Dim Sum!

        I have come to realize, after spending more than a semester studying in Montreal, that the Champlain Abroad community resembles a family. The number of students studying abroad and distance we are from home allows us to learn more about each other than we would have had the opportunity to otherwise. Because we are such a tight-knit community, we love spending time together as a group. A  gathering that allows us to partake in new cultural experiences as a group is a truly special event; naturally we were all excited when the Montreal faculty announced that they would be taking us out to have dim sum at Kam Fung, a small restaurant tucked in the corner of a local commercial complex.

Dim sum is a variety of southern Chinese food. The term really describes more of an experience than a type of food. All of the food is different and served in small portions periodically throughout the meal. Chinese tea is also an important component of the meal.
        We all sat down at a huge table and were almost immediately served. Dim sum is served from carts on individual plates or in steamer baskets that servers push through the restaurant. Each cart has a different variety of food on it and they push it up to a table and state in several different languages what is on it. If the people at the table are interested in a specific item, they are served the plate, generally containing between three and five small servings of that particular food. The speed and volume at which this occurs makes dim sum outings interesting experiences.

        Dim sum certainly requires an adventurous spirit. It can be difficult to discern what each food item is made of until tasting it. Many of the various items were completely new to us. It was clear that everyone in our group was excited to try these new and diverse foods as we eagerly passed the plates of food to our friends after discovering how delicious they were. Dim sum is always a positive bonding experience and I'm sure that we all look forward to going again at some point during the semester.

Photos provided by Josh Terry and Chris Ferguson

Visiting the Bodies Exhibition

This first week of classes has been a whirlwind of incredible experiences. Meeting all of my new teachers has been very exciting and I'm looking forward to working with them. I was pleasantly surprised by one of the activities that I had the opportunity to participate in. For my Communication and Ethics class, we visited the Bodies exhibit. If this experience was any indication, the rest of the semester is going to be an incredible journey.

The purpose of the Bodies exhibition is to “inform, empower, fascinate and inspire the visitor” (Bodies pamphlet). The medical professionals and scientists behind this exhibition have created an impressive experience. The complexity of the human body is showcased through the use of real specimens. These are preserved through a “plastination” process. In other words, the specimens are essentially rubberized. As strange or alien as this may sound, seeing the specimens in person is powerful. The many biological systems of the human body are displayed both collectively in everyday poses that we can relate to and also in more isolated presentations. Several specimens were in sports activity poses to illustrate the complexity of the muscular system. In my favorite part of the exhibition, the circulatory and respiratory systems were individually shown. The manner in which they were presented, however, was truly striking. Branching and colorful blood vessels appeared as otherworldly flowers on the black background of the surrounding room.

While the beauty of the human body's systems was certainly apparent in the exhibit, it was by no means the only main theme. A major theme that I picked up on was the vast importance of the individual parts of a body to the body as a whole. The exhibition educates, achieves change, and improves its visitors by demonstrating the effects of smoking. Seeing actual smoke damaged lungs is powerful encounter when presented alongside the organs and bodily systems that rely on them. Through this aspect of the exhibit, we learn the ways in which our bodies are robustly engineered and strong systems, but also the ways in which they are fragile when not cared for properly.

It was not hard for me to draw connections between this exhibit and my actual field of study in electronic games. Much like the human body, a production team is a complex system composed of several smaller systems. When one of them is not properly cared for, the health of the team as a whole is at risk of being compromised. This can be as literal as the actual physical condition of a team member, or as metaphorical as the social interactions between one team member and the rest of the team. Every part of a team must be in equilibrium with its other parts for it to succeed.

Of course, we visited the Bodies exhibit in my Communication and Ethics class for a reason. We were beginning an exploration of ethical issues and how they relate to commercial entities. Bodies is a great place to start on this discussion because there has been some controversy surrounding it since its creation and it can therefore serve a microcosm for other industries. I look forward to more incredible activities and learning experiences this semester and can't wait to further explore the lessons learned from this one.

-Josh

Images from:

http://montrealforinsiders.blogspot.com/2009/10/bodiesthe-exhibition-and-uks-

florence.html

and

http://blog.newcruelty.com/?p=188