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greektravelblog · 2 years

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Day 6

Alright boys and girls, I know its late (well, for me) and that it's a day late again but I have been run ragged. Literally, I have blisters on my feet now.

Anyways,

Yesterday's classes were pretty normal and particularly interesting. Almost missed my second class because we changed rooms and I went to the wrong one, but hey, I made it. After my classes, I huffed it to the meeting point at 3:30. I also discovered a nicer route to school. I have no clue why they take us up the mountain when the other route is just as quick and doesn't make me feel like I'm going to pass out after it, but I still found it. Anyhoo, we were waiting for the bus, and walking down the street came this cute little guy! Well, he's not so little but he was the sweetest thing ever! When our advisor, Aliki got there, she explained to us that most- if not all- the strays are brought in by the county and vaccinated, spayed/neutered, and tagged before being released. The Greeks hate wasting food, so whatever the don't eat, they set out for strays. When walking along the sidewalk, or what little of it that's there, you'll often see bowls of water as well. Anyway, this sweet, beautiful pup came right up to us when we cooed at him, and proceeded to try to follow us onto the bus.

When we got back that night, he was still there, waiting for us. I want nothing more than to take him home and give him all the love in the world, but unfortunately I wouldn't be able to smuggle him through customs. And my parents would crucify me.

We made our way to the Acropolis Museum. Aliki and I were talking most of the way there, and she kept sharing more and more places I need to go to because of my interest in history. Once we got to the Museum, we met our tour guide and got ready to enter the building.

What you don't get told before going there, is that outside, the entire floor is glass.

Why?

Cause there is an excavation happening right beneath your feet!

I was barely following along, I was so enamoured. But we made our way inside, and while everyone was on their phones or using the bathroom, Aliki grabbed my arm and dragged me over towards little models of different parts of Athens. That wasn't what she was showing me. She pointed down and once again I was met with the massive excavation. The city was crazy intact, you can actually see what's left of the gutters! Finally inside, our tour guide led us wayyy too quickly through it. But here's some of the things I saw!

In my Aspects of Ancient Art class, we're learning about different forms of pottery, and their purposes. Two important pieces are shown below:

So, most of us have all seen these geometric style vases, right? These pieces are known as Amphora and due to the geometric design, we can date them back to 800 BC. They're beautiful, and are a testament to the skill required in the arts as the slip that created the designs was virtually invisible against the clay when painted on. But, they're even more amazing than that.

They aren't vases at all. They're urns.

On the first Amphora, we see a group of men with shields and swords. Because of this, we can assume that the person inside was a soldier. And since only males were soldiers in ancient Athens, we know that the person inside is in fact male. However, there's another way we can tell the sex of the bones inside. Males were only ever buried in Amphoras with handles that extend from the neck, down to the body.

The second portrays a figure lying down with grieving family members and friends on either side. We know that the person inside is female, not only because the lying figure's legs aren't defined, so she's wearing a skirt, but because of the smaller handles that rest right on the belly of the vase. This highlights a feminine artistic feature that can be seen on women today, either through the curve of hips or a pregnant stomach. The handles on the male burial urn act as a way of broadening the neck, creating a more masculine feel to the piece.

Wacky, I know.

We also saw the Kore statue, The Kritis Boy, and more!

The most impactful, however, was the modern recreation of the Parthenon. Since restorations don't allow visitors to go inside, the Acropolis Museum's top floor is a modern version of the temple. There are metal pillars of the exact height, number, and width and the room is the exact measure of that of the Parthenon. Around the room, the top of the walls are covered in beautiful scenes of heroic battles and myths of the gods. Standing in front of them, burning the image into my skull, the tour guide explained to us why all of the decorative squares were white.

Except one.

When the British helped the Greeks overthrow Turkish rule in the 19th century, they took interest in the ancient buildings that made Athens, Athens. They saw the decorations on the Parthenon, and decided to take them. Marble, if not pure, turns yellow and black from time and pollution. So, the decorations in the museum should've been yellow, not white. Well, when Athens asked the British Museum for their return, The British Museum basically said "Oh well," and sent Athens plaster casts of the actual decor instead.

Only one true piece of the Parthenon's decoration remains in Athens today.

Anyways, there was so much to see, including a reading lounge and a book shop! But we were quite literally rushed out of there so I didn't get hardly a fraction of the time I wanted. But, I'm going to go back, and I get in free!

Finally walking up to the Acropolis, we stopped at the base of the hill to look at the remnants of an amphitheatre. At my back, stood the very first theatre in the ENTIRE world.

Holy crap.

I was quite literally in awe, and I wanted to stay and look at it longer, but once again we were rushed off.

The climb to the top of the hill is brutal. The road is marble, original marble, so its slick as snot, and several times I almost had to catch R from falling on her face. Getting to the top, you realize its massive.

Like, I knew it was massive, but it was really massive. You know how they say New Yorkers always know who is the tourist cause they look up?

Screw tourism, you'd be crazy if you didn't constantly look up at that amazing sight. Its gargantuan and truly a beautiful place. You can see all of Athens and the Aegean sea.

After spending not nearly enough time up there, we walked back down and left to get food. We went to an amazing restaurant with a view of the Acropolis and had this amazing feta that was wrapped and fried in phyllo dough and drizzled in honey and topped in sesame seeds. The honey here, good lord it's an amazing piece of heaven. I have no clue what this dish is called, but I could eat ten of them in one sitting. And don't even get me started on the lamb shank. Ugh I am so in love with this country.

I'm about to pass out, so I will be uploading today's itinerary tomorrow.

Thing's I have taken away from today:

I will be spending several hours in the museums here.

Always have water with you in Athens.

Never go to the Acropolis in the middle of the day. You won't survive.

White lead was also used by the Ancient Greeks, not just the English in the Renaissance.

People under 25 and who are students get into museums for free.

I'm going to cry once I have to eat American food again.

I want every single stray that I see here. They're all so sweet.

This piece of the Parthenon was the inspiration for Legos!

#athens #travel #college #history #acropolis #greece

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rainbowrider1290 · 3 years

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My take on a Genshin Impact Circus AU Part 4 with Noelle as a strongwoman and Amber as a death-defying archery stuntwoman. Their backstories are under the cut!

Noelle:

First off I have a very self-indulgent headcanon that she is ridiculously strong. Like. Can benchpress people. Canonverse or AU.

She used to help out around the circus and she was kind of indifferent to the fact that she was likely going to be a maid. It's a respectable profession. And helping out at her childhood friends' (Kaeya and Diluc) manor as she'd been born into doing seemed like a good job.

How she got into the circus life requires a bit of backstory. Back when they were kids, Kaeya, Diluc, and Noelle would mess around (as kids do) and have little challenges for themselves. Who can run the fastest, who can do the best cartwheel, who can jump the highest, and the like.

Noelle got a little hesitant as she got into her early teens bc she was always told to be ladylike, so she spent one or two of their hangout sessions watching Kaeya and Diluc and talking. One day, however, Kaeya and Diluc are being Teenage Boys and lifting heavy things trying to outlift each other. Noelle has lifted furniture when cleaning up after these two so she figures this one unladylike thing would be okay.

She comes up behind them and just. Picks them both up. On top of the things they were lifting already. Kaeya and Diluc have to take a second and just look at her like "yeah no you are never sitting out of our competitions again"

And so they try other things like cartwheels and tests of courage like who can climb the highest on a tree and things are back to normal.

Skip forward a few years and Crepus dies. There's a huge mystery around it that not even his son's attendants are privy to. The only thing people know is that the sons have been sent away to boarding school. The whole manor is abandoned, all the workers fired.

Noelle for the next few years spends her time working at laundromats, and other odd jobs, but eventually she runs out of luck and suddenly there's too many people and not enough opportunities.

One of her friends from one of her old jobs invites her to go out and see this new circus that happens to be in town. She goes because why not. And wouldn't you know it one of the acts is her childhood friends doing these death-defying stunts that hit her with a wave of nostalgia bc their entire act consists of essentially the song "anything you can do" but with more and more dangerous stunts.

Noelle of course has to say hi, so they catch up and Noelle's lack of work comes up and would you look at that Aether and Lumine happen to have an opening for a maid.

So Noelle settles in, continuing to lift heavy shit to clean under it (Bennett swears up and down he saw her lift a fridge once but he might've been sleep-deprived). She also got into helping Chongyun with the techy stuff so sometimes she'll be at tech rehearsals moving things around and one time a rope holding up a person breaks near Noelle and she. catches it.

Now, one night. One of the acts drops out at the last moment bc injury or last-minute commitment or the like. And it leaves a gap in the show. Everyone else is busy. And panicking bc the circus is still relatively new and they really need to build their rep rn.

They start wondering what kind of last-minute acts they can put together like "what about the gymnasts??" "They all have group routines" "do they have old routines??" "Not polished enough for what we need" and someone somewhere pipes up "man I wish we had a strongman or something" and Diluc and Kaeya immediately whip their heads around to look at each other for like half a second before Kaeya bolts. He finds Noelle doing her usual rounds she's been doing for like a month now and Bennett was right, she is currently under a mini-fridge that she is lifting over her head whilst leaning it against a wall.

Kaeya takes Noelle by the shoulders and just zooms her over to where the commotion is happening and pitches the idea to Aether and Lumine. They're hesitant as hECK bc this is a huge risk they're taking since Noelle isn't even a performer but Diluc pitches that they could literally just scatter really heavy items and have Noelle clean under them and as long as she looks at the audience every once in a while it can be played off as a bit.

Noelle with qUITE the stammer says that she'll try her best but at this time is in need of a moment. She has never performed before. Kaeya and Diluc have to go perform so they leave her with a shoulder squeeze and a thumbs up.

She gets on-stage. She flinches under the lights for a second. She takes a deep breath and focuses on the first thing before her with her best "oh heavens, it's filthy in here", and she gets through the entire act by doing that for every object. So the audience is seeing this seemingly petite young girl lift the equivalent of a hecking car in order to clean under it.

Needless to say, there's roaring applause the second Noelle leaves (which she hears from far away because holy shit I just cleaned for people and they liked it)

This was a bit of a one-time thing and she goes back to her regular maid duties until the circus gets a new strongman by the name "Zhongli".

His style is more about lifting exTREMELY LARGE ROCKS, and breaking them in half whilst giving a history/geology lesson on them.

He quietly observes the maid who he hears fantastical stories of That One Time She Charmed An Audience By Cleaning. He was bewildered at first but saw the merit of it while watching her clean. He immediately decides that this girl has sO MUCH. POTENTIAL that is being wasted by having her work as a maid. He has nothing against maids or their profession, but he invites her to train with him.

Noelle gets hELLA stronger and they come to a conclusion. Noelle performs part-time and is a maid part-time. She doesn't have a particular performance style. She'll sometimes play catch with Zhongli and his big rocks, other times she'll be in the background of performers like Amber in the art lifting some hEAVY SHIT.

She gets along with Chongyun super well bc Chongyun has to make less trips to move his equipment since he's worked with her. She's a blessing for when they have to pack up and move.

Amber:

Amber's story is a little more straightforward. She started out engaged to a suitor. Amber was the kid in kindergarten who was learning about dragons and "idk what everyone else was doing". She's known what she wants for a long time, and what she wants at the moment, is not a relationship.

Throughout her childhood she was a very lonely child. Her family exposed her to lots of academic or ladylike things (do not ask me when this au is set, it's the 1800s and the 1990s at the same time or a suspendes steampunk time) to get her away from the thing she liked most: archery. She'd been exposed to it as a kid and latched on.

This drove a bunch of suitors away, so her family got more desperate and exposed her to more classes and activities to get her away from it. She went "that's easy, I'll just practice at night"

So she does that. She practices at night and underperforms in the coming weeks. It is during this time that her parents (high class ppl) find her a man to marry for some business deal idk.

The man's nice enough. It's just obvious he can only take Amber in small doses, and Amber takes full advantage of this to practice and stay in shape.

How Amber gets into the circus life was essentially running away. She bonds with Eula over this.

So because of all the attempts to make her fit into the ideal lady description, her rebellious streak said "yeah we're going to go as far away from that as possible" and she goes "I'm going to run away with the circus" bc that's what the books she's read say is the most rebellious thing you can do.

She finds THE FIRST circus she sees and begs to be let in. This is the shadiest most sketchy place but Amber sees it as the key to her freedom. She signs a contract.

They treat her like the US treats their students. She barely gets time to practice for performances and she's mostly doing dirty work. When they ask her what she can do she's like "I'm really good at archery" and they go "cool, you're going to be doing that while everything is on fire now. Can you do a handstand"

Essentially they push her and push her and push her to do more and more hazardous things she has to pick up on under the threat of being kicked to the curb.

After a while of this Amber is extremely burned out (pun intended) and as she's packing up after one of her shows, covered in burns but proud bc she hit all her targets without killing anyone, she's approached by a blond foreigner.

Tbh for all she's read, Amber really doesn't consider leaving and this time she can't run away since she's now bound by a contract (not Zhongli's btw in case anyone was wondering).

This foreigner tells her that there's so many ways to improve her situation and that he runs a circus looking for members.

Amber refuses since she's not getting tangled up in another legal mess, but she takes his advice on how to take care of her burns, and improve safety while she's performing.

Skip a few months. She hears word of this mysterious new circus around. Her encounter with who she'll later know as Aether stuck with her, and so she goes. To see whether she could really shoot her arrows without being burned alive.

After a show one night, she tries to get past security and fails repeatedly. She turns to leave and wouldn't you know it there's Aether. And Lumine. Waiting for her once she turns the corner. Amber's biggest concern is her existing contract and when Aether and Lumine say they have a nICE lawyer, Amber sees her next step to freedom.

Aether and Lumine essentially gain custody of Amber (but like for adults) and Amber is. Shocked. She's walked through her new contract of employment clearly and essentially treated like a human being.

And now that she knows things and has more freedom (though still under the watchful eyes of Aether and Lumine to see how she does) her creativity and competitive streak flourish. She decides she actually doesn't hate fire, she just doesn't like when she doesn't know when or where it's coming. And she makes fast friends with the gymnasts, so she ends up incorporating that into her routines. Now she uses her canon goggles to protect her from the burning eyes of prolonged smoke exposure when she uses fire.

When she meets a little pyromanic girl named Klee, she's thrilled that someone this chaotic and sure of herself exists.

#genshin impact #genshin #genshin impact noelle #genshin impact amber #genshin amber #genshin noelle #genshin impact circus au #genshin circus au #circus au #genshin impact fan art #genshin impact fanart #genshin fanart #genshin fan art #genshin noelle fanart #genshin amber fanart #genshin impact headcanons #genshin amber headcanons #genshin noelle headcanons #my art

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anthrat · 3 years

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The Akatsuki members as high-school students

Has this been done before? Probably! Do I care? No, because these are my terrible headcanons and nobody can take them from me.

A/N: This has been in my drafts for a long time, probably since early February. I’ve been lacking motivation to do anything at all for months and lo and behold, I find this basically finished piece bar one character. I really, really want to start writing again but I’m struggling to think of ideas, so if you have any requests for future headcanons/one shots/etc feel free to slide me a message or something :)

He's definitely the generic super intelligent kid who gets straight A's in pretty much every subject. All of his notes are really well organised, he keeps bullet journals and everything is colour coded - mans notes are literal art. His handwriting is definitely beautiful, we're talking professional calligrapher here.

All of his equipment is immaculate, he cries if one of his books gets a crease or something on it somehow. If you accidentally nudge him or ruin his notes he will silently hold a grudge against you forever - he probably won't act on his grudge though, he just wants to blend in and he dislikes conflict in general.

Despite being fully aware of his intelligence he hardly ever speaks up in classes. He only really speaks when spoken to and so is renown as the token quiet kid. I also envision him as being super pretentious, although he doesn't show it he definitely thinks he's better than everyone else.

His favourite subject would be English because he enjoys analysing anything and everything. If you're friends with him he will make comments on how random pieces of media etc. are a representation of -insert important world issue or theory.- He'd also like art despite it being the only subject he's not very good at. All his art is abstract, he will draw a pink square and claim it represents a patriarchal society.

Doesn't have many friends because he isn't very talkative, spends most of his time at school alone doing schoolwork. Sees school purely as an educational setting and so doesn't see the point in making an attempt to be social.

All of his school equipment looks like it's been mauled by 300 dogs because its all second/third/fourth+ hand. Man would never pay full price for a textbook. He definitely steals all the faculty equipment too. You could fill an entire room with the amount of stationary this man has but he will NEVER lend it to anyone else. If he does lend you something it's because its either A) broken B) barely functional (so like pens which can write 2 letters before running out) or C) you're giving him something better in return/paying for it (even then he'll probably take whatever he lent you back without you realising)

He also definitely runs mini-shops in school where he'll sell stolen equipment and things like sweets/chewing gum/trendy items (he made bank when fidget spinners were a thing) for like triple what they're actually worth.

His favourite subject is definitely history (He's a crusty dusty old man so of course) but he will never admit this. He takes business and economics but hates them, he's already done all of his own research into the subjects and is only doing them to get the qualification. Definitely complains about how he already knows it all already and it's a waste of time for him to learn it again. His only conversation topic is him talking about how he's going to set up his own business as soon as he leaves school.

Is very intelligent but only gets average grades in most subjects because he refuses to try if he dislikes the subject or sees it as a waste of time.

Watched DeathNote once and now thinks he's an actual real life version of Light Yagame. Carries around his own DeathNote and threatens to write people's name in it.

Convinced that he's been bestowed with supernatural powers, whenever he speaks he does lots of flashy hand gestures, - think generic cool-dude protagonist poses - these change depending on what piece of media he's currently obsessed with. His personality also changes alongside the poses.

Basically what I'm trying to say is he's the over-saturated 'weird anime kid' with a touch of superiority complex. Although, he's super confident and has absolutely 0 shame in this fact.

Bless his little heart, he loves writing but is the definition of 'uses complicated words without knowing what they mean'. He's still decently smart though. His grades would probably be pretty average because he struggles to apply himself properly. His favourite subject would definitely be something like sociology where he can freely express his profound ideas, even if some of them are completely god awful. He'd also enjoy any subject which gives him creative freedom such as art or English.

Cannot see this lad as anything but a jock. He loves sports, lives and breathes them. He's probably a member of practically every single sports team and is surviving on the basis he has a sports scholarship of some kind.

Despite him being a jock he'd be the most approachable out of all the Akatsuki members. He's the kind of guy who no matter who you are he'd always be happy to crack jokes and talk with you. He definitely brings in way too much food, he's that dude who brings a whole mini banquet to school every day for no discernible reason. He's always happy to share though, he's definitely the kind of guy who if he saw someone sat by themselves at lunch he'd sit with them and offer them food.

His grades would be a little on the lower side because most of his free time is taken up with all his sports, however, he'd still work hard at his academics regardless. If anything this man is probably the most dedicated, he would hate the fact that he's falling behind all his classmates but at the same time would rather die than give up any of his extracurricular activities.

He'd be fairly popular because of his naturally easygoing and humorous nature, but people would rarely ever invite him to events as they'd just assume he was busy.

Konan is an absolute babe, the kindest and most caring person in the whole school. Forgotten your lunch? She'll buy you some or give you her own. Didn't do your homework? Bitch will give you hers to copy, if it's an essay or something she'll sit with you and help you write it. Looking a little upset? Konan's right there to try and cheer you up even if you aren't friends.

Despite how wonderful and 100/10 a person she is she probably won't have many close friends. She'll get used a lot by others who take advantage of her good nature. She's smart enough to know what they're doing but she doesn't care, she's happy to be of help to anyone even if they don't appreciate it.

She's a bit of a teachers pet though, she's on super good terms with every teacher in the school even if she doesn't take the subjects they teach. Most of her breaks/lunches would be taken up by her helping with display boards or whatever.

Her favourite subject would be geography, she'd really enjoy learning about different cultures and societies. I can see her just really enjoying learning about how rivers are formed and stuff like that as well. Her least favourite would be something like math which is only fact based, she enjoys being able to look at things from different perspectives.

Also bitch would bake all the time, literally every lesson she'd whip out a box of cakes/cookies/anything else she'd baked the night before to share with the whole class.

Carries knives around with him because he thinks they make him look cool. He can and will whip one out at any given opportunity so he can flex a knife trick on you. His knife tricks suck though, he always drops them or cuts himself, if you try and walk away he'll beg you to stay claiming that fortieth time's the charm or something.

He never shows up to lessons, he doesn't even know what one is. If you ever ask him what subjects he takes he'll look at you blankly and ask what you mean. If he ever is in a lesson it's because he was dragged there by a member of staff. Honestly, the few lessons he's actually present for are so chaotic teachers find themselves praying he doesn't show up. Being as he never willingly shows up he'll never know what subject it is, and he'll ask insanely bizarre questions un-ironically because he gives no fucks and has no idea what is happening. For example, you'll be learning about arteries in biology and he'll ask something like "What ingredients do we need?" because he'll have confused arteries with artichoke and think he's in a home economics lesson.

Despite being the weird knife kid he's pretty popular, he's so completely brain dead and unaware of his surroundings that its impossible not to get along with him. He doesn't have the critical thought to bully anyone and so even if he tries to be horrible it always comes off as though he's just trying to be funny.

Oh dear oh lord what can I say about Zetsu? Zetsu is an absolute shit show of a student. Black Zetsu I can see as being very academic focussed, with their favourite subjects being religion, politics and some form of economics. I imagine they’d be very active within school politics/religious scenes, probably the head of some sort of group for both.

Black Zetsu would also be interested in applying for positions such as Head of Year, Class Representative and anything similar. They’re a big control freak and as a result have basically 0 friends. People would find them overbearing and awful to be around. They’re the incredibly opinionated kid who dismisses anything which they don’t personally agree with.

White Zetsu on the over hand, hoo boy. Class clown obviously. The living bane of Black Zetsu. If Black Zetsu wants class representative then you know people will vote for white Zetsu instead because he’s infinitely more popular. He’s incredibly weird but in such an innocent and goofy way they’d have a large group of friends. They wouldn’t be popular per say, but they’d be friends with practically everyone.

Their favourite subject would probably be biology because sex jokes, but I also think they’d enjoy English because uhh… Sex jokes. I just can’t see White Zetsu taking school even slightly seriously.

He basically lives in the art department. If you walk near him he will tag along and start talking to you about art, it doesn’t matter who you are you will be forced to listen to his speech.

Incredibly confident and has no issue starting a conversation with anyone. He's definitely the type of person who every time you see him he'd be with a completely different group of people, whether they want him there or not.

Despite his weird constant art rants he'd be the life and soul of the party. He's always fun to be around purely because of how much energy he has. He'd be the kid who makes everyone laugh completely on accident, although people would probably be laughing more at him than with him.

He'd probably get invited to lots of places by other kids just so he could be the butt of every joke. He wouldn't mind though, he'd brush it off and probably enjoy the attention he gets from it.

Most of his friends would end up being people who know nothing about art though, all the students who participated in any artistic subjects would stay far away in fear of him starting another argument about art.

If the art class ever does clay his has to be put in the kiln separately because it always blows up. He also has a habit of 'accidentally' damaging other people's art if he dislikes it. Eventually he would mellow out and start appreciating other forms.

Nobody knows who he is, people will have sat next to him for years and won't even know his name. The amount of times his name is called in the register and people will pipe up with "who's that?" or "didn't he move to another school?" is genuinely concerning. He doesn't care though, he'd rather go through school completely unnoticed.

Excels at all subjects (besides sports, he's never showed up to a PE lesson because of 'health reasons') despite putting very little effort into academics. His favourite subjects would be biology and math. He'd absolutely hate art as a subject, preferring to do art in his free time rather than make it into a chore at school. He'd have been put in Deidara's class at least once and it would have completely ruined all enjoyment of art as a subject for him. He'd also hate any subjects which prompt discussion such as English or sociology, he doesn't have any opinions on them and he doesn't care to listen to anyone else's.

Honestly, dude is the definition of a background character at school. He just simply does not exist, and I have mad respect for him. On the off chance anyone even tried to speak to him he'd probably completely ignore them, the only communication he has at school is through emails with teachers. He has 0 interest in making friends when they have nothing in common with him.

Another character sort of hard to pinpoint. He’d probably be somewhat similar to White Zetsu, but not quite as popular. He’d be a right teachers pet, with few friends his own age. He’d probably spend spend all his breaks and lunches with teachers in their classrooms, offering to help them with display boards etc.

Despite being a teachers pet he wouldn’t be academic whatsoever. He’d always try his best but bless him, he’s terrible at every subject and ends up constantly making a fool of himself. He’s definitely the sort to raise his hand to make a really great point, but his really great point is basically repeating the lesson objective. When studying of mice of men he definitely asked “what’s the name of Curly’s wife’s husband?”

His favourite subject, regardless of his ineptitude would be drama. He’d always be the most melodramatic and over the top in every character he played, not really caring what other people thought of him. In fact, that’s probably his best feature. Despite his lack of popularity he’d always unapologetically be himself, his goofy and over the top self.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

If we’re thinking more about Obito, I’d like to imagine for the sake of this headcanon Tobi is what he’s like during lower school years and then suddenly one summer he comes back and he’s completely matured into this foreign character unrecognisable to nobody.

He’d become incredibly serious, forgoing the role of energetic teachers pet to a much more muted one. He’d still be just as terrible at all his lessons, and still spend most of his time around teachers rather than others his age but he’d no longer have that fun spark. He’d probably start caring greatly about what people thought of him so his latter years would be trying to stay under the radar completely.

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tcportfoliomgj · 3 years

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Friday, 4th of June, 2021

“The old world is dying, and the new struggles to be born; now is the time of monsters.” - Antonio Gramsci (in Lutters, 2020)

Back when I was in high school, I chose the CM profile (Cultuur & Maatschappij). It was often called the fun and easy profile because it contained the 'easy' subjects. I never understood those people. In fact, a lot of students in my art class were failing the subject. Art is subjective, but art theory and history aren't. During one of the classes in my final year, we were discussing the different art movements and how some people viewed certain styles as easy. My teacher showed us an art piece and asked us "is this difficult or easy art?"

The piece of art was a painting by Mark Rothko (1903-1970). Someone in my class soon called out that it was easy art because it was just rectangles on other rectangles, nothing more. What I see and hear a lot is that creativity is often seen as a synonym for art technique, like being able to draw and paint realistic portraits. Creativity and art are, in my opinion, a lot more than that. People who are familiar with Rothko's work know that especially his later work is often described as abstract expressionism (Rothko himself never joined a group or movement). Rothko (in Zaletilo, n.d.) rebelled against labels in 1957 and said:

…I’m not interested in relationships of colour or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on – and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.

I personally would never call Rothko's art easy, because Rothko probably never experiences it as easy. I believe expression can be very mentally exhausting, especially when you're trying to express emotions like tragedy and doom. Technique, talent and discipline are definitely a part of art, but not necessarily of creativity. Art is not a synonym for creativity.

Black on Dark Sienna on Purple [Oil on canvas] by Mark Rothko, 1960. From The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. (https://www.moca.org/collection/work/black-on-dark-sienna-on-purple)

We often talk about creativity like it's something we can easily point out, you have it or you don't. Something is creative or it isn't. But what is creativity? Lutters (2020) approached this question by looking at it from different philosophical perspectives. Parmenides, for example, believed everything was one. Instead of seeing 'one' as the smallest number, we should see it as the biggest number. One human is the universal human, one planet the universal planet. If we put creativity in this context, it becomes part of this 'one'. In that way, creativity is not something that's exclusively human, everything is connected. Humans, nature and creativity are all part of this 'one'. Then Lutters adds some Spinoza into the mix, who believed everything was related to nature in some way. Everything is nature. Nature is everything. Because everything is part of the 'one', there is no difference between the energy in nature and the energy in humans. In that case, we could state that creativity is not (always) a conscious, human activity. Creativity is everywhere in nature.

In the lecture (J. Lutters, personal communication, 23 October 2020) we were being told that creativity could be seen as an immanent, flowing substance. Lutters asked us how we would approach this when dealing with our students. How do you get through to that substance? How can you make sure this stream transforms into a waterfall? I thought, and still think, that we as teachers shouldn't try to get through to the core at all. We can assume that our students know how to do that themselves, especially at a young age. I believe that we are born with pristine creativity. We see this in young children, who are able to believe everything and marvel endlessly. They know no limits, their creativity is endless and unbound. But then they get a little older, and they learn from others (mainly adults) that some things don't exist, can't happen, that things are wrong or weird, strange or stupid. We put up these boundaries and limit their creative capabilities, and suddenly their creativity isn't endless anymore. As teachers, we should do 'nothing'. We shouldn't push them in the 'right' direction, our students can probably do that themselves. If they need help, then we help. If the ship sinks, we give them the opportunity to build a new one.

During the lecture, Lutters asked me for my opinion and I shared my thoughts with him. He called it the romance of teaching. Going against the stream, even if this isn't always understood or appreciated by others. Breaking boundaries for your students, so they can have that freedom. And I agreed with him. This 'romance' is often seen as unrealistic, idealistic or naive. I, on the other hand, think that it is a carefully considered choice to let go of the 'use' of things. What's useful and what isn't is often decided by the mass. The mainstream. It's a social construct. Many people consider creativity unuseful, compared to mathematics, even though creativity is so important for our future (King, 2007; Lutters, 2020). And that's because creativity is way more than just art technique.

Creativity is to be in awe of the world. Whether that's because of a field of poppies or because of the Taj Mahal doesn't matter. What matters is that you can be inspired, that you can inspire others. It's about thinking outside the box, or even better, not having a box at all. Creativity is to always keep learning. I might be the teacher, but I'm also the student. My students are my teachers too. It's about having an open mind, an open heart and an open will so we can actually listen (Stevens & Bors, 2013, p. 57), because if we are able to listen, to really listen, then maybe we can make a change. Roman Krznaric (2020) tell us that thinking long term is one of the most important things right now, not only for our future but for those of the unborn generations who cannot fight for their futures. Maybe, if we open ourselves up, if we're willing to listen, we could hear their pleas. Maybe then we will finally see the worth of creativity. Maybe then we'll make a real change.

🎵 To Noise Making (Sing) - Hozier

#creativity #citizenship #character #pedagogisch bekwaam

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