I went to classes in the rain and discovered that I can develop lots of questions and even if I feel kind of dumb for asking them when nobody else is asking questions, I can at least get a smile out of the professors.
Most of the stuff we've covered in both my philosophy classes so far this semester, we already went through at lightning speed with Dr. Sich my second semester of Honors, so I'm sort of bored so far with it. We're rereading Plato's Phaedo and Meno. The only new material so far is Parmenides' On Nature, which we might have already covered in Honors and I just forgot, because his crazy ideas sound really familiar.
My mind ends up expanding really fast to cover whatever it is we're talking about, so none of it seems really like a revelation, like some of the other kids feel. I hear them talking after class and they feel like their mind is blown, but in reality I just sort of understand whatever it is that the Professor wants to cover and then I want to know more about the thought processes because they're fascinating.
I'm kind of peeved that we have to have midterms about this stuff because while I understand the arguments, I don't particularly feel like memorizing them. I just want to think more about them.
In any case Parmenides is the most crazy so far, because he's the first historically documented philosopher that we've chosen to study. He mostly says stuff like, "What there is, is, and therefore exists in thought and we can speak of it; therefore what is not, is not, and cannot even be mentioned nor conceived, and is illicit", which basically means whatever exists, we can think about; whatever doesn't exist, we can't think about or even so much as talk about.
To which I asked Professor McNamara, "So why if he thinks you aren't allowed to discuss what doesn't exist, did he write an entire 3000 line poem about it?"
Pf. McNamara just laughed and said we would answer that when we got to Aristotle, who apparently asked long-dead Parmenides the exact same thing in a document later along in history.
Anyways the day was uneventful. I walked down after lunch to the Intersport Macchi store where they sell rainjackets, wearing my old rain jacket, and sure enough, by the time I got there and back, the water had gone right through my jacket. (It's sitting on my chair now, and got the whole chair wet so I can't sit there.) The prices are all really high so I can't buy anything until my debit card shows up. After that I went back up and did a lot of reading for history and then for philosophy.
As for the history readings, I understand the general flow of history, but I can't remember specific events or especially the names of the various kings or generals. There was a lot of killing and betrayal and conquering that went on.... hopefully he doesn't expect us to be able to document the entirety of 300 A.D. to 1500 A.D., because if that's the case, I'm down the drain already.
This evening I went to the Bibliotek to play the grand piano that's in there, since the piano downstairs in the Franziskanerhaus (our dorm) is really off key and partly broken. The piano is amazing. It's a Yamaha, and because it's located in a fairly large chapel with a huge vaulted ceiling, the acoustics are gorgeous. I wish I could have recorded some of it better, but I kept getting interrupted.
First I got interrupted by Pf. Hass, who teaches my history class tomorrow. He recognized the song I was playing and said he really liked it. We talked for a bit and then he continued on. Then some of the LCI (exchange students) came out and Veronika, the very quiet girl from Belarus, came over and was so excited that I played piano. She asked me to make something up for her, which I did, and then she clapped her hands and said she wanted to learn piano but didn't want to try because piano was too complicated, and she would eventuall learn guitar instead.
I had her sit down with me and I spent half an hour teaching her Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I don't think she's ever heard the song, which was kind of funny... I didn't have any sheet music to show her, so so far it's all by ear.
Afterwards she was so happy she bounced up and down and almost cried and then she hugged me, which is super warm for someone out of their culture. Most of the exchange students express their affection through handshakes (which is odd because whenever they handshake you, it feels like they're just meeting you). Then she asked me if she could learn more, so I think I'm going back to teach her again tomorrow night at 9.
At first part of me is sort of worried about making commitments to do things in the evening when I could be like, partying or something with big groups, but then I realized that Ha, why worry, I don't have any big groups to hang out with and I'm pretty sure she'd be flexible anyways if it came to that.
Speaking of which, I think I might also end up teaching guitar to Dani Carreno, the 7 year old son of my Philosophy of the Human Person professor. Dani is incredibly intelligent and speaks five languages and I'm a little intimidated, but we'll see if I end up actually giving the lessons. Mrs Carreno says he's very determined he wants to learn the violin and she isn't sure if he'll take to guitar.
I guess we'll find out!
P.S. The Bibliotek at night is kind of freaky. There's a very small light over the piano, but the rest of it is pitch black so you can sort of see the outlines of the paintings all over the walls, but only very vaguely. The piano is also a long way from the door, so I turned my phone flashlight on and ran like all get out.
The things I do for music......
The Bibliotek, but with people in it, during the daytime
The long dark hall to the Bibliotek
I am going to work on my piano skills just to be able to play the piano there cause it sounds amazing to be able to play in there:) Does bibliotek mean library?
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