Aftermath

                I don’t know what it is about Boston (well, let’s be honest; it’s probably the climate), but I always spend most of the fall/winter here in a semi-sick condition, slightly under the weather but not really sick. Occasionally it will get worse, if I don’t get enough sleep or have a really busy week, or etc. This past week, due to midterms and a paper that is finally finished, was one of those times; I’m feeling better now, but I had a slight fever for a couple days. Consequently, I’ve spent most of my time indoors, in bed, so this blog isn’t as eventful as most.

                About the only place I went this weekend was to church. We sang quite a few more hymns than usual, including songs I don’t think I’ve heard in years. I didn’t realize how happy hearing them would make me; they remind me of sitting in church with my parents on Sunday nights growing up.

                Most of my weekend was spent memorizing. I found several websites on the internet that provide free lists of information on various subjects. I’ve heard arguments that rote memorization takes away the point of learning, and obviously, lists of facts aren’t everything; you can’t memorize your way into a philosophical argument. Still, you can’t theorize properly unless you already have the facts well in hand. I also happen to find memorization extremely enjoyable. So I’ve found the weekend very interesting, but it doesn’t translate very well into blogging.

                Since I didn’t do that much this week, I figured I’d end with a little more explanation about Harvard. I’ve put it in footnotes before, but perhaps it’s best to lay it all out in one place. So, here’s a rough outline that I hope makes sense:

                Harvard University was founded as a college in 1636 primarily to trail clergymen. Later on, the graduate schools were added, and the University gained an international reputation for its liberal arts college and graduate studies programs. During this time, Harvard Yard served as the center of classes and dorms for the College; over time, as the college expanded, more buildings had to be built, although the Yard is still the center of academic activity at the college.

                Some of these dorms were constructed along the Charles River, while others were converted from what was formerly Harvard’s female counterpart, Radcliffe College.  The residential college was converted into an administrative building and a set of dorms, which is now what we affectionately term “the Quad” or more officially “the Harvard-Radcliffe Quadrangle.” It’s a 20-minute walk from Harvard Yard, although a shuttle also runs between the Quad and the Yard at most hours of the day. There are also shuttles to the dorms on the River, since some of them are nearly as far away from the Yard as we are.

                This might also be a good time to compile some Harvard topographic terminology:

1. The Yard = Harvard Yard
2. The Quad = The Harvard Radcliffe Quadrangle
3. House = upperclassman dormitory
4. Dorm = freshman dormitory
5. Tudor = grad students who live in and semi-oversee the Houses
6. Proctor = grad students who live in and oversee the Dorms
7. House Master = professor overseeing the House
8. River Houses = group of Houses located between Harvard Yard and the Charles River
9. Quad Houses = group of Houses in the Quad
10. Quadling = resident of one of the Quad Houses
11. “Quad Life” = can have different meanings, depending on intonation, but generally refers to the inconvenience of having to walk twenty minutes to get anywhere

All freshman are required to live on campus and live in Dorms, most of which are around Harvard Yard. A few are further away and are occasionally referred to as “the freshman Quad Houses”. Upperclassmen may live off campus or in special housing, but the majority stay on campus in the Houses. All upperclassmen Houses are part of either the River or the Quad block.

It’s also good to note that Harvard isn’t closed off from Cambridge; it intermixes with the city. You’ll pass a Harvard dorm, and then a bunch of independent businesses or a residential area, and then a Harvard Class building, and then a shopping center, and etc. It’s hard to tell where Harvard stops and Cambridge begins.

I hope this helps you put these posts in context!

PS - I entirely forgot to mention that, while I didn't do much this weekend, a little while back I attended a talk at the Harvard Club of Boston (which was much more grand than I was expecting). The talk wasn't that interesting, but they did have some good show-and-tell items:

 This is an engraved cup presented to William James (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James) by his students - I'm the one holding it.

 This is as close as I got, but this is one of the (apparently very few) death masks of Pascal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal).

 Sunrise over Boston:

 These are some pictures from the last time I went jogging, before the weather turned cold and damp.

 This is where the apples from the apple-picking a couple weeks ago ended up - in our Bible Study group.

Midterms and Mountains

Well, midterm season is here. This year, instead of having one every week, I have all of them in one week – three, to be exact. I’ve already taken one; the remaining two are on Thursday and Friday. The first one went alright, I think – it’s hard to judge with essays. I’m most worried about my First Nights midterm on Thursday – everyone was kind of surprised at how difficult it was expected to be – but I’m not terribly worried. I’m not sure if I ought to be more worried; it’s been so long since my classes counted toward my GPA…

In any case, classes are going alright. In Arabic we’re discussing the banning of books. On one side there are passionate arguments about freedom of speech and Orwellian terrors, and on the other side there are passionate arguments about hate speech and slander. But then, it’s always a balance: in Western Intellectual History we just finished studying Aristotle and the golden mean.

Outside of midterms, my major project of the week is writing my third philosophy paper for my seminar. Philosophy papers are much more difficult than most because they have to be so precise, both in defining their terms and in qualifying their reasoning process and thesis. In a scientific paper, you have to use the terms right, of course, but in philosophy everyone to an extent defines their own terms, so you can never simply say “self-awareness, not memory, is the prerequisite for personhood” without explicating every noun in the sentence – and books have been written attempting to define each of those particular nouns.

I did have a nice weekend. I spent a good part of it studying, of course, but I also hiked to the top of Mt. Monadnock on a trip organized by Pfoho (my dorm). It was more challenging than I expected; I was in tennis shoes, and there were some pretty slippery patches. Fallen leaves; gentle rain and snow; and a trail full of slick, steep rock are all very scenic separately, but they don’t combine very well. Still, I made it up and down with no major mishaps, and it was nice to be outside and active for the day. I’m pretty sore, though, especially adding in ROTC PT on Monday.

For logistical reasons we’re having ROTC lab on Tuesday instead of Wednesday this week, but due to a mix-up about the zipcar, I found myself with a bit of free time before we needed to leave, so I’m sipping some hot peppermint tea and writing this at 5:50 in the morning, back in my nice warm room. I’ve taken the added measure of filling my thermos with hot chocolate to sustain me through lab; I haven’t had much sleep lately, but hot beverages always improve my mood, and hot tea, especially, has been in plentiful supply.

ROTC itself is going well, as far as I can tell. This week we’re starting Fitness Reports, or FITREPS, which are semesterly performance evaluations (not to be confused with Situation Reports, or SITREPS, which are weekly updates written by each MIDN to let us know how they’re doing). The seniors have service selected now, meaning they know which part of the Navy (subs, aviation, surface warfare (SWO), special operations (SpecOps), or a few rare alternatives) they’ve been selected for. It’s kind of scary to think that next year, I’ll be in their shoes.

I’ve been spending most of my free time lately watching old Sherlock Holmes movies in German; it gives me a chance to practice while still relaxing, although it usually takes a bit of work to understand the complicated explanation that inevitably comes in the denouement. I’ve also found BBC’s Sherlock in German, since I’ve seen it in English way too many times. The movies go very well with the hot tea.

I’ve also moved to Isaiah in my Bible study and so been able to read it in the original Hebrew, although I always need the English translation on the side. I can understand quite a bit, and there’s always something new to learn. For instance, yesterday I learned the Hebrew words for viper and porcupine, as well as the (albeit archaic) Hebrew cognates for the Arabic words ‘power’ and ‘take.’ Ancient Hebrew is much more similar to Arabic than Modern Hebrew, much like Old English and German.

I’ve talked quite enough for one post, I think. Wish me luck on my midterms, and good luck to you if you have any. If you don’t, take an anti-vicarious pleasure in knowing that some of us are memorizing how many oboes there were in the first performance of Handel’s Messiah (there were four, if you’re wondering). Until next time!

Pictures: Thank you to all those who've taken pictures of and for me, both here and in previous blogs!

This is from the bottom of the mountain, not the peak. It was below freezing. And it's not even the end of October.

 I settled for a hoodie and T-shirt, which turned out to be about right for most of the way, although whenever we stopped climbing it got pretty chilly.

 Fall in New Hampshire!

 We kept thinking we'd reached the peak, but the mountain just kind of kept going up. It was gorgeous, though.

 I tried to take a picture of it snowing; I'm not sure if I succeeded or not. But take my word for it; it is snowing in this picture.

 Most of the trail looked like this; I stopped counting the number of near-slips I had.

 At the top!

This (on the horizon) is Boston from the top of a mountain 75 miles away - good luck spotting it in the zoomed-out photos!

 Ah, the feeling of accomplishment.

Of Apples and Acorns

Happy holiday to all, whatever we’re celebrating. We’re having our annual three-day weekend here at Harvard. I thought I had a lot of free time, so I scheduled a bunch of things, and then I discovered I had almost no time left over, but it’s working out. Also, I have all three of my midterms next week, so that’s going to be fun, but at least they’ll be over with.

What have I done this week? I suppose the largest event was the Navy and Marine Corps Birthday Ball. I’ve ended up helping with set up every year, so this time I figured I would actually volunteer to help. It went pretty quickly; not that much needed to be done. I was there from around one in the afternoon until around eight in the evening – we started earlier this year – and then left when the dancing started to get going. I needed sleep.

Sunday I went to church, which ended, as it does every year, with the sounds of the brass bands marching in the annual Honkfest parade outside. I have yet to figure out what, exactly, this parade is for, but I walked back next to it, just like I do every year, before turning off to go back to the Quad. After church I got some work done, although I wish I’d spent more time outside. We’ve had a little rain, but the weather has been pretty nice, and the trees are starting to change. Sunday night a friend came over, and we watched TV and ended up talking until past eleven.

On Monday I went apple picking for the first time with Cru. Fall is a big thing here, and we drove about an hour to a huge orchard and spent about an hour clambering around hunting for apples. You pay for a bag of a certain size to put apples in, so three of us split one, and we each ended up with quite a few apples to take home. They also sold doughnuts and pies and cider, but I passed. Afterwards we came back to the Quad for chili and conversation.

The other event of the weekend was someone’s setting off the fire alarm at 1:30 Saturday morning, much to my annoyance. Not that they woke a ton of people up; I think most people were still awake. They had to call the fire department to check it out. There was no fire, but at least we know if there ever is, the fire department will be there and ready to go. It also helped me practice my reaction times. Upon waking up to the alarm, I took the time to change into proper clothes and brush my hair before grabbing some stuff and leaving. And I still made it out before some of the people who were already awake. Go figure.

 I spent most of Friday night attempting to write an essay explaining a very technical philosophical account of personal identity. It’s surprising how hard defining a person actually is. You can’t define a person solely in terms of his body, because you can imagine people switching bodies. You can’t define a person by means of a soul or spirit, because that’s ‘spooky stuff’, and in any case, that still leaves you having to define a soul or spirit, which is no less difficult. Most people attempt to define a person in terms of his memory – eg only I have my memories from my perspective. But that leads to all sorts of problems if memories can be transferred or transplanted into multiple people… In any case, the topic is complicated enough to have a class dedicated to it.

In any case, life has suddenly become a lot more stressed, and I’m going to need a Sabbath soon, but I’m okay for now. I haven’t needed to worry about school for a long time; it’s probably good for me; it gets my blood going. The next few weeks are looking pretty busy, but that just means time will pass all the faster. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I can’t stop it, so I might as well look on the bright side.

Well, that’s about all for this week. Classes are going alright; I’m a little stressed, but not terribly. And things will be much better after midterms are over, hopefully. I’ll be right in the middle of them the next time I post – we’ll see how it goes!

Pictures:

So... this is how I view MIT:

 vs. Harvard. And yes, these are actual pictures, taken within a couple of days of each other. Not to say either location is always like this, but this is what my subconscious pictures for either school.

 Honkfest:

 Apple picking!

 The fire alarm incident:

 The Birthday Ball: