School and Sot-Weed

What a long week! Three cities, eighty thousand steps, and a single completed homework. Last weekend, I traveled with four other students to the city of Munster. I was fascinated to learn the history of the town, especially that of the church of St. Lamberti. In the 1530s, a sect of Anabaptists overthrew the city’s Bishop-Prince and established a communist government in his place. Their reign ended four years later when the leaders of the movement were tortured and martyred for their actions. But their actions were not in vain. To this day, their bravery and revolutionary ideas can be seen on full display at St. Lambert’s church, where the cages that once housed their corpses still hang.

While the death and religious persecution were great fun, we also had the time to visit the Allwetterzoo in Munster. I love animals and haven’t been to a zoo in years, so I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. My two favorite animals were the leopards and the seals. The leopards were gorgeous, and there’s something so enjoyable about watching big cats act like small ones. We were also lucky enough to watch the seals while they were being trained. It was remarkable how intelligent they were!

During the week in Bonn, most of my time was spent either working or reading. Our first assignment for Signals and Systems was due, which kept me fairly busy. Nevertheless, the week was enjoyable! I have liked settling into a routine this past week, although I know that this schedule will be thoroughly interrupted next week in Berlin. In my next post, I’ll talk about my weekend with Emily, Isabelle, and Jarrett in Stuttgart.

Aside from school and traveling, I’ve been (mostly) keeping up with my New Year’s resolution to read a book a week! I finished my fourth book of the year – The Sot-Weed Factor, by John Barth – earlier today, on the train back to Bonn from Stuttgart. I really enjoyed this novel. Historical fiction isn’t a genre that I frequent, but the novel’s complexity and John Barth’s cheerful cynicism kept me engaged for 750-odd pages. I mean, it has poetry, tobacco, pre-Victorian England, and quite a bit of sodomy – what’s there not to like?

Quote of the Week (we’ll see if I remember to do this in future posts):

“We sit here on a blind rock careening through space; we are all of us rushing headlong to the grave. Think you the worms will care, when anon they make a meal of you, whether you spent your moment sighing wigless in your chamber, or sacked the golden towns of Moctezuma?”

-John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor