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:

Retreat and Advance

It has been a very busy week – my immune system’s starting to falter, so I’ve got to slow down a little. It was fun, though. I went to a couple of talks, spent the weekend on retreat with Cru*, attended a couple of ROTC events, and even went to the dentist (three of my wisdom teeth are partially erupted – that sounds more painful than it is). And of course, with papers and tests coming up, there’s also been school to deal with.

There’s more elaboration to follow, but first, something that made my day: in German, the word for seduction is ‘verführung,’ a combination of ‘führung,’ or leading, with ‘ver’ – mis- or away. Literally, it means to lead away. And guess what? The English word ‘seduce’ comes from Latin ‘ducere’ – to lead – and ‘se’ – you guessed it – ‘away’. It’s the same compound word! And no, I will not apologize for being a nerd. That’s why I’m here.

In any case, Fall Retreat with Cru was loads of fun, despite the cold. We traveled up to the mountains of New Hampshire and spend a couple of days canoeing, chatting, going to Bible Study, worshipping, and eating lots of excellent food. I got to know the Cru people at Harvard much better than previously, and it was nice to get away from college for a while. I gained a nice perspective on school vs. real life while studying abroad, and I don’t particularly want to get sucked into the college bubble again.

As for talks, I attended one last Wednesday that discussed the development of ISIS’s outlook and the reason for its sudden success. It was substantive and complex, for a half-hour lecture, and the Q&A was substantial, which doesn’t always happen. I also attended a talk on International Law in the Israel-Palestine conflict that was less substantive and complex, but did provide fruit and brownies.

In ROTC, we had our joint service field meet with Army and Air Force. Air Force won, but that was primarily because the Navy/Marines in the Combat Relay had never been taught how to throw a grenade using the Army method (don’t worry; they were mock grenades). At least, that’s the working hypothesis. That was last Wednesday; later that day several of us attended a talk by the new Vice Chief of Naval Operations on the future of the Navy and cyber warfare. And finally, we had our swim PT of the semester on Monday, which was fun, even if it meant going out into the cold with wet hair.

So that was all the special events, not counting a couple of other random meetings and errands. I also had an Arabic quiz and am working on my second essay for my philosophy tutorial. In my music class the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and part of the Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum (HRCM) performed the initial part of Handel’s Messiah. We were properly impressed.

In other news, it’s now cold enough that I close my window at night and have actually pulled out my comforter instead of just sleeping under my sheet. I discovered, quite by accident, that upbeat 80s music is very good for walking. And in Arabic, we’re learning how to say fun things like ‘impose restrictions’ and ‘double standards’ and ‘human rights’.

I could mention other random facts, but all in in all, it’s been a pretty good week, with lots of variety as well as activity. I don’t have as many midterms as I might, and all my classes seem to be going tolerably well, although I could be happier with a couple of the grades. But such is life. And after a short weekend of retreat it’s time to get back to the grind, where I belong. After all, that’s why I’m here.

*"Campus Crusade for Christ” just sounded a little aggressive, I guess, so they shortened it. Harvard’s branch in particular is called Christian Impact (CI), because Harvard requires Harvard-specific organization to have a Harvard-specific name. I’m not sure why – I suppose because they think they’re special. In any case, Campus Crusade, Cru, CI, and Athletes in Action (AIA) are all parts or versions of the same basic organization.

Pictures:

Harvard can actually be very pretty:

 Waiting for the bus to take us to the retreat:

 Our cabin:

 New Hampshire:

 'Cause we're cool:

 Team Harvard:

 Canoeing on the lake:

 On the way back:

 Handel's Messiah:

 Harvard: