Sunday, October 16, 2011

7 Weeks

Seven more weeks of school left. (And a half, if you want to get technical.) I can’t believe so much time has passed by already. It’s almost surreal when I think about the past weeks, trying to remember what I did here and there, when I did this or that. Did I tell you about all the men that run around shirtless? What about the constant use of umbrellas even when the sun is shining? Have I told you about the various breeds of dogs I’ve come across? Or the nationalities of various people? Australian. Italian. German. Korean. Chinese. English. American. Mexican. Russian. Polish. French. Spanish. Belgian. And a host of others.

I’ve discovered new ways of doing art and new ways of seeing things. The people native here have such an expressive language, one which holds more to ideas of things than simple to-the-point vocabulary. Much of what is in Chinese, though said in a few words, takes me many more words to express. A single idea can be expressed in a character or two. It’s simply amazing to me. In Chinese ink painting, we’re learning how the uses of brush and ink were considered expressive of not only an individual’s talents, but their inner feelings about the world, their views, their desires, their thoughts. They were more expressions than representations.

I have been able to pull knowledge from all of my classes and use it in others, using information from two or three classes to discover what is meant by an idea in a fourth. I’ve never had this feeling of connection between classes before, and it’s really enjoyable. Rarely did this ever happen at home, many of my classes going in completely different directions. Somehow these seem interconnected despite their differences in study.

I’m getting along much better with my classmates, and I’ve met a few new people I think I can call my friends. I still miss home and the people there, but I do enjoy meeting people who, though some come from the same country, seem quite different from me. I’m also learning things from them and others, which is exciting.

That’s all for now. I’m kind of tired, so I think I’ll go rest a bit. I’ll try to post more on a weekly basis. XD

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