Jordan, ‘10

I have a new friend and his name is Frank—or at least that is what I have decided to call him.  He lives in the greenhouse under the west side’s water faucet and he’s a spider, which is appropriate because our mascot is a spider and apparently we’re the only school in the country that has a spider for a mascot.  Frank and I go way back, you see.  I first noticed his presence a few weeks ago when he was just the tiniest wisp of a juvenile.  He is the color of old paper and at first I thought he was just the remains of a spider that had once been full of bug-eating life and now lay caught in its own web forever.  Or at least until the next occupant of that little space cleaned him out.  Silly me, I’ve seen so many spiders in my lifetime that I should know they come in all different colors but this particular shade of yellow made little Frankie look like a ghost corpse so you can imagine my surprise and fascination (or maybe you can’t) when I blew on him and saw those legs extend from his center and raise him the extra few millimeters into the air.  He’s a wonderful addition to the greenhouse crew and he’s probably helping to get rid of all the mean and vicious mosquitoes that hatched from the pools of water around some of the plants.  But they’re welcome too.  We even had a cicada earlier this semester…and a frog.  Then there is the group of mutant neon orange aphids that live on a single branch of a hanging plant.  I avoid them when I can. 

Our school has so many fantastic hidden treasures.  The greenhouse should count as one, even though I’m a bit biased by my job.  Many students have asked me about working there—they think it must be a magical hidden place because no one goes in there but the faculty and working students.  It is a magical place but not because anything weird or hallucinogenic is grown there.  Then, of course, there is the North Court mummy—an actual Egyptian mummy put in the tiniest closet-sized room ever on the second floor of North Court.  I visited it once with my friend and it is pretty impressive.  Not that it needs a lot of room—the woman is very small and she’s encased in a glass coffin like an ancient Snow White.

Also, it is important to note the overwhelming number of opportunities that exist for students who want things to do.  The events and trips that are offered definitely qualify as a hidden public treasure.  Last weekend, my friends Elizabeth, Lex, Ann and I took the school up on its free trip to the Native American museum in Washington D.C..  We arrived about 11:30 and went straight into the American Indian museum to do some exploring.  They were very thorough about explaining the cultures and religions of a number of tribes.  Perhaps the most spectacular exhibit, though, were the clothing displays.  There was an entire showroom dedicated to the distinct styles, patterns, manufacturing methods, and adornments of many tribes.  Pretty fantastic. 

Then, the crew split up for a little while and I GOT TO GO TO MY FAVORITE MUSEUM ON THE MALL!!!!  YAY YAY YAY!!!  You cannot understand how happy the Hirshhorn Museum makes me!  It’s shaped like a piece of a giant concrete pipe supported and raised up on three massive legs.   The Hirshhorn museum is very much the home for the very bizarre, unusual, and random—always abstract—art pieces of time.  My favorite piece this time was a floor to ceiling moving sculpture made entirely out of wire coat hangers with the paper pieces still on them.  I wasn’t able to take a picture, unfortunately, my camera was acting up, but before that, I was able to take some pretty good ones.

We had a blast!

This is a sculpture from the Native American museum…I really wish I could tell you more about it but I enjoyed it while I was looking at it.

These are some tribal masks!

Training the consciousness…a photograph at the Hirshhorn.

Find a penny on the sidewalk!
Jordan

Quote of the week:

quote from the Native American Museum.