When you return to your sit spot this week, take a moment to close your eyes and breathe, listen, smell, feel. Open your eyes and consider the word community in relation to your spot. As I open my eyes and pick up my pencil to begin my reflection, a tiny bug lands on the journal […]
Month: November 2023
Witness in a Changing World
In the living room of my Spanish apartment we have a glass coffee table. And when we turn on the TV, the image gets reflected. Like two equal and opposite worlds: one on top and one beneath it. The same picture from a different perspective. I think that’s how the narrative about nature is here. […]
新店溪 and 新电力 – Xindian River and New Electricity
I must admit that while my last post began with my first world woes of typhoons cancelling some activities, I really only experienced about a little more than a week of heavy rain while in Taiwan. In my research I found that a large part, up to 97% of the water supplied to Taipei comes […]
Week 6: Cézanne
The memory of Paul Cézanne looms omnipresent in Aix-en-Provence. The impressionist and cubist painter was born and raised in Aix and died in his studio here. The city is infinitely proud to have been the lifelong-home of this much celebrated painter, and they continue to admire him. He represented the landscape, the light, and the […]
5: Environmental Justice
For sounds, I can hear the dry rustling of wind in the leaves, which is a soft chorus, and a crow cawing above me, as well as the thin, reedy sound of a songbird. I can also hear the muted, faint roar of cars and trains from the station. What was especially funny was, on […]
4: Local and Climate Change
When I returned to my sit spot, it was unfortunately early November and quite rainy. I smelled wet leaves and smoke when I closed my eyes, and the chill smell of fall (I’m not sure how else to describe it). It was very quiet except for the sound of the rain and the gardener dragging […]
Prompt 5: Environmental Justice
As we creep closer into fall and winter, it’s weird to see the leaves stay green and the weather stay nice and warm. I hear about leaves crunching under my friend’s feet and their breath fogging up the crisp air in the mornings at Wellesley. Here in Cyprus, tourists could still have a great time […]
5. Symphony of Change: Seoul National University’s Journey Through Time, Echoing History, Green Sanctuaries, and the Melody of Justice and Sustainability in South Korea
In the context of historical impacts, SNU has witnessed changes over the years, reflecting broader societal shifts in South Korea. The Japanese colonization period, spanning from 1910 to 1945, would have left a lasting imprint on the nation, influencing academic and cultural institutions like SNU. Green spaces around SNU, such as the Gwanak Mountain area […]
Habits
I can’t believe it’s already November. Not just because the time has gone by so fast but also because fall here is so different than it is in Massachusetts. The trees still have their leaves, and the leaves are green. A couple are falling but not very many. Some days it’s almost 70 degrees, I […]
Week 5: From Private Garden to Public Park
My sit-spot is called the Pavillon Vendôme, an historic aristocratic residence surrounded by a classic formal French garden. It was built by the architect Pierre Pavillon between 1665 and 1667 for the Duke of Vendôme to use as his country house. Since the early 1900s, it has been owned by the city of Aix-en-Provence. The […]