So, York's exam period is December 8th-21st. Guess what? I have an exam on the 8th AND an exam on the 21st. They're both Linguistics courses, why would they put them so far apart? Thus, I get less than two weeks off for Christmas. Argh! (The other two exams are the 15th and 16th.) It sucks mostly because I really wanted to go up to Montreal for a week or so to visit my sister. I don't think that's going to end up happening.

Noam Chomsky is coming to Toronto to talk about "The Imperial Presidency" on November 21st, and I'm going to see him. I've been telling my Linguistics profs and watching their eyes light up. :)

A couple nights ago, Chris and I watched In the Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary. It is a series of interviews with Frau Junge, who got hired to be Hitler's personal secretary at the age of 22, was there in his bunker when he killed himself, and was not even questioned after the war. She kept quiet about her experiences and reflections about him until 2001, when she gave these interviews and talked about his personal qualities and how foolish and ashamed she has felt for being unaware of the horrible things he was doing. She talks about his relationship with Eva Braun, his pet dog that loved him and slept in his room, seeing him holding puppies, how the Goebbels children would come to see 'Uncle Hitler', being surprised that he was so cordial and such a gentleman, and eating and having tea with him every day. At the same time, she says that he was "horrible" and a "monster", because of the concentration camps, etc. I think the point is that he wasn't a "monster" (though his actions were monstrous), he was a real man and we should not be lulled into thinking that our leaders or ourselves are incapable of such delusions and crimes.

She also talked about how he was certain that he was helping the German nation by getting rid of the Jews, and that he killed himself because he thought that the fall of National Socialism would bring a world where the men were castrated, the women were raped, bombs fell all the time, all sorts of awful things. She said that they (his staff) were convinced that's what it would be like, and she was very surprised after the war to find that life was much better than he had feared. It reminded me of my own fears of life without Christianity and surprise at liking it; it was strange to recognize that emotion in such a context.