So this would be our last class field trip of the year with a Dr. Lenox class - this time with math. Early in the year of math class, we voted on a which subjects we wanted to learn about in class and now we are finally on the last subject of symmetry, patterns, reflections and such. We met in Trafalgar Square and proceeded into the National Gallery, London's best collection of aftwork, in search of mathematically conceptualized paintings.
Our assignment was actually to look at two paintings or artists and blog about which, if any, mathematical concepts can be found in the gallery. The first thing I noticed were the paintings of Raphael. Although it was impossible for me to measure the actual length of the paintings, it appeared that they followed the 1.7:1 Golden ratio on the outset of the paintings which usually appears more pleasing to the eye. There were also symmetrical themes in Raphael's paintings. Although there wasn't an actual identical pattern there were usually balanced themes on both sides of the painting. For example, the Ansidei Madonna was a painting with the Virgin Mary centered, flanked by two people on either side, both men holding their staffs leaning in. Also, below her throne, there was a repeated glide reflection of what looked not too different from a grecian key.
The other painting I wanted to comment on was Vincent Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" painting. Although there was no direct noticable patterns from what I could tell, I very much liked the take he took by paintin the Sunflowers. even on a dreary London day, they somehow seemed so bright and cheery and even made me feel even happier than I already was.
Overall, the national gallery is not quite my cup of tea. I have been there before and have nothing against it, howver, I just wish I had a deeper understanding and appreciation of art and mathematical symmetry. That pretty much sums up my exciting day of class!
I now have only my last weekend to blog left and I hope to try and squeeze a blog somewhere before I leave London for Greece, Cairo, and Jerusalem & Bethlehem.
Until next time!
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Class Project: Cholera Epidemic in London...One life-changing pump.
So once upon a time, there was an old city called London. It was very old and very very over populated. This city drank lots of water from its very large pump system. Because the city was old, it didn't actually have a sewage system. Instead, what people did was dump their poo waste in holes they dug in the ground or through their basement and then covered them up. This probably led to a stinky city with lots of germs and stuff that people back then didn't know about. Anyway, one day, a certain family living near a centralized pump that took water from the well beneath it, had a little girl who was sick with cholera. Cholera was, and still is a very dangerous bacteria that can kill people if it goes untreated. Well this little girl with cholera had soiled clothing that was dumped near the pump in one of the poo holes. Unfortunately, the well had a slight crack in it which allowed just enough cholera germs from the soiled clothing in the poo hole to actually infect the entire well.
Soon enough, people started dying all over the place. Nobody could figure out what the problem was and why everyone was dying. Remember that London was horribly overpopulated (even moreso than it is now) and people could catch diseases very easily. Eventually, a smart man finally figured out that the only thing in common of all the people in London dying was that they all drank water from that well. Very quickly, they sealed up the well and within a couple weeks, people stopped dying from cholera. However, the damage was done and many people had died. Less than 10 households in a square mile of the pump did not suffer any fatalities. This is a very sad story but ironically enough, the pump still exists to this day.
Thats where we come in. After learning about this historically significant story about cholera, Dr. Lenox was gracious enough to offer the math class extra credit if we could find this pump and take a picture with it, and with the John Snow Pub right next to the pump, and then mention the story in our blog. So, viola! Here is the story, the pictures, and the blog. :)
Cheers!
Switzerland (and France, Germany, and Austria) and the ALPS!
As promised in my France blog, I'm attempting to catch up on the past couple weekends in which I have failed to blog in a timely manner. Finals are approaching really really fast with my last Psychology quiz tomorrow and then two finals, math and PR/advertising, on Wednesday. Thursday, my group of Sarah, Mike, and I, present our major cluster project that we have been working on for the past 3-4 weeks nonstop. So that's my current update. Now it's time to go back in time a few weeks in November.
It is November 20th, 2009. This trip may be the most unique trip because it is the one where we (myself, Alyssa, Renee [aka the badger], and Melinda [aka ginger]) actually have zero plans at all. It's another Friday, and this time, it is Alyssa's 20th birthday. For a solid week, I actually felt significantly superior and more mature than Alyssa because I was a whole year older. Now she has caught up to me and everything is back to normal. Anyway, unlike Paris, we all didn't get to go out to eat because of one minor detail.
We rented our own car and drove all around Switzerland the surrounding area.
So we rented our car from Geneva airport through Europecar. It was cool because in Switzerland, you only need to be 20 whereas in other parts of Europe, the minimum rental age is 21. So we drove through Geneva for a little while and then headed on NorthEast. Renee was my copilot for the majority of the trip (she was fantastic and was the only one under 20 at this time) and made her only mistake from the getgo. She had me turn right (accidently) instead of going streat. As a result, to get to our destination, Zurich, we had to go around Lake Interlaken and take the route through the Alps. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The route we took from Geneva to Zurich must have been one of the most enjoyable, and terrifying, rides I have ever ridden. While we all took turns driving (even Renee for a little bit), I was designated mountain driver which was perfectly fine by me except for those times when the speed limit was 50km/hr going around a 90degree turn with nothing separating us from a 1000ft drop except for a little wooden fence.
The drive through the alps was beautiful. We even slept in our car (which was absolutely FREEZING). So we finally arrived in Zurich and hung out for a little bit. It is a nice town. But we decided to go travel to the country very near to the North. Germany. So we crossed the border into Germany and then headed East into the next country, Austria! Austria was equally beatiful with its Alps and such. We looked for the Von Trap family but didn't see them. So we drove up the mountains and kept looking but to no avail. We consoled ourselves with the fact that we could see snow above us and grass below us - very interesting combination if you don't live near the mountains.
Well anyways, we ended up revisting Zurich (north actually) to see the Rhein falls which, I must say, were a bit of a disappointment, especially if you've seen Niagara Falls. We heard words such as "best falls in Europe" and such but they seriously were maybe a third the size of Niagara and not nearly as impressive. We also visited Lindt chocolate factory but it was closed when we got there so that was also slightly disappointing, but still, it was well worth the trip to the Swiss Chocolate factory.
So we drove back to Geneva. This time we took a more Southern route than before which also led us through the Alps and eventually through the Northernmost part of France as well. We had nothing to eat throughout our trip but foods from German supermarket giants Lidyl and Hofar (known in the States as Aldi) because, for example, a whopper costed 11 swiss franks ($12) and the a Starbucks coffee was pushing 10 swiss franks. So it was definitely economical to shop in bulk than eat out in town.
So it was a completely and utterly joyful ride through the mountains. The Swiss Alps definitely made the Rockies look like a child compared to the Alps. All in all, this trip was also very relaxing as we got to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and still didn't have to spend very much money at the same time because we didn't really go out much (exept we saw 2012 in Luzern for 16 Swiss franks a ticket) and instead enjoyed each others' company and of course, we enjoyed the beautiful Swiss Alps.
So that concludes my weekend. While we didn't get to see any Eiffel Towers, Colosseums, or Stonehenges like I have in the past, I did get to see 4 countries and an immense section of the world's most popular mountain range, for the price of a rented car and 2 tanks of gas. This ended up being a priceless experience and I thoroughly enjoyed this entire trip.
Now I need to update you on my latest weekend trip before my time runs out here in London.
Love you all friends and family!
-Milt
It is November 20th, 2009. This trip may be the most unique trip because it is the one where we (myself, Alyssa, Renee [aka the badger], and Melinda [aka ginger]) actually have zero plans at all. It's another Friday, and this time, it is Alyssa's 20th birthday. For a solid week, I actually felt significantly superior and more mature than Alyssa because I was a whole year older. Now she has caught up to me and everything is back to normal. Anyway, unlike Paris, we all didn't get to go out to eat because of one minor detail.
We rented our own car and drove all around Switzerland the surrounding area.
So we rented our car from Geneva airport through Europecar. It was cool because in Switzerland, you only need to be 20 whereas in other parts of Europe, the minimum rental age is 21. So we drove through Geneva for a little while and then headed on NorthEast. Renee was my copilot for the majority of the trip (she was fantastic and was the only one under 20 at this time) and made her only mistake from the getgo. She had me turn right (accidently) instead of going streat. As a result, to get to our destination, Zurich, we had to go around Lake Interlaken and take the route through the Alps. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The route we took from Geneva to Zurich must have been one of the most enjoyable, and terrifying, rides I have ever ridden. While we all took turns driving (even Renee for a little bit), I was designated mountain driver which was perfectly fine by me except for those times when the speed limit was 50km/hr going around a 90degree turn with nothing separating us from a 1000ft drop except for a little wooden fence.
The drive through the alps was beautiful. We even slept in our car (which was absolutely FREEZING). So we finally arrived in Zurich and hung out for a little bit. It is a nice town. But we decided to go travel to the country very near to the North. Germany. So we crossed the border into Germany and then headed East into the next country, Austria! Austria was equally beatiful with its Alps and such. We looked for the Von Trap family but didn't see them. So we drove up the mountains and kept looking but to no avail. We consoled ourselves with the fact that we could see snow above us and grass below us - very interesting combination if you don't live near the mountains.
Well anyways, we ended up revisting Zurich (north actually) to see the Rhein falls which, I must say, were a bit of a disappointment, especially if you've seen Niagara Falls. We heard words such as "best falls in Europe" and such but they seriously were maybe a third the size of Niagara and not nearly as impressive. We also visited Lindt chocolate factory but it was closed when we got there so that was also slightly disappointing, but still, it was well worth the trip to the Swiss Chocolate factory.
So we drove back to Geneva. This time we took a more Southern route than before which also led us through the Alps and eventually through the Northernmost part of France as well. We had nothing to eat throughout our trip but foods from German supermarket giants Lidyl and Hofar (known in the States as Aldi) because, for example, a whopper costed 11 swiss franks ($12) and the a Starbucks coffee was pushing 10 swiss franks. So it was definitely economical to shop in bulk than eat out in town.
So it was a completely and utterly joyful ride through the mountains. The Swiss Alps definitely made the Rockies look like a child compared to the Alps. All in all, this trip was also very relaxing as we got to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, and still didn't have to spend very much money at the same time because we didn't really go out much (exept we saw 2012 in Luzern for 16 Swiss franks a ticket) and instead enjoyed each others' company and of course, we enjoyed the beautiful Swiss Alps.
So that concludes my weekend. While we didn't get to see any Eiffel Towers, Colosseums, or Stonehenges like I have in the past, I did get to see 4 countries and an immense section of the world's most popular mountain range, for the price of a rented car and 2 tanks of gas. This ended up being a priceless experience and I thoroughly enjoyed this entire trip.
Now I need to update you on my latest weekend trip before my time runs out here in London.
Love you all friends and family!
-Milt
Parlez-Vous Francais??
Bonjour! So this has officially been my longest gap of blogging about my weekend trips. For one, I'm now 20. This does not entail that I have been a little hermit crowding my room, but rather I have been extremely busy and entirely consumed with the weekday activities most collegiate students near finals must get through. As you can see, I have not actually posted about my past three weekends but rather I've only posted class assignments and a holcad article. Apologies especially to my family back home. I know you're eager to read about my latest stories and I will try to get them to you one story at a time as quickly as possible.
So take yourselves back to the second weekend of November. Novemer 12, the eve of my Friday-the-13th birthday, to be exact. Miles, Alyssa, and I flew EasyJet to Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris France. It is here that I got to truly test my three years of high school French and my 1 semester of 201 level French. In class, I had never received less than an A-. However, I hardly felt like the straight-A student I had become known as when I was thrown into the French native speaking city of Paris. Throughout the weekend, I was essentially the spokesperson of our groups as everyone else was either a spanish or latin student (or in alyssa's case, italian). It was fairly easy enough to start conversation:
"Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?"
However, if they spoke back in French, all I heard was a blur of French where I only picked up a couple words at a time. Anyway, after checking into our hostel in Montmarte, we dec
ided to get a headstart on the rest of the WC students who were coming to Paris on Friday. Around 11pm we found a nice looking little restaurant called La restaurant d'Albert. It is here that we had the most delicious salmon pasta ever. Much to my surprise, Alyssa secretly mentioned to our wonderful French waitress that it was my birthday and maybe they could stick a candle in my creme de caramel. Oblivious to this all, I was surprised when the TV shut off and all the lights dimmed. The restaurant was already fairly empty but suddenly this very joyful rendition of "Happy Birthday" began playing on the loudspeakers...Out comes the waiting staff bringing my creme de caramel - with an enormous sparkler that looked like it belonged more in a fireworks show than on my French dessert. A wonderful phone call from my family wishing me a happy birthday concluded my night as we all prepared for our big weekend.
Friday was the first day of our tour with International Friends. We checked into the 3-star tourgroup hotel early and, since we had a couple hours to kill, Miles and I stumbled upon
this tall building near our hotel with grass growing out of its walls. We explored the inside and actually found that it was the host venue for the Paris Masters tennis tournament. Seeing the eventual tournament winner Novak Djokovic was winning convincingly, Miles and I decided to purchase tickets for the very next match featuring the World #2 Rafael Nadal versus #9 Tsonga of France. I have never witnessed tennis at any level higher than my high school friends played. The match itself was quite an enjoyment with hard-hitting serves and incredible returns. The speed of the game is much quicker than it looks on TV. After watching the first set, Miles and I had to go meet our tour group.
Friday's part of the tour featured a nice little bus ride to the world famous Eiffel Tower. It is here that our group, led by Tony - the short bald British man, boarded our cruise boat on the river Seine. From our tour boat, we got a wonderful view of Paris. Needless to say, It was quite a highlight to an already eventful birthday. Our busride home we met some new friends, Olga and Derek, who we eventually went out to dinner with that evening where I got to taste duck fois gras.
Saturday began our full day of guided sightseeing. We headed into the historic district of Montmarte and got to visit the world-famous eglise de Sacre Coeur, or, the church of the Sacred Heart. To date, this is my favorite cathedral I've visited. The Sacre Coeur's placement on th
e high point overlooking Paris with nothing but the sky behind it can only cause one to gap in awe. Its Byzantine style or curves and points with the white facade are especially pleasing to the eye. After climbing the stairs up to it, we explored the equally beautiful interior of the church. A few of us decided to continue our exploration and we decided to climb to the very top of the Sacre Coeur (which involved several hundred winding steps) to get the best view of the entirety of Paris. It is here that our tour group actually left us WC students atop the Sacre Coeur. However we were not complaining because we decided that enjoying our time was more fun.
We eventually met up with our tour group after lunch where we continued onto Notre Dame. This cathedral is not only the namesake of a prestigious university and the home to a hunchback named Quasimodo, this cathedral was France's finest example of gothic architecture. With its flying buttresses and gargoyles, and overall forboding presence, Notre Dame was quite an impressive building. How they built such a building still beats me but the this cathedral actually makes my top-3 list of favorites. The inside was absolutely massive. with it's multiple archways and incredible stain glass windows, Notre Dame must be able to hold several thousand in one service.
After visiting Notre Dame, many of us continued the second half of Saturday's tour to Versailles. Now I honestly did not know much about Versailles except that it was some palace with some gardens and that a treaty was signed here after a world war. What I did not expect was the product of King Louis XIV's lavish spending on himself. The guy actually employed every good French painter for one sole purpose - self portraits. Now I had visited Buckingham Palace a month earlier but even the home of the Queen did not compare to this palace. Room after room was adorned with gold, silver, precious stones, and of course, several life sized paintings of king Louis XIV. The Gardens were equally as impressive with their unique shrubberies , fountains, and gorgeous landscaping.
That evening, my Westminster friends and I all decided to meet at the Eiffel Tower to and climb each and ever step of the way. Nearly our entire WC group was in Paris this weekend so it was here we took our famous group picture. The Eiffel Tower does not need much more explanation except that it was beautiful and worth every step of that intense climb.
Our final day in Paris involved our trip, to, in my opinion, the world's greatest museum -
The Louvre. Now don't get me wrong, London has several fantastic museums, especially the Britis
h Museum. However, the Louvre takes the cake on this one. The place was once a fortress and also a palace and massively enormous doesn't give this place enough credit. The Louvre houses perhaps the most famous painting of all time - The Mona Lisa. It also is filled with dozens of other incredibly famous works of art and achievement. I could honestly spend a week straight in this museum and still not see everything there is to see. However, due to time constraints and an eventual evening flight to catch, we were restricted to only visiting the most well-known exhibits.
At this point, the main tour group departed back home leaving me back with my original group of Miles and Alyssa. From the Louvre, we decided to walk to the Arc de Triumph. Big m
istake. Climbing the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur had taken its toll on our legs. Despite Alyssa's warnings of how far the Arc was from the Louvre, Miles and I were stubborn enough to walk the entire walk down the Champ D'Elysees. Nearing the heart of the city, we got a true feel of how unique Paris is as a city and how it has maintained its look as one of the world's most famous cities. The Arc de Triumph is the world's second biggest arc and simply lies in the center of a huge intersection. Once again, Paris did not cease to impress me with yet another world famous landmark.
From this point, Miles, Alyssa, and I had a few more hours left until we had to depart for
our flight home. Here we had our fun with the Parisian underground system. Unlike London, the French don't actually monitor the gates to get in and out of each station. As a result, we discovered that we could, like many of the locals, hop over or climb under each gateway. With only 1 one-journey ticket, Miles, Alyssa, and I managed to navigate our way through the underground system to Moulin Rouge, and eventually, back to the airport.
All in all, Paris is my favorite city surpassing Venice. If I ever get the chance I would come back in a heartbeat. It was perhaps the most complete visit of a city I've done yet. Seeing the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triumph, and Moulin Rouge are pretty much things I hope to keep in memory for the rest of my life. Speaking of life, I now need to blog about my weekend trip in the Swiss Alps.
Au Revoir!
So take yourselves back to the second weekend of November. Novemer 12, the eve of my Friday-the-13th birthday, to be exact. Miles, Alyssa, and I flew EasyJet to Charles De Gaulle Airport near Paris France. It is here that I got to truly test my three years of high school French and my 1 semester of 201 level French. In class, I had never received less than an A-. However, I hardly felt like the straight-A student I had become known as when I was thrown into the French native speaking city of Paris. Throughout the weekend, I was essentially the spokesperson of our groups as everyone else was either a spanish or latin student (or in alyssa's case, italian). It was fairly easy enough to start conversation:
"Bonjour, parlez-vous anglais?"
However, if they spoke back in French, all I heard was a blur of French where I only picked up a couple words at a time. Anyway, after checking into our hostel in Montmarte, we dec
ided to get a headstart on the rest of the WC students who were coming to Paris on Friday. Around 11pm we found a nice looking little restaurant called La restaurant d'Albert. It is here that we had the most delicious salmon pasta ever. Much to my surprise, Alyssa secretly mentioned to our wonderful French waitress that it was my birthday and maybe they could stick a candle in my creme de caramel. Oblivious to this all, I was surprised when the TV shut off and all the lights dimmed. The restaurant was already fairly empty but suddenly this very joyful rendition of "Happy Birthday" began playing on the loudspeakers...Out comes the waiting staff bringing my creme de caramel - with an enormous sparkler that looked like it belonged more in a fireworks show than on my French dessert. A wonderful phone call from my family wishing me a happy birthday concluded my night as we all prepared for our big weekend.Friday was the first day of our tour with International Friends. We checked into the 3-star tourgroup hotel early and, since we had a couple hours to kill, Miles and I stumbled upon
this tall building near our hotel with grass growing out of its walls. We explored the inside and actually found that it was the host venue for the Paris Masters tennis tournament. Seeing the eventual tournament winner Novak Djokovic was winning convincingly, Miles and I decided to purchase tickets for the very next match featuring the World #2 Rafael Nadal versus #9 Tsonga of France. I have never witnessed tennis at any level higher than my high school friends played. The match itself was quite an enjoyment with hard-hitting serves and incredible returns. The speed of the game is much quicker than it looks on TV. After watching the first set, Miles and I had to go meet our tour group.
Friday's part of the tour featured a nice little bus ride to the world famous Eiffel Tower. It is here that our group, led by Tony - the short bald British man, boarded our cruise boat on the river Seine. From our tour boat, we got a wonderful view of Paris. Needless to say, It was quite a highlight to an already eventful birthday. Our busride home we met some new friends, Olga and Derek, who we eventually went out to dinner with that evening where I got to taste duck fois gras.
Saturday began our full day of guided sightseeing. We headed into the historic district of Montmarte and got to visit the world-famous eglise de Sacre Coeur, or, the church of the Sacred Heart. To date, this is my favorite cathedral I've visited. The Sacre Coeur's placement on th
e high point overlooking Paris with nothing but the sky behind it can only cause one to gap in awe. Its Byzantine style or curves and points with the white facade are especially pleasing to the eye. After climbing the stairs up to it, we explored the equally beautiful interior of the church. A few of us decided to continue our exploration and we decided to climb to the very top of the Sacre Coeur (which involved several hundred winding steps) to get the best view of the entirety of Paris. It is here that our tour group actually left us WC students atop the Sacre Coeur. However we were not complaining because we decided that enjoying our time was more fun.
We eventually met up with our tour group after lunch where we continued onto Notre Dame. This cathedral is not only the namesake of a prestigious university and the home to a hunchback named Quasimodo, this cathedral was France's finest example of gothic architecture. With its flying buttresses and gargoyles, and overall forboding presence, Notre Dame was quite an impressive building. How they built such a building still beats me but the this cathedral actually makes my top-3 list of favorites. The inside was absolutely massive. with it's multiple archways and incredible stain glass windows, Notre Dame must be able to hold several thousand in one service.
After visiting Notre Dame, many of us continued the second half of Saturday's tour to Versailles. Now I honestly did not know much about Versailles except that it was some palace with some gardens and that a treaty was signed here after a world war. What I did not expect was the product of King Louis XIV's lavish spending on himself. The guy actually employed every good French painter for one sole purpose - self portraits. Now I had visited Buckingham Palace a month earlier but even the home of the Queen did not compare to this palace. Room after room was adorned with gold, silver, precious stones, and of course, several life sized paintings of king Louis XIV. The Gardens were equally as impressive with their unique shrubberies , fountains, and gorgeous landscaping.
That evening, my Westminster friends and I all decided to meet at the Eiffel Tower to and climb each and ever step of the way. Nearly our entire WC group was in Paris this weekend so it was here we took our famous group picture. The Eiffel Tower does not need much more explanation except that it was beautiful and worth every step of that intense climb.
Our final day in Paris involved our trip, to, in my opinion, the world's greatest museum -
The Louvre. Now don't get me wrong, London has several fantastic museums, especially the Britis
h Museum. However, the Louvre takes the cake on this one. The place was once a fortress and also a palace and massively enormous doesn't give this place enough credit. The Louvre houses perhaps the most famous painting of all time - The Mona Lisa. It also is filled with dozens of other incredibly famous works of art and achievement. I could honestly spend a week straight in this museum and still not see everything there is to see. However, due to time constraints and an eventual evening flight to catch, we were restricted to only visiting the most well-known exhibits.At this point, the main tour group departed back home leaving me back with my original group of Miles and Alyssa. From the Louvre, we decided to walk to the Arc de Triumph. Big m
istake. Climbing the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Coeur had taken its toll on our legs. Despite Alyssa's warnings of how far the Arc was from the Louvre, Miles and I were stubborn enough to walk the entire walk down the Champ D'Elysees. Nearing the heart of the city, we got a true feel of how unique Paris is as a city and how it has maintained its look as one of the world's most famous cities. The Arc de Triumph is the world's second biggest arc and simply lies in the center of a huge intersection. Once again, Paris did not cease to impress me with yet another world famous landmark.From this point, Miles, Alyssa, and I had a few more hours left until we had to depart for
our flight home. Here we had our fun with the Parisian underground system. Unlike London, the French don't actually monitor the gates to get in and out of each station. As a result, we discovered that we could, like many of the locals, hop over or climb under each gateway. With only 1 one-journey ticket, Miles, Alyssa, and I managed to navigate our way through the underground system to Moulin Rouge, and eventually, back to the airport.All in all, Paris is my favorite city surpassing Venice. If I ever get the chance I would come back in a heartbeat. It was perhaps the most complete visit of a city I've done yet. Seeing the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Arc de Triumph, and Moulin Rouge are pretty much things I hope to keep in memory for the rest of my life. Speaking of life, I now need to blog about my weekend trip in the Swiss Alps.
Au Revoir!
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