One more essay...

Though all classes done, I still have been busy because I have to write an essay for the music class and prepare for some tests.

I chose the Cantigas de Santa Maria as a theme of the music essay.
Cantiga means a monophonic song, written in Galcian Portuguese in middle age. And the Cantigas de Santa Maria is a collection of though cantigas, each includes the content that praises the Virgin Mary. It is one of the largest collections of non sacred songs from the medieval period, and it contains remarkable artworks and poetry too.

Why I chose this to the theme is that I listened one of cantigas in the class and became interested in it.
The music class I took in this term dealt with the western music history from ancient to Baroque period. Before I took this class, I have had little interest in music of that period, but I could understand its value and diversity through learning the history.
I'm glad to have such opportunity, and I will take the music class that deals with the history of after Baroque period in the next term, so I'm looking forward to it, too.

The essay is so burdensome, but I think what I learned in the ARW class is helping me a lot.
The deadline of it is tomorrow, so I have to make one more effort.

Precious two months

June 17th, the day after tomorrow is the last day of this term. And tomorrow, ARW class and some other classes will finish. 

I learned so many things during this two months, but I especially realized the importance of having own opinion.

We had many discussion and many opportunities to express each idea in classes.

I felt nervous in discussion at first because I've never had such opportunity in high school, but I realized that I can learn from others in discussions and other ways.

In ARW class and other ELA classes, I could learn many from classmates' opinions.

And in philosophy class too, we often had group discussion. I think that was great opportunity because I always had second or third year students in the group. So I often inspired by other group members' opinion. 

I regret that I could not make own remarks well, both in English and Japanese, but all opportunity was really great experience for me.

I want to be able to have own opinion, and contribute to others more.

For a start, I' d like to think every matter deeply. 

Two more classes...

In the last class, we learned how to use Zotero. Zotero is a software that enable us to gather internet sources easily. It seems similar to Evernote, but it recognize the article's information and make in-text citation or full citation automatically. But I found that Zotero can be used only to web article or magazine, not to the file or printed article, like lexis nexus. So the usage is somewhat limited, but indeed it is useful.

Today is June 12th, so only two more ARW classes are left. I cannot believe two months have　already passed since I had entered ICU.  But it also true that I cannot remember my high school era well already, and cannot believe I had been taking the entrance exam of ICU four months ago. Though I cannot say everything succeeded, I want to praise myself for hanging on this two months.

I finally see the last of my work!

In the last class, we learned the priority of an essay.
When we start writing an essay, we write paragraphs of the body firstly, and the introduction and conclusion should be followed.
On the other hand, when an essay being read, especially when the reader wants quickly to get the content, introduction and conclusion will be read first. So we they are most important parts of one essay.
Therefore, we have to summarize the ideas of the body in introduction and conclusion, and ensure that the reader can fully understand the content by them.

I have dealt with my essay and essay topic for almost a month, but now only introduction is left.
So I finally see the last of my work!
I am happy that I can get through it soon, and summer vacation will come!

Honor in Struggle, in Literature

Struggling with a difficulty often become the main theme of literature.
The Old Man and the Sea is also one of those works. In this story, the old man faced the difficulty of catching a big fish, but he never gave up and never lost his pride.
And many famous literary works, The Load of the Rings, for example, also describe the characters' struggles and the process of overcoming them.

So why this theme often be idealized?

I think the reason is that these difficulties can be seen in our ordinary lives. Of course, these may not be such as fighting with avatar of evil, or extraordinary mission, but may be trouble with study or work or anything else.
And we can learn how to overcome such difficulties or hardships, through the characters in stories.
In The Old Man and the Sea, we can see the old man's stoicism and endurance through the hardship, and they may help us confront our own issues.

I think this theme is universal and fundamental in literature.

The Old Man and the Sea: Hemingway's dream?

Today(actually yesterday), I finished reading The Old Man and the Sea. 

As I read to the end of the story, I could understand the merit of it. 

If I wrote this kind of story, I would write it as what is called a success story, but Hemingway didn't.

The old man in actually couldn't leave almost anything from the sea, but he could be appreciated by surrounding people and could feel the boy and other peoples' love for him.

But I think this end conflicts with Hemingway's real life. In the last class, we learned background, biography, and bias of this story, and I saw one picture that Hemingway is in with a big fish, with a proud look. 

Assuming that the old man in this story reflects his true heart, maybe he wanted just love, rather than fame, in reality. 

I also learned that many ways of love is expressed in this story. 

I wonder he wanted to express true form of love in it, that he could not get in the real life.

Reality of Hemingway

I read this following article. : life.time.com

In this article, Hemingway's real humanity is disclosed.
I was surprised to know that he spent his days drunk and had unsettled state of mind that he could not control his temper, in the early 1950's, when The Old Man and the Sea was written.
And he committed suicide by shotgun at the last.

Although I haven't read the book until the end, the entire story seems to have a calm atmosphere, and the characters seem to moderate and stoic, too.
I wonder why he acted like that in reality and wrote a story in completely different attitude.
Did he want express his inner world in the story through the old man?

Of course, I am not sure about his real intention, but I am sure that I can read the story with more interests by knowing its background.

Experiences will lead me to the next time

I had two difficult matters in this weekend.

One was an English test about fallacy on last Friday. It was a multiple-choice test, and we had to find logical errors of sentences and evaluate them. I thought I had prepared well before taking test, but actually the score was not satisfactory.
 I think one failure caused the result is that I didn't think other possibilities for my answer. I assumed one choice without evaluating other choices carefully.
And another failure is that I was sleepy at that time. I knew that lack of sleep will cause only bad effect for me, but I slept late as usually.
Affected by these things, I didn't do it well.

And then, another difficult matter was an organ audition held on last Saturday.
ICU has several pipe organs in the church and Sacred Music Center, and students can take lessons by special lecturers with the organs, if they succeeded in auditions.
I was handed the scores of pieces of music that will play at the audition, and I practiced them for a month. I don't think there was enough time, because I had much homework and many things to do, but I thought that I had fulfilled the task to some extent, but the actual performance at the audition was terrible.
I have some excuses for that, first, I have never touched a pipe organ, so everything was different from practice at home, and I played the piano(actually an organ) before a person for the first time in a while.
But I know that the thing most affect the result is a lack of practice. If I practiced harder, I could play better at the audition too.
As a result, I failed at the audition.

These two things resulted in failure, but I want make good use of these experiments for the next time. I'd like to consider choices more carefully, and practice more before the performance.
The result of the audition will be handed at next Tuesday, but I don't have confidence, so I want challenge next audition in the fall term!