I chose the Owl, Protector of the College, because I have been so struck by how much energy surrounds the owl as well as her (and our) patron goddess Athena, in the college community. In shamanic terms the owl is not just a mascot, but a totem: an animal spirit which lends its special power to our tribe; and both by the length of Owl's association with Bryn Mawr (back at least to 1904 when Rockefeller Arch was built), and by the passion with which Bryn Mawr students seem to identify with her-- as well as the various rituals and superstitions associated with Athena, Owl's mistress-- she strikes me as quite uniquely powerful, compared to college mascots or totems that I have encountered elsewhere. In fact Athena, with all the attributes she carried as patroness of the ancient city of Athens (and still does carry-- myths do not die!), being such an important deity in ancient times, with her Owl, seems to embody just about all of what Bryn Mawr is about, what makes Bryn Mawr special and different; she seems to permeate all we do, and to give us her supervision and her blessings on a day to day basis.

Reading the Kim and Markus article is a lot for me to process.  It affirms and gives insight into a lot of frustrations and opinions I have about myself.  Perhaps the best way to go about this is to speak in small anecdotes and details about myself:

-I often don't think in words.  More in images, colors, movements, movie scenes.  I often have a hard time writing papers because it involves putting words to thoughts.  The writing process is typically a page or less a day.

-I would never deny my Socratic education.  I speak in class.  A lot.  Sometimes, it's because I don't know how to translate thought to words.

-I really dislike how often I use the noun "I".  I worry about being selfishly individualistic.  Growing up, my father and mother would make soft remarks about how I shouldn't try to stand out so much.  "It's better to be just as high as the other trees in the forest." It took me the past couple of years to really understand why this concerned them so much.

-The main purpose I have in class dialogues is to try and get a sense of what everyone is trying to say and articulate it in a way that everyone can gain from it.

-Can't listen to conversations or music for the life of me when I'm trying to write or read.

Foliage

‘Foliage’ from Oxford English Dictionary Online

Etymology: The English word foliage is an altered form foillage, which comes from the French words fueillage and foillage which in turn stem from the French feuille leaf.  It comes from “foil”, meaning “leaf od a plant” and from the suffix “-age”, which forms  “nouns denoting something belonging or functionally related to what is denoted by the first element (and sometimes denoting the whole of a functional apparatus collectively), as leafage n., luggage n., roomage n., signage n., vaultage n., etc.”

It has the following meanings:

Foliage n.

1. The leaves (of a plant or tree) collectively; leafage (1601)

1a. In Art: The representation of leaves, etc. used for decoration or ornament (1598)

1b. A representation of a cluster of leaves, sprays, or branches (1699)

It has several compounds:

C1.

A1. Foliage-border n. (1891)

A2. Foliage-stem n. (1884)

A3. Foliage-trimming n. (1818)

      B1. foliage-bound adj. (1805)

C2.

 ”COUNTRY has two different meanings in modern English:  broadly a native land and the rural or agricultural parts of it.  The word is historically very curious, since it derives from the adjective contrata (L. contra – against, in the phrase contrata terra meaning land lying opposite over against or facing.  Its earliest separate meaning was a tract of land spread out before an observer. (Old English landscipe was a region or tract of land; the word was later passed into English through cuntrée and contrée.  It had the sense of native land and of distinctly rural areas.

 The widespread use of country as opposed to city began with increasing urbanization.

 In its general use, for native land, country has more positive associations than either nation or state.  Country habitually includes the people who live in it, while nation is more  abstract and state carries a sense of the structure of power.  Country can substitute for people in political contexts.  There is also

A specialized metropolitan use, in which all areas outside the city are‘country. ‘ “

 Raymond Williams, Keywords:  A Vocabulary of Culture and Society,

1983.

 COUNTRY . Middle English contre, e, cuntrée.  Late Latin contrata.  That which lies opposite or fronting the view, the landscape spread out before one.  Old Provencal equivalent encontrada, that encountered or met with.

The sight I chose to revisist throughout the semester is the garden beside Perry House and one of the features of that garden also happens to be the photo I chose to be my map of Bryn Mawr.  

Since coming to Bryn Mawr, I've become very aware of the ways in which I've been deprived of having my history taught in classrooms. I smiled as I read "Popular Culture, Pedagogy and Black Youth" because I too remember feeling like I learned the same things every year during black history month: Martin Luther King and "I Have a Dream". That is not to say that I don't think his contribution was unimportant, but it highlights the lack of effort that goes into teaching anything other than euro-centric curriculum to public school students. I still think it's funny that I had a World History class that only focused on Europe. That is without even mentioning that I learned NOTHING, about Latino culture throughout my time in school. I had no teachers that looked or spoke like me to look up or to go to when I felt invisible, silenced.

Notifications: turns out we have 2 kinds:

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Hope this helps!
Anne

Hi- I had trouble uploading my avatar but here is the photo I would eventually like to use:

This is an eye that I drew this past summer, which I'd like to use both because I think eyes can be symbols of observation and envisionment. I also decided to use it because it was personal to me, as something that I had drawn myself. I also could not figure out how to get the picture to be right side up.....

In trying to choose my avatar, I started to think about what represents my interests and what I enjoy doing – and the first thing that came to mind was my love of traveling.  I googled “map” and this was one of the first images that came up.  So, the compass represents the traveler in me, but since uploading it I’ve also been thinking a lot about Johnny Cash’s song “Folsom Prison Blues.”  I feel a huge amount of empathy for that man stuck in Folsom Prison hearing the sound of the train everyday – I know that when I’ve been stuck in institutions (hospitals) the realization that traveling continues to happen on the outside is very demoralizing.  The compass is also interesting in that it is also a reminder that white/Western privilege seeps into all areas of our lives.  North is always on the top of a compass, and maps usually scale up the size of North America and Europe.  It also reminds me of the fact that travel in itself is a very privileged activity that most of the world doesn’t have access to.  I haven’t really reconciled this yet – the idea that I only have the ability to do something I love because of where I was born – but I’m glad this 360 is sparking the question.