A Rich and Colourful Day

    Today We had a rich and colorful day. We paid a visit to the Yale University Art Gallery and to the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium

   

This noon, the 15 of us Yale Summer Session students from the Central South University paid a visit to the Yale University Art Gallery.
    The visit was arranged by our teacher Carrie. She met us at 1:30 at the gate of the Art Gallery. Then she divided us into several teaching groups,and assigned each group a different teaching task: speaking teaching group, listening teaching group, reading teaching group and writing teaching group. I belonged to the writing teaching group, the group with three women and the only man that came to Yale from our school of foreign languages.
    As soon as we were assigned the task and told to use our imagination,we set out surveying the art works displayed, hoping to see all the works before deciding on what piece of work to be used for writing.
    As Carrie had asked us to use our imagination in understanding the works of art in display, I began to try to understand the works with bright colors that had been placed on the wall. And I took pictures of the works that I found attractive to me.
    But the other three of my group stopped me and asked to join them in discussing how to teach writing, how to give grading marks, and so on.
    I expressed my opinion that we should see all the works of art before deciding on a piece of work to ask our students to write about. They disagreed with me. They thought the time was limited, Carrie had asked to give writing lessons at 2:30. It was impossible for us to see all of the works of art and make decisions about what to write about. We had to choose one quickly and see all the rest of the art works later. We would have plenty of time to see them in the following weeks.
    Then we climbed to the second floor and looked at the works of art from Asia and Africa. I found the art works from Ancient China were quite sophisticated and beautiful to look at. I was very very proud of the achievements of the ancient Chinese artisit. So I took pictures of them.
     

    

The Japanese Priest's Robes

    The Japanese Priest's Robes displayed at the rear of the big room are made of silk, beautiful, with regular. small flower patterns. I love these robes very much.
    The statues of Buddhas from India and other Asian countries impressed me quite a lot, they are similar to the Buddhas in the contemporary Chinese temples. The Statues of the Founder of Buddhism and the most popular Buddha in China, Guanyin, are beautiful and look exactly the same with those in China's temples. As a buddhist, I took a great interest in them. Of course, I took pictures of them, though it is considered disrespectful to take pictures of Buddhas in the temples. I should kneel down in fronrt of the Buddhas to show my piety, as having been taught by the distinguished or senior monks.
    Then I went to the opposite side to see the art works from Africa. I have to admit that the statues made of mud and wood are not beautiful enough, though some of them were made of the roots of trees. They are like children's works, to be honest, not beautiful in shape or facial features. They can not be called art works at all.
    I was dragged to the 4th floor to meet Carrie, but when we found her next to the piano room, the meeting was over and Carrie had to go to catch the train home. The other members of the group were disappointed. They had put their heart into the teaching preparation, and searched for information on Buddhism in China, and they were not given a chance to show their preparation work. But I was not. I did not put much effort in the preparation, but I did put much time and effort in studying the works of art.
    When we were left alone on the fourth floor, we all busied ourselves with looking at the works on display.
    One of my colleagues told me that she had even seen Vanguo's works. I was amazed at the news. I was eager to see his works, though a story goes in China that several years ago, an old woman from the rural area was taken to see Vangog's painting in a big city, and as soon as she saw the sunflower picture, she criticized it, saying that the sunflowers were not grown in the soil, and it was unnatural. "His works aren't good enough. I can draw better than him." She began to draw pictures and became famous very soon.
    I did see Vanguog's painting. But it is disappointing. I did not see beautiful or lovely human figures, but distorted human faces.
    

    I have to admit that I cannot understand him. Perhaps other people can find out the meanings in his painting, but not me.
    The beauty of a certain works of art can not be appreciated by everyone. Only those who share similar or the same taste will appreciate a certain type of works of art.
    On the same floor, I chanced to see the six portraits of the Founding Father of the People's Republic of China, Chairman Mao Zetong. But the six portraits are the same except in color. I don't see why the painter should paint the same portrait six times, just using different colors. I don't see either why he used white for Chairman Mao's lips, and the white is not normal in shape.
    

    In Chinese history of drama, the white color on the nose of a character suggests about the clown-like character of the person concerned, and the white face suggests the evilness of the character, like the traditional image of Cao Cao on the Chinese Stage.
    But I strongly believe that the painter is conveying something about his views of Chairman Mao by whitening his lips. However, a close look at the portraits of Chairman Mao shows a very handsome, calm, and serious looking middle-aged man. His face nad his eyes,The shape of his face and the look in his eyes are true to life.
 
    At 7:20, about 9 colleagues of ours went to the Leitner Family Observatory and Planetarium, as it was strongly recommended by Carrie. She said we could observe the stars with our own eyes by using the Harber's telescope, free of charge.
    

    We were eager to see the stars which are far away from us and we can only see them in dots.
    We waited for about 15 minutes inside a building. When the door on the left side of us opened and a group of people came out, we were allowed to enter.
    We were the first group to enter the  room with a dome-shaped roof. We took our seats in the first two rows of the room. There were electric lights within the glass dome of the circular bottom line that borders the wall.
    I heard a sweet woman's voice from the microphone. It says the room could hold no more than 50 people.
    But more and more people entered the room. Soon, many people, men and women, children and their parents, came to the front space in front of us. they were sitting on the ground.
    All the lights were turned off.
    Soon, there appeared above our head a dark sky dotted with uncountable stars, bright or dim. I thought it was the real night sky. But the lines connecting the different groups of the stars convinced me that it was not a real night sky, but a virtual one.
    Summer Triangle, Sagitarius,  Big Dipper, Little Dipper,Saturn, and so on.
    These shapes of constellation are different from what I have known about the  constellation, and their specific locations in the sky or in heaven were unknown to me.
    The display of the dome-shaped pictures of the arrangement of the constellation in the sky or in heaven is very vivid, though the English names of the star families are strange to me and my colleauges.
    After the detailed introduction of the universe beyond our reach, we were shown a movie about the universe, 3D movies, the kind of movie that look so real and so fantastic and also so dizzying that it made me very uncomfortable so that I would like to close my eyes to avoid discomfort.
    But when I looked at the people lying down on the ground with eyes fixed on the dome-shaped screen, I did not find them uncomfortable. They seemed unconscious of the dizzying effect of the 3D movie.
    After the movie ended, we came out to the open space outside the building, waiting in line behind a telescope for our turns to watch the bright moon, which was hanging high ahead of us. When my turn did come, I tried my best to look into the telescope and only saw lamp-like snows, and a hole below the snow-like thing. I did not see the shape of the moon at all.
    Then we moved to the left dome-shaped room and wited in line to our turn to see the sky full of large bright stars, as we had just seen inside the house.
    But we were all wrong. I could only see a very small, ping-pang ball-like thing surrounded by the same color thick atmosphere. I doubted if I had seen the star. But I was told that that was Satur.
    Then we moved to join the waiting line on the right where there was a telescope and, as there were not many people in front, I soon came to the teelescope and looked at it. The same bright milk-colored object entered my view. I told my opinion to the woman who was responsible for taking care of the telescope and she said ye, it was the same star.

    I don't know how far away Saturn is from us. At least it was small despite the use of the telescope.
    A little disappointed.
    There were so many stars in the dark sky now. Yet I could not see in the astrological telescope the many stars that look so brighteven in our naked eyes.
    Anyway, seeing 3D movies and watching the moon and the Saturn through the telescope were the two "first"  in my life experience.