Today was the last day of classes, and also the end of a very cold school week. The semester went by quickly as it always does. Somehow the time just passes while we all stress about exams and papers and infatuations and drama with friends and all of that other stuff. I'm trying to be as mindful as I can of what's happening in the present moment so that I actually am active in my own life. That's tough to do. Especially at times like this when finals seem ready to consume us all. But I'm doing my best. =)
In my last post, I forgot to mention a couple of things so I'll do that now:
- The Monday before Thanksgiving break, we watched part of the South Korean film, "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring" in my religion class. The short excerpt that we saw was packed with so much meaning. It was truly amazing to discuss all of the symbolism that was embedded in each scene. A couple of weeks later I watched the rest of the film at home. The whole time I was mesmerized by the many connections the film had to the discussions we had in class. There are so few spoken words in the film and yet it says so much about being human. I felt like I was in a meditation the entire time I was watching it.
- Over Thanksgiving break, I visited the Noguchi Museum for my Asian Religions class. I dragged my dad all the way to Long Island City with me, and we had a great time. It's hard to find time to spend with my parents during the semester so I always jump at the opportunity to do so whenever I can. The museum displays the abstract art of the sculptor, Isamu Noguchi. I loved my dad's reaction to the sculptures: "What is this? This is not art!" haha. I grew up in the U.S. so I'm not too surprised to see this kind of art, but to him, this kind of art is a bit strange. But eventually, as we made our way around the museum, I think my dad began to like some of the stuff. There was one particular thing that he liked the most. It was a piece called the Slide Mantra, which he interpreted as being symbolic of the triumphs and failures that we have during our lifetimes. It's really hard to get to the top (using the stairs), and it's really easy to fall from the top (the slide). After the museum, we went to Socrates Sculpture Park (and froze our butts off because it was really cold that day). There was some really weird art exhibited there, but it was cool. This was actually the first time that I got to explore Queens, and I was happy to see that it wasn't entirely different from Brooklyn, but at the same time, had its own distinct character.
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| One of Noguchi's Stone Sculptures |
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| The Slide Mantra (along with my dad's hand as he's explaining it to me) |
A few things from this week:
- On Tuesday, the annual Victoria's Secret Fashion Show aired on TV so that was fun. haha. They showed this holiday commercial. The commercial featured this awesome song which I end up doing a quick Google search and getting the name of it. It's "Waiting Game" by Banks. A haunting/thought-provoking song:
- Yesterday, a Tibetan Buddhist monk visited my religion class. As soon as we were in his presence, I think we all had a sense of peace. I love how there is always some inherent "lightness" to monks. He had a lot of good things to say, and we all sat there enraptured by his soft voice and presence. I love how he is so loyal to his Buddhist beliefs, but he also is able to live in a modern world. He talked about things like compassion and suffering and obsession. And then he would mention YouTube or pull out a cellphone. He also had a great sense of humor.
- I gave two presentations in the last two days: one for Stats 213 and one for Bio 203 Lab. Presentations always make me a bit nervous, but I think both went well. One required me to learn Mathematica, and the other required me to read an immunology paper.
Good luck with finals, everyone!! =)
S.
Quote of the Week
~ C. JoyBell C.
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