Book Recommendations

I love that I was able to read so many good books this semester... none of which were at all related to class. I think I already recommended "Anil's Ghost" by Michael Ondaatje, about a forensic anthropologist in Sri Lanka. I also just finished reading "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss, another amazing read. I will let Amazon tell you what it's about. But suffice to say it's also amazing. I will go to the library this afternoon to pick up some good books for Eurotrip 2006.

Speaking of Eurotrip 2006, I finally put together a tentative itinerary, which brings us from Paris to Budapest over the period of December 27 to January 6, with stops in Germany and Italy along the way. It will be intensive, yes, but what other way is there to do it? Ryan and I have a Eurail pass and a few set plans along the way (such as seeing a friend in Munich), a few tentative plans (perhaps staying with Hospitality Club-ber in Berlin and seeing a friend in Bologna) and a whole lot of adventure to fill in the gaps. I am counting on snow- these past few days it's gotten bitter cold here in Budapest, and yet no real snow yet. Should be fun :)

With all this focus on books and traveling you can probably guess that I'm done for the semester... almost. I have one more question to go on a take-home exam for Qualitative Methods and then I'm officially done. But for all intents and purposes I'm already considering myself retired until January 9 when the winter term starts.

Update on my thesis plans: I am meeting with my professor the first week in January to put together a solid plan. Although I was able to find data from the WHO (that was the easy part!), I have lots of reading to do between now and January to come up with my specific focus. My preliminary thought is to look at the global polio eradication program, comparing quantitative data on how many people vaccinated in a particular country with # of new polio cases reported. I have data for at least 30-50 countries, so I can then run a regression and see if there is a relation between vaccinations and polio outbreaks, and try and use this conclusion to talk about one of the current polio countries (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria) and the policies they are employing to eradicate polio. I think the data will show there is a relationship between vaccinations and # of new cases, and yet why isn't this relationship holding true for the countries that still have polio, where extremely large-scale eradication campaigns are currently underway? I will know a lot more about the policy implications when I actually run the regression, but until then it's nice to theorize about what COULD be the reason for the continued polio. I am thinking something about size, ruralness, etc. But we'll see.

Update on spring semester: I am very excited to be taking only 4 classes next semester, which are Comparative Political Institutions, Qualitative Methods, Microeconomics and Ethics. Shouldn't be too bad. Best part: I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and some Friday mornings. And the earliest I start is 11am. Very excited about that. Should give me plenty of time to work on my thesis.

And finally, an update on the job search process. I think I have decided that I want to go back to Latin America. I think. So I've been sending out some cover letters and resumes and keeping my fingers crossed that someone will come back with a "yes." Knowing that I want to move towards public health, I am looking at jobs involving public healthcare financing reform, decentralization of healthcare, etc. I was pleased to see a lot of this going on in Peru. So we'll see.
*Countdown to Eurotrip 2006: 3 days!
*To-do: finish take-home exam, buy small suitcase, charge batteries for camera and empty memory stick, buy small present for host parents, return books to library and check out more, and most importantly... end-of-term (and Jeff's birthday) cocktail tonight!