they think I am? A first grader? I don't even know if I can get my point across in my English essay in 1000 words...and we have to count footnotes. Sigh...I hate having to condense my work. I think essays should be "write until you've fully answered the question."

Funny little tidbit about our library by the way. We have to use our Student ID cards to get in and out of the library. They are those turn stiles (I think that's what they're called) like the subways do in NY and LA. They read the barcode on our cards and the turn stile allows us to pass into the large and wonderful cavern of old books. But, they allow us to forget our card up to 3 times. After that they say, "sorry, go find your card or buy a new one." Fair enough. But when I was told this in a "How to Use the Library" lecture I started in a fit of giggles that I couldn't stop. I imagined a person trying to leave the library but he had forgotten his card one too many times and the librarians wouldn't let him leave. He was forever trapped behind the turn stiles with nothing but old books and newspapers for company. :)