Barbara's blog

Hey everyone! I just finished reading the one and half chapters of Solnit’s “A Field Guide to Getting Lost”, and I had some exciting and funny experience that I am eager to share with you all. I am very attracted by a sentence which says to lose oneself is to be “utterly immersed in what is present so that its surroundings fade away.” While reading it, I was thinking “that is the right words I was looking for in yesterday’s essay!” In the essay I wrote for this week, I talked about my experience sitting on the grass slope and relaxing. Just now, I referred to the Friday essay and see what exactly Iwrote to express it. Surprisingly I found out that I actually said “I didn’t feel I was at lost.” This is really interesting! How we define a word definitely influence how we express. In Solnit’s book, I totally loved her idea about losing oneself and the way of her expression. However, before I read her way of saying it, I used a completely opposite way to describe the same thing. In my Friday essay, by using "lost", I was trying to express the situation where people feel idle, bored, and worthless. But Solnit’s “lost” is to be “fully present, and to be fully present is to be capable of being in uncertainty and mystery.” I want to share this reflection with you in order to make a point that, sometimes even when people are trying to say the same thing, they use different words to express themselves. To avoid misunderstanding, we need to patiently communicate and develop our skills on expressing.

Hello everyone!  I am Yaxuan (Barbara). I love exploring the new, going outdoors and getting close to the nature. Because of my crazy schedule during the shopping week, I was not able to visit the five sites in a row. I went to each place during different time of the day; therefore, the variables (time, weather, temperature, crowds, etc.) might have influenced my experience and thus the reflection. My favorite location is the glass staircase in Dalton Hall. It was in the morning, quiet and refreshing.  The scene was great and I could observe from different angles by going up and downstairs. I felt protected by the glass architecture still had the connection to outside surroundings. My second favorites go to English House and Morris Woods as a tie. I went there 2:30 pm. It just rained. The woods were very lively. Plants in the woods seem to have been lived for hundreds of years because they are all huge; obviously the woods would be the most ideal location for plants. However, I predict that if I were in the woods alone during night, that would be very scary and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy. My fourth favorite is the lab in Park Science; actually I was taking a Bio class there and I enjoyed it. However, the space was packed and I felt overwhelmed by it. My least favorite space was the Campus Center Parking Lot. It wasn’t lively or pleasant. The area was hotter than other places. My guess for plants’ favorite as from best to worst is as below: Morris woods, English House, Dalton Hall, Park Science and the parking lot.