I had lotsa sun and fun during my winter break! Brazil and Honduras! I know nuts about Portuguese and Spanish so it was definitely quite a (culture) shock for me because I have never been to non-English-speaking countries before. Brazil was just plain nua-ing and touristy activities; Honduras was a field trip with my engineering team, so it's a lot of visiting various water treatment plants and hiking up to those plants!! but also got to stay with local families and interact with them (and the children!!) so it's a really enriching trip.
Brazil:
Rio de Janeiro
Salvador
Honduras:
Ojojona, a quiet small town in a mountainous region. very near the capital city.
A street with typical outdoor stalls at Marcala, a larger 'city' famous for coffee!!
Lotsa cute Honduran children! I love them!!! (I swear I am not the only 'benign pedophile' among my team mates kae!)
My last semester at Cornell has been a blast so far! I love love all my classes! Game theory is an awesome class naturally, but even economic history (abt great depression) is so interesting because of my bubbly professor. I have never been so intrigued by China and political science stuff until my current Government class on Chinese foreign policies. Even Finance, which I thought will be damn sian, is beginning to grow on me after the initial steep part of the learning curve! I now find it challenging and fascinating! I am proud to say I am beginning to understand some stuff in the finance section of the newspapers - that is a HUGE step for me, fyi! And of course, wine tasting class rocks! Not that I am particularly into wine knowledge and history honestly, but getting to taste wines in class is always a perk!
And, I absolutely love my theater design class!!! I am so in love with it that I am practically neglecting all my other 5 classes, even though I am doing this class pass/fail! We are doing costume design now, and I just sketched my first figure+costume! :) I had to do lots and lots of research over the past week. The play "Tartuffe" is about a upper-class family and a religious hypocrite in 17th century France during Louis XIV's reign. We are free to choose any period to set the play in, so I chose late 18th century France prior to French Revolution and the fall of Louis XVI's monarchy to design my costumes. This period is great because the queen Marie Antoniette spent so much money on clothes hence she started a really distinctive fashion in France then! Hence there are lots and lots of expensive and gorgeous (in an exaggerating way) dresses/gowns at that time! The best thing is, Cornell's libraries are so amazing that I can find all the books I need (they have practically ANY worthy book that is selling at Amazon.com) to design historically-accurate costumes! :)
My first attempt, and the sources of inspiration (from marvelous fashion books)!
Before costume design, we were doing scenic design. That involved lotsa research on various artists to gather appropriate images (now i am less sua-ku about famous artists liao hehe :P), and building models out of foam core and cardboard to make a mini stage! The construction process is crazily time-consuming -- I worked from afternoon to 5am the day before it was due! (Ok i had to cook and eat dinner in between, but STILL!)
My final design for "Oedipus the King"!
I am relieved to have completed all the applications!! If all goes well, I will be in Hokkaido learning more Japanese in summer. And, with some luck, I will be in California this September *fingers crossed* If I run out of luck GAH, I will have to choose between Cornell and Oxford for Masters hehe.
The warm weather and clear sky have also cheered me up over the past 2 days! 1 degree celcius, and I am sweating under my down jacket, the only layer over my normal clothes.
Gotta start doing readings!! esta luego!
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