Hello Mawrtyrs!
What an eventful week it has been. For every dose of stress I have been drinking two doses of espresso. I recommend Delice et Chocolat—a recently opened French patisserie in Ardmore. On a peaceful morning over steaming lattes, bitter espressos, and croissants with a crust that dimpled and flaked when pressed, my friends and I discussed our French classes and the past whirlwind week. There is always something happening on campus.
What better way to finish the week than make a pumpkin spice latte cake? Rachel found an ambitious recipe with a generous amount of pumpkin and an even more generous amount of butter, and it was decided. We would make the cake.
To me, fall is wading through perfectly crisp leaves that crunch underfoot. Fall is pressing the hot cup of apple cider against my cold cheeks and sneezing from the spice of freshly grated cinnamon. Fall is feeding wood to a glowing fireplace and cooking with as much pumpkin and apple and nutmeg and cloves and ginger as possible. And so, I returned to the Berkshires, in far western Massachusetts, for the fall vacation.
Each fall the Bryn Mawr Asian Student Association (ASA) hosts a fully student-organized and student-led show to showcase talent in the community. As I understand, it’s a lengthy process for which planning begins at the close of the previous year’s concert. Therefore, the two-hour show in Goodhart Hall is the meticulously organized pride of ASA, from the dancers to the guest performers to the lights and, not least of all, the food. The show is always a success. This year was no exception, which the size of the audience, as well as the decibel level of their appreciation, could attest to. This show also marks the first time Bryn Mawr and Haverford’s Asian Students Associations combined forces to create the splendid, amply attended ASA x HASA Culture Show 2018: Celebration. ASA president Jessie Chen was the ringleader of this year’s show and, along with the ASA e-board, carried the night with a professional balance of grace, enthusiasm, and wit.
Two Ways of Thinking about the Family: Chinese and Aztec
On Thursday afternoon, September 27, Bryn Mawr hosted three simultaneous lectures on a bevy of topics: Modeling the Hand Gesture in the Age of the Silk Roads; The Medieval Now: White Nationalism, Medieval Studies, and Race; and the one I ultimately attended: Two Ways of Thinking about the Family: Chinese and Aztec.
Codex Mendoza [Codex]. (1541-1542). Bodleian Library, Oxford.
The section of the Codex Mendoza in question illustrated the separate trajectories and child-rearing techniques for a boy and girl up to marriage age. Waltner first helped us read the images. How to interpret the little painted circles above the boy and the girl in the codex? Each circle signified a year of their life. At fourteen circles, the boy had learned how to navigate a canoe on Lake Texcoco, where there could have been two hundred thousand canoes at the same time! The girl, under the guidance of her mother, had learned how to weave at a loom and cook. Yet while each had clearly defined gender roles, neither the mother nor the father was depicted as more important in raising the young. The codex suggested that responsibilities fell equally for making the children into adults. We also explored the role of family in the Portrait of Wang Shimin. The prominent painter Wang Shimin and members of his family were painted by Gu in their home, surrounded by a lush array of flowers and trees. Waltner remarked that family portraits were not typical of this period in China, yet what is even more curious is the woman (her role in the family is unknown) who regards the viewer with an unflinching gaze. Another woman is veiled behind a screen, her face obscured from the viewer.
Gu, J. (17th Century). Portrait of Wang Shimin [Painting]. Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis.
-PC: Professor Yonglin Jiang
The 360 program is an interdisciplinary semester-long experience. There are a few 360s each semester, each comprising three courses from different departments yet whose juxtaposition allows for a study of each topic from a different perspective. The 360 cluster that invited Professor Waltner is called “Empires” and includes Introduction of Health Studies; Language and Empire in Mesoamerica; and Chinese Empires: Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. Check out some of the past 360 course clusters here.
*A codex is a book of handwritten text.
This year I moved off campus to a nearby apartment with Sabrina, a kind friend, ambitious chemist, and fellow Korean-drama watcher. In our apartment we are close enough to campus to glimpse the clock tower of Taylor Hall through the trees. While being off campus may have some disadvantages, we do enjoy cooking in our apartment, and there is nothing homier than the inviting array of aromas rising from the pots on the stove!
Last week while sitting in a small bar in Toulouse, I shared a delicious cheese plate with a friend from first-year Chinese class at the Mawr.
I live close to a metro station named François Verdier. It is a section of the city that is particularly lovely, in large part because of its many parks and squares. One thing that has surprised me is the proliferation of public parks and squares in France. Three large parks, the Jardin des Plantes, the Jardin Royal, and the Jardin du Grand Rond, sit side by side in my part of the city. Furthermore, the sheer number of cafés that surround each of the parks is impressive. I would say that the number of outdoor public spaces reflects the way people enjoy life in Toulouse.
One of the most important aspects of junior year abroad is the opportunity to experience a system of education different from what you’ll find in the US and to take courses with local students. That is one of the main reasons I recommend study abroad. I’m now enrolled at a public university in Toulouse, France, along with 30,000 other students, and as I have discovered, Mawrtyrs should expect a very different classroom experience from what they are used to.
The same night I met my hosts, I also was introduced to the ubiquitous plate of cheese. Consequently, the cheese plate stayed on the table for every meal and has become one of the things I love most about France. Easily it was the most cheese I have seen at a single meal, with more than seven kinds crowded on the plate, varying in shape, color, size, and smell. Every couple of days, a new cheese will appear on the plate, and join its companions soon to be savored.
I learned that the cheese is tasted at the end of the meal. The cheese plate is as elegant as a dessert, and one has to be particular with one’s selection, for the number of cheeses on the plate is not equivalent to the number one is expected to eat. Rather, the cheese is the crowning moment, whether eaten with a bit of bitter endive and tart apple, or placed on a slice of crusty bread, or enjoyed just by itself. I watched my hosts carefully choose pieces of cheese, taking care to savor each as it is eaten.
My host told me, “We eat not only to nourish ourselves.” I think that people who love their food, love life. In France, the experience of eating is valued as much as the sustenance it gives. And so, perhaps the enjoyment of eating food can be represented in the way one approaches a plate of cheese in France. The taste, the texture, the smell—everything is savored. The cheese plate brings balance to the meal, so that the harmony and the contrast of flavors dance in the mouth and the eater is left satisfied, having taken pleasure in the experience of the table.