Best Weekend Yet!

Yesterday, I went to Brooklyn with Katy and Carrie to visit our dear friend Greg, check out the Brooklyn Art Museum, and chill at the Way Station (a Doctor Who bar!). One amazing thing we learned about Brooklyn: the food is so cheap! The amount we spent on lunch and dinner was the same as one meal out in Manhattan! We're going to Brooklyn more often now!

Upon our arrival at the museum, we realized that there was an exhibit on sexuality and one on feminism! The feminism one was absolutely amazing. It's called The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago. The display is three long tables shaped into a triangle (to represent the pubic triangle) with place settings for prominent and strong women since the beginning of time. There were too many women to choose from, so whoever doesn't have a place setting has their name written on the floor. On each plate is a butterfly/flower/vulva sculpture to represent each woman. My favorite place setting was for Emily Dickinson:

Source: Highlight of my day

Some of the names more recognizable to me were goddesses from Mesopotamia (Ishtar, Ereshkigal), Biblical characters (Judith, Lilith, Ruth), some saints (Bridget, Joan of Arc), queens (Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, Elizabeth I), artists and writers (Gerogia O'Keefe), and many many others. There were place settings for only 39 women but 999 names were written on the floor. Fantastic display, I'm so glad I got to see it! Check out the Brooklyn Art Museum page to read more about it (linked above under "feminism")!

Stresssssss!

It's been far too long since I've posted. I have had so much to do and this semester is going to be tough, even though I am enjoying nearly all of my classes. The important ones I am anyway. I'm taking a course on the history and archaeology of Jerusalem taught by a prominent archaeologist; the Book of Qoheleth (also called Ecclesiastes), which searches for what is worthy enough in life to make someone eternally happy, debunking traditional wisdom; and in Akkadian we're now translating The Descent of Ishtar (it's kind of like the story of Persephone in Greek mythology, only a million times more awesome)!

My date for my final comps are set: March 26th! I'm a little nervous, but excited to choose an early date to be done with things early. I have selected 50 chapters from the Hebrew Bible, scattered throughout the Torah, Prophets, and Writings. I'd list them but there's just far too many. I purposefully selected passages where someone argues directly with God (Abraham about Sodom and Gemorrah's destruction; Moses keeping God from killing all the Israelites out of frustration; Job and Qoheleth (pretty much these entire books are arguments with or against God); Jonah and numerous other prophets; Lamentations and many many Psalms. I've also selected passages with archaic poetry, like Moses' Song after the crossing of the Reed Sea. Other passages discuss sexual or marital practices and a couple chapters I selected because they has funny names that I had never seen before (I'm not a big Bible reader...), like Jebus. I laughed so hard when I saw the name transliterated, so I selected a chapter that talks about him. I now know that Jebus is linguistically related to the Jebusites and Jerusalem, thanks to my Jerusalem class.

Planning for the conference is keeping me pretty busy, too. We've been having trouble getting straight answers about the Graduate School budget, but I think we've managed to put enough pressure and annoyances on the administration that we are finally getting somewhere! Things are finally starting to come together and look like a real conference!!!

Now I must go work on my translations, for there is much to do!