This week was Islam week in History 111. And I couldn't have been happier about it. Most students at some point in their education have learned about Egypt or Rome or whatnot in their middle school or high school history classes, but very few have ever been exposed to even the basic facts of the history and nature of Islam. It's ridiculous, because ( Read more... )

I wore this for teaching my Friday sections and hosting the first Medieval Movie Night of the year:

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It's Friday - the last day of productive office work before a weekend of final preparations. Tonight I am going to finish this book and start making potato salad for the Grad Student BBQ tomorrow. Today I made a million (72) copies of my syllabi, turned in paperwork, met with Dr. Parker about my seminar topic, ran around doing little errandy things ( Read more... )

Last night I read Religion and the Decline of Magic, and it was really cool. It had sections on Medicine, Catholicism, Magic, Superstition, Protestantism, Prophesies, Astrology, Witchcraft, Faeries, Ghosts, etc throughout the Medieval and Early Modern periods. SO cool. It was like 600+ pages so it had lots of detail and cool info and examples. I ( Read more... )

Today was interesting. I went to a Latin pre-Vatican II mass, and even though it was inaudible and long and had no songs for me to sing (definitely a test of patience!) it wasn't all bad. The church was beautifully painted, and it was neat to say some of the prayers in Latin and understand them. But overall, it was really boring. My saving grace ( Read more... )

I hope everyone had a relaxing, happy Christmas. I certainly did. Today I woke up, got ready, ate egg bake (traditional holiday breakfast, and delicious! I really must make it.) and opened presents with my family. I got my mom a circular yoga mat (a new yoga trend Julia alerted me to last year) and I think she really liked it. Got my Dad a set of ( Read more... )

Today I went to College Church (the cathedral on campus) instead of of the Basilica near my apartment, just to check it out. Because I'm tired, I will now put my reactions, both positive and negative, in list form ( Read more... )

I love my Latin page-a-day. Today's is "a done deal." Pactum Factum ( Read more... )

So I actually woke up this morning, to God's loudest thunderclap in history, in time for church. I wanted to check out mass at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica that I can see from my bedroom window. It's green and domed and I had heard that it was decorated in mosaics, like those we saw in Greece. Turns out the mosaics cover 83,000 square feet, and ( Read more... )

I'm going to hang out with Heather tonight! Yay ( Read more... )