Thinking Big

From Diana

The theme of NCHC this year is "The Global City." Washington, D.C. is certainly proving to be a city--and an experience--of international focus. When I logged on to post, for example, I was temporarily thwarted by the fact that the last student had set the language to Arabic. Unfortunately, knowledge of Arabic is not in my skill set. A brief experimentation of pushing various buttons produced the desired tongue, but not before I recognized this as a bit of global encountering.

As well, last night Katie and I met some international students currently studying in Georgia. While we wandered the streets of Washington in the wee hours of the morning, they made a picture of curiosity. In a way, they seemed to appreciate the city more than we did, seeing it much like we would take in a gigantic monument of Kaiser Wilhelm or Michelangelo's David. The historically international focus of DC also came through the monuments we visited, marble structures brightly lit, contrasting with the dark of the trees and the dusky orange of the cloudy night sky.

At the Jefferson memorial, I was reminded of the Founding Fathers' use of historical thought in formulating our Constitution. They pulled from political commentary from across the ocean in writing our foundational documents, much like we, as a nation, are progressively moving towards utilizing the minds and ideas of people of other cultures.

Overall, the conference has been enormously full of brainfood. People here are purposeful in their intellectual investigations, taking time and effort to probe further, think deeper. And that, my friends, is Honors!