10 Years After

Ashtray Monument

I went by to see Dr Gross today. I had emailed him to ask for some assistance in picking out a graduate school for linguistics. We talked some about my interests in the various fields and he gave me a good idea of where to start looking. Basically, in the South East the University of South Carolina is the only real option.

There was several places in the South West and along the West Coast. Best of all, sine I am mostly intersted in Historical Linguistics, he recommended that I look into going to school in England. Particularly, he thought I should apply to the University of York and the University of London. (Ever since living in England in high school I've dreamed of going to school at Oxford.)

Sail on Sailor

I just finished typing up my book review of Primo Levi's "The Drowned and The Saved" for my History of the Holocaust class. I loved this book. The mood was dark but I felt like Levi had a lot to say. I especially enjoyed the vignettes such as the story of Chaim Rumkowski, the Jew who ran the Lodz Ghetto as a king until he too was sent off to Auschwitz. Levi wrote clearly and frankly. I also identified with his sort of astute observations and objective analysis. The mood is heightened when the reader realizes that this was the last book by Primo Levi before he committed suicide. I have to say that I was really saddened to learn this. It seems like he had so much to say.

Sometimes it's hard to read things merely for a class. I had the same problem last semester in Milton. I was lucky in that I picked up the book well before there was a looming deadline for a review. In fact, I liked it so much I picked up two other books by Levi: The Periodic Table and The Search for Roots: A Personal Anthology. I also received a copy of Night by Elie Wiesel - to whom Levi is often compared.