Halloweek

                Suddenly I turn around and there’s only a month left of school! (The frantic interlude between Thanksgiving and finals doesn’t really count.) It’s November, the foliage is at the peak of its glory, and the first of the three major end-of-year holidays is behind us. Whispers of Christmas are drifting through the air; Thanksgiving dinners are already being planned. It’s only a matter of time.

                Life has calmed down considerably since midterms, although I’m expecting a busy time this coming weekend, which means that I’m doubling up on prep work for now, as much as possible. For some reason I’ve found myself exhausted for most of this week, although I haven’t been sleeping any less than usual. Part of it is probably that, with sunset at 4:30, if you take an afternoon nap, it will look like midnight by the time you wake up. My internal clock doesn’t know where to turn anymore.

                My Halloweekend, I will say, was quite calm compared to some of my peers’. I went to a small party on Friday night that one of my friends had organized, and we decorated cupcakes and ate pizza and played catchphrase and talked. I headed home around eleven. Halloween day I slept in and chilled in my room – one of my favorite pastimes – and revised and lengthened a philosophy paper. A friend also came by the Quad with his baby daughter, so I got to meet and hold her for a little while. And another friend joined me for church again, so we lunched afterwards and discussed the idea of Halloween.

                I promise I’ll have more news next week, but for now, since I’ve pulled back on the extra-curriculars, I thought I would give you an idea of the actual content of my classes to try to give you a sense of what we’re actually studying. Here it goes:

                Music: We’re studying the first performance of Berlioz’s Fantastic Symphony in Paris. This week we’re discussing the final movement, where he takes the Gregorian chant Dies Irae – the Day of Wrath, or Judgement Day – and subverts it to make it into a witches’ dance to celebrate the death of the protagonist. The actual poem talks about how God’s mercy saves us from His wrath, but in the Symphony, the highest spirituality is romantic love, which has failed the protagonist, and so there is no one left to save.

                Intellectual History: We’re studying the Skeptics, who claim that, because your senses might be deceived, you really can’t know anything – except, of course for the statement I’ve just made, which you can be sure of. The ancient Skeptics took both sides of every argument instead of taking a stance on one side or the other, in order to get as close as possible to the truth. I admire their prioritizing finding the truth over winning the argument, but their position seems a little extreme.

                Philosophy: Speaking of extreme positions, we’re discussing a book that claims that you are, in fact, not a particular person, but only a very specific type of person. If someone killed you and replaced you with an exact duplicate, it wouldn’t matter; he or she would be just as much you as you are. After all, if any given human is just atoms arranged in a certain way, it can’t be that hard to copy. The idea that such a thing as a particular person exists is just an illusion; people disappear, in a way I suppose is appropriate to Halloween.

                Naval Engineering: At the moment, nothing too complicated; we’re learning how refrigeration and water purification systems work. The class has become much calmer and more low-key since the beginning of the semester.

                Finally, German and Arabic: In German we’re translating Nietzsche; he’s making fun of the English philosophers, as usual. The phrase of the week is “im Zaum halten” – to hold in check. In Arabic we’re discussing Political Islam, the idea that government and law should be based on Islam. As we discussed, I discovered that some of my classmates consider America to be a de facto Christian theocracy.

                Most of my free time lately has been spent sleeping, but I did go back and read some of my old fiction writing last night, and was pleasantly surprised to find I still liked most of it. Perhaps I’m now finally distanced enough to do some proper revision, if I can find time. For now, this blog is my creative writing of the week – enjoy!

Pictures: By the way, thank you to all those who have taken pictures of me along the way so I have something to offer besides selfies!

Bible study (with cookies):

 More foliage - it won't last much longer!

 Halloween decoration in the dining hall:

 Decorating cupcakes at the pre-Halloween party:

 This was mine. Someone asked me if it was a snowman; I'm just going to go with that...

 I get to walk through this every day on my way to class.

 The ivy is as green as ever!

 Sunset in Cambridge (before four o'clock in the afternoon!):