Seniority

Today was our second Sunday at Brown, and just as last week we were the new kids on the block, there was a new group of people arriving today. Walking around campus, already having friends, knowing where the buildings are, knowing where to eat, knowing where my class is, and then seeing a group of people struggling with what I have come to know well already gave me such a sense of seniority. 

A very popular event that Brown hosts is the ice-cream social event. With these events being are Sunday nights they're the optimal time and place to become acquainted with all of the people you see surrounding you. But after I felt I had done enough socializing for one day it was time to do what I came here to do. So I went and started my homework (which is due Tuesday) and at the end of this day I feel very accomplished with my time management improvement.

End of the Weekend :)

Finally, week two is coming. We will be in the lab every day during the week except on Independence Day, during which there will be no class, unfortunately. 

Today I was a little bored in my dorm, so I read a book I brought. As I was reading, I discovered something about the swinging chairs in the dorms. Swinging the chair continuously for a long time makes me sleepy and there has been two or three times that I have almost fallen asleep while sitting on my chair and swinging back and forth. Since it is not quite possible for me to sit on a swinging chair without swinging, I have decided that I'll go to the library to read tomorrow and see if I can concentrate better in the library. I am still adapting to the life in college and finding ways to make it better.

Reminiscing

When I first arrived, I thought that I would be oblivious to homesickness, since I've traveled to Shanghai, China on my own before. But I figured that going to China is different because I have family there, so it's just another home. Since I have no connections on the East Coast, it's completely different from traveling to China for a month. I'm noticing more and more that I'm missing the life in the Bay Area. The things I miss most right now: clean personal bathroom, comfortable bed, low humidity, playing violin, driving. There are probably more but those are the ones I constantly reminisce. I believe homesickness is temporary and can be easily conquered with the right mindset. Conquering homesickness would put one in a better mood and make it easier for one to learn and enjoy one's trip. Finding new interests and making new friends would probably help the most.

Now I realize that the ILC program not only trains one academically and socially, but also emotionally. I'm not only talking about homesickness, but the whole package of living independently in a new place. It may vary from person to person; some may learn to be more patient and accepting of those who don't keep the bathroom clean and others may learn to forget the hesitance and awkwardness of socializing with strangers. When one leaves his/her worries behind, he/she could muster up the courage to open many new doors of opportunity.

Contrast

In contrast to the fun-filled day I had yesterday, today was a bit glum. The homesick feeling has been hitting me, as well as a few of my other friends. And of course, one of the highlights of our day was a 2 hour session of laundry and homework. I have a feeling that everyone at college will go through this experience one time or another. It's just a coincidence that it happened to a majority of my friends on this specific day. 

On the bright side, my sadness has helped me explore Providence a little more. I encountered a plethora of ice cream shops within a few minute's walk of campus. I think I had 3 servings of milkshakes and ice cream today. So whenever you are feeling down, if ice cream or frozen yogurt is your comfort food, Providence has numerous choices.

Unfortunately, today was the final for the Brasil Confederation soccer cup. It was my last chance to watch soccer with a group of excited Europeans. I may have watched it on a small screen inside a restaurant, but I really savored that last moment of exhilaration that one feels when a team scores. 

I'm looking forward to going back to class tomorrow, as I'm reaching the point where I forget things I learned last Monday. Let the learning commence!

Homesick

I’ve now spent a week living at Brown.  I really like it here.  I’ve made new friends, I’ve been learning a lot, and this experience has just made me realize how badly I want to go to college.  However, this experience has also made me realize the things in my life that I really care about. 

I don’t usually get homesick.  I’ve been to sleep away camps and been totally fine.  This is different.  I think that, because of the relationships I have been building over the past three years in high school and the maturing of the relationships I already had, I’ve never before been in a position of having so much to miss.  Sure, I’m here with my best friend and we do a lot of stuff together, but I would like to think I have more than one best friend.  All the people who I love spending time with and who make my life more enjoyable who are back home have never beckoned stronger.  I miss my family too.  I had to miss out on a family trip to a place that I have gone to every year for as long as I can remember, and getting the pictures from my parents who were there really hit home.  This feeling is extremely foreign to me, and is, in all honesty, a little scary.  Then there’s my girlfriend.  I have never met someone who has matched me so perfectly and made my life so amazing, and even when I’m home, being away from her is horrible.  This trip, in that respect, is torture. 

Last night is when all this hit me.  I was sitting in my room and texting my girlfriend after coming home from my friend’s dorm, and I realized that I’ve been here for a week.  That means I’m a third of the way done.  And then I felt all the longing for what I left behind all at once.  It hadn’t occurred to me yet what I was missing at home, and it overcame me emotionally.  I realized that I would have to endure this for another two weeks, twice as long as the amount of time I’ve been here already.

Despite the pain of longing, I think this is a very good learning experience for me.  Being taken away from the things you love really gives you perspective on what matters to you, and what doesn’t.  It also is a taste of the coming attractions in my life.  As much as I don’t want to, I’m going to have to leave behind my friends and family for the majority of my time when I go to college.  I will be forced to make new friends and fit in again.  And I will have responsibilities that I may not want to have, just like I do now. 

Despite the fact that I am now horribly aware of how much I miss the things in my life that I’ve temporarily given, I am also aware of what I am supposed to be doing here and why I am here.  This is an opportunity to experience things I never have before and to learn new things and to meet new people.  My class is awesome, the material we are learning is really giving me a whole new perspective on current events, I’m meeting amazing new people, and I’m having fun.  I think I’m fulfilling the requirements perfectly. 

Crowds

I definitely took as much time as my body wanted to sleep... it was nearly 3 PM by the time I woke up! I went to Chipotle to buy breakfast with my roommate, since it was after lunchtime for the dining halls. I also bought a card so I can do my laundry, but I haven't gotten around to that. 

After my first meal, I went back to my dorm to just read to pass the time. I went to the "V-Dub" to grab dinner after, around 6 PM. We took our time to talk before we got back, but when we did, I continued reading my book. There was a dance at 9 PM, so I started preparing to go shortly before.

I don't think I've ever been to a dance like this one. The Summer@Brown program is rather massive, so it was extremely crowded. Even outside the Alumnae Hall, there were many, many groups of people. Inside, it was an inferno, and there was too much sweat. The whole energetic atmosphere with all the movement didn't interest me as much. I'm a calmer person, and I prefer hanging out with smaller groups of friends. Sure, I like meeting strangers, but dancing. clubbing, partying, etc. just aren't that fun to me. 

We went to a diner right after. I bought a burger and a milkshake, and it was... extremely filling. I had some trouble walking after that. The group went back to the dorm to chill out in the lounge, and I was downed on one of the couches. We sat around to talk, though we went back to our dorms to sleep after. 

Speeding Up by Slowing Down

This is how I'm starting to feel about the perspective of time. Time feels faster now that my number of activities and destinations per day has decreased dramatically since the days of the college visits. In the beginning of my trip, almost everything I saw and experienced were new. The days felt very long because I was doing so much. Now, at Brown, I have almost settled into a constant rhythm. After the first few days, many things I see and experience start repeating, thus making days feel shorter because I feel like I do a lot less. Today is Saturday, so I don't have class and the Summer@Brown program didn't have much planned for today other than a trip to Boston and a campus-wide dance. I opted out of the Boston trip because I went to Boston last week, but I decided to give the dance a try. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was a bit disappointed when I arrived. There weren't any lights on in the dance hall and the music didn't appeal to me. Reluctantly, I left and headed back to my dorm, hoping that there'll be better other chances to socialize.

The first week of the Brown program has come to a close. It has been very exciting and interesting so far, and I can bet that the next two weeks will be just as great if not better.

Wondering What to Write

It has been a week since I moved into Brown. Most things, if not everything, have been settled. Not much new thing happens now and I have already addressed my process of adapting to the new life in my previous blog posts. 

There is no class on weekends and most students go to Boston today, so I watched a movie and did what I usually do in my free time: play computer games, eat, read, and play the piano. Although today is on weekend, it is very similar to a regular weekday. I did not do anything special today and I'm starting to running out of topics to write about in the blog. 

A good blog should contain interesting thoughts and these thoughts are usually inspired by experiences that one does not normally have. In these three weeks, we will most likely to have very similar experiences everyday and the freshness we felt in the first week is fading very quickly. The blogs that I am required to write in the following weeks will be a challenge to me. I will need to discern the slight differences of my days and put some thoughts on those differences and use my writing skills to put the differences I see and the thoughts of them into blog posts.

Fin de Semana (That's Spanish for Weekend)

Today was the most fun day I've had on the trip so far. No, it wasn't because we didn't have class. No, it wasn't because of all the fun things I did in Providence. Today was the most fun because of the people here at Brown. True the day started off a little slow, due to my lack of sleep. Once I had lunch in my system, it was all uphill. Duncan and I met up with our new friends at the Providence Mall. Our time their consisted of walking around the mall and shopping for women's clothing.(This was the choice of my female friends, to clear things up.) It doesn't sound all that appealing to anyone of the male gender. Like I said, it wasn't the process itself that was enjoyed, it was the people to enjoy it with. Chatting, joking, and being goofballs gave me a feeling of pure joy. 

The rest of the day involved us walking home, and singing random songs in imperfect harmony for hours. In our dorm, Duncan and I made up around 1,000 new songs about nothing using the same 4 chords on a guitar. This spark of creativity was ended by the stupidest joke Duncan has ever told, and an uncontrolled 5 minute fit of laughter. I can't remember the last time I've laughed that hard.

Now to relate this experience to college. I never imagined that I'd have this much fun in so little time. It's been less than a week, and already I'm living the life I thought I'd be living at the end of my trip. Just some words of wisdom to those nearing college life. It doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, or what you like. When you go to college, you're going to find at least one person who you can share your interests and time with. There's no room to be excluded or antisocial. You're going to have fun, no matter where you go.

First Friday at Brown

So as I anxiously walk into class this afternoon I notice the person in the usual spot is not our teacher, but rather the graduate student teacher-aid. Which solidified the thought of class being even more unconventional today. So after everyone arrived, the graduate student led us over to the computer lab where we were greeted by our teacher and instructed to grab any seat. We then logged in to a web site and did somewhat of a practice run game, but then came the real fun, the stock market game.  Each person started off with fifty dollars and I believe four shares of stock. The instructions involved a lot of technical macroeconomics terms, but the main goal was simple: end up with the most money at the end of the game. 

So the approach that I took was to buy as many shares of stock as I could in the beginning rounds, before the price rose. Then I waited as watched the price rose, knowing that my competition would want to buy and then sell with the presumption that the price would continue to rise. So just at the right moment I sold all of my shares. Other technical things went on, but I am proud to say that (aside from the teacher) I was number two in all  of the class at the end of the game and subsequently got my name put in a drawing for a Starbucks card. 

That class experience, combined with an extra hour of curfew all formulated to make a very memorable and distinct first Friday at Brown.

Pause

It's finally time for a much needed break. This past week has been utterly exhausting, no matter how exciting or fun it is (in fact, that is a factor in the exhaustion!). 

I'd like to start off by backtracking a little to last night. There was a giant crowd of people meeting on the Hughes Court, and I went out there with some of my friends. We went around to meet people, and we watched many others make fools out of themselves. I suppose this will be common throughout college! I had tons of fun out there, and I'd love to see something like that again (very likely, very soon!). 

Today, in biotech class, we continued working on gel electrophoresis. This time, we methylated DNA to impair its restriction by enzymes, so we changed a few things up from yesterday. Today's experiment felt like a partial failure, since the methylation did not seem to work correctly for me. I consulted many of my classmates, and it seems that all of them have had that problem so far. 

Another noteworthy thing occurred later at night today. Nate called me and asked if I wanted to go for dinner with everyone else in the Brown I cohort. I accepted, of course, but only Johnny, Jay, and I were there. We went to get some sushi and catch up with each other, and I've told Nate quite a bit about my experiences here so far. Everything proceeded smoothly then. 

The weekend is now here, and I will get some much needed and well deserved rest! Of course, I will still need to worry about things, like starting to do laundry. It's a great learning experience, though! 

1st Week Down

Today's Econ class was a refreshing change of pace. Rather than the daily lecture, we journeyed to the computer lab. The Professor changed the learning by having us play stock games. The fun factor was elevated but the learning was not diminished. I learned some useful tips about buying and trading stocks. I also learned that I should never play the stock market, due to my poor profit producing skills. The Professor learned that Malachi, Duncan, and I were from the Ivy League. He remembers some students from last year, and told us our program was awesome. I think that means we're doing a good job of spreading the word about the ILC.

It's really nice to know that college professors don't have to follow some sort of super strict curriculum when they want to teach. On that note, we are also watching the movie Moneyball to help better our understanding of statistics. Just another thing to look forward to. 

It seems to me like the days are getting shorter. There's less and less to blog about every day. Perhaps I can attempt to describe my day, but in a way that doesn't cause my reader to doze off mid paragraph. Tomorrow is Saturday, and we have not class; it should be the a great day to test out my new style of blogging.

One Third of the Course has Gone

Before I really notice, we have already finished one third of the course. It is sad to realize a week has already passed. The labs we do are so interesting and fascinating that I wish I can stay here longer. In high school, I would be glad on Fridays, since Fridays are the ends of the tedious cycles of going to classes and doing uninteresting works. However, this Friday is completely different; it means that I will not be able to enjoy learning in lab for the coming two days. 

Before I came to this program, I was glad that it only lasts for three weeks, so if it is going to be an unpleasant experience, it would end very soon. Having come to this program, I have noticed that the only unpleasant thing is that the program is way too short. Time really flies when you enjoy something. 

Curfew is at 12

It’s Friday!  Class was different today; we played economic simulation games and it just affirmed my assumption that people will screw each other when it comes to economics.  We played a game where, if both people picked a certain option, they would both get 80 cents, but if one person picked a different option, one person would get a dollar and the other would get nothing.  It would make sense to pick the lower risk option that is profitable for everyone, but people would always choose the option that would gain them more.  And if both people pick this option, then they both get nothing.  It doesn’t make sense.

We then played a stock trading game, and again, we screwed ourselves.  We created a huge bubble; the stock shouldn’t have gone over twelve dollars, but right before it crashed it got to thirty-one.  Then it halved.   The only people who did well were the ones who bought a lot of stock at the beginning.  I did alright.

These kind of things are really interesting, as they really show us how the stuff we are learning is applicable to the real world, and how people really do act in the ways that we’ve talked about in class.

I’m excited that it’s the weekend tomorrow!  I can sleep in!  I mean, I’ve been doing that already because my class is at 12:45, but now I can sleep in more!

TGIF

I can't believe I've already spent five whole days living on a college campus. Meeting new people and being completely independent, I've had a very refreshing experience here on the East Coast. However, I haven't really paid too much attention to the whole living on my own thing. I felt like I just let it happen and naturally adapted to it. Everyone here are quite nice and open and sociable. My classes have been very interesting. We did labs and worked with equipment that most high school students don't have the opportunity to try.

Now that it's Friday, I have the weekend ahead of me to relax a little and try to meet more people that don't live in the same building as I do. Tomorrow will be the first day I can sleep freely since arriving on the East Coast. I'm looking forward to the next two weeks. I hope it won't end too quickly.

Making It Glow

We're back in the lab for another procedure. This time, we're doing gel electrophoresis, a process in which we use dye, buffers, and DNA to find the quantity of certain lengths that the buffer cuts from the DNA. This lab required a lot of precision. If one's measurements are off or if one's movements aren't steady enough, it could yield undesirable results. We did a gel of the DNA of a virus and tested it in three different restriction enzymes and in water. In this case, the restriction enzymes that we used cut certain parts of an organism's DNA. After mixing the required solutions, making the gel, and running an electric current through the gel containing the solutions, we're able to see, through the dye, that parts of the DNA traveled further down the gel than others. Although not everyone understood what exactly happened to the DNA during the lab, we all still gained valuable experience using lab tools and following lab procedures.

Lately, I've also noticed that most of the foreign students here at Brown are very fluent in English. Some speak it so well that I would not have guessed they weren't from the United States. Maybe the U.S. should also require a foreign language as early as elementary school to keep up with the rest of the world. And on another tangent, it's raining very hard right now. The weather/climate here in Rhode Island is completely different from that of California.

Gamble, Preamble

Today in class we dove into what the teacher called "real, hardcore economics". This included things such a real GDP versus nominal GDP, unemployment and underemployment, as well as going off on a tangent about gambling. To me it was amazing how we could be on topic and on course with our class work and still be discussing relevant things not just definitions in a book. 

Also today we slightly discussed our game day, which will be tomorrow. It sounds extremely interesting to me that we will, in a college class, spend an entire day in a computer lab playing class-wide games. But I will provide more information on that after it occurs, for the sounds of rain, wind, and thunder are slowly becoming a lullaby to my ears. 

Gel Electrophoresis

Today in the laboratory, we did gel electrophoresis. It is a process that you cut DNA into pieces and then separate them by size by applying electricity through a gel. The lab took us about three hours, since there are some steps which we had to wait for the reaction to complete. It was the most complicated lab I have ever done. We made our own gel and set up the apparatus for gel electrophoresis by ourselves - and of course the instruction of the professor. 

An exciting thing about this lab is the use of ethidium bromide as a fluorescent tag of DNA. Ethidium bromide is a mutagen because it reacts with DNA. The fact that we were using hazardous chemicals made me feel that we were doing what scientists do, not just a lab design for students. 

The result of my gel electrophoresis was almost perfect except that I probably overloaded one of the wells in the gel, so the DNA in that lane was smeared. Today we were basically learning the techniques of gel electrophoresis and getting ready for tomorrow's lab, where we are going to analyze various enzyme activities on methylized DNA using gel electrophoresis.

Hard Work Begins

I'm going to be honest, Economics wasn't the most difficult class for the first few days. In fact, it was fun to the point where 3 hours only felt like 45 minutes or so. Today, though not lacking in the fun department, was a good amount harder. We've moved on from the simpler subjects of supply and demand. Now we've entered the complicated subjects of tariffs, GDP, and more. For the first time in a while, I really had to focus on my homework to make sure I did it right. However, at the same time, I felt like the homework was helping me learn. I feel a lot more challenged, and its actually a good feeling.

I've also found the closest thing I can to a European soccer community. One of my favorite parts about Europe was the soccer games, and the huge amount of energy that went into them. America really lacks the sport spirit that I experienced in Europe. It turns out, because the Brown program is so diverse, there are lots of people that  want to watch the games that have been on recently. Our RA (regional administrator) set up both the Italy v. Spain, and Uruguay v. Brasil game on huge projectors. I like watching soccer, but I didn't support either team. Needless to say, I was on the edge of my seat during the final few minutes of both games. Both the Spanish and Italian kids did a wonderful job of hyping me up today. It was nice to have a little piece of Europe back in the states.

Its communities like the ones I'm part of here that make me insanely excited for college. Even the hard classes are appealing to me. Like I said, these sort of things make me want to work really hard so that I can get into any college of my choice. The anticipation is slowly killing me.

The Big Freeze

Today wasn’t too hot.  The weather has been absolutely blazing the past few days, but today held a pleasant surprise.  It wasn’t hot!  Comparatively that is.  It was still really muggy, but it was overcast and drizzling, which made the weather perfect.  The drizzle was almost mist, and cooled everything down.  I also think that the water made everything really pretty, but sadly there was too much precipitation for my camera’s tastes, so no pictures. 

Class is getting more interesting as we get into the macro topics.  We are starting to analyze the complicated interactions between government and economy, but on a very large theoretical scale.  Its really interesting because we spend at least half of the class talking about current issues or how whatever we are learning can be applied to current issues or real economic events, usually because people ask interesting questions.  It is amazing to be in an environment where everyone is so involved in the world and eager to learn about and discuss the issues facing us today.

I had a Philly cheesesteak for dinner, and it was really good!  It did take about 5 hours to get here after I ordered though.

Gelatin

We came back to the lab today with a more meaningful experiment. Labs are more hands on, and they keep me much busier than sitting around during a lecture. Our topic of the day was gel electrophoresis, in which we added modified and added DNA samples to a solid gel that we created, in order to use electricity to move the DNA. The farther the DNA moved, the shorter its molecular length would be. There would be multiple fragments for each line of DNA in the gel, since the DNA is cut multiple times. Each line is different, because DNA would be cut at different locations to be different lengths, depending on each modification. The goal was to analyze how different enzymes cut DNA in different ways. I tried using layman's terms, but I'm not exactly sure if everyone still understood that. Sorry. 

My own experiment ran by very smoothly. I ran into some small mistakes, but they were not major setbacks at all. I am satisfied with my results, too; I think I pretty much did the best I could. The quality of the lab here might have been a factor to some extent. Normally, I'm not satisfied with my results during lab back in my high school, but that may be attributed to the lack of high quality equipment. 

Once class was over, I spent some time with friends. We ended up going to a co-curricular activity in which there were board games, but the only people that were there were the people that I came with, besides the RA. I've been taking this day pretty easy too; I have most of my homework done now, and I'm doing this blog really early! I think I'm going to go to bed early. 

Another Day in the Lecture Hall

Today is the second day we have our class in the lecture hall. The lecture was a little boring comparing to the labs. During the lab yesterday I barely finished the lab before class ended, while today I found myself constantly checking the time during class. 

The labs are undoubtedly the most interesting part of the course, since we learn about DNA by actually manipulating and observing. Although the lectures are abstract and are less appealing than the labs, they still provide information crucial for the understanding of the labs. Lecturing and reading give us primitive understanding of the material; the labs are more like supplementaries for students to have more understanding and insight of the material. 

I think the main reason I almost fell asleep today during class is not that the lecture was dull comparing to the labs, but that I did not get enough sleep. I need to manage my time more wisely and sleep more.

Another Day, Another Adventure

Realizing that I am not a breakfast person, my day started off lovely at noon. I see waking up that late as accommodating for my lack of adjustment to the eastern time zone. Even waking up that close to my class' starting time, I was still able to grab lunch with  a new-found friend from England  and also still make it to class on time. 

In class it was partially a typical day in the fact that the majority was lectures and book work, with heavy class participation. But today we spent a significant amount of time on deciding what slightly economics related movie to watch in the neat future  which our teacher called "a good use of time". But the majority of the class was fast-paced learning  which is something that is not commonly practiced in high and for good reason, but it is my preferred style of learning. 

After the near three hour class came the major chunk of the day, which is not spent inside the classroom is not regulated very much at all.

Brown Does College the Right way

As each day progresses I continue to be in more awe of that sheer greatness of this lifestyle. The class itself is amazing, and it makes me question why high schools (a place that is supposed to be preparing you for college) does not teach like college professors do. It almost makes me grieve the day that I have to return to high school, but at the same time motivates me to be more proactive in my learning experience in high school as to prepare myself for a course load tougher than one class. 

Today a few guys decided to attempt to throw a party (possibly for a complete college experience but most likely just to have the opposite sex near them) needless to say it was a brave yet failed attempt. But while at this unsuccessful collection of individuals enjoying bad music, I realized that these people I were now calling friends, I did not know a week ago. This gave me great gratitude and confidence in my social ability and flexibility which I can tell are key pieces to a successful college experience. 

An Illusion

After living on Brown's campus for almost four days, I'm starting to see Brown with a peculiar perspective that I know is ephemeral. The Summer@Brown program is an extremely popular program around the world that many, many teenage students participate in. Because of this, the campus is occupied mostly by teenagers and very few actual college students. It's kind of strange and interesting seeing high school students occupy an Ivy League school. I occasionally have a feeling that I'm attending a very fancy high school boarding school. Maybe I'm over-thinking things and things are much simpler than what they seem to me.

Today was one of the few days that we're not working in the lab. We discussed some errors and the procedure. Our instructor helped us understand the purposes of the procedures in the lab. The discussion was very involved, and many of my classmates gave good explanations and asked good questions. One of the best part of this summer program is that most of the people here are here because they're interested in the class they are taking. Having to sit in one class for three hours feels very long compared to that of high school, but at the end of the day, I notice that it's not very much at all, considering I have the rest of the day to myself.

It's hard to believe that I've only finished my third day at Brown. I feel like I've been here all summer. In the next two and a half weeks, I hope I'll find the real image of Brown and erase the "illusion."

Day 8

Day 8

Blogging is becoming strenuous.  There is not enough activity each day to inspire a meaningful blog post.  Maybe my literary proficiency will aid me in my daily struggle. 

Seriously though, I really do think that blogging every day is excessive.  There isn’t enough activity each day to create blog posts that aren’t redundant.  There also aren’t many moments that change my way of thinking radically.  It was different when we were visiting colleges and the first few days of being here, but since then this trip has become routine, which isn’t to say it isn’t exciting, just that I am not having some kind of world bending epiphany every day.  I know that that isn’t exactly expected, but there isn’t much else to write about.  I can discuss my daily activities, but that becomes monotonous and isn’t particularly interesting in the first place.  All I hope for is that my class provides the type of insight and food for thought that are the essential ingredients for a sumptuous blog.

In the meantime, to mediate some of the boredom in my blogs, here are some pictures!