Another Book Review

I finally finished Olympia, Paris in the Age of Manet by Otto Friedrich. I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish it ... it was a little tougher reading for some reason than I had anticipated. But I'm very glad I plodded through. I had thought it would be fiction, but it was actually a non-fiction book. Obviously, the book centers around Manet and part of each chapter is about him. But then Friedrich takes tangents, either with people who modelled for Manet or who liked Manet or the city in general. I learned a great deal about Manet, but also about the history of Paris, Napolean III and his wife, the history of all the Impressionists, the invasion by the Prussians, the condition of prostitutes in the city, the history of sphyillis, the personalities and pictures of all the other IMpressionists, etc. It really is like knowing all the gossip and personalities about all the Impressionist painters and their time period. I think having read it will really open up Paris & especially the Musee d'Orsay.

So, excited to go to Paris. Less than a week! :-0

And on a side note, I finished my paper that I have been working on this month (I am not completely a lazy bum). It's all written as well as all the statistics (finally figured out how to do a multivariate linear regression ... and from a person who never took a statistics course). My advisor as well as the college's statistician who was working with us really liked it. The other girl who worked on the project with me will continue and finish up the paper. We are hoping to get it published in the American Society of Engineering Education's (ASEE) journal and present it next year at their conference in Chicago. We'll see.

But otherwise, I really am a lazy bum. Most of our stuff is packed for the move, but not for Europe yet. We start packing this weekend ... eeeee ... so excited.

May ... may be taking a trip to Utah this summer. Call it the year of traveling. Between the two of us, we have gone to : Japan, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Europe, and then maybe Utah, and definately Texas for Christmas. It's a wonder we're not broke from buying all these plane tickets ...