A summer weekend in February
While I was applying for the Kennedy Scholarship, one of the classes at Harvard I had been most excited to take was ‘Justice’ taught by Professor Michael Sandel, one of Harvard’s most popular classes (besides CS50). I had watched some of the lectures online at justiceharvard.org and had imagined myself sitting in one of the rows in the Sanders Theatre debating different moral scenarios. Sadly I discovered that the class is no longer offered, but I had the opportunity to hear Professor Sandel speak at the Harvard Law Forum during a Tuesday afternoon lecture on “Why Trump? What Now?”.
Prof Sandel talked about the causes of social and economic discontent which fuelled the populist backlash, and the areas which need to be addressed going forward such as the immigration and outsourcing, the effect of technology on the dignity of work, and income inequality. It was an interesting discussion trying to make sense of the Trump Presidency and what to anticipate for the next 4 years.
On Thursday, Josh, Avantika, Emily, Louwaii and a group of our friends went to a Surrealist Art Party run by the HBS Art Society in a warehouse in Somerville. For our costumes, my friend Margaret and I decided to paint our faces, mine as an elaborate Salvador dali-eque clock and Margaret with an evil eye on her forehead. While the party definitely wasn’t worth the $30 dollars we had to pay it was a great excuse to meet up with some of the other kennedys in the middle of a busy semester. Midweek parties in midterm exam week? Oops. It wasn’t as disastrous as I had anticipated and following the party I managed to crank out a 48 hour coding midterm for a data science class without too much trouble…
The best part of the week was definitely the beautiful summery weekend. My friend Simone and I went running on the dirt path by the Charles River in 22 degree sunshine! It was a much needed glimpse of summer and longer days.
Over the weekend I also went to see Harvard play Brown in college basketball. College sport here is on a completely different scale to anything I’ve seen back in England, and everything is fashioned into a spectacle complete with live brass band, cheerleaders, suited managers shouting instructions courtside, and stalls selling soft pretzels and nachos. The only American sport I have left to watch live is ice-hockey!
