Interpretation 2001: A Space Odyssey

There are many movies which tell people something deep meaning, and they have difficulty to understand what the director tries to say. The movie, "A Space Odyssey", is one of those movie I have seen before; therefore, it is very difficult to interpret correctly. What I interpret this movie is this.

In this movie, there are three parts: The Dawn of Man, TMA-1, and Jupiter Mission. Monoliths have a important role in each part. A long time ago, there were early humans in the African desert on the earth, and they didn't have any knowledge, tools, and weapons. One day, one monkey touched the monolith and was able to use a bone as a tool and a weapon. That is because he touched the monolith. Monoliths make humans smarter so that they can reach the next step. In the first part, the monkeys get the knowledge about how to use materials as tools and weapons and grow up to be mature enough to get the moon. In the second part, people touch the second monolith and develop themselves to be able to get Jupiter. In my opinion, a monolith is God because in the bible, God can create everything even a human as well as the human get the most important knowledge about how to use a tool from the monolith. Therefore, the story shows us how humans developed supernaturally.

In the third part, there is a conflict between humans and a technology. A computer, called HAL, controls everything in a space ship to Jupiter. The members are depending on HAL. HAL can speak and think just like a human; therefore, everything is going well. However, when one concern comes up, the human members  start wondering if HAL is perfect or not. When HAL realizes that, he tries to kill the members and did except one. Here is the real conflict between a human and a technology. People suppose to invent a machine using technology and control it; yet, if they depend on the technology too much, they will be controlled by the technology. In fact, human cannot live without technology now.

Through this movie, it tells people that how humans have been developing and how people have to deal with technology. If they ignore the gratefulness, they will kill themselves.

2001: A Space Odyssey

A long time ago, monkeys were living. They didn't have any tools; however, one day, one of the monkeys found bones as a tool, so they started to use them as a tool and a weapon. So they fought with other monkeys for water, which was the start of a war. From the beginning of the story, I couldn't expect what was going to happen next. I even don't know the main idea of the story, but I can say this first scene has a deep meaning in this story. It was difficult to understand, but I could follow the story because of Nathan's explanation.

Canadian Experience

I had a busy day on Saturday. In the morning, my host family had a garage sale since they are moving to another place, so I helped the garage sale. They advertised on craiglist, facebook, and streets, but I was wondering if people would come because in Japan, garage sales are not popular, and if I put the advertisement on streets or website, no one is interested in that. However, once we started the sale, people came after another and bought a lot of stuff!! Some one bought a bed, another bought a table, and so on. It was very interesting to see real Canadian culture. People don't hesitate to buy used stuff.

I think a garage sale is a very good and smart idea. People who want to get rid of stuff can sell those personally and get some money, and others who need the stuff can buy cheap. And also people don't waste resources because the things are recycled.

After we finished the garage sale, we started packing the rest of stuff. I was packing books and Swedish stuff (since my host family is from Sweden). There were a lot! And we brought some of the things to a church because the church will have a big garage sale in September, and some of them were to a friend's house.

We were working on for the moving almost all day long, I was so tired but had lots of fun and a good experience. I have to pack my stuff as well though, I will do it later :P

The Summary: "A Darwinian theory of beauty"

In this lecture, it says that people have different ideas or opinions beauty depending on their values and cultures. But in Denis Dutton's theory, there are universal beauties which belongs to our human psychology; furthermore, there are natural selection and sexual selection in common. These selections are never changed since human beings are living; for example, people like a landscape like Venice even some poeple don't have the scene in their countries. This is the example of natural beauty. In artistic beauty, on the other hand, he says there is no universal beauty. But people also find the beauty in something done well. In conclusion, beauty is not from eyes, but is from "deep in our mind", and it is "a gift from our ancestors".

Personal Reaction : Bill Reid Gallery

Since I came to Vancouver, I have studied a lot about the first nations at the ELI, and been to the Museum of Anthropology for several times. When I go there, I see totem poles, the Raven, and the paints every time, so I have learned what these are for, why the first nations made them, and so on; for example, the totem poles are a symbol of a family. This time, I went to Bill Reid Gallery, which was another place about the first nations. Bill Reid is an artist who made many sculptures and exhibitions about the first nations. Since almost all exhibitions were similar to the exhibitions I saw before, I didn't find a new interesting thing. But I was surprised that Nathan had a lot of knowledge about the first nations and Bill Reid!! He told us that Bill made some of the exhibitions but not all of them. In fact, he asked some non-first nation to make it. The story was funny and interesting for me.

Home Country

This weekend, I spent a lot of time with Japanese. I wrote an essay in Japanese, met Japanese friends,  talked to Japanese friends and family, and Japan won the Women's World Cup!!!!

First of all, my professor in Japan asked me to write an article about my experience in El Salvador because the student group, called The Others, publish a new letter and wanted to put my article. So that I started writing the article in JAPANESE... I thought it was easy to do that since Japanese was my mother tongue; however, once I started writing, I found it was much more difficult than I thought. It was because I haven't written an essay or article in Japanese for at least 11 months, I'm already used to writing in English, so my sentence structure and vocabulary are English, and I'm not good at writing originally. Therefore, it took almost four hours to write one page...

Second, I met and talked to Japanese friends a lot!! I drank with Chieu and another Japanese friend, and we talked about many things for hours. Chieu was almost drunken as usual :P hahahaha And another day, I met a friend who was from the same university. He came to Vancouver just two months ago, so it was very interesting to hear what he felt, experienced new things, and so on because I have been here almost for 11 months and keep forgetting what I thought when I came here. We talked about our university, job hunting, after we go back to university, and so on. I think it is good to have friends who know my school or city in common. Since I have been stressed out about the many projects or homework, it was very refleshing time for me.

And!!!!!!! In the Women's World Cup, Japan won against the U.S.!!!!!!!!!!!! The final game was amazing!!!!! I was glued to the PC and very excited. I could feel how the players were tense during the PK. That reminded me the scene in 2010 FIFA World Cup. Japan lost in PK. However, we won the cup this time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was the most exciting time on this weekend!!! :)

LOVE JAPAN!!

My Third Home

It was almost one month ago that I was in El Salvador. I remember there clearly even though I feel that is so long time ago. The strong sunlight, the humid air, the clod shower, the very friendly atmosphere, hugging, the friends, the big but very cheap fruits juice, the food (especially pupusas), friends, kids... I miss everything there, and through this experience in El Salvador, I feel I have been changing.

Since it took almost three years to convince my parents to go there, I was so excited to go to El Salvador and Guarderia. I was expecting that the country was totally different from the countries I had been before, and my expectation was right in both good and bad ways.

First, I took TACA airline from San Francisco to San Salvador which is the capital of El Salvador, and when I arrived there, it was almost one hour delay and took a long time to pass in the country; therefore, I was around two hours late when I met a friend who came to the airport to pick me up. He was very worried about me because the electronic bulletin board, which tells you if the flights arrive on time or not, said that my flight was ON TIME!!! Furthermore, I never knew when I would go or do somewhere/things. Since someone picked me up at home every morning, I had to stay home until someone came, but I didn't know when s/he came. So when the things happened was the time to do or go. I knew that people there didn't value time so much as Canadians and Japanese did and was wondering how it worked. But somehow it worked perfectly, and I didn't feel stressed about it.

Second, in El Salvador, there were many tropical trees, beautiful beaches, and blue sky, which was just like Vancouver summer. In the city, I saw many poor people who tried to sell stuff on the roads, and when I stopped for the traffic light, they came to the car and asked me to buy flowers, fabrics, and so on or did some performances in front of cars, and other cars were passing just behind them. On the other hand, in the city, I could easily see many shopping malls like Sears, cinemas, and fast food shops. When I was at a shopping mall, I almost forgot where I was.  It was kind of shocking that I could see exactly the opposite aspects.

Third, what was the most impressive was the people there. I spent my time almost with The Others' members, and I have known most of them since 2008 at the conference in Italy. Even though I didn't know some of them, I didn't feel I met them first time. Everyone I met there was very friendly, kind, and funny as well as the children at the Guarderia. It was first time to go to El Salvador, meet people, and spend such a long time with them though, I felt comfortable and my home. They always tried to teach me some useful Spanish (usually romantic words..) and teased me for fun.

I'm really missing the country and the friends, and the children. I was kind of homesick and felt so lonely when I came back to Vancouver. But what I felt the most was how I was happy because I was luckily born in Japan, which was called developed country, and under normal parents whereas the children were born in the slums. They are considered poor in general but wealthy as human beings because they are always thankful what they have and do. They never complain about their situations, but they just spend their time to study, play around, and be with others preciously. They told me that how I can love others and important a once-in-lifetime experience is.

I'll definitely go back to El Salvador in near future since I promised that to the children and the friends. I want to go back there instead of Japan!!!!

Friends made this little Momo and gave me!! :)