Day 12: Never to make a line I have not heard in my own heart . . .

Although I arose this morning feeling a bit more ill than yesterday, my health improved throughout the day and my stomach is now (knock on wood) almost back to normal! I started the day with Sonnet 12, through which Shakespeare posits that bearing children is the only way to outlive one's own life, and thereby transcend time. This assertion reminded me of the theme of this past summer's National Latin Convention, which was "To read well is to conquer the ages." For the text of a speech I wrote on this theme and delivered to convention-goers, click here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5018004/GA%20Speech.doc.

Next, I read another scene of Othello before starting to watch Director Michael Gordon's movie version of my favorite play, Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac. Cyrano is played masterfully by Jose Ferrer, and the manuscript uses Brian Hooker's translation of the play, the one with which I am most familiar. Most thrilling for me was to watch two of my favorite monologues, the brilliant "nose speech" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCEqpMupIc) and the empowering "no thank you" monologue which I recorded on Day 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OfvfEL-hmw). These two speeches are worth watching (or reading), even independently of the rest of the play, as they display beautifully Cyrano's self-assured flamboyance and panache. I look forward to finishing the movie, though the story only becomes sadder from the part I have reached!

After a brief conversation with Katie Pope regarding some volunteer work she hopes to do in Latin America this spring, I opened the latest issue of Scientific American, which is a special issue on urbanization, particularly how to make cities smarter, greener, and better. Today, I read only the first two articles, Street-Savvy and The Social Nexus, but I plan to peruse the whole issue over the next few days. Stree-Savvy, the introductory write-up, is a brief and informative piece which is very well-written and worth reading: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=street-savvy.

Further pursuing the concept of urbanization, I watched a five-minute video by the World Bank on the same topic. This provides a good framework for the reading I will be doing this week, as well as the experiences I will be having in various metropolises this year. Click the following link to view the short film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AadPntrlb0w&feature=BFa&list=WL4DB6380F40152EA8&lf=mh_lolz.

Lastly, I discussed the college application process with my close friend Henry. We especially focused on the application essay, and reviewed the approach he hopes to take for his composition. I look forward to my interview with Education Pioneers tomorrow morning -- wish me luck!

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