.. in progress.

Today morning I attended a class on the history of Ireland. It's just an introductory class but I think it still may broaden my view and help me if I want to continue dealing with Irish history - which I'm considering. Actually I was very doubtful whether I should keep it up or leave it, because I realised that I lack so much of the background which British and Irish scholars acquired automatically, not to speak of the language disadvantage. So I used to think I'd better abandon that topic and move into more familiar ground to Austrian history. However, the few visits to the Faculty Club have changed my opinion a bit. There was Yuki from Japan, teaching American history and Per from Sweden, teaching History of Ukraine and Belarus. (By the way, Ukrainian and Russian studies are quite prominent at the University of Alberta's history department.) Both pointed out that exactly the fact of coming from outside can sometimes give you a very different perspective, can help you to question traditional points of views and actually enrich the study of that country's history. So I gained new energy to consider doing some additional studies and try to write an article. The vague idea is doing some comparison between the situation in Ireland and the monarchy - but I'm not totally convinced about the resources here at the UofA. I'll see..

I have two more ideas, rather vague, so I'm sorting my thoughts and just see what happens. You see, these days I just feel the urge to do something with my brain, I hope it stays like this abit longer..

And now I've just returned from a class of the University Teaching Services on the use of Power Point. It was only one hour but I learned so many new functions. Oh my! It's unbelievable how much time I've wasted until now by not knowing them! (Well, maybe it would have been a good idea just to read the manual at some time..)