The Life and Art of Paul Gauguin

The third, and final class, that I'm taking this semester is called The Life and Art of Paul Gauguin. I am very excited about this course. It's an art history seminar taught by Dr. Richard Brettell. He is the foremost scholar on Gauguin in the world. Paul Gauguin is a post-Impressionist painter, although he was often grouped with the Impressionists. Gauguin led a fascinating life, he travelled immensely and associated with many other important French people of the 19th century, including my favorite French poet, Mallarmé.

One thing I've come across in all three of my classes is that I tend to be the youngest one in the class. Particularly, in this class, there are a lot of older people. I hope that it won't affect how they view me or my ideas.

One advantage I have in this class is that I am fluent in French. I think this will turn out to be particularly helpful in research for the class.

Below are some famous Paul Gauguin paintings:

Le Christ jaune (The Yellow Christ), 1889

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?, 1897

19th Century American Literature

After my morning class on Thursdays, I go to my afternoon class which is 19th Century American literature. So far, this is my favorite class. Most people know that my favorite historical period of America is the 19th century, particularly the Civil War and Reconstruction. When I saw that this course was being offered, I had to take it. The professor, Dr. Shari Goldberg, makes the time fly by.

We are currently reading Emerson, but the readings for the course include Douglass, Poe, Thoreau and a variety of others from 19th century America. The professor encourages discussion and exchange of thought so I think that it will be interesting to see how others in the class view things differently than me.

It's important to remember that the United States of America is such a young country compared to the rest of the world, especially our counterparts in Europe. Below is a map of 19th century America.

Nature and Human Nature

Nature and Human Nature is the title of my morning class on Thursdays. It's hard to give a description of the course but the easiest way to describe the class is to say that it is a discussion on what, and if, the human nature resembles. It is a literature based course and we are reading a variety of books ranging from Gilgamesh to Shakespeare. It seems like a very complex class. I think that after a few weeks I'll have more to say about this course, but since I'm at the beginning, I don't have much more to say.

The professor, Dr. Frederick Turner, is very amicable. He is of British birth and, although this shouldn't matter, his accent makes it easy to listen to him for a long time. This is important because the class is 2 hours and 45 minutes. For more information, you can visit his blog at http://frederickturnerpoet.com/.

Currently we are reading Gilgamesh, which is an ancient epic. And by ancient, I mean ancient. The story was originally conceived in the period between Abraham and Noah. Below is a picture of an artifact from this era.

Piper the Cat Update

If you read this blog regularly, you'll notice that a post was deleted. The post was titled: Piper...the Pregnant Cat. However, Piper is not pregnant anymore because she had her kittens. Two nights ago, when she came to eat her dinner, she was no longer pregnant. She looked tired and a little scruffy. Piper has hidden her kittens somewhere and I don't expect to see them until a few weeks. I'm a little worried because last night there was a really bad storm here in Dallas and I hope the kittens are alright.

For $62 I can get Piper spayed, vaccinated for Rabies and FVRCP, and get one of her ears notched so that people know she belongs to someone. This is through the SPCA Dallas. I think it's a pretty good deal.

Well, that's the update on Piper. I started grad school yesterday and I'll blog about that soon.

Piper the Cat

Piper is my outdoor cat at Nate's apartment. This is a typical picture of Piper, he's always meowing. I don't know how old he is, or where he came from, but he's a really sweet cat.

Miss Molly

My little Bluebirds call me Miss Molly. I took a job as an Assistant Teacher at the preschool at Christ Lutheran Church in University Park. The job is going really well so far. I work with one year olds and solve their major problems with play-doh, bubbles and story time.

I enjoy this job a lot more than my previous position as an assistant to a Dean at SMU. However, I've learned an important lesson:

Just because someone else's problems seem small to you, it doesn't make those problems any less important.

It might appear that balancing a corporation's budget or making the deal with a significant client is more important than getting the blue ball at play time or making sure that you get to read "Dinosaurs Roar" once a day. In reality, these problems are no more or less important than the other.

The problems are just different.

Whistle while you work

This blog has been neglected for far too long...don't worry, there will be updates more often!

I don't entertain the same lifestyle as I did a year ago. I have a full time job now which leaves little time for anything else.

A warning to my readers: Because I'm not traveling as much, future posts probably won't relate too much to traveling. However, I am working on a few fun travel pieces that I'll throw in here every now and then.