:: Pedantic Platitudes ::

:: Monday, November 21, 2005 ::

Two weekends ago, I went to see Chicken Little! It was so much fun, and I got to see it in 3D, too! Disney is trying this new 3D projection system in various big cities, and it looks amazing. You get fun 3D glasses that look like the ones Chicken Little wears, and they make everything stand out and give the backgrounds such depth. I think all movies should be presented in 3D from now on... it makes the movie so much more fun. The movie was very funny, too. For a change of pace, I also saw the movie Jarhead. It was an interesting movie that showed the many sides of war. Regardless of how you feel about war, in the end, it's all about people and our interactions with each other.

This past weekend was the Harvard-Yale football game. It's a big deal because my school has a huge rivalry with Yale, and the football matchup each year is such a big event that it's simply known as The Game. The Harvard-Yale match switches location each year, and this year, it was at Yale. Coincidentally, my sister just started as a freshman this year at Yale, so I went to Yale to see the game and visit her for the first time. Good times ensued.

I finished my work on Friday (tutoring at the high school and then finishing taking notes on a film for my Chinese cinema class) and then hopped on a charter bus to get to Yale. Unfortunately, we hit the pre-Thanksgiving weekend traffic rush, so what would normally be a 2.5 hour ride turned to an almost 4 hour nightmare... It was like dense Los Angeles traffic with cars coming to a complete standstill. I kept feeling carsick because the bus would stop and go, stop and go, which I hate. I got to Yale at almost 8, and I met up with my sister to see the musical Assassins, which was a student production being presented that weekend. It was the first time I had ever seen the Sondheim musical, and I enjoyed it immensely. The performers, set design, lighting, and musicians were all excellent, and the production could have been one done by professionals. I really liked the musical's satirical take on murder, ambition, and disillusionment.

After that, I met my sister's friends at Yale and we went to a big Harvard-Yale dance party on campus. It was held in this huge hall that is very Harry Potter-esque (more on the beauty of Yale in a moment). 'Twas great fun and a great lead-up to the next day's game.

Saturday, I got up early because my sister is in the Yale marching band, so she had to get up at 6 a.m. to go to rehearsal. I was planning to sleep in, but I couldn't fall asleep again, so I read excerpts from random books in my sister's room, including Harry Potter 4 and The Da Vinci Code. Finally, the tailgates were starting, so I made my way over to the Yale Bowl and surrounding fields, where various Harvard and Yale students were partying and having a great time. There was much food and drink to be had, so I found a bunch of my Harvard friends and had a great time.

Eventually, we all headed to the actual football game, and Harvard was doing terribly against Yale... losing 21-3 for a long time. Then, it was halftime, and my sister performed in the halftime show, which was hilarious because both Harvard and Yale put on short shows in which the other team gets crushed. Ex: The Harvard production made a giant bulldog (Yale's mascot) and proceeded to blow it up in the middle of the football field. It was cool to see my sister perform in front of thousands in such a huge stadium at such a major event. The third and fourth quarters got more exciting because Harvard eventually caught up to Yale, and the game was tied at 24-24 at the end of the fourth quarter. The game went into sudden death overtime, and in a nail-biting finish Harvard scored a touchdown and won! Yay for my last Harvard-Yale game.

We went back to the dorms, and my sister and her friends and I had pizza. Sunday morning, my sister gave me a tour of the Yale campus, which is beautiful (I'll try to share pictures sometime). Dare I say I think the campus is prettier than Harvard's? The architecture is stunning and really reminded me of the style at Oxford or Cambridge. I felt like I had gone back to Oxford. The only thing is that Yale is not in a big city, and that's something I really like about Harvard and its location near Boston.

We had breakfast at one of the residential colleges at Yale, and took pictures in front of the amazing courtyards. We then had lunch, and then I had to catch my bus back to Harvard, this time a much shorter 2.5 hour ride without the terrible traffic.

It was nice to see my sister at Yale and to meet her friends and see her school. It's one thing to hear her describe everything in e-mails and on the phone and another to actually see it all. Good times, all around. Maybe my sister will visit me at Harvard sometime soon.

Quote of the Day: "Dance! Dance! Dance! ... Oh wait, you're not my friends!"

:: SL 2:36 PM [+] ::
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