Inferno

It was a little surprising to me to find out that (probably) the only author whose work I've all read is Dan Brown. I don't find them that good, yes they're good in terms of being a page turner, but there's no deeper layer to it.

But nonetheless I stayed up late into the night finishing Inferno, the synopsis is the as below via goodreads:

In the heart of Italy, Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon is drawn into a harrowing world centered on one of history’s most enduring and mysterious literary masterpieces . . . Dante’s Inferno.

Against this backdrop, Langdon battles a chilling adversary and grapples with an ingenious riddle that pulls him into a landscape of classic art, secret passageways, and futuristic science. Drawing from Dante’s dark epic poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide whom to trust . . . before the world is irrevocably altered.

I this one the best simply because it's set in Italy is based off of the Divine Comedy, which I attempted to read back in highschool but only got as far as canto 10? If there's a free online course on the book I would totally take it. 

Also made me realize that there's so many places I didn't go in Florence & Venice! Ughh biggest regret is not going to Doge's Palace but instead spending too much time shopping on Rialto Bridge. This is why trips are not good with a big group of people.

kale

Back to downtown with no internet until Thursday, plan is to replace internet time with cooking time.

Meanwhile, better view of the sunset again!

Breakfast of Champions

plus one quotation from Jailbird, which I forgot to make a post on.

I observe how profoundly serious Nature has made her about a rubber ice-cream cone — brown rubber cone, pink rubber ice cream. I have to wonder what equally ridiculous commitments to bits of trash I myself have made. Not that it matters at all. We are here for no purpose, unless we can invent one. Of that I am sure. The human condition in an exploding universe would not have been altered one iota if, rather than live as I have, I had done nothing but carry a rubber ice-cream cone from closet to closet for sixty years

And again I say how much easier the existentialism project would've been if I read more of Vonnegut in grade 12.

Anyways, Breakfast of Champions. This along with Slaughterhouse-Five is Vonnegut's two most popular books (several characters appear in both books too)? I do like it very much, just not as much as the other ones.
On a side note, publishers should really release a collector's set of Vonnegut books with limited edition cover art, I would very much like to own that.

Synopsis from Amazon:

"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read. Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion.
The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout. As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count.

The plot surrounding Hwayne Hoover reminds me of American Psycho, especially through quotation #2 below. I found the "mergers&acquisition and murder&execution" way too funny.

"I wont know myself until i find out whether life is serious or not" said Trout. "Its dangerous, i know, and it can hurt a lot. That doesn't necessarily mean its serious, too"

Every person had a clearly defined part to play. If a person stopped living up to expectation, because of bad chemicals or one thing or another, everybody went on imagining that the person was living up to expectations anyways.

It is the past which scared the bejesus out of me.

This much I knew and know: I was making myself hideously uncomfortable by not narrowing my attention to details of life which  were immediately important, and by refusing to believe what my neighbours believed

"You know what truth is?" "Its some crazy thing my neighbour believes. If I want to make friends with him, I ask him what he believes. He tells me, and I say 'yeah, yeah - ain't it the truth?'

I resolved to shun storytelling. I would write about life. Every person would be exactly as important as any other. All facts would also be given equal weightiness. Nothing would be left out. Let others bring order to chaos. I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done. If all writers can do that, then perhaps citizens not in the literary trade will understand that there's no order in the world around us, that we mist adapt ourselves to the requirements of chaos instead.

 I would definitely quote the last quotation if I ever had to give a commencement speech.

ketchup

I was going to title this catch up, but realized that sounds similar to ketchup ah ha.

Yeah so past few days without internet wasn't as bad I expected, mainly because there were more errands to run than expected. Was making one shopping trip after another the day Jeff arrived, plus cleaning through the impossibly thick layer of grease on various kitchen surfaces that landlord has left behind.

But all in all had some good food despite the crappy condition of the kitchen.

Homecooked meals: pasta with meat sauce and make-shift sandwich with kale.
Guys, you haven't had a good tomato sauce pasta until you've had one with fresh basil (hurray perks of job). It makes such a big difference. I will never underestimate the power of herbs and spices ever again.
Also kale is delicious, I actually find it to taste sweet, but that may be the extra onions that I added.

Also finally went to Banh Mi Boys after reading about them on BlogTO eons ago. 

Interesting flavour combinations, did not know that pulled pork with kimchi is good. Also fairly cheap, taco is under $5 which makes it a viable weekday meal option.

Lastly fancy meal of the week was early birthday dinner with Alex. We've been friends for a long time haha. Got a shafted seat at Mercatto (because of our age says Alex) but was still a good meal :)


And to conclude the update on food, here's rather scrumptious looking bean with flattering lighting:


Yeah I'm liking my job :D

intermission

Word limit.
In lower grades, it was always the fear of trying to reach the word limit. Now, it's inevitable that you will be at least hundreds of words over.

In other news, no internet for a few days.
"orz

compost

Because of / inspired by finally finding the roof top garden at UT, I decided to finally start watching UC Berkley's series of online lectures titled "Edible Education". It's hosted by Michael Pollan, whose book is what actually got me interested in problems with our current food system (that was ages ago, kind of embarrassing bringing back old posts, but I read them for laughs all the time)

Anyways, each lecture is rather length (90mins), so I'm slowly making my through them. Current favourite is definitely "On the Farm", the lecturer has an awesome sense of humor haha. Most educational is the "Farm Bill", which talks about the political side of sustainable agriculture.

Also been reading various books on urban agriculture (Locavore, City Farmer and a bunch of more instructional books). Feeling proud as I flip through the pages while munching on cherry tomatoes from my balcony haha. Gosh I feel like those obsessive pet owners who want to show off their pet at every possible occasion, except this is me with tomatoes, can't emphasis enough how much better they taste.

most

Always something going on at Dundas square, perks of downtown living.

Now excuse me while I go pack.

harvest

Bounties of the week:


Peppers, tomatoes, basil, mint, cucumbers, and white eggplant (!). Not pictured is the lettuce, but there were 2 full buckets of them.

lemon balm

So many things to do:

• Move in
• Transition into job
• Pass driving
• Write paper for ISS

Been heading to downtown (and praying that the ttc doesn't break down yet again) everyday for various errands. I want to sleep in boohoo. But least had time to hang out with Grace today :) Haven't seen her in forever, sucks that we're in different unis.

Finally a taste of homegrown tomatos! So sweet and juicy. Not going to be able to stand supermarket ones now e_e"

Bottom is pub food from Pour Girl, where we went for a farewell lunch for the previous garden coordinator. He's off to law school (y). The sweet potato fries are amazingly crispy, I suspect that they're breaded in panko.

model s

Elon Musk
Why did I only hear of him yesterday? He is freakin amazing. His projects (Telsa, SpaceX, SolarCity, Hyperloop) are an engineer's dream come true.

Interesting tidbits from the article:

• He's the inspiration for Tony Stark.
• His inspiration comes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "It taught me that the tough thing is figuring out what questions to ask, but that once you do that, the rest is really easy". Honestly I think he's cool just based on this. 
• Degrees in econ and physics. Now wishing I had done this xD (nah happy with civ, all 33hrs of it next semester :'D)
• While at school, he financed his tuition by throwing parties (David get on this).
• Hired Apple's retail strategist to oversee Tesla's retail stores, now I have to visit the one in Yorkdale.
• He's friends with Olivia Wilde!
• For SpaceX, the engines are called Merlin and capsules dragon.

fall 13 revisited

I'm not sure whether it was good or bad luck that so many things I wanted/planned to buy went on sale at the same time.

On one hand, I could have saved a lot of money. Note that the keyword here is "could". Already spent a lot of money on UK trip, so I was reluctant to make any purchases, therefore not taking advantage of the sales and not getting what I wanted.

Updates on the list I made before:

Will purchase for fall:

• Khaki trench coat, replaced with Barbour coat
• Black, plain, leather loafers, was on sale but skipped
• Grey crewneck sweater, perhaps cashmere (but that's so high maintenance..) bought 
• Conference dress, was on sale but they ran out of my size and would be final sale & never tried on in stores

Nice to have/if they go on sale:

• Flat ankle boots, found super expensive versions so didn't buy (1, 2, 3)
• Nude pumps, not necessary for current lifestyle aka walking to school
• Stripped top, have not found
• Pencil skirt with some interesting feature not necessary for current lifestyle
• Shawl collar cardigan  bought
• Pretty much everything on my etsy wishlist ahahaa ;_; will go bankrupt if I buy

 So far so good, made all the expensive purchases (sigh August credit card bill...) so not much shopping left to do. A few additions though:

• Both my tote and wallet are close to being worn out, so those will need to be replaced. Currently thinking of the Baggu leather tote and Teranishi hollis minimalist wallet. Came across a Baggu leather pouch at Bath and the leather seemed very soft *u* Tempted to pick one up as well (and their classic baggu, so many pretty patterns!). 
• I think I've found some near perfect nude pumps! Shown here is Salvatore Ferragamo Vara Low Pumps in Tan, but they're gorgeous in a nude patent as well. But not about to drop $400 on shoes, so will need to look for alternatives. 
• Zara, my gosh, makes such pretty outerwear! Super in love with the green jacket on the right, the colour and fabric perfectly juxtaposes against the moto style. If only I didn't have too many jackets already :( The actual leather jacket is more questionable, but if I'm content with the quality of Danier, Zara's leathers should be fine too. Definitely not purchasing in the near future, as I already have two, and really what I want is either one of these two (1, 2).
• Not pictured since I totally forgot and is not quite a fall item: Everlane's Ryan tee in grey. Will get this, just a matter of when.

So in reality, the only 3 items that are to be bought are the tote, wallet and tee. And maaaaaybe I might ask for the green Zara jacket as a present, all my common sense is telling me I don't need another jacket though.

(The reason why I made such a long post is that I'm desperately procrastinating on reading the 9 paper I downloaded as research for my ISS essay on green roofs. That and I've been spending too much time on /r/femalefashionadvice)

Kinfolk

Discovering Cereal magazine may have started an expensive hobby...

Since Cereal wasn't readily available, I wanted to pick up a magazine of a similar style, Kinfolk. Surprisingly they can be found at Chapters, with a discount too! So under the guise of practicing driving, I went to pick up volume 8, which focuses on Japanese culture.

The magazine is very substantial, 138 pages of writing and photography on heavyweight paper. I find the articles to be too brief, but is made up for by the large variety of subjects.

A couple of my favourite spreads. The glorious white space & full page photos.

There are two essays in this volume regarding some of the traditional principles of Japanese life that I really enjoyed reading. One is titled "Keeping Time" by Rebecca Parker Payne, and the other "Wabi-Sabi Peace" by Louisa Thomsen Brits. You should definitely pick up a copy (or drop by) to read them in full, but here's some snippets:

The understanding that the most beautiful moments of life come right before the moment end.

Every encounter we have will happen once and then will never happen again.

Something the second quotation here alludes to.

Wabi-sabi holds moments of longing and connection, harness them to simple objects and everyday activities, infusing them with spirit and illuminating their natural integrity.

Wabi-sabi reveals the value of the humble, worm and treasured. It teaches us to strip away excess and embrace the unaffected beauty of the moment. It's an invitation to consider a life free from the pursuit of perfection, from the fear of losing the gloss of youth, of not having enough.

 This is what I, and everyone in my age bracket, need to hear. Would like to pick up a book or two on the subject of wabi-sabi, but school is taking over soon.

em

Leaving on a jet plane back to Toronto

farewell sunsets:

Time lapse from a single evening.

Compiled all the sunset photos here, and all vsco cam photos here.

Also some catch-up photos regarding food:

Gala & airport food.
My new theory is that Holland Hall is capable of making good food (and amazing desserts) but just choose not to on most days.
Airport food is a pulled pork and coleslaw rice bowl & mango passionfruit smoothie from Eat.

So sleepy, recovery and catch ups start tmrw (y)

farewell to the ex

Of course I spend the last afternoon in the UK chilling in my room.

But here's a vsco cam snap of a building that I pass by everyday, just to further prove my point of how beautiful the campus is.

Also just bite the bullet and bought the $6 preset pack. Came with a bunch that I wouldn't think of using, but it was cheaper than separately buying the presets that I did want.

Anyways, since I have so much time, shall do a overall review post of my time in the UK. Knowing myself, if I postpone this until I get back, it'll either a) never appear, or b) be a month late.
(this is a really long post, warning)

Some general observations:

• Londoners definitely dress better than people in the countryside. So, much, better.
• There's a large number of chain and independent cafes.
• But there's even more pubs. Lots and lots of pubs.
• It's not an exaggeration to say it could rain continuously for weeks. Supposedly we're here during the nicest time of the year, and yet it still rained everyday in the second week.
• It's really cold when it rains. Had 3 layers on when I went to torquay and it was still somewhat chilly.
• However, it is not true that the food portion sizes are smaller. In fact, I think the BK Whooper is bigger than the Canadian size.
• British national rail is nice (y)
• Every town has a road called High Street, always a good bet to go there for tourist-y shops. 
• Roundabouts seem to be the preferred form of intersections. 
• Vehicles drive much faster despite how narrow and steep the roads are.
• You're probably already tired of hearing this, but so in love with the countryside scenery. The gentle rolling hills are covered with a patchwork of different shades of green and gold. So picturesque. 
• Gooseberry is delicious, and gooseberry yogurt is the best flavour of yogurt. It's my goal to try to grow this next year. 
• Organic and local food have a much greater presence in the UK (or at least in Devon/Cornwall, since they have a large agricultural industry?). Restaurants and supermarket all advertise and use local ingredients.
• Nutrient labels are also more detailed and contain more useful information (in my subjective view).
• Lastly, my goodness the dorms are so much nicer. I say this even when comparing it to Chestnut. Single rooms by default, comes with a mini fridge ($80 to rent for a year at chestnut), a kettle with complimentary tea/coffee/creamer (kettles are banned at chestnut), towels and room service, and a bigger desk haha. Though some of these may just be summer perks. However, it's so much cheaper -o-" 98GBP per week, which is roughly $600 per month? Insane.

More rambling related to the weather and clothing:

• The Barbour jacket that I bought was hands down the most useful item ever in the British weather. Got it at 50% discount and probably wore it almost every day since arriving in Exeter. I originally intended to purchase a waxed jacket  since that's what Barbour is famous for, and to double as a light raincoat. However they were out of my size. Instead I liked how this looked and I was in more need of a spring/fall jacket (survey camp will see lots of use out of it). I was also reassured by the (cute) sales assistant that this will indeed stand up to light rain. True to his words, this has been the most helpful during the rainy days, so much more convenient than an umbrella. Money well spent :)
• However, the rest of the cloths that I brought along were less utilized. The ISS sent us an email before departure stating that the UK was experiencing a "heat wave". Okay true the days in London were pretty hot, but that was honestly it. Haven't wore shorts sans tights ever since those 3 days.

The program itself...I have mixed feelings about.

They say the focus is on academics, but really it's super chill. There are readings that you can do, but not reading them will not disadvantage you. (I have the intention of reading them...eventually). Aside from a group presentation (40% of your grade) and a paper (60% of your grade), there's no actual work you have to do.

• Lectures: this may just be a problem of the Climate Change pathway, but the lectures are either too general or too technical. I don't think this is the fault of the lecturers, but more of trying to teach this subject in a very limited amount of time. There were a diverse range of topics that were included, which is fantastic. However, I feel that the majority of the information was not helpful to my major in civil engineering. But if I had a background in climate sciences, or does research related to that area, then the information delivered would be much more applicable. An interesting incident was when a girl who sat behind me realized that our lecturer was the author of the papers she's been reading for her own research. There's also this really renowned professor who gets cited a lot in the IPCC reports (this report is like the bible of climate science?). Overall, it opened my eyes to how expansive the effects of climate change is. There are so many other issues, such as psychological health, that are not being actively discussed.
• Presentation: ESP leveled up my report shortening skill, ISS leveled up my presentation shortening skill. I've realized that the following are just complete wastes of time:
• Introduction of group members
• Reading over every item in the presentation outline, or reading any lists/charts in general.
The subtlety is that what you say is about what's on the slides.
• Paper: have not yet started haha. It's due after the program ends, which I find a bit weird. There's also almost zero instructions regarding it, which I find scary. Planning on writing about green roofs, hope that goes well.

When I ask around on people's reasons for coming to the ISS, most of them cite wanting to travel to the UK as the primary reason. Same for me, it was the abundance of day trips that sealed the deal (still doubting whether I can actually get a credit for this course).

There's also a bunch of social activities, but I didn't participate much. Think it's because of my choice of friends here? We were all quite happy to retreat back into our rooms after class apart from the few trips into town. Definitely didn't get as close to people as Shad, but I do like them :) At the very least I now have friends in Shanghai to treat me to seafood hotpot haha. Similarly I've been urging them to visit Toronto~

trek

Walking to class during sunny mornings is so nice~

Eating a fulfilling breakfast,
walking through the grass still wet with dew,
walking down the slope with the gentle morning sun shining upon you,
walking past flowering bushes,
walking down a winded path through the woods,
walking through the student center with the sun pouring through it's many sky lights

and then sit down in class and start feeling sleepy sigh.

Going to class at Exeter is taking a pleasant stroll. Less pleasant walking back uphill, but still not terrible.
Going to class at UT is more of a commute. Unless it's when the streets are deserted late at night/early in the morning (thank you UTHSDC preparations), then it's rather awesome. There's a Quora question about the most surreal place in Toronto, and I particularly like this answer:

The downtown core is extremely surreal between 3 and 6AM, especially during the summer when the weather is beautiful and there is absolutely not a soul around. You can wander the streets and feel like all the monolithic buildings are there for you to peruse by yourself.

Tomorrow's last day in Exeter, time passes fast.

dusk

So I didn't end up going to St. Ives.

Friend that went said it was one of the best day trips, but I'm just happy that I had a really relaxing day. Got some work done too, which is always nice.

A good time is standing on your balcony watching the sunset. So spoiled by the view from my room "orz

x-posted from fb, editted via vsco cam

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It may not be an exaggeration to say that this post might have just impact my future career choice: project managers as entropy crushers.

opportunity cost

I get to learn about ^ in econ later, whee.
Post content is related though.

During an opportunity, such as the International Summer School at Exeter, one should participate in as many activities as possible. I'm definitely missing out on the pub culture (the smallest grocery or convenience store will have a fridge section full of beers and ciders), but alcohol isn't my thing.

Sidenote aside, one shouldn't exhaust oneself, which would lead to missing out on further activities.
So there's this balance between staying well rested and being involved. (okay this balance always exists, but is particularly important during an overseas program)

Case study: myself.

Was probably mildly food poisoned yesterday (not that I was eating anything exotic, dunno what I ate that could be the cause), which resulted in missing the afternoon lecture. It was on biofuels and seemed interesting enough for me to not want to miss it.

Being sick is a convenient excuse to rest, so I slept away the afternoon and early evening. Having well rested from that made me realize how tired I felt the entire week, which led to my desire to skip the day today and continue resting. However, today's morning lecture sounded especially enticing (climate tipping points as an early warning system, the author was the lecturer), coupled with the fact that I was well enough to head to class, resulted in me going after all.

It was a good decision, learned something new from both morning and afternoon lectures (numeric modelling of saltwater intrusion. Genetic algorithms sound cool, wonder how they first devised that. Also confirms that engineering life is a series of partial differential equations). But missing out on resting tempted me to skip the day trip tomorrow to St. Ives (a friend isn't feeling well either, so she's also skipping which only adds to the temptation). Alas the weather will finally be sunny and I've been looking forward to St. Ives, so I decided to go anyways.
Hopefully I can write that it was a good decision as well. If anything I get to take pretty photos with vsco cam.

The lesson of this drawn out story to my future self, contrary to how things turned out, is that it shouldn't induce guilt/fear that you want to take a day off and rest.

Torquay

It's pronounced almost like turkey! I find it amusing, don't judge.

Here's the day trip via VSCO Cam, current favourite camera app.

Weather was super depressing, but still had fun :)

baths

Day trip to Bath today.

Had very high expectations for the town, but was disappointed due to various reasons. There was a redeeming factor though!

A view of the original Roman bath:

The museum surrounding the bath is very informative (sometimes I think too much so), which resulted in too much spent there. Definitely worth the ticket price though! Didn't get to see the royal crescent, nor walk around town much. The weather was uncooperative anyways, drizzled throughout the day.

The Pulteney Bridge is a lot smaller than I expected, again can't compare to the Rialto in Venice. There were some interesting shops there though! One sells antique maps (so cool! and so expensive), while another is a design boutique.

It is in that boutique that I discovered Cereal magazine. I was hesitant to purchase it on the spot due to its heft. It might as well be a book (intentional design), which is not something I wanted to carry around for the rest of the day. However, I very much regret it now. It is gorgeous and I love the concept behind it. Been searching stockists for a good hour when I got back this evening. So many shops are in Bristol! Why did I not go to Bristol! (because of laziness sigh).

So now I obsess over the blog and spend $25 to ship it to Canada. Really want to read about pepper in volume 2, but that's sold out everywhere.

Anyways, Bath.
Another attraction is the Sally Lunn's House, which serves up it's famous Bath Buns. I also had very high expectations of this place, and unfortunately the experience was quite terrible.

Clockwise: strawberry cream and meringue, lemon curd, chocolate spread.
They were decent, toppings were good, but buns did not feel freshly baked (my assumption since they arrived within minutes of ordering). The texture of the buns are overhyped too.

The service, on the other hand, is at best described as they don't care that we're there at all. When we first entered the queue, I inquired about the wait time. The hostess replied with almost a hostile attitude informing me that it will be 15mins and if I want to wait or not. Okay hostile is exaggerating it a bit, but it didn't sound like she wanted us to become customers at all.
Furthermore, we brought our own tubs of yogurt to eat, which I understand is not welcomed in restaurants. However, they could have easily accommodated that but chose not to. My friend asked for a teaspoon, was denied and specifically told that "no we don't give out spoons for your yogurt". A friendly lady at the table next to us offered her unused spoon, which was a nice gesture. Additionally, at the end of our meal, while our waiter was clearing the table, he told us to "take the yogurt containers with you". So the restaurant can't spare a single spoon nor have room in their trash bins? Is 3 yogurts containers such a huge burden? Yeah that sucked and put the rest of the day in a foul mood.

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So to end this post on a positive note, I've been so spoiled by the sunsets.


Also unrelated: another fantastic commencement address.

chump

A very good day of eating today (y)

Lunch at Ruby's (harhar), best burgers I've had so far.

Boom slider. Each component is delicious, good meat, good buns, good toppings. It looks tiny, but super filling along with the proper chips. I've been converted from skinny french fries, the fluffiness on the inside is non-negotiable.
And the ice cream, delicious as well. Flavour is banoffee, which is the perfect combination of banana and toffee.

Dessert later at Exploding Bakery, which I've been dying to go to since first reading about it.
Passionfruit cheesecake yumm. Super sticky though, quite painful to eat without utensils. Planning on having lunch here on the last day and just spending an hour sipping on a latte and enjoying the town.

biomes

Tired enough to not want to reddit more (I've spent way too long on that site since coming here), but not tired enough to forgo photo editing. Here are pics from the recent day trip to the Eden Project (it's cool! do visit if you're every in south western UK) and Falmouth.


A view of the biomes and some plants that are found in it. In the larger dome, the rainforest one, there's a giant suspended lookout! (Also proud since it's a feat of civil engineering) The queue was long to go on, but the view is nice up there. Wasn't very conductive for photo taking though.

Food was good too:

Baobab  smoothie, best thing ever really. Taste like a better pina colada (y). Gonna buy some baobab fruit powder (super health benefits as they claim) and try to recreate it myself.
On the right, paella and quiche. Finally had freshly cooked paella after passing the opportunity up at covent garden and the exeter market.

Evening was spent at Falmouth because we have class the next day at UE's Tremough campus. Because we went to town in the evening, everything was closed and there was nothing to do but walk around and take photos.

T'was pretty. Better sized photos on woophy.

Saw many stores that I would have liked to go into, but would have reeeeally liked to take these paintings home (though highly unlikely even if the gallery was open).

global climate change

A few TED talks posted by the course coordinator that encompass the stuff I'm learning: