The Alchemist

I read The Alchemist written by Paulo Coelho.
This is a story of a young shepherd who pursues his treasure.
One time a shepherd had an impressive dream of the pyramid, and a mysterious old man he encountered informed him that visiting Egypt and finding his treasure at there is his personal legend. And then, he started his journey to the pyramid.

This is not the kind of fantasy like slay a dragon or save the world, but rather familiar one to us.
I think the theme of this story is to accomplish one's dream. And in this story, the dream is expressed as personal legend.
Everyone has own personal legend in each heart, but few people try to realize them, a character said.  But once decide to realize it, every omen helps one who pursues one's personal legend, and every legend comes true, if one tries to, another character said.
This is a fantasy story, but I felt that the shepherd is one of us who keeps trying for one's dream.
The original version is written in Portuguese, but this novel is translated in many languages and read around the world. I think the reason is that this story reminds modern people to pursue what really want to do.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

I finished reading girl with a pearl earring written by Tracy Chevalier, which I chose as a summer reading.

This is a story about how Johannes Vermeer came to drew the painting of girl with a pearl earring.
This novel takes style of first-person narrative of Griet, the model of the painting.
The setting is 17th century Delft, Nederland. Sixteen-year-old Griet starts working at Vermeer's house as a maid for help her family, and become fascinated by his paintings and himself...

While reading this novel, I attracted by unique characters; Griet, another maid she works with, Vermeer, his wife, his mother-in-law, his children, a butcher's son, and Griet's own parents and siblings.
The basis of this story is romance between Griet and Vermeer, but circumstance around them and other characters make it more vivid.
And I think Chevalier's close historical research also gave reality to it. The values and customs are described well, and I could feel the atmosphere of that time.

But most of all, I admire Chevalier's great imagination. Though I'm not used to reading books in English, I could enjoy this book.
There is also a movie that based on this book, so I wanted to see it too.
Although I finished assignment already, I have plenty of time yet, so I want to read more English book during the summer vacation.

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.