The best thing today

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Tue March 8th, 2011, 6:18 pm

Wasn't sure whether to post this here or in travel, but seemed to have more to do with my mood than the wonders of Washington. I'm on a cheap bus from NYC to DC (with WIFI, AC outlet and not much leg room) to attend a lecture by Professor Maria Dzielska, author of Hypatia of Alexandria at the Polish Embassy. This is the book that finally got me off the dime to write my novel. I'm so excited to meet her and have a hundred questions. My husband asked, as I was going out the door, "Is the program in English?" GAH! I hope so. If not, I'll post in the "Worst Thing Today"!

wendy · Post by **wendy** » Tue March 8th, 2011, 7:56 pm

[quote=""fljustice""]Wasn't sure whether to post this here or in travel, but seemed to have more to do with my mood than the wonders of Washington. I'm on a cheap bus from NYC to DC (with WIFI, AC outlet and not much leg room) to attend a lecture by Professor Maria Dzielska, author of Hypatia of Alexandria at the Polish Embassy. This is the book that finally got me off the dime to write my novel. I'm so excited to meet her and have a hundred questions. My husband asked, as I was going out the door, "Is the program in English?" GAH! I hope so. If not, I'll post in the "Worst Thing Today"![/quote]

And if not - how's your Polish?! Hope you aren't disappointed.

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Tue March 8th, 2011, 8:13 pm

Maybe they have translator thingies you can use.

SM

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed March 9th, 2011, 5:38 pm

Have fun and be sure to tell us all about it.

fljustice · Post by **fljustice** » Thu March 10th, 2011, 4:33 pm

It was in English and I had a blast! Professor Dzielska spent most of her speech summarizing her book and updating the research (which was the main question I wanted answered.) Then she spent most of the Q&A refuting all the historical errors in the movie Agora (I wrote a three-part "reel vs. real" post about the movie on my blog.) I got her to sign my 15-year-old dogeared copy of her book and gave her a copy of mine. Everyone was astonished that I came all the way from NYC to hear her talk. It turns out that her son is the First Secretary of the Embassy and she was visiting from Krakow, so they put this program together to acknowledge International Women's Day on March 8. (Since it's "International", we don't celebrate here in the US!)

At the reception I chatted with a lovely Polish couple who were holocaust survivors; discussed whether Hellenistic philosophy and Christianity are compatible, with a young seminary student; and found the folks who go to all the free Embassy events for the food! Response of one gentleman to my query about how he enjoyed the program: "They really made me work for the food this time."

Coupled with a lovely visit with a writer friend who put me up Tuesday night and provided taxi service to and from the bus depot, I couldn't have asked for a better trip!

Nefret · Post by **Nefret** » Thu March 10th, 2011, 4:52 pm

Finally get to see somebody I miss in about a week.

wendy · Post by **wendy** » Fri March 11th, 2011, 1:35 pm

[quote=""fljustice""]It was in English and I had a blast! Professor Dzielska spent most of her speech summarizing her book and updating the research (which was the main question I wanted answered.) Then she spent most of the Q&A refuting all the historical errors in the movie Agora (I wrote a three-part "reel vs. real" post about the movie on my blog.) I got her to sign my 15-year-old dogeared copy of her book and gave her a copy of mine. Everyone was astonished that I came all the way from NYC to hear her talk. It turns out that her son is the First Secretary of the Embassy and she was visiting from Krakow, so they put this program together to acknowledge International Women's Day on March 8. (Since it's "International", we don't celebrate here in the US!)

At the reception I chatted with a lovely Polish couple who were holocaust survivors; discussed whether Hellenistic philosophy and Christianity are compatible, with a young seminary student; and found the folks who go to all the free Embassy events for the food! Response of one gentleman to my query about how he enjoyed the program: "They really made me work for the food this time."

Coupled with a lovely visit with a writer friend who put me up Tuesday night and provided taxi service to and from the bus depot, I couldn't have asked for a better trip!

[/quote]

Sounds like you had a fabulous time. Glad it all worked out so well.

sweetpotatoboy · Post by **sweetpotatoboy** » Fri March 11th, 2011, 3:06 pm

Having a stonking cold hasn't stopped me going out this week.

On Wednesday evening, went to a session at the Royal Festival Hall on erotic literary translation. Basically, they had two professional literary translators who had each, specially for the occasion, prepared translations of two extracts of erotic French literature (one from Apollinaire and one from Alina Reyes) and, at the talk, they for the first time saw each other's work and we saw the pieces side by side and with the original and they had to discuss the choices they made. It sounds a bit highfalutin' but it was a lot of fun, especially as there was much talk of which English terms to use for the various naughty French words... It was expertly chaired by novelist Michèle Roberts.

And yesterday evening, I had my HF book club meeting. We had a good turnout and great discussion of Helen Dunmore's The Siege. We next meet in May to discuss CW Gortner's The Confessions of Catherine de Medici!

MLE (Emily Cotton) · Post by **MLE (Emily Cotton)** » Mon March 21st, 2011, 4:31 am

Spent a delightful afternoon at a performance of Man of la Mancha in a completely refurbished art deco theater. And then went to dinner with my honey afterwards.

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Mon March 21st, 2011, 5:07 pm

One of my kids is well enough to go to school!

Historical Fiction Online

The best thing today

On a bus to D.C.