I'm feeling extra ~cultural~ and ~sophisticated~ after two days of enjoying the arts... and suffering through a few hours of class in the meantime.
Yesterday was my last Monday of class in Brazil (yay!), and it was actually pretty cool. It involved each of the students standing in front of the class and providing a four-minute presentation on the topic of our Comparative Analysis projects.
Have I described the CA project yet? Probably, maybe, who knows, but I changed everything about my topic, so I'll re-explain. Our final project for one of our classes in the program is a 3,000 word comparative essay in which we (you guessed it) compare a certain phenomenon that occurs in all three countries which we visit. We can choose almost any aspect of the city, as long as it is "observable." This has posed a huge prob for me, because I tend to trust secondary sources, scholarly research, and academic analysis more than my own eyes. The formula has been changed: instead of using experts' ideas to formulate my own opinion, I'm supposed to just watch people walk around, make up something on the fly, then find a paper or two that support my thesis.
Yikes. I have so many academic, moral, and personal issues with this approach. I hate that after only a month in each location, with just a few hours of observation, I'm expected to make some grand statement about a city, its culture, and its people without supporting evidence. With all of my past papers in college, I've felt like I'm contributing, at least in a small way, to the scholarly world. I feel like my work actually means something and that I believe what I'm writing. This is the first time in a long time that I feel like I'm writing a paper just for the sake of getting a grade and that I would legit be embarrassed for a professor or academic to read it and see how little real evidence there is.
My presentation went well enough, though, as I managed to suppress my apprehensions and get impassioned about the issues.
After class, a few of us walked to a really cool bookstore near our school to look at some English paperbacks. Plus, it was GIGANTIC. I'm literally such a nerd.
Yesterday was my last Monday of class in Brazil (yay!), and it was actually pretty cool. It involved each of the students standing in front of the class and providing a four-minute presentation on the topic of our Comparative Analysis projects.
Have I described the CA project yet? Probably, maybe, who knows, but I changed everything about my topic, so I'll re-explain. Our final project for one of our classes in the program is a 3,000 word comparative essay in which we (you guessed it) compare a certain phenomenon that occurs in all three countries which we visit. We can choose almost any aspect of the city, as long as it is "observable." This has posed a huge prob for me, because I tend to trust secondary sources, scholarly research, and academic analysis more than my own eyes. The formula has been changed: instead of using experts' ideas to formulate my own opinion, I'm supposed to just watch people walk around, make up something on the fly, then find a paper or two that support my thesis.
Yikes. I have so many academic, moral, and personal issues with this approach. I hate that after only a month in each location, with just a few hours of observation, I'm expected to make some grand statement about a city, its culture, and its people without supporting evidence. With all of my past papers in college, I've felt like I'm contributing, at least in a small way, to the scholarly world. I feel like my work actually means something and that I believe what I'm writing. This is the first time in a long time that I feel like I'm writing a paper just for the sake of getting a grade and that I would legit be embarrassed for a professor or academic to read it and see how little real evidence there is.
my freshman year writing teacher if she saw my essay
There's also the discomfort in literally observing citizens of a city going about their daily lives and attempting to critique them. Like, who am I to judge this guy for littering on the side of the street??
Actually, wait no... that's pretty effed up... I'm gonna pick up that piece of trash for him and give him evil eyes from afar.
do your part, sir
But it really does make me feel voyeuristic and lofty and self-important to engage in this kind of research.
So clearly, this is a really fun assignment for me. And it will be even more fun if my professors find this post!!! In case of that, this isn't actually Aubrey writing, it's somebody else...
Despite all of the complaints of my conscience and my academic horror, I have indeed settled upon a topic. I'm examining mothers' discipline and sons' obedience in an attempt to capture a sense of gender dynamics in each city that I visit. My fascination with feminism and misogyny, as well as my cluelessness about male children since I grew up without brothers, led me to believe this could be a cool thing to study. So, I've been creeping around parks, taking notes about little five-year-old boys.
Not creepy at all, right???
After class, a few of us walked to a really cool bookstore near our school to look at some English paperbacks. Plus, it was GIGANTIC. I'm literally such a nerd.
so many floors of books!!!
Though I have this aversion to spending money on books, since I have access to the second largest library in the United States behind the Library of Congress, as well as my adorable home library, I couldn't help but buy this beaut.
YES, it is a collection of short stories about Orange County, California!!! I absolutely could not restrain myself. I figure that since I read a book on each plane ride about the country to which I'm flying, I couldn't ask for a better piece of fiction to accompany on the long flight back to the US in just a month and a half.
Side note--a month and a half. WOW. I am over half-way done with this program and with my international status. So bittersweet.
Back to books: it never takes too long for my homestay family and roommate to notice that I'm a complete bookworm. The other day, when I was reading at the kitchen table, absentmindedly ignoring all distractions for hours on end, my homestay sister commented (slightly alarmed) that I read "a lot." I mean, yeah, sometimes I choose to read my book instead of go out to a club or interact with humans, but that doesn't make me a loser, right? I have lots of friends...
Quite a few of them just happen to be fictional.
I did finish my book last night, a Pulitzer Prize winner called The Goldfinch, which I totes recommend if you're into mystery/drama/art. I stayed up way too late flipping through its final pages, though, and could barely drag myself out of bed this morning into my second-to-last clean outfit (I really need to do laundry).
Luckily for me, today's lecture and classtime were only supposed to last two hours... But of course, it went an extra hour and a half.
I've been told by a fair number of people that subtlety is not my strong suit and that my facial expressions are quite entertaining. I literally don't even notice that my face is moving. Even when I think I'm sitting there, hiding my impatience well and looking super interested, like--
It looks more like--
I promise, I don't even feel my face contorting into my grimaces, and I always think I'm just blinking when in fact I'm dramatically rolling my eyes! Well, I guess the good thing is that if it looks like I'm paying attention to you and that I'm interested in what you're saying.. I actually am!!!
After finishing class (finally), I waltzed off by myself to MASP, the Sao Paulo Museum of Art. Surprisingly and fortunately, admission is free on Tuesdays, and I entered the museum excited for what I'd been told is a pretty cool museum.
Guys, "pretty cool" is an understatement.
This place was incredible.
The museum is set up chronologically, so that you wander through the paintings and sculptures not according to geographical location nor artist but simply according to the year of its creation. The artwork also stood independently, held up by subtle glass supports, so that the museum felt really interactive and open, since the paintings weren't hanging flatly on a wall.
I wandered between the paintings, examining the work first then stepping around to its back to examine the information on the artist and the name of the painting. Oh my god, it was astounding. Rembrandt, Picasso, Manet, Monet, Titian, El Greco, Rivera... It was a dream come true. It was also a pretty small space, so I was actually able to see and appreciate every single piece. I think it's my favorite art museum that I've ever had the opportunity to attend. WOW IT WAS SO FREAKING COOL!!! Having just finished a 771-page novel about the beauty of art, I also felt primed to savor the preciousness, precision, and skill in every work. It was just this awesome collision of the right timing, the right mood, and the right price, ayyy.
I headed back to my home and quickly crashed into bed for a nap.
Upon waking, I ate dinner, watched TV, chatted on the phone with my dad, and played with baby Maria Luisa.
Apparently, though, as happy and good as I feel, I don't quite look it... One of the program directors asked me today if I felt alright since I'm looking "pale and tired."
bye
I mean, maybe it's because I'm kept in class every single day from 9 to 5 and I never get to see the sun and also I stay up way too late reading my book??? But this only heightened my fervor to get to Rio de Janeiro beaches ASAP (four more days!).
Then, my host sister walked in on me eating a tin of cookies around 10 PM (you know, a normal snack) after eating four pieces of toast with Dulce de Leite (okay, less normal now), and asked worriedly, "are you alright? you're eating a lot. are you pregnant?"
ABSOLUTELY NOT, WOW NO, NOT EVEN, NO NO. I almost choked on that eighth cookie that I was inhaling. But apparently I have acquired the eating habits of a human that is growing another human inside of her. That's extremely unworrying and completely fine. My responses have looked a little like--
Because seriously.... I'm fine. Like I really am! I am happy, and satisfied, and apparently kind of hungry. But I'm really enjoying myself and looking forward to Rio in a few days and getting this second midterm season over with! Hopefully, I won't be called "pale" after my week in paradise... But I'll probably still be eating a lot.
Gotta start reading another book, even though it's midnight!!
Buh bye,
Aubs
No comments:
Post a Comment